SirSnookalot

Not watching shark week, have seen much of it before. I have caught a lot of sharks, be careful of the species as many are protected. The shark in the photo does not look like a bull, the head looks too thin but pictures can be decieving. It does look like a black tip reef shark, not to be confused with a black tip shark, generally are in different water depths, ya never know where one will show up. The last black tip reef shark I caught was in the area of 200#, took maybe an hour with conventional gear, pic in my gallery. I don't care to target shark anymore, but I will go after spinner sharks, incredible acrobatics. At my age makos are too big for me.

Settings-my device-language and input-keyboard-turn off predictive text. Some sites have built in autocorrect and can't alter your text. I'm C & R release myself, here in Florida there are a lot of bass so I'm not bothered if someone chooses to take their legal fish home.

Had a similar experience, my 1 piece 8' Okuma coastal inshore rod arrived in 3 pieces. Called Amazon and they over nighted another rod. Bit foggy on the details from a couple of years ago but I think the first rod came from a vendor, the second one a different vendor.

I'd be a bit dubious of claim lifting 20#, even if possible why I would want do it in the first place. If I had a 20# fish on a rod that size, I'm sure not going to lift it out of the water.

I've had 2 floods, mold inspections real important to me.

Crank close or hand close keeping the line tight by raising the rod before reeling will avoid loops. The advantage to hand closing is a more fluid movement,has little to do with loops or twist. Line twist is a different issue,it's the wrapping around the spool, as opposed to the "winch" of a b/c.

I don't know exactly how to tear down that particular reel. I'm one these people that that don't like to fix things that aren't broken, when I tinker I break them. My Pfluegers have been going strong for over 5 years, drop of oil on the handle bearings, line roller bearing and the spindle, that's all I do to them.

Best is subjective, I don't use any of the aforementioned rods and I'm more than content with what I use. I have 3 spinning rods I use the majority of the time, light, ml and med powers, all would be considered fast tip. I match the rod to the water conditions and the lure weight, not the style of the lure. IMO the important factor is knowing YOUR rod, not all companies mediums for example fish exactly the same.

When closing the bail the line does not always gets placed under the roller, the bail wire allows the line to slide under the roller. Learning a slightly different procedure isn't difficult, or using a bailess reel is any more time consuming. I happen to have a spheros, not much bigger than a bass reel that I cast and retrieve just same the as my bass spinners. About a year the line started to catch on the wire where it gets inserted into the roller. I just move the line over with my finger, don't lose a split second as it's become second nature. As I said in the first place, I don't think a brand new reel should have a loose or floppy bail and I would return it. However if in time that bail gets wobbly it really isn't that big a deal. 2 stradics and 1 spheros with bail problems, that said those reels still perform pretty good.

The OP said the bail was very loose, plus the reel made noise, that's unacceptable for a new reel. In fairness the bail itself isn't really needed, there are bailess reels. Fingering the line under the roller is as easy as closing a bail by hand, just takes a little time to get used to it.

I have 2 4000 fi. I don't feel any reel regardless of manufacturer or model should come with a loose bail. The question to ponder is why the bail has play when the screw it tight.

Nothing confusing as I said dependent on water conditions. The response was intended for OP, there was no mention of his water conditions, whether he fished a beach, pier or ICW. My post was generic in nature, not for different circumstances, as I said not wanting to get him too far ahead of himself. As effective as spoons are when used in current like the inlet they bounce on top of the water too much, I'd be using a different lure. Fishing from some of jettys and piers a spoon is not the most effective when casting parallel. Snook like to hang right near the pylons it's best to use something like a bucktail to get lower into the water column. Spoons are good from a high structure when casting for distance, close up they are not nearly as good, they skim on top of the water, a gotcha is a good choice. There is a lot of seaweed the beaches now, I'm fishing a jerk shad rigged weedless, exposed hooks are very tough to fish, unless you can find some open water. The Southeast wind has bringing this vegetation in for nearly a month.

