cadman

Take a look at fishingskirts.com They have a lot of skirt colors. Also they have a tab on their website called "Builds" open that tab. There are some good colors there. Also they give you the skirt color numbers and the quantities used.

Welcome from northern IL

Since I make and sell jigs, I have about 100 different colors of skirts. Only reason being is many guys want a certain color and I try to accommodate them. With that said, I am a jig fisherman. I fish a jig 95% of the time all day long. My top three colors are Blk/blue, green pumpkin, brown and sometimes white, My colored skirts are blk/blue , solid green pumpkin, solid brown and solid white. That's it nothing fancy here. I do catch a lot of fish with these colors. To me jig fishing is more about presentation and finding out what the fish likes based on how you work the jig. I'm not saying making a three colored skirt on a jig doesn't work, but if you can't catch fish on a jig, it doesn't matter what perfect color you have. Keep it simple at first. If you want to add some color later on go ahead. A lot of fancy colored jigs are to sell to the fisherman. They look great in the package and we are visual humans. So when we see all these color we think wow a fish would definitely hit that, in all reality a solid color would work just as well. Just my thoughts

Any kayak anglers out there from Northern , IL that fish S.E Wisconsin waters? Friend is looking to join a small kayak club.

Depending on how much you are going to pour, I do a 80% pure soft and 20% hard. Reason being is. Pure soft although pours easier is too soft (JMO). You can buy and use pure soft if you don't want to buy different hardness's of lead. Adding 20% or 30% of hard to soft lead makes the perfect lead hardness in my opinion. If you need more help, PM me and I will help you out.

Try Roto-Metals on Line. They have very good prices and free shipping. I buy 400-500 lbs from there. Never any bad lead. If you decide to melt any lead that has been in the water, be very careful, lead and water don't mix. It will explode if heated too rapidly and you will get very badly burned. Best to buy dry lead from a good source.

I don't care where Bates reels are made. I don't know why some people get so involved about saying company is dishonest so they won't buy the reel. Do you think that other companies tell you all of the things that go on in their business dealings whether good or bad? All I look for in a reel is good quality, it performs well or better than I expect and if parts are available down the road for replacement parts. That is all.

I bought a Bates Hundo and am waiting on delivery. I got it from Tackle Warehouse about a week ago and had it in my hands, but they sent me the wrong hand. From what little I played with the R.H. version, I really like the reel. The reel is supposed to be here today and I will start fishing with it on the weekend. I will keep you guys posted once I figure out the braking system. I too am not fond of the Zillion as well. I bought three of them, I used (1) and the other are new. They will be going up for sale. To me there is just nothing special about the Zillions. JMO

Jig Rookie, congratulations, that is exceptional fish for northern Illinois.

Been getting quite a few 18 and 19" on lake Delavan this fall in late August and September. Fished it several weeks in a row. October hasn't been too bad either. Going to Lake Beulah tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

I used to use ABU Garcia reel lube and oil back in the day and never had issues with their products. Shimano makes good products. I now use my own blended products that I'm happy with. Biggest thing is to get rid of all the excess grease that the manufacturer puts in the reels. Once you clean your reel thoroughly, you will see a big difference in performance.

I use mono and co-poly and I really don't sweat over the details. Been catching a lot of fish with mono and now with co-poly. Use what you feel works for you.

When I looked into bearings, I looked exclusively for stainless steel bearings. Reason being is, some guys use their reels for fresh and brackish water applications. I am not affiliated or have anything to do with TRB and I asked what materials their fishing bearings are made of. They told me that their bearing races, balls and shields are all stainless steel. I have not had any failures so far in 5 years+. I'm not saying you should buy from them, however I've gone through a lot of bearing companies and there are some garbage bearings out there so do your homework.

I do not use Boca anymore. I found a place that to me the bearings are much better for a lot less cost. The name of the place is "TRB RC". They have their own website, you can also buy them at Amazon or E-bay. Free shipping from all places above. If you buy 10 packs like I do and you buy multiple 10 packs of different sizes you get a discount. Depends on the reels, but I use a lot of 3x10x4 and 5x11x4. These sizes are usually for the spool and the two end carrier bearings that go in the side plates. I have been using them for 3 years and have never had a bad bearing. If you go on their site, they have bearings called fishing bearings. The 3x10x4 and 5x11x4 are Abec-5. Your other bearings like for your worm gear and main gear are Abec-3. I still clean them from the factory and put my own oil in them. I've talked to the owner extensively and he is very helpful. If you need more info you can PM me.

