BobP

Firetiger is really good around and over grass and there are lots of firetiger baits available. Why try to reinvent the wheel?

I'd take 2-3 of the real pellets, wrap them in a piece of fabric from some women's hosery, and use that as bait. Carp are smell-oriented vegetarians and pretty smart about what they will eat. Check out some of the boards about carp fishing - it's a big deal in Europe - to get ideas about how best to tempt them.

I hobby build 100+ baits per year in batches of 2-6 and use them or give them away to friends. It's hard to say how long each takes to build because you work on them over several days and much of the time is waiting for a coating to dry, etc. For me, it's 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. But I'm in no hurry. No customers, no schedules. If a bait style interests me, I build it regardless of how long it takes. And it often takes multiple prototypes over months to get a bait where you want it to be, performance-wise.

You aren't going to find a better price/performance combo than XPS. Bite the bullet. Order it in spring when it's on sale and throw in other fishing stuff you need for the coming summer season.

I get naphtha at Home Depot and use it because a petroleum based cleaner is needed for cleaning many drag disks. Since it also works fast on other parts and won't harm plastic.... I like the most volatile cleaner possible on sealed ball bearings - can't get much more volatile than ether. In fact, you need to cover the glass you spray it into or it will evaporate in a few minutes. Naphtha and ether aren't the most ecologically "green" solvents, but they do work better than just about anything else.

All of the cleaners you mentioned are OK and none will harm plastic parts or drag disks. I throw small parts, gears, and the drag disks in a jar of naphtha as I remove them. I wash the bare frame in dish soap with a toothbrush. I soak bearings in starter fluid (ether).

I've removed handles by cutting the handle with a Dremel cut-off wheel (careful not to cut into the graphite blank!) and peeling the rest of the handle off with pliers. You can heat any remaining epoxy with a heat gun to soften it and peel/slice it off the blank with a single edged razor blade.

15 lb braid shouldn't break. When it does on the hookset, I suspect the culprit is a snap hookset. An instantaneous snap on a lure tied with a Palomar knot will break braid up to 20 lb test. If it breaks during the fight, I suspect the fish ran it across rocks or something sharp.

Goose nailed it. About the only place I see Inches Per Turn info is the Bass Pro Shops catalog or their website. A good general purpose gear ratio is 6 to 6.2:1 It can be used for about anything. Faster 7:1 gears are nice for burning a crankbait or spinnerbait in clear water. Slower 5 to 5.3:1 gears are nice for horsing deep crankbaits. Getting one or two reels? 6.2:1

I was there last week and the wind and waves knocked most guys off the main lake throughout the week. When you can get on, deep jerkbaits in 15-20' work great. We ended up fishing Presque Isle Bay most of the trip. Largemouth were on beds everywhere.

With Iwatas, it's mostly about tip size. I use a Revolution B with a .3mm tip for all-over color and a HP-B with .2mm tip for finer work. I think you'll find all Iwatas are built to the same standard and the prices go up as the tip size gets smaller. My Revo B cost $75 and is every bit as good as my $125 HP. JMHO, the HP with .2mm tip is the sweet spot in the lineup. It will shoot most airbrush paint without thinning and has a fine enough spray to do subtle shading when required. HP models are hand tuned at the factory. Extra priced features like MAC valve (a pressure control knob on the a/;) and the "+" rear barrel that has a trigger stop are pretty expensive for what you get, IMO. If you're really into small scale detail, a Custom Micron with .1mm tip might be nice, but you will have to thin everything.

I still have some little Ambassadeur ProMax 1600's and 3600's that I use all the time. These reels date from the late 60's and early 70's and are still some of the best casting and smoothest retrieving reels I've ever used - and that's compared to modern Abu and Shimano baitcasters!

I also have a 785C TWS Allstar I've been using for 10 yrs. It may not be the best of the best but it fishes moving baits just dandy and I'd hate to lose or break it - I think of it as "ole dependable".

I like BassPro XPS fluoro for its good price, plus Tackle Tour tests gave it good marks. One tip - don't fill your spool as full as you would with mono. The extra spool lip space will help keep the fluoro from jumping off the spool, which it has more tendency to do than limper mono. I think you'll be pleased with how long fluoro lasts on the reel - no water absorption, no UV degradation. You can keep it on there as long as there's enough line to fish.

Hey, I paid $140 for a SX last year and it was a good deal. Go for it. Nice reel.

Unlike Dave, I work in ounces : On a 2 1/4" typical bass crankbait, a coat of Devcon Two Ton weighs .02 ounces. JMHO, if you repaint lots of suspending jerkbaits, invest in some moisture cured polyurethane like Dick Nite clear coat. It makes a very thin tough clearcoat similar to a factory finish. Alternatively, you can remove the original finish before painting to reduce the weight slightly. You can also thin the Devcon with a few drops of denatured alcohol to get a thinner coating. BTW, a bait that slowly sinks in 70 degree water may suspend in more dense 55 degree water. If you're a real jerkbait afficionado, you want your bait to suspend in the warmest water you're likely to fish it in. That way, you can adjust for colder water by adding some Suspendots or lead wire on the front treble hook.