Bass aren't biting I'll fish for another species. I tone down my bass fishing in the warmer months, increase my bass activity in the late fall.

yeh I omitted NOT by mistake. I did say say in the first sentence that I don't think it's normal and I would return it, I'm sure most understood what I said.

My preference is 10# braid with leader on a size 30 reel. I no longer use f/c leaders.

I don't think it's normal new out of the box, I'd return it. I've had floppy bails on my stradics, but not new, that issue took a few years to emerge, not that I remember the exact timing. Even using the reels while they had play in the bail the overall performance was not affected. I'm still using one with play in it, reel works fine but I would accept a new reel in that condition.

We have mayan cichlids in South Florida, lot of fun to catch.

The question was do you keep a log, my response was no and said why. If some desire to keep a log, that's fine for them. No more to it than that.

I did not reference saltwater for the year over year conditions, those are inconsistencies that I believe exist in fresh water canals and ponds here in South Florida. I mentioned water depth, that can vary quite a bit. Not only with the summer rainy period with tropical storms but even in winter when we get some heavy rainfall those ponds and canals fill up, when normally they are quite low. Wasn't it a year ago Jan. I believe many areas around Delray had 20+" in a short period of time, ponds over flowed into the streets. Vegetation quite often is controlled by the HOA and the county sprays many canals as well. Sea lettuce is another issue making a canal extremely difficult to fish, 1 day the canal is clean the next day it's loaded with it. Right now I have clear canals, mile a way another one is loaded with this stuff, no way to know when and where it appears. I did elude to bait being important to where I fish, yes that is saltwater. I did not mention the reasons I though bait was scarce this year, nor did I go into conditions that can be inconsistent YOY fishing in salt. I do darn near as much bass and peacock fishing as I do salt, fished both today as I almost always do. I have never said anything about performance in bass fishing, I'm just as happy catching a 1# bass on a ul as I am catching a larger one with heavier gear.

Yes I do more saltwater, just like people focus primarily on bass I focus on snook. The knowledge isn't all that difficult, like anything doing it a lot the nuances become second nature. I know what I need to catch snook, been doing it nearly 7 days a week year round for 10 years. I should be killing them right now and I'm not. Do I know why, believe I do.

Anyone mentioning the trough or swash knows what they are talking about.

You don't have to be a nice guy to act nice. Getting along with a coworker is asset to a company, friction is liability. If I owned a company, which I did and had a chipped gear, I'd be looking to replace that broken part. Everyone is replaceable. The last person I wan to alienate is my food server, it's not worth the risk of a honker in my burger. Quite common to have problems with various bureaucracies or companies like cable and phone. A pleasant, personable, diplomatic, approach gets thing accomplished a whole easier than being a tough guy. You don't have to be nice to get things done, just have to act nice. I'm one tough SOB, but when it comes to dealing with people I'm smart enough to know I may need them one day. Had I been jerk it's my tough luck, had I been nice chances are the outcome may be more favorable.

Your boss is exceptional, that's hard act to match. There is no right or wrong solution, something to be said about the quality of life being enjoyed elsewhere. On the other hand it's true money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy comfort and security.

Same answer I always give............No. Logs only show performance for a given period based on the conditions of that time. There are many variables that may not be consistent YOY, water temp, depth due to lack or gains in rain, water clarity, vegetation or lack of, wind both strength and direction. Where I fish bait is the catalyst, generally speaking there is a lot of bait this time of year, hardly any this year and the fishing has been dismal. Fish don't look at a calendar, they react to what mother nature is giving them, I have to react to the conditions of the day.

I don't see any of the swivels breaking, if so it's a rare anomaly. I'm at saltwater everyday, many of the people keep the same Walmart inexpensive swivels on the the longest time. I've used crane swivels in the past, never an incident, now I tie with 1 exception. That exception is #2 40# swivel for use with my barracuda tubes, the cudas are not small and the swivels don't break. Cheaper ones I would change more often, BB no need. Even with a lock down drag how many fish are caught that have the power to break 30 or 40#, your knot is going fail long before a swivel will.