BobP

Most reels are heavily lubed at the factory to last as long as possible for the yahoos who buy and then use them without cleaning or lubrication until they fail. If anything, I would pull the 2 spool end bearings, flush them with solvent and lube them with a good high speed reel oil like Yellow Rocket Fuel, Reel Butter bearing lube, or Quantum Hot Sauce. A drop of oil in each spool bearing every 2-3 months during the fishing season is a good idea.

Nice work! And that's a clever curing wheel too.

I've done about 20 rods using a couple of homemade V-blocks from 3/4" shelving with felt pads to hold the blank, thread in a teacup, tensioned with a BPS catalog. The only "significant tool" was a slow speed rod turner for spinning the blank while the guide epoxy cured. I made that with a 6 rpm 110V gear motor and a chuck fashioned from a piece of 1 1/2" PVC pipe with 3 thumb screws tapped into it. Total tool cost was about $20. Cork rings glued up on a 1/4" bolt with a couple of washers and a nut (I like split cork handles. If you like full handles, I'd just buy one pre-made). Cork shaped on the bolt, mounted in an electric drill clamped in a bench vise. All this works perfectly well. Maybe not as fast as a $600 rod lathe, but, well, it didn't cost $600 either.

Whittler, makes perfect sense to me! There are so many variables operating on a body moving through water that it can be very hard to predict the effect of a particular change. I thought of it as "raising the center of gravity introduces more body roll", which might be just another way of saying what you said.

Thanks for the comments! Danderson, paulownia is a species introduced from the orient that now grows wild and on tree farms in the U.S. It is a hardwood but is light weight. A standard density chart lists it as 16 lbs/cu ft, compared to 12 for balsa and 23 lbs/cu ft for basswood. I like it because it makes a lively bait and is easy to build with because it's hard enough not to require through-wire techniques.

Oil all bearings and the levelwind system. Grease everything else - sparingly!

Hmm... $3 spool bearings on Ebay. Problem is, you can't tell the precision level of most bearings just from looking at them. Not sure I'd trust'em to be even as good as the originals. Me, I'd buy some ABEC7 bearings from a reputable service shop for around $8 each. Talk to them about bearings to replace the bushings on the levelwind system (if possible). Truth be told, there are only so many things you can do to soup up a large frame reel with a heavy spool.

dixieart.com has a good stock plus hoses, adapters, paint, etc. Good service if you are spending more than $50 so they don't gore you on shipping costs. coastairbrush.com is another good reliable source. If you want to save a few bucks, you can probably get a new one on Ebay for less than anywhere else, if you trust the seller.

Interesting how the action was changed.

Did these last week. .37 oz with short shank #4 treble hooks. Loosely based on a RC 1.5.

Skeet - Duh, they'd been COOKED red Many states have catalogs of crayfish species with pics and distribution maps that can suggest the right jig colors. Here in N.C., most species are medium brown but some in the mountains have Carolina Blue accents. Best research - turn over a few rocks around the lake before you tie on your jig.

A lot of guys who fish fluoro use an Improved Cinch knot or a San Diego Jam Knot because they include wraps around the line to cushion the line at the point of maximum strain (the Palomar does not). I've been using the San Diego for a couple of years now and have never had a break off at the knot. It's easy to tie and is a neat knot. I don't like snap swivels worth a darn on any bait. Crosslock snaps or Norman Speed Clips are OK.

A C-rig can be any line, any weight, any leader. But the classic rig is 20 lb main line, a 3/4 oz lead weight, a bead, a swivel, and 18-24" of 12-14 lb mono or fluoro leader. The point is to get it on the bottom and keep it there as you retrieve it so you can feel the bottom composition. If you can fish it efficiently with lighter weight or line, fine. But waiting 15 secs for a 1/4 oz weight to hit bottom in 20 ft of water is inefficient. Tungsten is nice but if you fish snaggy areas, it gets expensive. I can feel the bottom well with 3/4 oz of lead so that's what I use most. IMO, the amount of time the weight spends clicking against the bead as it's dragged on the bottom is about zero, so glass or plastic is fine. Guys vary the components endlessly to adapt to different situations, or the equipment they own, or just to taste. I use 20 lb Fireline main line and a sensitive 7' MH rod and catch a lot of fish on C-rigs with the standard setup, in a mostly clear water lake.

