BobP

I soak mine in naphtha after wiping off any grease I can see, then let them air dry.

Many guys don't realize bearing oils change viscosity a bunch due to temperature, and that in turn affects baitcaster performance quite a bit. If you're a fair weather fisherman, it doesn't matter much but if you fish in temperature extremes, it might. Here's a little test data posted on another website a few years ago for a few popular oils. Just something to consider for reel performance maniacs. I like Yellow Rocket Fuel and don't much worry about it. If my reel slows down a bit in winter, that's OK because fishing while dressed like the Michelin Man is not optimal for casting anyway. Lube....Viscosity (cP) @ 38F.........@78F........@ 98F (cP) Yellow RF .......................285..............59..............35 3-In-1 Oil.........................161....... ......40..............20 Quantum Hot Sauce........100..............25..............16

Shimano ACE2 Drag Grease for drag washers. Superlube PTFE grease for other grease applications. Yellow Rocket Fuel or Reel Butter Bearing Lube for bearings, level wind, and brake drum. Drag grease is a thick, sticky cosmoline type grease that is the thing to use on drags if you want them to work for more than 5 minutes. You can also use it on gears but I like the Superlube better for that. Superlube is a white PTFE fortified automotive bearing grease sold in 8 oz cans at NAPA. Excellent stuff! Bearing oils are a player's choice: the thinner viscosity they are, the faster a bearing will spin but the sooner the bearing will throw off the oil and require re-oiling. Personally, I HATE the red dye in Hot Sauce. It migrates all over the reel. Otherwise, it has very good lubricity.

Sidearm it just as you would a tennis racquet - just don't expect to get as much distance.

Most combos are at least slightly tip heavy and the longer the rod, the heavier they are. If you use a rod for moving bait presentations like crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, etc, the combo will always be effectively tip heavy due to the drag created by the bait. It's only with "still" presentations like worms, jigs, dropshots, in which you hold the rod still while feeling for a bite that balance really becomes important. A balanced combo in that situation increases the sensitivity and allows you detect bites better. Road Warrior is right in saying that the total actual weight of the combo is not the important thing in this situation. The fine motor control muscles in your hand will become less fatigued and you will retain your ability to detect bites better - regardless of the total weight of the combo - if it is balanced. I have a 7.5' flipping rod that was significantly tip heavy and I hated it because I just could not feel light bites with it after an hour of fishing. It was a rod with high end, light graphite and I was leery of weighting the butt section thinking that increasing the overall weight of the rod had to be a bad thing. After all, I had paid big bucks for that high end graphite! But I eventually decided that butt weighting was worth a try to get the rod to a point where I was willing to actually use it. Night and day difference and now it's one of my favorite rods to fish.

DVT is right that there is often at least one "gotcha" in just about all modern low profile reel models - something that is easy to take apart but finicky to put back together. For Shimano reels, the level wind system was often the assembly that most vexed me during reassembly until I developed a knack for it. When I take apart an unfamiliar reel model for the first time, I find that it helps to shoot some pics of the reel with a digital camera or phone to show how they should fit back together. The diagram that comes with the reel is primarily for ordering parts. It will not show you how part X needs to be oriented to make the reel work properly. That said, it's certainly worthwhile to learn how to do this yourself. Besides a sense of accomplishment, it gives you a good idea of how the innards of the reel work together so when/if something goes wrong in the future, you'll have a good idea of what it is and how to correct a problem immediately and get back to fishing instead of having to send the reel off for weeks to get it repaired. It's up to you to decide whether you have the aptitude to reassemble the reel properly after cleaning the parts. I think it's worth a shot but if you have serious doubts, you can either limit the level of service you attempt on the reel or simply send it off and let a professional to do the work.

Measured tests of a group of experienced fishermen showed that an "average" cast is 80 FEET and a long cast is 100 FEET - NOT YARDS. Don't let wild guestimates of casting distance fool you into thinking otherwise.

Adam32, I had binding on a Shimano Sedona 2000 after a couple of hours when it got wet while river fishing. Dried out and re-lubed, the problem disappeared - until the next time in a canoe on the river. I still don't know exactly what caused it. But if I fished rivers in a canoe regularly, I'd consider a different brand reel. Shimano is still my go-to brand but I seldom canoe on the river nowadays.

Bearings cleaned and lubed with a low viscosity oil, check. Carbontex drag, check. Brake drum cleaned and lightly oiled, check. Supertuning? Guess it depends on how much is done and the effect it has on your particular reel model. I don't expect night/day difference and if it does, it might make your reel too fast for you to cast reliably. Worth a shot if you just want to experiment but I'd ask DVT what to expect in added performance. Consider: If something will get you 10 extra feet of casting distance, that's the same as keeping your foot on the trolling motor for an extra 2 seconds. But I understand the urge for guys to "hotrod" anything they own, from cars to fishing reels. Sometimes it's more emotional than practical.

My Symetre is 6-7 yrs old and a year after I got it, had the same problem. I couldn't see what that rubber ring was doing so I just threw it away. Reel has worked just fine ever since.

I keep around 10 different models of plastics in 2-3 different colors (mostly greens). I'm sure 25 different models in 10 different colors would catch a few more fish if I knew exactly when and where to use all of them. But carrying 250 bags of plastics instead of 25-30 bags would only end up being confusing and wasting fishing time for me. I think you need some variety - just don't make it so large that you end up sitting in the boat changing baits all day instead of keeping your line wet.

Another simple way to find out is to look at the BassPro online catalog, which lists the "inches per turn" or "recovery" for the reels they sell.

