OnthePotomac

Holy cow, what are fishing for? I use 50lb Sufix on a baitcaster with my frogs for bass on the Potomac in really, really heavy grass beds and it works fine.

Do a search on here on the Carbonlites and you will find a ton of posts on them. I have seven and really like them.

I also use mine for weightless Senkos and the distance is great with no effort.

I know the line gets a lot of negative comments, but I spooled 15lb on my bait casters to fish plastics on the Potomac and I have not found any thing wrong with it. It sure is a good price at WalMart for $12.96.

I am up to seven Carbonlites, having added one more each year since they hit the stores. Mine are 6'6 MH (micro guides) 7' MH and 7' Med. They have really gotten a work out on the Potomac grass beds with plastics, jigs, spinner baits, soft swim baits and crank baits with no problems. The biggest Potomac bass on them was 6lb8oz, a 15lb snake head and a couple of 15lb cats over time. That said, they don't go into the back of my truck with a rod cover on them.

It is an interesting reel in any speed. It sort of casts itself as opposed to the heft some reels take for distance. I quickly found that over powering the cast with it does not work very well. Literally a flick of the wrist is all it takes and it really takes off. I set mine with two brakes on and a dial setting of "1". I really like the 7.6 and the slower one. Mine are used for plastics on 7' MH Carbonlites.

BPS 7' MH fast tip Carbonlite for my plastics. Love those rods. Very light (4.2oz) and durable.

BPS 14 lb flouro for my plastics and 10lb for my cranking.

Been using BPS 14lb Flouro for 6 years on the Potomac for plastics and buy it on the annual sale. I use their 10lb for crank baits.

Here is a comprehensive article on super tuning. http://jdntackle.home.mindspring.com/index%20page.html Before you start using any abrasives on your reels just consider that the factory tolerances are extremely close and altering them can affect reel performance. Also consider whether polishing a component used only for retrieve and not casting is going to make a difference to you ie., drag metal surfaces. It is amazing what just keeping casting components cleaned and/or properly lubed will do for casting performance.

I run TSI dipped bearings in two of my bass baitcasters and have been doing so for two years. After dipping the solvent evaporates in literally seconds, so there has never been any damage to the reels.

I have three C14's and let my 19 year old grandson fish with one one day. He constantly had a back lash. My reels have two brakes on and the dial at #1. I have never had the problem, so I watched him for awhile and suggested that he back off on the muscle on a cast and just let the reel do the work with a wrist flick. He tried it and the back lashes stopped.

Here is a good series from Shimano. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLpO74dWuoE

New reel spool bearings usually have excess oil in them out of the box. Remove the spool bearings, clean out the oil and relube with any quality bearing oil (a tiny drop). The rest of the reel is a retrieve function and can wait until the end of the season to have it cleaned and relubed. There is no need to "flush" a new reel.

Where in heck did you find a handle for the Met XG for $12.84 to put on the Chronarch C14+? Shimano wants $33.00 for one.

I have been throwing all of my plastics on four 7' MH Carbonlite baitcasters for four years now on the tidal Potomac and love them. I also picked them up on one of the BPS sales for $20 off. For the money I think they are excellent rods. Believe me, they have survived fishing some pretty nasty junk.

Bantam1 from Shimano says they do not pack their spool bearings in grease, but do heavily oil them before shipping.

I have not used it, but I have a friend who has used it for years and swears by it.

That is a good tip. How about the C14 handle cap? Does it also have to be replaced?

My three Curado 100B's still humming and my new Chronarch 150's.

Just look at the difference in your rods. You were using a heavy frog rod and he was using a medium, normally used for crankbaits. His rod is a lot more whippy than yours.

I just use a uni now for everything and all lines. It makes life easier and it never fails.

Two centrifugal brakes on on all of my Curados, Citicas and Chronarchs forever no matter how new, or old they are. I never change them. No magnetics on these reels.

You might want to look at this product used by a lot of West coast salt water anglers in which they dip their bearings. It was developed for NASA since oil cannot be used in space. http://www.tsi301.com/main.htm

Do not use an oil product on your gears, or you will have an oily mess inside your reel. There is a product called SuperLube, which many reel repair/cleaning services use on the gears and it will stay in place. You can Google SuperLube and find many retailers who sell it by the tube. It is excellent for gears.