Lots of pro airbrush artists use tool compressors. If one job is all you'll be doing with the airbrush, a cheap single action brush like a Badger 200 may be all you need. If you think you'll be using it for other tasks over time, getting a more expensive internal mix airbrush like a Badger 170, a Paasche VL, or an Iwata Revolution B (all in the $75 range) might be right. Airbrushes operate at 10-45 psi, so your compressor needs to accommodate that range. A moisture trap (present on some tool compressors) is also needed.

Reels with pitching switches - When switched ON, you press the spring loaded thumb bar to cast and when you let up on the bar, the reel automatically engages. Instead of a switch, Shimano uses a rocker thumb bar, rock it back to cast, rock it forward to engage the gears. All of this is designed so you can cast and engage the reel with the same hand that holds the rod. Some right handed guys like to use a left handed standard reel instead. It allows them to pitch lures and not have to switch hands holding the rod. It's all about what you are comfortable using. Flipping/pitching switches are not for everyone! They feel awkward to me so I use a standard reel and switch hands. I'm more concerned that the reel be able to pitch light weights and has a smooth retrieve with good cranking power.

I've been using a Scorpion 1000 for more than 5 yrs. Casts great due to the SVS brake system. The retrieve is just so-so. I changed out the handle for one from a domestic Shimano model to get it longer, which helps a lot. I think later model Shimanos have upgraded to the extent that the Scorpion is no longer such a jump in capability. Would I favor a Scorpion over the new Curado? Probably not, especially if I did not do my own reel maintenance.

If your retrieve is rough it isn't because the drag needs service. But the main and pinion gears do, so you might as well do both jobs at once. Shimano Ace 2 Drag Grease is a thick sticky cosmoline grease for fiber drag washers and it's what you should use on them - not regular grease. With regular grease, a fiber drag system gets jerky pretty quickly. If you go with Carbontex washers, they don't need grease but a light film of grease is OK. For the main gear and other general grease needs, I like Superlube grease. It's a white PTFE bearing grease sold at auto supply stores including NAPA and it works great (several good reel shops use and recommend it). Now, all this may fix your problem or it may not. I bet your reel needs 100% disassembly, cleaning, and lubrication. Other sources of rough retrieve can be the levelwind system and the instant anti-reverse bearing. If you aren't comfortable taking apart a reel, consider sending it to a pro for cleaning and lube. If you want to do it yourself, get a reel diagram, take it apart on a towel so the small parts won't "wander off". And lay parts out in groups as you take them off so getting it back together won't be a puzzle. Getting the job done and using a reel that works great again is its own reward.

Don't know about others but my fingers don't touch the exposed blank on the reel seat when palming a reel, so it has no utility regarding sensitivity. But that is what the exposed blank seat is advertised to enhance. Lots of features contribute to or detract from the sensitivity of a rod. I wouldn't pass on a St Croix LE because it didn't come with an exposed blank reel seat, and I wouldn't buy a fiberglass Ugly Stick with one, expecting improved sensitivity. To me, exposed blank and skeleton reel seats are mostly useful because they reduce the overall weight of the rod - which can be good or bad on a particular rod, depending on how the rod balances in your hand. Bottom line, I don't think things are as simple as exposed blank seat = better rod.

I use a Shimano Crucial 6'8" dropshot rod and don't think there's a better rod for that presentation. It has a light power fast action tip connected to a good strong butt section. The tip casts light baits well and has great action on a dropshot or shaking a jig. You won't miss the extra 4" length casting with that soft tip and you'll have no problem handling 5-6 lb fish with the robust butt section. If you like light (1/16-3/16 oz) shaky heads with thin wire hooks, it's good for that too. I haven't used it for wacky rigging but wouldn't hesitate with a Gamakatsu octopus hook. I don't use it with heavy wire worm hooks or jigs, which require more tip power (baitcasters and 15 lb line are designed for that). I usually build my own rods, but this one exceeded my expectations.

What works for me is a Shimano Crucial dropshot rod and any 2500 size reel you like. The rod has a very light tip section that helps in working dropshots and shaky heads, but plenty of backbone to handle big fish when needed.

The rod is one part of a system so it's not easy to isolate it from the rest of the rod-reel-line equation while shopping. In addition to the other tips above, also consider balance. In most stores, you can clamp on a reel and get an idea of how balanced the combo is, which is important. If you fish a finesse presentation all day, balance becomes critical. You want the rod/reel to be as close to neutral balance as possible. That lets you relax your hand and maintain its sensitivity, which otherwise gets eroded as your hand muscles work to hold a tip heavy rod in position. If you can't pay top dollar for a high modulus fast action graphite worm rod, a good alternative is the BassPro Extreme or Pro Qualifier series rods that have a balancing system in the butt. The cost on them is competitive and the build quality is good. As mentioned, consider fishing with fluorocarbon line, or braid if you fish very stained water.

Betcha there are craws living in your lake. Yes, craw pattern cranks catch bass and spring is the classic time to throw them.