A wood crankbait won't swell and crack the finish unless there is water infiltration or the lure is heated. Poes have a thick white waterproof "build coat" over the raw wood that offers a lot of protection against leakage but areas around the lip and the hardware are less protected. Another coat of sealant certainly won't hurt. Stripping finish from wood crankbaits has to be done judiciously and you really don't want to get down to bare wood anywhere, so a light sanding is usually the best way to go if you decide repainting is necessary.

It's a slippery slope. Maybe you just want to repaint a few plastic baits. Then you think maybe you can fool with the ballast or trim the lip on a wood bait to make it run better. Then you see you paid $20+ for a custom wood bait that fell apart in a few days of fishing and you think to yourself: "Hey, I bet I could make some that last longer and run just as good." Pretty quick, you're carving baits, designing new baits, and building dozens of the darned things every year. You're checking the Hardbaits forum on tackleunderground.com every day for new tips and technologies. Your fishing friends are bugging you about building or painting a special bait for them. You didn't really want this to take time from your own fishing - BUT YOU'RE TRAPPED IN YOUR OWN WEB.

The 200 psi compressor will work just fine but you will probably want to add a pressure control valve on it that ranges 0-50 or 75 psi or similar. Airbrushes generally run at 10-35 psi and the finer you can dial in the pressure, the better. You will also need a water trap and an oil trap if it is an oiled compressor. One piece pressure regulators/water traps are readily available. You can stack any/all of these extras in-line on the compressor. Most guys who paint baits prefer a compressor with a larger air tank because it cycles on less often. I use a 135 psi compressor with a 6 gallon air tank. Have fun with it!

Why not call up your state DNR and find out? Opinions don't count - only enforceable wildlife laws do.

Trolling for bass has become passe' because it's not permitted in BASS and FLW tournaments. That doesn't mean it's not effective! In fact, tournament anglers get around the prohibition by "long lining" - casting a bait out, then using the trolling motor to move the boat a hundred yards away before starting their retrieve. That's just a very tedious and time consuming way to get the same effect as you get trolling a bait. Ideal freshwater trolling speeds are usually 1-2 mph, which is lower than most bass boats can go.

The front of the bow should be on top of the roller as in the pics and the winch strap should run just under the roller. I think reading Glenn's first post was confusing - he was not talking about the nose of the boat, but about the hull fitting that you attach the winch strap to. If the rest of the boat rests properly on all the trailer bunks the boat should slide up over the front roller as you guide it onto the trailer - if you have sunk the trailer into the water far enough. For my Triton bass boat, that means with the rear fenders just a couple of inches above water. Yours may differ. I'd check that aspect before paying to have your trailer altered. changing from a black rubber to a different roller should not have made that much difference.

I've never used an Abu 5000-6000 reel that I enjoyed for bass fishing. They are good for heavy lures and big fish, and great for trolling but otherwise I prefer a modern design low profile reel.

Yes, fiberglass will generally take more abuse than graphite but I own more than 20 graphite rods and I've never broken one while fishing. The only rod I own that broke during fishing was a fiberglass custom rod, actually. Graphite is lighter and more sensitive which makes it much better for fishing worms, jigs, and other 'touchy-feely' bait presentations. Fiberglass is popular for moving baits like crankbaits and spinnerbaits but many guys prefer graphite for those presentations too. You can break any rod by abusing it. If you buy a rod and it breaks on the first few outings, it probably had a manufacturing defect. If it breaks after that, 99% of the time it's something you did to abuse the rod blank. I wouldn't be concerned if Joe Blow says he bought a Convergent rod and it broke the first time out, so all Convergent rods must be crap. That just isn't so. Shimano sells decent rods and I own and like several of their higher end offerings, though I've never used a Convergent.

Accuracy and a quiet entry are both important, and most guys find a long rather than short rod makes both easier. You can certainly pitch and flip longer distances with a longer rod. And I don't see how your height should enter into the equation since your rod tip shouldn't get that near the water for either presentation. However, if 6'9" is your comfort level and you're accurate with that length...(que the music) Don't worry, be happy.

I use empty line spools and a cordless drill. The tricky part is attaching the spool to the drill. I found a cone shaped rasp bit for my drill - an empty spool friction fits on it perfectly. If you have a couple of extra spools laying around, you can also take braid off a spool and then reverse it, doubling the life of the braid.

For bass fishing I wouldn't go bigger than 8 lb test and I'd underfill the spool by about 1/8" to avoid having line jump off the spool. But a lot depends on the conditions in which you will be using the line. Fishing around lots of vegetation, you want braid with or without a fluoro leader. Open water, 8 lb fluoro is strong enough to handle just about any bass and smaller diameter lines get more bites. I really prefer 6 lb test for dropshots in open water. As far as using braid with a fluoro leader, yes, it will cast farther than all fluoro but to me all fluoro actually seems to handle better on a spinning reel than braid if you are throwing light baits like dropshots, etc. And you won't have the issue of that extra knot to worry about. I'd use mono backing on the spool if it is larger than a 2500 size reel. If you're going to use the reel for saltwater too, I'd be inclined to up the line size to 10-12 lb test or go with 15-20 lb braid with a fluoro leader. Player's choice.

I like soap and water with a toothbrush but if I'm in a hurry, dropping the parts in a jar of naphtha works quickly without damaging plastics. I wouldn't put acetone on any plastic part of a reel - it's just too active a solvent.

Slather some oil based fish attractant like Kickn' Bass on a Senko and it will last a lot longer. The lubrication causes the plastic to slip up onto the main line when you fight a bass, avoiding tear-ups.