BobP

A few yrs ago, I got "Precision Casting" by Mark Romanack. It's a book listing the measured dive depths of various crankbaits. The author got a bunch of fishermen to do a number of casts and measured their distances. The casters were asked to label their casts as short/medium/long. The averaged results were "remarkably uniform". A medium cast was 70 ft and a long cast was 100 ft. Can KVD make a 210' cast on average? Color me skeptical. Who measured them? I'm betting nobody.

Abu makes a C4 in 4600 and 5600 sizes. I have an older C4 4600 that works great for Carolina Rigging due to the fast gear ratio. IMO, their spools are too heavy to make a good pitching reel unless you only pitch heavy jigs and plastics. It's not that you CAN'T use them for anything, just that there are better choices. I'd stick to throwing lures of at least 3/8 oz with one.

There are brakes - if not magnetic, they are centrifugal, under the left side plate. There are usually 6 small plastic brake blocks which are snapped outward to turn them ON and inward to turn them OFF. The centrifugal force of the spinning spool forces them against a brake drum to slow the spool and prevent overruns at the end of the cast. A typical scenario is to run the reel with every other block ON, for a total of 3 ON, 3 OFF. Check your owner's manual. JMHO, forget all the blah about how you SHOULD have your cast control and brakes set. Set it up in different configurations until you find the combo of brakes and cast control that works for YOU. As you gain experience on the reel, you can modify the settings as your thumb becomes more "educated",

I use Superlube grease, TG's Yellow Rocket Fuel, and Shimano Ace-2 drag grease on drag washers. There are several good bearing oils available including Reel Butter Bearing oil (not the regular oil, which is thicker). Quantum Hot Sauce has good lube characteristics if you can stand the ugly red stain getting all over the inside of the reel (I can't). Superlube comes in small squeeze tubes for about $2, or you can buy an 8 oz can (a lifetime supply!) of the stuff for less than $10 at a Napa auto store. It's an automotive bearing grease but is used by many reel service centers and works great. It contains PTFE and is white in color. Any grease will work - this stuff just works and lasts best, in my experience. Drag grease - don't grease drag washers with regular grease because they will become jerky pretty quickly. Drag grease is much thicker stuff, most often based on cosmoline, a thick, sticky grease. Penn Muscle Grease, Shimano Ace-2, Cal's, etc are designed for drags and work well. TG Rocket Fuel comes in 3 different viscosities. Yellow is the one you want. There's a tradeoff on bearing oils. The lower the viscosity, the easier a bearing will spin but the faster the oil will migrate out of it. The YRF will last 4-6 months in typical use before the 2 spool bearings will need another drop.

I like the 1/2 oz Cabelas Living Image spoons and the Netcraft 3/4 oz Lazer jigging spoons. I use the 1/2 oz in water less than 25 ft, the 3/4 oz deeper and most of my fishing is 25-55 ft. A flashaboo treble is a good addition. Glow white is my "go-to" color. It's a good threadfin shad imitator. I occasionally use the chrome, less often the gold. Classic spooning - use your sonar to locate a shad school being attacked on the bottom by bass in the winter; jig the spoon on 12-17 lb line (I like 14 lb fluoro). Fish it mostly vertically, let it hit bottom, snap it up a couple of feet and let it fall, repeat and develop a rhythm . Bites often come on the fall and you feel the fish the next time you lift the spoon. Feels like you hooked a rubber band. You may need to vary the lift from 6 inches to 6 feet, depending on the mood of the bass. Most times, you are fishing for active fish and the bites come quickly, even on the initial fall of the spoon. You want to keep in contact with the spoon as it falls, but not so tight that it inhibits the spoon from fluttering and tumbling. I use jigging spoons year round, with different strategies for times when shad are not schooling. When deep fish are active, there's nothing that will catch them quicker in such numbers. When the spoon bite wanes, switch to a dropshot and you'll often get a few more to bite.

