joelhains

I think I'm going to open it up again tonight and see if I notice anything out of place. Its a beauty reel when it works.LOL

I have a Shimano Saros I bought a couple months ago. I've had it on the water about a dozen times. The last few times out its been feeling a little stiff. I've had other spinning reels do this but only after several years of service. If I removed the spool and spin the reel backwards it will work itself out and will work nice and smooth like new again. Last night I had to do this 3-4 times in just 3 hours of fishing. When it first started a week or so ago I tore it down, cleaned it (still looked new and clean inside) and lubed it up. Didn't make a difference. Any suggestions?

I really haven't spent much time fishing specifically for bedding bass, but I'm not opposed to it either. I have read probably 75% of this thread so far (I actually found this thread while searching the web for bedding bass research) and I have heard Studies mentioned but I haven't seen any sited. Can someone provide some links to show the actual studies themselves? My thoughts on the subject have always been that a given body of water whether it be a lake or river can only support a certain number of mature fish. So take the 1:50,000 ratio of potential 3lb bass to eggs that was mentioned in an earlier post as a starting point. If there are 10,000,000 eggs laid during that year class you will have 200 fish that will reach 3lbs based on the ratio given as a starting point. Now, if there are several sight fishermen on this given body of water and as a result of them taking males off the nest and making the eggs vulnerable the nests in this given body of water lose1,000,000 eggs. Some would make the assumption that since there is a 1:50,000 survival ratio that this given body of water will lose 20 3lb bass from that year class. I tend to believe that this line of thinking is incorrect based on the ability for the given body of water to support a set number of mature fish. I don't believe the year class would lose 20 fish but that the survival ratio would change from 1:50,000 to 1:45,000. Since a body of water has a limited number of resources to grow a limited number of fish that number will remain the same whether fish are taken off the beds or not. all that is gong to change is the survival ratio of the eggs that hatch. If a given body of water has the ability to support 10,000 health mature fish but there happens to be 20,000 mature fish in the body of water, the fish won't be healthy. What needs to take place is an event that will decrease the total population of the fish in that given body of water back down to the 10,000 that it is capable of supporting. This could be a fish kill which would most likely take place naturally leaving the strongest fish alive. Or, some other form of regulation which would allow more smaller fish to be taken legally from the body of water so the larger fish wouldn't have to compete for the limited resources with the extra 10,000 fish giving them the opportunity to reach their potential. I know I've read a study on this a few years back and unfortunanlty I haven't been able to locate it. Maybe there is someone here who will be able to post a link or two for some of these studies. I know most people find this type of thing a bore to read thru but I have always found it very fascinating!

I looked at the nano microguides. Are they just metal rings or do they have an insert? They look like just metal to me from the pics I looked at. How do they hold up to braid? That concern was the reason I planned on going with the guides above.

The reel on this rod will be a Shimano Stradic 1000 with 8# braid. A dryer might not be a bad idea for only $40.

I'm getting ready to build my first rod. This rod will be used for smallmouth bass in rivers from a kayak using small jigs, flukes and other soft plastics. Here is the order I'm about to place with mudhole.com. The only part I'm unsure of is which epoxy to and finisher to use? What works best for you guys? I will be doing the wraps and drying by hand. So I guess an epoxy that dries reasonable quick would be best since I will be turning it by hand. I'm also not 100% sold on the handle kit. I kind of want to make my own handle from individual cork rings and turning it down myself. so I might go that route instead of a kit. MHX SJ8600 Spin Jig Rod Blank http://www.mudhole.c...00-MHX_16?ext=F ATC Nanolite/Black Micro Spinning Guide Set - 11pc http://www.mudhole.c...66-7-Rods?ext=F Hook keeper http://www.mudhole.c...ers-Black?ext=F HKS-2 Spinning Handle Kit http://www.mudhole.c...-8-Length?ext=F

I make my own soft plastics. I make my own spinnerbaits. I make my own jigs. Hard baits are the only things I buy off the self. For me 90% of my crankbaits or hard jerkbaits are Rapalas. I have a select few from other brands, but I have confidence in these baits so that's what I throw.

That's very good info. Thank you for that! I'm very interested in the quad beam transducers now. What unit produced those images? The ability to shoot thru the hull is nearly a prerequisite for me. How wide of a beam do you get with a quadbeam trans ducer? I guess my question is how deep does the water need to be to get that 80 foot view that you have in the screenshot? I wonder if I could get that in just 10-12 FOW? looks like I have some more research to do now!

Its the offseason and after spending the season without a finder on my new kayak, its time to start looking for one. I've been kayak fishing for over a decade and I installed a cheap $100 budget depth finder on my old yak. This year I finally upgraded to a Feel Free Lure 11.5. I really didn't want to mount that old cheap finder on this new yak. I fish a lot of rivers for smallies, but I've started fishing lakes more over the last couple years but I'm still a river rat at heart. I've been looking at down scan, side scan, 360, CHIRP and all the other latest and greatest technological options for SONAR. Not 100% sure what I want but I really like threw idea of side scan imaging but not sure how useful it would really be on a kayak? I also want to be able to mount my transduce inside the hull and have it shoot thru. From what I've read this won't work with side imaging? How about down scan? will a down scan transducer work thru the hull? Most of these features won't be much benefit on a river where most of the water I'll be fishing is under 4 FOW. But I fish lakes enough now that I think it justifies spending $500-$700 on a descent unit. Thanks in advance for your input!

I haven't weighed a fish in years. The tourneys I fish are catch Photo and release so we use a measuring board to determine length. The lake I fish most has a ton of 14-15 inch fish. It seems that 90%if the fish hit this length then stop growing. But there is a that small percentage of fish that hit the 20 inch mark. It is also somewhat rare for me to catch one that is much less than 12 inches. 14-15 inches seems to be the norm. I also fish rivers a lot. More so than lake actually. This season has been a strange one for the rivers I fish. but my "average" fish was larger than most preivious years. I didn't catch nearly as many fish as I normally would on a given day but I caught far fewer small (10 inch) smallies.

22 inch on a tributary of the Niagara River on a 1/4 ounce Chartreuse and White Spinnerbait I made myself!