bass1980

Taking a trip to Garden Valley Idaho this weekend and was wondering if there are any rivers or lakes near by to shore fish for smallies. I think Lake Cascade has Smallies but not sure where to start. I am hoping the Payette River that runs off of it has areas that holds Smallies as well. I'll just be there for a few days but may sneak off each morning for a few hours. I'd be willing to travel 1.5 hours from Garden Valley ID. Heck if Smallies aren't there I can do trout too. I am bringing my BFS setup only.

Sorry for the delay guy been tied up big time lately. Now thinking about it I bet it was because the wing nut was loose. I got a new battery and cut the melted wire and redid the ends. Sonar still works, wheeeew. Trim motor doesn't and all I hear is a tick. When putting the power cable on which starts the motor I get lots of spark. This leads me to think there a short somewhere. I have not had time to completely redo the cables but that will be the next step. I just need to fire it up to winterize the boat. I can manually trim it and deal with that next year lol.

By far the most versatile rod I've used and currently own is the Megabass X7 Extreme Mission. The only thing is its a 7'5 rod so it's a tad tip heavy.

My trim motor maybe shot. When I hook up power all I hear is a light tick noise. Still not sure what caused the short. Look at the pics, hummmmmm.

As far as the boat goes it's an older boat, 89' Bass Tracker. Basically given to me from my brother. I have not look into the boat much as I just started using it this year. I know for sure the battery for the trolling motor has a fuse on the cable. Haven't check the battery for the trim/motor.

I just got more confused reading these replies haha. Actually really busy at work and just read a few sentences really quick. After work I'll read all the comments carefully and go take a look. Hoping to disconnect the cables without getting shocked. Then redo the power cable and hook it up to a new battery and lower the motor down. Going to winterize the boat this weekend. Keep them coming, I'll learn something from these useful suggestions.

From my experience I have never had a knot failed using the improve clinch knot. That is all I tie except for my drop shot setup. I'm not saying it's the best knot for braid, but it works for me and I horse them out of thick milfoil. Braid on cranks can work if you have a true cranking rod which you do. With glass rods you lose so much sensitivity but using braid enhances it dramatically. I cranked a whole season with 20lb braid on a GL2 crank rod and did just fine. Casting crank on braided line was much more manageable too. If I'm not trying to save money or line I only use 2-3 layers of backing. In the past I didn't use backing but I use painters tape. Use a little of it on the knot and spool and you should be set. The waters I fish doesn't have much rocks or timber so I use braid for all of my setups except my cranking, DS, and shakey head setups. With Trigs and Jigs you can't beat the sensitivity of braided line. Plus I don't like the stretch of mono or flouro when working bottom contact lures but that's just me.

I used the boat last Sunday and with night temps creeping to 32 degrees in the next few days I decided to leave the motor down while I parked it to drain any leftover water in the lower unit. I store my boat outside but 2 weeks ago my boat cover ripped so I have not been covering the boat and it rained on Friday. On Saturday I went to check on the boat to get it ready for one last outing of the season and noticed the motor was trimmed back up. I tried to trim it back down but it made a few clicking noise like it had no battery power. I grabbed the charger and attempted to charge the battery but while lifting the lid that covers the batteries there was a burning smell. I looked and the positive side of the battery had melted the power cables and also melted the wires for my sonar. Wire didn’t completely melted off but plastic is sure melted. The battery itself had melted plastic right below the terminal. I notice that my terminals was right under the edge of the lid so maybe water leaked down. I attempted to disconnect the battery but there was spark. I was all dressed up to go to a funeral and the ground and boat was wet so I didn’t want to get all dirty looking into it. What do you guys think the problem is? I put the motor down and left it there? Water leaked and shorted the positive side? Will be busy for the next 2 days but after that I will have time to check it out.

1/8 crank is pretty light. I'm not sure if a ML can get accuracy. I'm testing the limits of my ML rod yesterday on a bait finesse reel. I'm not sure what the weight was but throwing 1/8 jig head wit a grub was the low limit IMO. I think you want want to step it down to a L rod. I'll be trying to get a 6'5L rod next.

I've been using my Stella for a few months now too and enjoy every minute of it. Don't be surprise if it's a bit stiff out of the box. Once you break it in it'll loosen up. Silky smooth.

Free spool has too many variables to reflect direct on water results. I have flushed my stock shimano ci4+, curado I, and 51e, not add any oil, fill it up with lines, and free spool that sucker a little over 30 seconds. I even have recordings of it lol. Add a drop of oil and it significantly have less free spool. As for adding HH to your Aldebaran, should help it a bit. Will it help you cast further, who knows. I get HH or Abec 7's even on my high end reels because IMO it improves the ease of cast and casting mid range distance with less effort. There are two beliefs on after market bearings, I'm sure you can see by the different opinions of users on different forums. As for why you got a birds nest, I wouldn't blame the bearings. You just set it too loose on your first attempt. Always set it with too much tension, and side arm cast it easily. Don't worry about distance as you are still learning the basics of throwing a baitcaster.

The Lexa at $140 was seriously over priced. The price right now, it's a good buy. If you're fishing around weeds I highly suggest adding some carbontex drag washers. They have a weak drag system.

If you're talking Steez then your budget must be high. May I suggest a reel thats as refine as the Steez but more of a work horse reel and would be better for resistances lures. Take a look at a Megabass IP68. I don't have that one, but I do have the IP79. They are amazing reels and so smooth out of the box. PM me if you're interested, I can link you details and pics of my setup.

I wouldn't put myself as an expert or pro thumber, but I'm good enough so this is my experience. By now I've used a Steez 103, 103+1016 spool, 103+sv spool, IS71, and Steez LTD. So I've seen many variations of them and I didn't include adding bearings yet. The stock 103 isn't the easiest reel to cast in my opinion. Add bearings and it's a wild child. To the point I had to put mag brakes at 10! For spinnebaits I would look at another reel. For one with the wild or wilder spool throwing spinnerbaits that gets caught airborne with those blades is asking for trouble with a gust of wind. Another thing is with the short 80mm handle (I think) and for whatever reason this reel isn't a torque monster. You'll be in for a work out throwing resistance lures. I use my Steez variants on Trig most of the time and one on weightless senko/plastic. Pitching is great and reeling it back with non resistance lures is butter. That's my opinion but I'm sure others may feel different.

People didn't bash them just because. They got bashed because the handful of guys that said they got grooves were told to send the reel to Daiwa but yet none of them did. One after another had their silly reason to not send it. Plus there was never a follow up on their post of what the resolution was. I stopped caring about following groovegate since I decided the reel is too wide for me. Maybe since then there has been someone who actually made a post, contacted DAIWA, and followed up on their post. Maybe this will be the first post that can achieve this. I've said from the start I do believe grooves can happen but only in rare occasions. I would bet that a typical high selling reel gets sent in for other flaws more than the grooving.