BobP

My TM battery connections were corroded so my buddy removed the batteries to clean them up but mixed up the battery positions or connectors afterward and we couldn’t get it to work. After several tries, I realized the system didn’t have a jumper between the batteries so the 24V jumper had to be either in the TM plug receptacle or the TM plug itself. It was in the plug. Progress! But we were getting only 12V. So we reversed the + battery connectors and finally got 24V running to the TM. My question is what is the electrical advantage to running 4 12V wires from the batteries and jumping them at the plug to create 24V versus jumping the batteries themselves and running 24V on 2 wires to the front of the boat?

Impossible if you want the best repair. It involves 3 repair pieces. An internal piece of rod epoxied inside to bridge the break, a piece sized and fitted to conform to the original dimensions of the trimmed broken rod area, and a jacket piece to extend over the broken area. It’s not obtrusive when completed but it’s not invisible either. It will bring the rod back to original function but requires having a selection of donor rod pieces to fit the 3 repair pieces properly, which almost no one except a pro rod builder has on hand. It is a finnacky process that takes time and skill to do, so probably won't be a cheap fix.

Small differences in a bait make large differences in its performance, so never expect a knockoff to perform like the original it copies. You can buy them and some will catch fish perfectly well. Some will be complete duds. That’s really the point, isn’t it? Say you are willing to experiment and buy multiple knockoffs and spend the time required to test them on the water. After discarding the duds, have you saved any money, which is the only reason for the exercise? You certainly haven’t maximized your fish catching opportunities by throwing some baits that will never catch a fish. There are some knockoffs I would buy (and have) based on reports of fishermen whose opinions I trust. But frankly, they are few and far between. So if I want a bait that acts like Lure X and which I can have confidence in throwing (which means a lot!) I buy a Lure X. Anything else is just a crap shoot.

Not knowing the diameter of the jig shank plus the amount of skirt material, it’s impossible to recommend an O ring. Go to a home center and buy a selection of O rings, try them out. What I don’t understand is why your buddy wants any elastic skirt anchor instead of a skirt tied on with wire or braided line, which is much more durable and won’t ever slip down during use.

Rapala balsa cranks are what built their reputation. But like any balsa bait, you can’t abuse them if you want them to last. Balsa is soft lightweight wood. If you slap the bait on the water to clear weeds off your trebles, it applies enough force to the lip that the balsa will split and water will begin soaking into the wood or the lip will break off, taking the top of the head with it. Dead bait. I have original Rapala minnow baits that I bought 50 years ago. They still catch fish. If you demand a super tough bait, buy plastic. But tell balsa fans where you are fishing so we can fish behind you.

If the guide is still secure I’d either just leave it or apply a smidge of glue to the chipped area. The white area is where the glue fractured and it will stay white. If not secure, it will have to be removed and replaced, then rewrapped and epoxied.

Have we confused you enough yet? I like Yozuri Hybrid because it's pretty strong, pretty low stretch, pretty manageable, and moderately priced. It’s easy to get wrapped around the axle about mono lines but there are lots of choices and many of them will work OK. The biggest difference I notice among lines is that most companies sell a hard line that is stronger and has better knot strength and less stretch but more spool memory, and a softer line that is more manageable (less spool memory) but with more stretch and less knot strength. Some American companies use names like XT (hard) versus XL (soft). I’d choose XT in summer on a baitcaster and XL in winter, or anytime on a spinning reel. I tend toward using braided line with a leader these days. It’s less trouble, lasts a long time, and performs well. I can stop worrying about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and just go fishing.

I really like using several old small round Ambassadeur ProMax 1600’s for their reliability, trouble free casting performance, and low cost from auction sites. But I like and use them for those reasons, not because they are as comfortable in the hand as more modern low profile reels. They simply are not. It’s all about which features you favor over others in specific reels. Anything larger than a ProMax 1600 in a round reel? No thank you. That’s where I draw my line personally.

I’m sure just about any Fuji guide will perform fine. Titanium is super light and so has that advantage. I use Alconite guides on the rods I build for myself because they are very durable and the cost is not significantly more than Fuji’s lower grade guides when considering the total cost of all a rod’s components. That said, I wouldn’t choose or reject a rod based only on the guide materials. The blank action, weight, and balance are the more important qualities to me.

I set my drags fairly soft on spinning reels and don’t loosen them between trips. But when rigging for the next outing, I’ll manipulate the drags back and forth to make sure they aren’t sticking. Stuck drag + 6 lb line + big bass = lost fish.

Most use a variety of opaque and transparent (more correctly called translucent) paints. Opaque to cover and hide underlying color such as when color basecoating a plastic bait white or black so later paint will pop better. Translucent when you want the paint to meld together more naturally or when you want a color underneath to show through to build depth to the paint scheme, or you want to add a tint or special effect to a basic opaque color. An example is shooting a shimmering white pearl transparent over an opaque white basecoat to better represent a baitfish belly color. There are really no rules about opaque versus transparent. An opaque covers and hides what’s underneath it faster than transparent but you can shoot transparent in a heavy coating to get the same result.

Sharpies are dye based markers. The colors will fade over time from sunlight and will run if you topcoat them with a product containing a solvent. Jmho, they are best used for adding on-the-water details to a bait. Can they be used to paint a whole bait? Yes, but they’re not the ideal solution.