I think the DT series is the best line of commercial wood baits available. In fact, it's the only series of wood baits I know that includes models from 4 - 20 ft. And they catch fish. My favorites are the DT-10, 16, and 20 plus the new DT Thug that runs 7-8 ft deep. You can use lighter or heavier line to modify the depth but I think the "DT" depth refers to fishing the baits with 10 or 12 lb test mono. I dislike the Sureset models because of the higher price and when I buy one because of its color pattern, I change them to Gamakatsu round bends. Does that mean that 100% of the hundreds of thousands of DT sold are all perfect? No, but the quality in my experience has been higher than other brands of WOOD baits, by a long shot. JMHO

I haven't heard of anyone doing this and doubt it could be done at reasonable cost with reasonable results. If you want a 2 piece, get a 2 piece blank - it will probably be a lot cheaper and better.

Dye markers like Sharpies are solvent based, so they will run if you coat them with a clearcoat containing solvent - like polyurethanes, some epoxies, etc. But if you are just using them to add marks to a lure, they work fine.

X3 for Zoom

X2 for the EZ-Lap sharpener. It's a small grooved steel rod coated with diamonds that gets the job done great - and fast.

Sure, a Sharpie will last as long as anything. It's solvent based so if you mark up a crankbait, it may soak into the surface of the clearcoat and become pretty permanent. To remove it, use naphtha or denatured alcohol (other solvents will remove the bait's finish).

Supertuning the reel will help a little (and for a little while), another rod can help more. For long casts in open water, I use a 7 1/2' Medium action Medium power St Croix graphite rod. A longer, slower action rod is more flexible and will cast farther than a shorter, faster action rod. Far enough that you don't want to use it for baits that require hard hook sets because you have so much line out. I throw small crankbaits on mine and keep the trebles super sharp.

I think a lot of us go through a "growing stage" when we start throwing $15 hard baits. You don't throw them in cover or work them like you do a $5 crankbait. Guess what? You don't lose them because you aren't throwing them where the fish live. Look, if you are getting bites, bouncing baits off cover, and fishing them in gnarly stuff where the big boys live, you are going to lose a lure occasionally. Resign yourself to the inevitable.

The actual name of Etex is Envirotex Lite. It's sold in 2 ea 8 oz bottles in a blue and white box in the decoupage/gold leafing section of Michael's craft stores. Very cost efficient but it requires multiple coats and rotation for several hours to prevent sags and drips. I mostly use Devcon Two Ton epoxy, which is a glue and is thicker than Etex, requiring one coat and rotation for 1 hour. It used to be sold at Walmart but now I can only find it online. Flexcoat V is similar in use to Etex but it contains a UV inhibitor that should keep the bait from yellowing for longer than standard epoxies. Keep in mind that all finishes will yellow over time from UV exposure and the few UV inhibited epoxies are premium finishes, sold at a premium - but you get what you pay for. The best way to prevent yellowing is to measure the proportions accurately and mix them very well. Failure to measure/mix properly is the main cause of failure to harden and premature yellowing.

I love fishing crankbaits so build them as a hobby and trade them with friends. I fish customs about 50% of the time; 90% of the time when I throw a wood bait. Customs are all about throwing something different - either different performance or different paint scheme. Different gets bit. There are some really good big company wood cranks available now, most notably the Rapala's DT series. You can build or buy a custom bait that performs on the edge of stability and catches fish when factory baits won't. The factory has to build baits that are stable; custom and hobby builders are more willing to "push the envelope". If you're talking about repaints of commercial baits, that also can be a big plus if you are one of those who feels the lure color pattern is a critical feature. It will give you much more confidence in fishing the bait and if nothing else, that confidence will put more fish in the boat.

I was fishing for smallies last week and was killing them on Zoom Speed Craws. I ran out, tried the Chiggers, same color, and zeroed on them. The Speed Craws have very good claw action, Chiggers not so much. I'm not knocking them - next time out the fish may want less action and the Chiggers may do great but the Speed Craws have worked on both largemouth and smallmouth for me for years now, and they've become one of my go-to baits.

I'm a Shimano guy but got an Abu Revo SX last year and am liking it. Personally, I think the 7:1 gears are too fast. If I had a "do-over" I'd buy the 6.4:1 version. They only thing I don't like about the SX is the level wind tube opens forward instead of down like on many other reels. If you use braid or fish where lots of sand/dirt comes in on your line when you retrieve it, the forward facing opening may cause your levelwind to get fouled quicker. No problem so far, but I wonder "now why the hell did they do that?". You can find an SX on Ebay for around $150 delivered. They cast and retrieve very nicely and I've had zero problems with mine in more than a year of use.

