0119

Exactly. Just fueled by developers who feel it hurts their profits. That "polluted" brown water is tannic and clear. It has been tested over and over and "Pollution" in it is at normal levels. The gulf water it is going into is dirty, uglier and more polluted than the freshwater. I've lived on the gulf for over 50 years. Its stagnant, polluted and ALWAYS the color of dirty dish water. I'll take the brown any day.

I've been trying to kick this addiction..... I've whittled down to 4 casters and 2 spinners. I now have a full closet organizer and a small cabinet of tackle and eliminated all the overflow that was lying around in piles. Down to just one type of line in 4 different test sizes. But then I walk into the store and see the end cap featuring "New" Berkeley hardbaits and...... relapse! My fishin' buddy has success with the new Yo-zuri square bill and.....relapse Why do I need 2 of everything in each color?

Good to hear physical evidence that all the ft. myers news hype on the "evil freshwater" isn't really effecting anything but rich mans pockets!!!!!

Most of the time I have to remove one washer to get a even line lay right out of the box, recently some brands I don't get an even line lay no matter what.... They can lay o.k. with braid but be completely out of wack with mono.

I can see your concern for a warranty. I broke Shimano Cumara's just by looking at them when they first came out. St. Croix rods one my favorite have lost me due to their new peculiar styling. I'm not a rod ***** my type of fishing style( inshore, crawling through mangrove jungle) isn't conducive to delicate Uber graphite blends. The 3 St. Croix issues I had were not blank breakage but loose seats and guides breaking. I can't say I found St. Croix always fully customer oriented. I'm very pleased with Loomis' lower tier models and see them as good or better than the Avid.

From your screen name I suspect you are here in Fl. Jerry at hookless.com can get you those drag washers very fast. He is here in Fl. And ships really fast. He is terrific and an encyclopedia of God info for us old Ambassadeur users. I can't say that the smoothies will get you a lot more drag rating but they are very smooth. Glad you are getting snook,I can't find one for anything since season opened.

White Ice, Tenn. Shad, Golden Bream

GOOD LUCK! Thats one model Abu does not offer any repair service on and no parts. It was a calamity! The plastic frame was never an issue, it was touted as a type of special resin,carbon,plastic. Nothing different than shimano's idea of carbon or daiwa's zaion, they are all graphite. The problem I'm not sure I'd call 'implementation' but pertained to the levelwind breaking without any means of them repairing it. It was truly before its time as far as the drag control and the planetary gears were concerned. Mine lasted 2 casts and exploded internally. My buddies lasted a week before his did the same. Even though they were literally just on the shelves released, Abu would not repair nor replace them and offered us anything in their lineup as a replacement at a crazy discounted difference. I got 2 4600's from them in even swap. Always wondered why Abu didn't come out with another reel with the planetary gear setup.

Just the first 2 times you've spooled it. So is it new and you relatively new to casters? It's probably just in need of you making sure the spool is centered in the frame using your cast control knob. Plus when you spool it up you need to watch and feed the line with your other hands fingers to feed the line. I usually have to sway the line in the other direction than the levelwind is going while spooling up with my home made winding station. Using your eyes to keep sure it lays even side to side.

I don't see line management coming from a rough line that catches on weeds and timber like a saw blade, while the smoothness of mono slides across it like butter. But I do see braid as a backing for a very long mono topshot....

I hate using my phone to type on forums! It thinks it knows better than me, what I want to type. Stupid technology......

Manatee Lake in the state park. Not a pond but its under fished by people and can have an awesome topwater bite at times.

Wow...... awful lot of folks "wing it" or "lock it down". That should make reel manufacturers and reel shops very happy. Especially since most use floro and braid. Brett's Daddy, if you don't want to replace your equipment prematurely take Rippin-Lips advise to heart. A fisherman is supposed to "fight" the fish using his rod and proper technique of pump and reel pump and reel. A drags purpose is to protect your line from breaking not so much fight the fish. All because a "pro" uses a wrench to lock his drag to max doesn't mean its the right way to do it. He has a locker under his deck with 50 free reels to replace it with.

Twelve and Fifteen on casting. Ten and eight on spinning.

I argue this point all the time. Its actually a very hot topic most get very defensive about. If it be that their specific brand 11teen ball bearing reel is absolutely needed to catch that pea size brained opponent or the "fact" that you have to have a technique specific rod to throw something. You just won't win that battle on the internet landscape full of enthusiasts and "experts". You call it being "more patient" with their $7 bag of rubber, I call it their being more confident which leads to them using it more and throwing it more precisely all increasing their odds and LUCK. I'll happily use my cheap Zoom and Gambler baits, its hard enough loosing an expensive hard bait, I'm not going to p!$$ money away on boutique soft plastics that still tear and get thrown as fast as the cheap ones do.

Mono? You spooled it last summer and in Penn. you probably haven't fished for much of the winter right? What reel size and what lb. test is the line? Its probably just time to re spool! Coming on to a year soon right?

Research it first. Verizon owned providers will not offer you any fishing/hunting. They agreed to exempt that type of programming at the request of protesters.

I fish the fluke more often and catch more fish on it because of that but I think the trick worm will catch more fish. Its better at inactive and neutral fish and the fish are more often either one of those that active or in a state that they will react to a fluke.

To get a fair accessment of its value to folks who want them, check out the mitchell museums web site and sign up on their forum. Mitchell collector's and user's hang out there and are an honest bunch of helpful guys.

I'd avoid the FK like the plague considering you cant maintain it yourself without voiding the warranty. The Ballistic is very nice but again you can't maintain it yourself without destroying the magseal you just paid $200+ for. I'd get a Penn Clash 3000 for $200 and use the rest to get that custom rod Roadwarrior mentioned. There is no experience in fishing like using a custom rod.

Lunkerdogfishing's channel on you tube has a couple of short videos that really nails the "braid personna" down to the nail. All in humor but like so often, in humor is found the obvious truth.

Ditto for me too. Also I like the older single treble Castaic threadfin shad baits that were hard with the soft plastic tails.

That's a good thing to be and that will serve you well not only in competition but when that bass of a lifetime comes along. Braid users could learn something from that too. Being that it isn't abrasion resistant one iota, they mistake lack of stretch for strength unwittingly using line full of frayed microfibers ready to let them down.

My best fishing buddy uses strictly spinning gear. It squeaks and grinds with lack of care. The mono coils off and he spends time dealing with loops because he doesn't change line often enough. When his super spook jr. lands, often it is with a loud crashing splash. But more often than not it draws a strike and he gets the bigger than normal bass to the boat on those squeaky jerky dragged phelugers. I'm drawing a different conclusion and don't believe its random at all. I think some guys can just flat out catch fish no matter the situation.

Yes but even what is a good knot is up for debate too. Many so called good knots have been unimpressive in fancy Nancy tests and for that matter in my experience. Along with that goes age of the tyer. To me a good knot is simple, fast, instinctive and capable of being tied in the dark with no light, heavy winds or a pitching boat. The best knot of all is no knot because a knot will always be a weak link. Braid causes more knots and that's a big negative.