BobP

The short answer is yes, it will run at the sink depth. Of course, if you snag it and break it off, you'll never see it again. And it's action will be reduced due to the added weight of the body.

Most epoxy eventually yellows if it spends enough time in the sun. Flexcoat Lite comes in a variant that has UV inhibitors in it, at somewhat higher cost..

When I use 'heavy' line on a baitcaster it's 12-20 lb fluoro or mono. I wouldn't use that on a bass size 20-30 size spinning reel. I use both types of reels but I'm accurate with a baitcaster when fishing shallow cover and I can feather casts for a soft landing, skip baits with one, etc. I admire guys who can do all that with a spinning rod, but I'm not one. I like spinning gear for dropshotting and shaky head worms, sometimes for weightless plastics and that's about it. If you're a spinning guru and especially if you use braid for most of your fishing, there's probably no reason to switch to a baitcaster. It's just a matter of using the most practical gear for the application and your skill level with that particular gear.

I say go ahead and try butt weight to balance a rod for "touch" tip-up presentations. I have yet to find a long rod that is not naturally tip heavy, at any price. To me, using a rod that is near neutrally balanced also increases its perceived sensitivity throughout a day of fishing. JMHO, for the average fisherman, using a tip heavy rod for jigs and plastics fatigues the hand and decreases its ability to detect strikes after awhile. And a weight kit might even tune the rod to enhance its ability to transmit vibration. You won't really know unless you try it.

I go in the opposite direction. Instead of keeping the bait from sliding up and onto the line, I slather the bait with an oil based fish attractant (I like Kickn' Bass). The bait ends up on the line but the oil lubricates it so it's not damaged at all. I work the attractant into the holes the hook makes in the bait. This also prevents a thick bait like a Senko from balling up on the hook and spoiling a good hookset.

Well, you got your answer! Opinions are definitely yes, but also definitely no - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. So you have to decide for yourself. I fish a clear lake and yes, I think it can matter especially when we're talking about slow presentations like worms and jigs. Even if I were doubtful I'd choose to keep it stealthy just because there's no downside to doing so and maybe a downside if I didn't. Would that keep me from spooling up blue Big Game and fishing it in water with 2-3 ft visibility? No. But the next time I ordered some, I'd buy the green or clear version.

Big Game has been around forever and is a good, inexpensive nylon line. I've never broken 12 lb and above. That said, it absorbs water, its diameter is not as uniform as many other lines, and it has quite a bit of stretch. It will develop spool memory after a month or more of use on a baitcaster as will most nylon lines. Bottom line, it's a decent line that is widely available, inexpensive, and it works OK on baitcasters. Not much not to like about it. There are better (and more costly) nylon lines around but it works OK and at the price, you can respool whenever you need from the 1/4lb spool.

I think ww2farmer has a good point. Senkos are different because they weigh more than the alternatives. The weight plus the diameter plus the extra salt makes them different and gives them the best action on the fall.

I think how well a rod works as a dual purpose tool depends more on the tip power than the speed of the tip action. There are some rods that have fast action but soft power tip sections, which can serve for both jigs and cranks. One of those is a 6.5' MH Rogue 4 power MB664. I use one for cranks, jerkbaits, and worms fished in moderate to light cover. A rogue MH has a power that is intermediate between a Med and typical MH blank. Their MB705 is 7' and is a half step below a true heavy power rod. Both blanks are very light and sensitive. They cast great with their softer tip sections. Not a blank you see much about in bass fishing circles but they are my favorites for a range of bass fishing tasks. Not good for heavy duty stuff like frogging but very versatile for just about anything else.

Just my opinion but yes, I think a strong paint smell can deter a fish from striking if the fish is following and is interested in the bait from a feeding perspective. On the other hand, if it's a reflexive reaction strike, then probably not. But only the bass know for sure and they aren't talking.

I use Rod Bond paste epoxy when gluing up handles, but just about any kind of epoxy will work fine, including anything that comes in a double syringe at your local home center store.

I don't think there's as much difference among the various price points of spinning reels compared to baitcasters, as far as out-of-the-box performance goes. The fixed spool is what it is, one will cast about as well as any other with the same diameter spool. Where you do see a difference is in the smoothness of the retrieve, avoiding line twist, and durability. To the extent that those last qualities are important to you, the price point of a spinning reel can make a difference. But it's not the same difference as in a baitcaster where the price can affect how well the reel will cast and how prone it may be to backlashing.

I don't use braid/superline for many presentations but Carolina rigging is one of them. I use 3/4oz weight usually. Braid casts much farther and has lots more sensitivity than any other line in this particular application. The heavy weight pins the rig to the bottom and any bite is felt as a definite pull on the main line. Since bites can come at the far end of a cast, the no-stretch of braid makes a big difference in the ability to set the hook at long distance. I prefer fluoro for most bottom presentations but this isn't one of them. My C-rig reel is spooled with 20lb Fireline. It works great on a C-rig, handles well, and the cost is moderate.

Left to right but you have to do the opposite for double footed guides, so ??