A very high modulus well built graphite rod of good design will be more sensitive than a lower modulus graphite rod built on an assembly line basis. Whether that makes for better fishing depends on the fisherman and on the presentation. I go with high end graphite for slow presentations like worming, jigging, and Carolina rigging where rod balance, touch, and bite detection are at a premium. But there's not much need for rods like that throwing moving baits like a lipless crankbait where the rod tip will always be loaded. In fact, durability can be an important practical consideration in that type rod and an IM6 graphite or fiberglass rod is way more durable than a St Croix Legend Elite or Loomis GLX. IMO, there are some very competitive rods available in the $150-200 range and like most things, the farther up the quality curve you move from there, the more and more you pay for less and less performance edge.

You can get round Pro Max 3600 reels on Ebay for $40-50, Pro Max 1600's for $50-75 depending on external condition. They are all metal, 8 ball bearings and were sold in the late 60's - early 70's for $169 (a very premium reel of that era). Cast great, hard to backlash, and retrieve smooth but usually need a good cleaning and lube when you get one. Parts are still available from Abu or from other parts vendors. The Black Max reels have fewer bearings and go for under $50 but are still workhorse reels. The Pro Max is the better reel but had a silver paint finish that scratched easily and quickly looked ratty. The Black Max model had a very durable black finish that usually still looks great. I would stick with the round Max reels from that period. Abu built some later low profile Pro and Black Max reels that didn't have the same high quality.

I keep a spray bottle of plain water beside the bench to clean my Iwata between color shots. Clean out the cup. Backwash it. Next color. At the end of the session, I remove and clean the needle, take off the spray hood and spray dome and clean them with a Qtip dipped in acetone. Occasionally, I completely disassemble the brush and soak it overnight in water based airbrush cleaning solution. Don't remove the tiny nozzle unless you are doing an overnight soak or having a problem. They are expensive and easy to lose or damage. Don't use any cleaner containing ammonia, which will erode the chrome finish from the airbrush over time.

Advantages: you can fish a rod that is EXACTLY the way you want it. The more expensive the components, the more you will save on a self-built rod. JMHO, when the component costs get under $100, you aren't saving money compared to a rod sold by BassPro or other vendors. The required equipment is not expensive. You can wrap rods on a pair of V blocks and rotate them as the guide epoxy hardens using a homemade turner with a small electric motor. My rod building setup cost about $15 and has been fine for 20 rods so far. Buy the Kirkman book. Rods are not hard to build but you need some design knowledge if you want a rod that fishes well.

Wood baits have lead ballast in the belly which stabilizes them and allows the lip to operate. If you are copying a bait, it's a good idea to weigh the original on a digital scale and build your copy to the same finished weight.

You can use lacquer thinner but if you shoot water based acrylics, I recommend water based airbrush cleaning solution to soak your brush overnight occasionally. It's economical and does an excellent job of loosening up acrylic paint. The needle packing in the barrel of most airbrushes is solvent resistant nowadays, but resistant is not solvent-proof.

Of course it CAN be done, the question is "Is it reasonable?" It's a lot of work to remove a cork handle (particularly the epoxy under it!) and you have to be careful not to damage the rod blank while doing it. Then you have the issue of the blank's taper. It's larger at the butt than at the reel seat. On some rods, you might be able to get EVA you can force over the butt and still be small enough to fit snugly behind the reel seat. If not, you have to remove the reel seat and most of the guides and basically rebuild the rod from scratch because the EVA will need to be installed from the rod tip. Whichever route you take, the blank area between the new split grip and the butt cap will be ragged looking and will need to be refinished. For me, it would take a very special rod to warrant that amount of work and I'd have to be VERY sure the new EVA grip would be a big improvement in both looks and performance.

A reel with a low mass spool and smaller line capacity helps when throwing light baits. Unfortunately, reels of this type are the more expensive models within a company's reel lineup. If you are new to baitcasting, you will get better at controlling casts as you gain experience, and baits in the 3/16 to 1/4 oz range will become routine. Until then, don't rain on your own parade. Use a spinning reel for light baits. We fish to have fun, right?