0119

I agree it only stains things badly. Bantam the one time shimano rep that frequented this forum once stated that it would void the shimano warranty. Reel Butter is basically 3 in 1 oil in viscosity, Ardents Butter grease is basically a gritty paste. Ardent doesnt make anything themselves, who knows where they get the stuff. I like Rocket Fuel mostly, Reel X and INOX also.

I have 3 2500's and a 1500 I'm restoring now. I keep just the standard 2 phenolic resin pucks. I see no reason to change them but there is japanese aftermarket 4 puck systems and magnetic add ons at japan tackle and hedgehog. The Avail shallow spool you see on Joel's green 2500c helps a lot in finesse casting. I keep them original for the most part and have no problem throwing 3/16th jerkbaits and 1/8th jigs on 2 and 4# mono. Its a blast getting a 4-8# tarpon on one! The 2500c still hold the world record in long distance casting in the world championships held in Europe.

Small ones have always chased my topwaters from the yak standing on the bank and on the boat. They always seem to stop by the time they get to 4ft. I've never had one bother the yak. I see at least one gator on every fishing trip period. Its a daily thing. Honestly the people I run into while fishing scare me a hundred times more than any gator ever will. During season keep vigilant and always look for bed mounds and high traffic areas where she has drug herself out of the water.

Absolutely. A 5" senko with hook is 3/8oz. If you have difficulty doing so I'd say more practice is need or you need to check you reel and see what is holding it up from having a better freespool.

I don't know Ive been doing it for 20 years with 6# and lower. Kokonee fishermen have done it for much longer than that. In Japan they use old Ambassadeurs to catch tiny trout in mountain streams. I wish I had gotten a few Calcutta 50's before shimano deemed them obsolete.

I for one don't see spinning gear as long term equipment. My casting reels are heirloom quality that I will hand down to my grandkid. I find spinning gear uncomfortable to use, hate the twist and won't use braids.

I do a lot of light and ultra light baitcasting for bass, tarpon and snook. How light are you talking about doing? What type line and test are you thinking about? What kind of lures? I throw 1/8th and 3/16th pins minnows at baby tarpon on 2 and 4# mono. Are you talking about that much of an extreme? The LTX has a lot of aftermarket spools and such to finesse it up a bit more if your willing to pay for it. The SV I have no knowledge of.

Yes, the Loomis EX6 Inshore series is what I was speaking of. I use the 6'6MH and 6'6M for snook and reds. Its handled upper slot snook and a few over slot without problems. I prefer the comfort of the full length cork grips and appreciate that it doesn't have baby bassin' guides and leader knots don't hang up as they fly.

Pleco's, Hoplo's and tilapia have destroyed the sweetwater fishing here. Prime bedding areas for bass are now bomb craters of tilapia beds. Theres not a bluegill left.

The Lew's is a rebadged Revo and the Revo Inshore has been plagued with problems in salt. Check out alantani's for tutorials on it and you'll see thumb bar problems, water intrusion and bearing and sleeve corrosion. For me using a $30 reel takes all the fun out of my angling. Only so much time is spent catching and a lot of time is spent working a reel. I prefer better equipment to enjoy the experience. That said a lot of low profile casting reels are so complicated and have so many parts of dissimilar metals just waiting to react to each other in a salty atmosphere. I've concluded that simple Abu Ambassadeurs that I can completely dismember and rebuild are the answer for me. On the Lew's Inshore... Ray Van Horn on The Gypsy Angler used them for a couple of seasons but doesn't anymore. If its that he simply lost his sponsorship who knows but he now has no reel sponsor and uses that brand we are not allowed to say here and I can't imagine them handling saltwater for 10 minutes.

Loomis EX6 has become my favorite. St. Croix Tidemaster is fine but heavy and they actions are either too moderate or too stiff.

Same here. I use a Engel drybox. Toss in 3 or 4 plano's. All my soft plastics's are in BPS or old Tackle Logic binders with ziploc pages to keep them laying straight.

