Raul

She is just a perfect example of how good genetics and the marvels of modern day plastic surgery can accomplish, she still looks .......... GROAARRRRR ! Muddy you shure know make anybody 's bad day a good day with that incredible sense of humor, no doubt, you really are a merry soul.

Hope your maid skills are fine tuned, now come down here and clean my PC, I just spit Coke all over it after reading your reply. ;D ;D ;D

There 's a common misconception of what swimbait represents, hear the word "swimbait" and immediately everybody thinks it looks like this: A huge chunk of plastic shaped like a fish. Far from true, the term "swimbait" represents a GROUP of baits, just like plastic worm reperesents a group of baits, baits that look like the one in the picture ( which BTW are exceptional value and proven fish catchers ) are just a small fraction of the baits that form the group. So in order to answer the question: Other ways to work a swimbait? First we have to know to which particular type of swimbait from the group we are inquiring of, not all of them even though made with the same design perform the same task or are capable of performing the same tasks, because in that type there are floating, slow sinking, med sinkers and fast sinkers; you can "wake" the surface with a floater or a slow sinker but if you want to do the same with a med or fast sinker you will have to reel in like mad. The most commonly used retrieve is by reeling in the bait steadily at slow pace, but it doesn 't mean it 's the only one; slowly reeling in and twitching the bait also works, so is deadsticking the bait on the bottom, vertically jigging it or even dropping it from one level to the other in places like bluffs and rip raps. There 's a whole world of swimbaits from where to choose, choose according to the application or technique you have in mind.

I don 't agree with that Avid, if you have a rack show it, we should form the International Tackle Junkie Association. Hell, we can even work something out with tackle manufacturers and get volume discounts, ¡ sí se puede !

Free your mind ..... flutter around !

Old reels had compresible material used for the pads, compresible material that compressed and lost thickness if you kept the drag tightened ( my old Abus have that kind of material ), but the spring washers, the ones that look like this ---> () were and are still being used, and those flatten out, with time, if kept under constant pressure. The pad material may have changed but the spring washers are still there, never ever leave a spring whatever the shape it has under pressure unnecessarily, the same thing applies to guns, never store the magazine full for an extended period of time, the only gun you can leave loaded is a revolver or a twin shotgun, all the others use springs to reload the gun.

Not really Ceph, it greatly depends in how many travel the rotor can get to flip the bail, sometimes after a cast there 's enough travel but other times people turn the handle until the rotor locks, then rotate the handle hard to overcome the locking and make the bail flip close, this causes excessive pressure on the spring which causes metal fatigue in a reel with "A" spring as part of the return mechanism, in case the reel uses a regular coil spring then the pressure instead of going into the spring goes into the plastic T which later causes wear, result in both cases is that the bail is uncapable of flipping the bail closed. If the rotor doesn 't have enough travel it 's better to close the bail by hand. Many years ago I experienced the same problem with a Daiwa reel, spring fatigue in the bail closing mechanism, in that particular Daiwa the return mechanism depended on an "A" spring, I solved the problem by changing the spring ( ordered some more ) and by closing the bail with the hand, so far I haven 't changed more springs.

Got several videos of Katsutaka Imae and HOLY S*T !!!!!! , that man takes skipping into a completely different level, I know I 'm good at it but holy crap, watching a bait touching the water & jumping 10-15 times with PINPOINT ACCURACY 50 ft away is by far away from my skills :-/. But there 's more time than life, meanwhile, when I grow up ( : ) I want to be just like K Imae.

Can 't make a commitment, it 's not in my nature, I 'm like a hummingbird, free spirit from flower to flower getting my nourishment, besides, why make unhappy just one if I can make happy several at the same time ? ;D

Love my Daiwas, love my Shimanos, love my old Abus, since I love 'em all I just reached a trascendetal decision, no longer will I carry a mix of reels, from now on I 'll be having Daiwa only trips, Shimano only trips, old Abu only trips; you know, there 's something unholy about mixing different brands of reels on the deck. That way all the love is evenly spread between all them.