I don't get it. Your line frayed and failed once out of several times in the same spot but that doesn't say much of anything about the line, nor about how you fished it. Seems like it was just luck of the draw to me. This time around, the line rubbed against a particularly sharp part of the cover and failed. If you like the line, why not just move up in line size for more protection? Companies are doing all sorts of mods to fluoro lines these days to satisfy customers who want better handling, less or more stretch, more abrasion resistance, etc, etc. But the classic reason for choosing fluoro was that it has better abrasion resistance, less stretch, lower visibility, and faster sinking than many copolymer lines. Hard surface lines have more abrasion resistance, be it copoly or fluoro. And they will almost always have worse handling, better knot strength, less stretch, but will develop spool memory faster than a softer, better handling, version of the same brand line. So you just have to choose according to the qualities that are most important for the application.

Personally, I only want guides with ceramic inserts. I have a rod with Recoil guides but it just doesn't cast as far as my other rods, most of which use Fuji Alconite guides. As far as grooving ceramic guides, I've never heard of it with Fuji ceramic guides, even in their less expensive guides. I also think braids have become much less abrasive in the last few years.

Don't think so. The bearing in saltwater reels are still stainless steel, just like freshwater reels. Did you use bearing oil or regular oil? Bearing oil is thinner. It also gets thrown out of the bearing faster and so needs to be replenished sooner

With a 30 minute epoxy like Devcon Two Ton, you have about 3, maybe 4 minutes of brush time before it begins to get too thick to brush easily. Measure it accurately and mix it really well for about a minute before brushing it on the lure. Never use quick cure 5 minute epoxy to topcoat a bait. It cures too quick to level out properly and it tends to turn an ugly brown pretty quickly when exposed to sunlight. Lots of guys use Devcon Two Ton because it has a good consistency for brushing and it cures pretty quickly, so you don't have drips or sags after about 45-60 minutes. Etex and other "table top" or "decoupage" epoxies work just fine too but they contain solvent which slows the cure time way down, so require much longer periods of rotation to avoid sags/drips, often several hours. Devcon is popular but lots of guys use other "30 minute" epoxy brands and report good results. If you want to avoid sags, reverse the lure every little while for the first hour. Before I had a lure turner, I used to put a wire hanger on the lip and the tail of the bait and reverse it while it hung on a nail in my garage for the first hour.

If you want them from Home Depot, go in with a buzz bait and try a rivet to see if it fits on the wire. I think lurepartsonline.com carries one size. I always crimp them on the wire anyway so as long as the wire fits, it isn't a big deal to me. I just went downstairs and got out a box of Arrow 1/8" stainless steel pop rivets. I held the rivet shaft in a pair of pliers and tapped the point of the rivet on a hard surface and the nail popped right out, so that might work for you too.

The magnets should move in slightly when you dial up the drag and out when you dial it down. It's not necessarily a lot of movement but should be enough to notice. If the reel comes with multiple magnets in the brake carrier, check to see if they are all there. They can come loose and be lost, and some reels only come with a few of the magnets in place, with some vacant holes. JMHO, not all reels have a very effective braking system regardless of whether it is magnetic or centrifugal. It's a design thing. I have a Revo SX first generation and the mag brakes work just fine on it. I can't speak about the Silver Max though. If the reel has been doing the same thing since you got it, I suspect it may just be a design thing and not broken. But you never know.

If you think it's an issue there are a few things you can do: bend the tines on your belly treble laterally so that they lay even on the bait. This is "T-ing" a treble and a lot of musky fishermen do this on their large baits. Switch your trebles out for Mustad KVD trebles, Mustad Triple Grip, or another brand treble on which the tines have an inward curve. VMC also makes a style of treble that lays on the belly of a bait evenly. I got some at Cabelas a few years ago but don't know it they still make them. To me, the healthiest thing to do is forget the problem because the bass won't care about it. Crankbaits do not have eternal life spans. They get worn and so do their treble hooks. When they stop catching fish, it's time to buy a new one. Until then, throw them with abandon!

My sister lived on a golf course near Orlando FL and had an irrigation pond in her back yard that was attached to the course via a culvert but not actually on the course. I'd get up in the morning, grab a coffee, and walk out to fish 40 ft from the back door. Plenty of 5+ lb bass in that pond and a few real monsters. My PB, over 12 lbs, came from there while bank fishing. I also caught 2 lb crappie from the pond using 4" tubes and spinnerbaits.

CA is cyanoacrylate glue - aka superglue

I've painted a couple of reels using rattle can automotive paint and clearcoat. The problem isn't painting the reel, per se. With care you can strip a reel down to its frame, assuming you also know enough about it to reassemble it afterward. The real problem is getting paint and clearcoat that will stay on the reel. JMHO, it's unlikely that you'll find coatings that will not scratch and chip compared to the factory paint. And yes, you have to pay strict attention masking parts that don't get paint and to the thickness of the coating you apply since it all has to fit together after you paint it. Tried it once or twice, decided it wasn't worth the trouble and result. I'm more into fishing gear that works than I am into pimping stuff up, but to each his own.

http://www.directcolors.com/product/ac-1315-high-gloss-concrete-sealer/ Above is another alternative that has become popular among some hardbait builders for topcoating crankbaits. It's a thin solvent based coating with a high solids content, less costly than MCU and has few storage issues. Reports are that it is durable but some say the topcoat has melted away in places when stored in a plastic bait box. I've tried it on a couple of baits and have not had that problem but it's worth mentioning. You makes your choices and takes your chances.