Well I assembled the reel yesterday complete. Spooled it with line and took about 20 practice casts in the park. Seems fine. Went fishing with my buddy today. Gave him the reel and he used it all day and it works like it did before. Expensive fix with all the bearings, however still cheaper than buying a new one. He was very happy that it all worked out.

I've sold off lot of my new reel collection off on Facebook and occasionally get some clowns, but I have had good success so far. I do get some low ballers and when they give me a stupid number, I just reply with one word. No

I don't know what you mean by going bad. But if they are all stuck together and melted, then I would throw them in the garbage and get new skirts. Like mentioned above you can get them from Do-It molds, Barlows, Lure Parts on line, Jann's Netcraft and fishingskirts.com. There are a few others. Once you get the skirts, I would then tie the new skirt on with your upholstery thread or you can use copper wire. Good Luck.

When I called them, I only asked about pricing for the module nothing else. it doesn't surprise me about the cost of all the other parts. Anyway, the module is drying in the box. Also even if all this works, this is an expensive repair just for bearings alone. As far as cleaning all the other parts and taking the reel apart, I do a lot of reels for the members in my fishing club, family and friends. So if I'm not familiar with a reel I usually take a lot of pics. On the bearings, they seemed gritty even after I cleaned them and then put them in my ultrasonic cleaner. So I dumped all of them and put ABec 5's for the spool and carrier bearings and Abec 3's for all the others. The disassembly wasn't too bad, just have to be careful not to lose any parts and remember the sequence for re-install. I didn't take apart the module. If it doesn't work, then at that point I will disassemble it and see what I can find. If I can fix it then I'm money ahead, if not nothing gained and nothing lost. At that point I will buy another module. This is a good learning experience for someone that wants to learn how to fix reels if you have the patience and the skill set. Everything is back together other then the module. I will post results in a couple days once the module has a chance to dry up.

So, for the hell of it I called up Shimano, and asked them what their thoughts were on my dilemma. The service tech told me that the DC module is not waterproof only water resistant to a certain extent. He also told me that I should let it dry really well and put it back in the reel and see what happens. He and I talked a bit about the DC module and I asked him, if I put the module in a cardboard box with a 40 watt bulb in there, would that damage any of the circuitry. He said no it would not as long as it didn't get too hot. The purpose of me doing this was to get some warm heat in the box to encompass the module, in which it would help dry out any other water intrusion. So that is what I have going on right now. Maybe this is an extreme, but the reason to go the extra step was the cost of another module. I asked the tech how much another module is and he said it was approximately $130.00 plus shipping. So the morale to this story is don't drop your DC reel in the water. I will let you guys know what happens in a couple of days after the heat hopefully dries it out better.

Thanks for the video. I have the entire reel completely apart. I cleaned everything and am going to work on assembling the reel tonight. I cleaned the bearings and they seem to be Ok, but I'll see after I put some oil in them. If the bearings are bad I will just replace them, not a big deal. The reel is currently drying and in pieces. I will see what happens after I put it together. Then I will put some line on and cast it to see what the status is. Thanks again for your input.

My buddy and I were out fishing and he dropped his Metanium DC in the lake. We couldn't find it that day. However, he went back the next day and snagged his rod and reel. My question is this. I can clean the reel no problem however what do I do if anything to the DC part of the reel. Do I take it apart and clean it or is it a sealed system. Thanks for any help.

Thank You very much for the info. Much appreciated.

Where do you buy your sheets and how do you cut the material?

Very nice looking jigs.

If you want fine strand silicone skirts, go to fishingskirts.com and look at their finesse series skirts. Before you buy just verify that this is finer than their standard silicone skirt. Also the fine skirt is sometimes called frog hair. I too am a micro jig fisherman. I usually fish a snootie jig which I custom pour in 1/8 oz , no weedguard, 5304 #1/0 Owner hook. The skirt for my jig is sparse as I like the jig to sink a little quicker since the weight is not there.