X2. I like #4's Gamakatsu Round Bend or EWG's front and back. Some brands come with #4 front and #6 rear. I'll leave the #6 on there until I see how it works, but usually end up changing it to #4. Some guys go a step further and put short shank #2's on their 1/2 oz lipless baits (including world #1 Kevin Van Dam). Hard to argue with success.

That sounds about right (without any walleye pollution!). A lot of it depends on water clarity. Here in the SE, fishermen often seek out water that has the right amount of stain - enough so the crankbait can be seen from several feet but not so clear that the bass can easily recognize it's a lure. In those conditions, neon yellow or school bus yellow are productive base colors. In clear water, white and silver are more natural but even then, if you look at the hottest patterns like citrus shad and sexy shad, there's quite a bit of yellow accent in them.

Current Revos that weigh less than 7 oz are the Premier and the Sleet Reese, at $279 per reel (the older model Premier is sold for less than $200). If casting performance, not retrieve smoothness is paramount, it's hard to beat a Shimano Scorpion 1000 imported from Japan by several specialty sellers for around $175. It's a small frame reel with a very light spool and the Japanese market SVS centrifugal braking system. With SVS brakes, you can cast a 1/4 oz bait into the wind with confidence. I think it's still the best braking system around. I've used one for small crankbaits for 5 yrs and haven't found anything better. The retrieve smoothness on the Scorpion is unexceptional but it does fit your stated criteria.

Most guys over-grease and the excess is thrown or squeezed out of the gears in the first minute of use, becoming reel gunk. I put a thin coat of grease around the main gear, then brush it into every tooth with a 1/4" brush. When done, there's no excess to be thrown out. If you don't disassemble-clean-lube the level wind system, it's a great candidate retrieve vibration (as is a worn level wind pawl). If your gears are noisy, try greasing them with Shimano Drag Grease instead of regular grease. It can sometimes quiet noisy or nicked gears until they can run in and become smooth again. The IAR bearing is another vibration suspect. Soak/agitate the IAR side plate in naphtha, dry and oil it. Yes it's a pain to do a 100% disassembly/clean/lube but unless you service every moving part of a reel, you can't if a vibration or other problem is cause by a bad part, wear, or just dirt where there should be none.

I have a bunch of Curado 200's with bearing under the axle shaft and have never changed that bearing, though I do clean and lube them. Frankly, if you have any doubt about removing it, I'd just upgrade the spool end bearings and forget about that one. You definitely don't want to bend that pin. I've been told that the middle bearing doesn't come into play unless the reel is under extreme pressure during the retrieve (I've been told but I don't KNOW). Bearing come measured like this: hole size x bearing outside diameter x bearing thickness, all in millimeters. Curados and many other reels use 3x10x4 mm spool bearings. It's easy to measure with a ruler and I don't think I've ever seen spool bearings that have partial mm specs. You're sort of in a bind because many reel services won't work on BPS reels and BPS probably can't/won't provide upgraded bearings. But you can do it!

If my gears are smooth, I use regular grease (Superlube PFTE). If I put in a new gear set or suspect one of the teeth has a burr on it, Shimano Drag Grease will usually quiet it down until the gears have had a chance to 'run in'.

Sedona X2

I assume we're talking about the round Black Max baitcaster. If so: First, make sure the spool bearings are good. 3x10x4mm ABEC7 replacements are cheap. Oil them with a good oil like Rocket Fuel or Reel Butter Bearing oil. Second, clean the centrifugal brake drum then oil it lightly with bearing oil and install 2 black or one white brake block. Back off the cast control knob until there is just a hint of left-right side play on the spool. There should be almost no cast control except for slight pressure exerted by the brass wavy washer under the right side spool bearing (make sure there's one in there!). Forget about all the "push the button, drop a lure and adjust until it drops slowly" stuff that is necessary to set up most baitcasters. Set A Black Max up as above and it will cast a variety of weights all day without backlashing and without further adjustment. And I say that as a true champion backlasher ;D IMO the Black Max works best with 8 to 12 lb mono or fluoro lines. They cast great with 10 lb copolymer like Izor XXX. Don't over or underfill the spool because the line level is an integral part of the antibacklash design. You can use 20 lb mono if you are pitching jigs or making short casts, but these reels really shine with light lines, especially if you want to wing'em out there. Because of the wire line guide on the Max reels, I don't feel they work very well with braids. JMHO

McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) carries G-10 (one spec of Garolite, which is how they list it) that is a dull yellow color. They also have G-11 which is a little tougher, a little more expensive, and yellowish green. G-10 color is pretty much catch-as-catch-can. You have to ask what is available since to most users, the color is inconsequential. In the past, I've gotten white G-10 from www.asp-rocketry.com, an amateur site that sells it for rocket fins. But again - ask before you buy if color is important.

I'm not saying it isn't ideal to remove an axle pin but I never have on the bunch of Curado 200's I have. On the rare occasion when I thought that bearing needed flushing instead of just re-lubing, I just soaked the end of the whole spool assembly in naphtha to flush it. 'Course, you have to strip the line off to do that but so what? You surely do not want to bend that axle pin - or the axle itself!

The round Abu Pro Max reels were made back in the late 60's in 1600 and 3600 sizes. 8.5 oz, 8 ball bearings, all metal, and cost $169. Top of the line Abu at the time! They have a non-synchronous level wind system (it doesn't race back and forth during the cast, which is a good thing). Their exterior is often rough looking because they were painted silver and the paint wasn't durable. But the insides are very high quality and the design is the most backlash resistant I've ever used (and I've used a bunch of newer reels). They came with a lifetime warranty. $45 is a good price for one in decent mechanical condition. They use the same 3x10x4mm spool bearings as a Curado 200 and parts are still available from Abu Garcia. Simple design, easy to work on and maintain. I don't favor round reels but the Pro Max is small and so smooth and trouble free that I keep using several of them. They're the best jig pitching reels I've ever used and cast great, especially with line 12lb test or smaller. The Pro Max came with 5.3:1 gears, fairly slow by today's standards but still favored by many crankbait fishermen. You can upgrade to 6:1 gears if you want faster. Bottom line, if it's in good condition, it's a good price on a great reel. I think Abu also made some low profile Pro Max reels later that were not as good as the round models.

If you test spin a bearing that has just been solvent soaked, it still has solvent in it and will spin a long time because the solvent acts as a short term super low viscosity lubricant. Let it sit until that solvent evaporates and it will not spin long at all. Lube it with bearing oil and it will still not spin because of the surface tension of the oil. But install it in a reel and the spool mass overcomes the oil's surface tension and the spool will spin much longer. This all points to a couple of tips: Use a low viscosity solvent to flush bearings, or alternatively, let them soak for a long time. I use ether based starting fluid. Can't get much lower viscosity than that! Let the bearing dry after flushing until it no longer spins easily on a pencil tip. Then you know all the solvent has evaporated. The thinner the oil you use to lube the bearing, the easier it will spin in the reel. But there is a trade-off. Super thin oils get thrown out of the bearing easier and will not last very long. Thick oils will last a long time but will cause more resistance in the bearing. JMHO, if you go to the expense of buying ABEC-9's, you want to use an oil thinner than Abu Silicote Reel Oil. I use thick oils like Abu on non-spool bearings. It works fine in low speed bearings and stays in the bearings longer. For high speed spool bearings, oils like Yellow Rocket Fuel, Quantum Hot Sauce, Reel Butter Bearing Lube, Friction Zero, etc are popular. FYI, the viscosity of Abu is 176 at 78 degrees F. Yellow Rocket is 59, Hot Sauce is 25, Friction Zero is 8. I've used Yellow Rocket for years and like it. Hot Sauce is good but I simply hate the red dye. Friction Zero? Maybe too fast for an old man