Only death can 't be fixed dude, if you happen to have the box where the reel schematics are in ( so you can find the part number ) order the spring to Daiwa, normally they don 't charge you for small parts.

Practice Practice Practice Practice and where you get bored Time to practice more.

Keep on dreamin, it don 't cost anything.

Shallow Shad Rap SubWart Bug Eye Bait XPS Shallow Crank BPS has a bunch of shallow runners in it 's line of Lazer Eye cranks. Bagleys Bs

Back your drag off?? Always Keeping the drag tightened creates un-necessary wear of the metalic and felt washers, with time the drag will malfunction. My oldest reels are over two decades old, never had to change a washer.

That sounds like spring fatigue in the bail return mechanism which in part is caused by the owner of the reel, the bail should be closed by hand.

Can 't say anything about Powell rods, never had one, but in the 200+ bones range the IMX and the Legend Tournament get a 9 in the grinometer, both are excellent rods worth every penny, if you want to go for the thrill but not having to pay the hefty price the GL2, GL3 & Avid are great choices ( 8.5 in the grinometer ) I only have one beef with the Avid, the blank is great, the handle circumference is not to my liking. For the Yamamotos .... they are too mysterious and mystery = surprise and I don 't like surprises, most of the times I 'm UNPLEASANTLY surprised, happened not long ago in Dec last year when I purchased a couple of Kistler Mag TS rods >.

Yo ! Daiwa Heartland casting rod ----> 60 bones at TW plus free shipping !.

Dodgeguy may not feel the difference between a GLX and a Johnny Morris, I do, the Johnny Morris is a nice rod but next to a GLX or an Elite ..... from earth to heaven vato, no point of comparison. A rod builder will charge you the same for building the rod without taking in consideration if he build it on a Ugly Stick blank or a GLX, our own RM charges a 100 bucks for the CRAFTMANSHIP, the rest of the value in a custom rod is the price of the components ( blank, reel seat, guides, handle, etc ), if I were to spend just 100 bones for the craftsmanship I would definately go for the best components I can purchase based on the own rod builders knowledge of such components and his recommendations, what you want may be more expensive but it doesn 't mean you will have better performance, if the gain margin is insignificant a less expensive component can be a better choice. I agree with Flechero, from al the GLoomis rods I have the IMX is the best value, it 's just a hair heavier than a GLX a hair less sensitive than the GLX but not as brittle as a GLX.

Loosing fish is a fact of life, loosing several fish on the same crankbait deserves a good kick in the butt, you deserve it for not having the bait 's hooks razor sharp. In fishing razor sharp hooks are a must, with sharp hooks you don 't need to set the hook, the fish impales itself on them in the first run.

And you got it twice as bad Roger, fresh & saltwater, oh my !

Does it matter the ultra detailed, ultra realistic finish ? -----> nope and in a lipless crank it matters less, but still, I 'm a sucker for ultra detailed finishes. 8-) In some patterns the finish is meant to perform a certain task, for ex, the American Shad finish in LC baits is meant to add glitter to the bait by reflective surfaces that mimic scales, guanim coats are also meant for that purpose, but it doesn 't have to be ultra realistic, bass don 't have that extra keen eyesight so they can 't count the "scales" on your baits.

Matt 's swimbaits are hardly what I could call a "big" swimbait, you can fish them with a H power flipping stick but for larger swimbaits a H flipping stick is not going to cut it, if you are going to jump from the cliff into swimbaiting get a rod capable of handling most swimbait weights ( 1-5 oz ).

We do understand what you are talking about, you give a d@rn if the property is PRIVATE; how would you feel is someone entered your home, drank your beer, slept in your bed ? hey the door was open.

Some of you should look at it on the bright side ..... 10 packs of worms, what, 60 bucks at the most ? 6-10 lures @ lets say Rapala price ( 6-7 bucks ) = 70 bones tops :, you ain 't got the "enthusiast" monkey, ask me how hefty a bait monkey attack can be ..... it ain 't pretty ! :-X