ArcticCat500

congrats on the nice looking rig, if your pretty happy with your current set-ups and they're putting fish in the boat, look at FF. I picked up a basic non-color Humminbird 325 from ebay, it does the simple things, shows me depth, structure and hard and soft bottoms, temps, along with the occasional fish the happen to school or swim by. Is a great set up and I power it using 8 AA batteries with no trouble.

Thats a great job, excellent idea, I'll second the Joby Gorrilapod, I use one as well, here it is mounted on my rig just above the fishfinder.

you want a proven performer, a tank, no frills baitcasting reel, the Curado hands down. No questions asked. Im not a part of the Shimano posse by no means, I've fished them and fished them hard. Now I exclusively fish Team Daiwa, dollar for dollar, ounce for ounce, Curado. Having Curados, Revos, Fuegos, and Zillions I like the Daiwa, but for the money Shim gets it done, and I aint kissn no Shim arss.

crank, there's a member here under the name Jfrancho, look him up, he owns and operates Reel Smooth Reels, talk to him and explain your problem. I'm sure he'll be able to solve your problems. I don't let anyone else service my reels, Anyone!

Unless your fishing tournaments, or perhaps running a bass boat with rod lockers anything more then 4 is a waste, and sometimes, 3 out of 4 sit in the rodholders. A friend I wish with is a tournament angler, and I've seen 4 to 6 rods on his boat, and that dude can put fish in the livewell, staright up.

theres a ton a guys who fish Florida, fresh and salt out of kayaks. Bounce around a couple kayak sites and see guys holding tarpon and stripers and tuna. It can be done.

I dont claim to be an expert like some, but I have fished 2 out of the 3, and owned a Kistler, this is just my opinion. the Cumara, felt bulky and tip heavy to me comapred to the same exact rod in a Rainshadow RX8+ blank. the Avid, I liked it alot, fished it in the AVS68MXF,( a friend has 1) very responsive, light and plenty of backbone to rip the hook through heavy plactics and get the job done. I owned a Kistler He69MHC, liked it but I dont miss it, for a MHF rod it almost felt pole like to me and found my self ripping lips more then setting hooks, maybe Im just use to the XF tips, I dont know. The choice for me is easy, I'll take the Avid, but I wont trade my Mossybacks for one. Good Luck...keep en eye open for a G Loomis in our classifieds and other forums, they can be had reasonable, I just picked up a Mossyback BSR852 super cheap and it was handled once.

welcome home LBH, "catch em up"

I can attest to this also, the garage where my wife use to( key words "use to") bring her car performed a tranny oil change and flush on his own, we did not ask him to do so, that Oldsmobile lasted about 3 weeks after he did it....I brought it back and he claimed it wasn't his fault and wouldn't do anything about it, but wanted almost 3K to put in a new one. Every tranny shop I brought the car to said the same exact thing that Bilgerat said....almost word for word. If you haven't done it yet, then don't.

94 Dodge Ram, 230K, just did upper n lower ball joints both sides, axles L&R, new bearings an seals L&R, completely rebuilt the front end, into her for $800 so far..plus a new hi-flo cat $220 installed. Show me your Ford or Chevy with over 230K on the mill not burn a drop of oil or a leak anywhere in it. But I'll trade your trannys for mine any day. shes on her 3rd >

the Loomis spinnerbait rod is the shizit, I had one and my only regret is that I had to sell it, needed some extra money at the time...search that rod in here and other forums, nothing but good things said all around.

I couldnt find it on TW...?

perfect, I have a bridge for sale.....just for you

I think "Hype" was the key word used, I fell victim to the Yo-Slinky "hype" as well, also a couple other lines I tried, I still have those spools too, like I've mentioned a dozen times before, they're great for hanging the wife's bird feeders. I wont touch it again. Im not a tourny fishermen so all the this line that line dont get me all excited like others...I fish braid, the end.

just remember there's alot of followers in here and people tend to get little to carried away, if someone says Shimano then all must hail, while if someone bad mouths a Shim then the post gets locked up like fort Knox. If your a weekender and just enjoy fishing then don't get caught up in the hype, and just take someones word for it, get out and look at all your options, find out what you'd like spend on the reel, pick up a few, put it on a rod that you'll be using...all this matters to YOU, your the guy fishing with it. Sure I could easily say Daiwa, Shimano, Abu and so on, but ultimately its your, not ours.