Any type of oil can lubricate a bearing. Oil viscosity can change significantly according to temperature and some oils change viscosity much more than others. A lighter oil will be slung out of a bearing much faster than a heavier oil but it will allow a bearing to operate faster. So you get to choose a heavier oil that will run slower but longer between oiling or a lighter oil that runs faster but has to be oiled more often. Or you might choose a lighter oil for winter and a heavier oil for summer. Or you can just go for something mid-range and avoid all the drama. Hot Sauce is fairly light and is more resistant to temperature change than most others. But I dispise its red dye which migrates all over the inside of a reel. I like a mid-viscosity bearing oil that I can use a few times a year and expect it to keep the bearings running smoothly. For me, Yellow Rocket Fuel or Ardent Bearing Oil fit the bill.

Are you consistently losing fish on your present setup? Are you looking for longer casts? If yes, you might explore alternatives in a softer tipped graphite rod or try a fiberglass rod. If not, not.

Basswood is a good choice but if you start out with a wood that has neutral density in water, you will end up with a lure that sinks after you add all the hardware. To get a suspending lure, make up the body to the point where it is final sanded and sealed to be waterproof. Install the lip and the trebles then tape on enough ballast or hang it on the front treble until the bait very slowly rises in water that is the temp of the water you will be fishing. Install that amount of ballast in the bait, paint and topcoat the bait. The added weight of the finish should get you close to suspending. But suspending is dependent on water temperature. In warmer water it will sink and in colder water it will rise so in spite of all the finagling you have done you will still have to adjust the weight with adhesive Suspend Strips or dots to make it truly suspend in the water you fish on a specific day/temperature. It is usually better to shoot for a bait that slowly rises in “average temp” water because you can add temporary weight to make it suspend in any temperature but you can’t subtract weight from a bait to keep it from sinking in warmer water than it was designed for, unless you change to lighter wire trebles.

The testing I cited was published in 2002 using 3/8oz crankbaits and the reels and rods the various fishermen brought to the test. Obviously, reel technology has improved in the intervening 15 years. And throwing a 1/2 oz rattlebait is a lot different than a 3/8 oz lipped crankbait. The testers needed to establish what an “average long cast” was in order to calibrate a course to test the dive profiles of a wide variety of commercial baits. So the data is what it is from that test and the one you cite above. I don’t doubt there are guys who can cast 150-200 ft with the right reel, the right rod, the right bait, and the right skill and experience. But I want to see actual measurements done instead of all the wild guesstimates you normally hear, which I think just confuse and disappoint less experienced fishermen. I also think distance casting is hugely overrated as a practical bass fishing thing except in certain special circumstances. Anything over 100 ft I personally want to be slinging braided line so I have a chance of actually getting a hook in a bass that bites.

In the only scientific casting test of bass fishermen that I’ve ever seen, the average measured cast for distance with 12lb mono among a group of experienced fishermen was 80 ft. Take that FACT and draw your own conclusions about claims made by others. Btw, if you’re casting 80 ft with anything except braid, good luck on getting a hook set that will bring a big bass to the boat anyway.

I’d send the T3 Ballistic to DVS for service. As to switching out your good reels for Tatula Sv TWS, it’s player’s choice. I really like my Sv TWS but I have older Shimano and Ambassadeur reels that have proved to be super reliable. My Sv TWS is a pleasure to use and a cut above but not so superior that my bass fishing is going to take a quantum leap just because I got one of the latest, greatest.

A light coat of nail polish should work fine as a quick fix.

I’m an old chicken. Below 50? Stay at home unless I’m trolling for striper. But I think the idea of using Gliss, a fused super line rather than a braid has merit. It might freeze from surface water like any line but it won’t absorb water.

Go to the Alumite site. Search YouTube for Larry Dahlburg videos.

Depending on the plastic, a plastic bait can soften and can expand when heated for prolonged periods in a trunk or boat locker. Even to the point where the glued seams begin to leak water. But it probably won’t effect the paint finish. If yours haven’t done it yet you’re probably ok. Probably. No guarantees.

When you coat the gear teeth, use a small brush to get grease down into all the valleys of the teeth. I grease the pinion gear the same way. If your main gear contains your drag stack and you run the drag greased, coat the outside bottom of the gear case and the inside surface of the main gear case where it contacts drag washers. That grease should be DRAG GREASE, not regular grease. You can use drag grease for all of this but I prefer regular grease for the teeth and pinion gears because it seems to run a little smoother. Drag stacks coated with regular grease don’t work consistently for very long. Apply grease SPARINGLY. No sense in having grease slung all over the guts of your reel.

Knives: there’s a huge difference in “a knife” and a good wood carving knife. Wood knives usually have small thin blades, with a handle large enough for good control, and need to be sharp enough to shave hair with. A good knife makes rough shaping a lure easy and fast compared to sanding.

I use the same airbrush and Createx. One thing I recommend is to soak your airbrush occasionally overnight in a dedicated airbrush cleaning solution to remove stubborn paint deposits, in addition to regular cleaning. It contains emulsifiers that regular solvent cleaners can’t dissolve and can really help to make the brush work like new.