Ditto on the pegboard and keeping them in the original packaging.

Yup, I screwed up Drew, they are size 4...... sorry My purpose for short shank hooks has been to avoid getting the hooks hung up together while working the lure. My purpose of the 2x split rings is mostly because I have bycatch of much bigger/meaner fish than bass plus I hate it when cheap rings stay slightly bent open after being opened like so many original equipment rings the lures came with do.

Size 2. I use a short shank treble thats an EWG from Gamakatsu. I prefer a fairly large split ring. The one I use is from BPS's offshore angler line in stainless steel and is 2x thickness. The package is kinda messed up but I think it says #3. Good luck its addicting. I throw spook jr.'s a good 90% of the time.

What gets me is the Fierce and the Battle are Pfelugers. They look identical. The parts interchange. They come out of the same factory. Made by the same men. Essentially the same reel give or take cosmetic attachments and a couple tweaked options to make them seem as if they are different reels. This forum is full of praise about how good the Supreme and President are for the money. Then you click to another forum and their are 50 guys bashing the Penn saying it didn't work right out of the box.

Must be a member of the SOL forum, the biggest bunch of Penn bashing shimano addicts in the world. Always go around comparing $99 dollar Penns to $200 shimano's and complaining about the difference. The sad thing about the internet today is you cannot trust anything anyone says. Companies have so many sponsored, bloggers, guides and "pro's" on the payroll spending bandwidth bashing competition under the disguise of being regular folk, that internet talk is just fake useless rubbish.

Good luck with that good Shimano design septon handles that melt at the sight of oil. Oh and thanks for returning used and or defective reels into the marketplace for some unsuspecting fellow angler to suffer with. Good job self entitled!

You went through 6....... Did you just throw them away or did you contact Penn? They are exceptional in customer service

No that's exactly what I realize. Fishing, angling has been turned into a sport that has nothing to do with the fish. Only numbers. It's now one upping another guy. Compete compete compete.

A faster reel is faster. no duh This statement though makes the argument complete. The thing is....why do people think that covering more water catches more fish? A vast majority of all the water is plain empty. Void of life. Thinking that getting to the next target in structure 1/10th of a second quicker than the other guy doesn't make up for knowledge, ability, second sight or whatever you want to call it. The opposite side of that argument is covering all that water doesn't get you more or bigger fish. The 1/10th of a second you are gaining on the slower angler doesn't achieve you anything in reality. Well it does get you two things. A weaker geared reel that isn't as smooth and has less life span. And an emptier wallet because you fell for the man's marketing hype.

Seems like a lot of fun has been lost by a lot of folks who like that other thread noted, over think things. If while fishing, I am measuring my time, my time!....by measuring inches of retrieve and judging that as wasted time....... I'm gonna have to stop fishing. Its that darn american competition bu()$^&. Only a country that takes kindergarten kids play and turns it into a trillion dollar business that makes 'heros' out of drug addicts......can take fishing and turn it into a bunch of rednecks turned frenzied technology obsessed speed freaks chasing each other to fishin' holes at 70mph, catch a 2# fish and then let it go without even the notion of eating it.

I grew up riding my bike to Doc Pott's Fish Camp along the west shore of Charlotte Harbor. Bought my first Buck knife there and my first Hula Popper. We'd walk our bikes home while we drank Strawberry Nehi's old man Pott's would give us. Old man Turbak who owned Peace River Fish Camp off U.S.17 was a Sgt. on the county sheriff's reserve and would ride often with me. He had snook that he'd feed by hand at his docks that weighed well over 30#. They never left his basin not even to spawn. Each one had a name.

Henderson's Fish Camp, Lake Istokpoga Lake Trafford Marina, Lake Trafford

A bunch of chaw spittin' crackers sittin' on milk crates laughing at fancy pants tourists in their fancy glittery boats that come to them willing to pay $5 a shiner. Pay another $5 ramp fee. Another $5 parking fee. Then when they are asked "Where the fish been biting?" They answer....in the water