Cgolf

No I have some sort of budget for fishing stuff each year and have enough gear to keep me fishing for a while. I am sure in 27 years of marriage, we probably came to a balance without even realizing it. Now the hot wheels I still buy once in a while, mostly to get cars I never could afford for real, she is getting annoyed with. Sometimes it’s fun to be a 50 year old kid;)

Yeh I agree with all of it, especially the nature part, where you can even get annoyed by the obnoxious chattering noise the eagles make. 2-3 times in a week long trip I will have a loon get 5-10 feet from the boat, apparently they think I am a bit off and they ain’t wrong lol. That said it goes to the point where my brain wrecks it and I analyze all the mistakes I made and how many fish I missed, usually though that happens off the water and I have a down period, but I do use it positively to learn and be better in the future. .

So part 2 I picked up some stuff at R & R sports in Bettendorf Iowa. This is the second time I have stopped and it is a nice shop and also caters to the hunting crowd too. 1 pack of 3.75” swim on in sunfish swirl, 1 4.25” swim on, and 1 craw tube in tilapia. I love that craw tube. I needed a water red tube with the ribs, used to use the old Trigger X tube and bought a 100 pack last year figuring worst case I cut the craw bits off. Never needed too, the tubes were dynamite. I do really like the colors on the soft swimbaits, PT Shad. A little bummed they also didn’t have it in the smallest size.

So I think I got an ok deal on these. A couple of weeks ago I won an an online auction for this LC topwater pack. After taxes fees and shipping it was 47.36 so 4.31 a lure. This will really put pressure on me to up my topwater game. Few more items later from my weekend trip.

Since the wife vetoed my TW Menace sexy shad 2.0 order, Omina put the Dangerous swimbait on sale. Grabbed 2 and got a good deal on the 3$ overstock lure with the Gambler 6” slim ez in a good clear water color. Almost forgot, ordered Thursdays 12:30 and it arrived today! I just used the free pro shipping.

That is what I am interested in finding out, the how long. Ultimately this was a curiosity for me rather than a need, so time will tell. I just wish I could get the geariness out of my Quantum icons. For the deal I got on them replacing bearings or having someone service them would cost more than I paid for them. Sadl6 we are becoming a throwaway society and stuff is built to fail. If you know of a place to source the old Abu Black Max 3600s inexpensively I would be interested. That is probably my favorite reel in my collection.

I believe that they cut a lot of corners or just choose the lowest cost options. Comparing the subject reel to say my Lews American hero reel I have that is 4 years old, the subject reel out performs that reel. The fit and finish aspect of my comment as it applies to just Abu Garcia reels, I would say that if I did a blind test, the 2 C3’s (20+ years old) and the Black Max 3600 (20+ but previous owner took very good care of it) vs the Revos, 2 of which were in the 200+ range, I would say today that the older reels feel and look better made, and perform better. I would likely say that the Revos aren’t worth the money I paid for them, luckily I got them on clearance because they were last years models. Which is a great way to get expensive cheap, because 2-3 years down the road whether you bought last years model or the latest greatest is irrelevant. Overall I am disappointed with most of the newer reels I have bought, most of my older reels are much better quality than the newer reels, but they just don’t cast as far. The thing I do not know, is the factory where the Sougayilang reel is made, is it one that makes reels for other brands as well? I think I hijacked my own thread, but this is a very good and interesting discussion.

I have no expectations for this reel, the fact that it worked well at all exceeded my expectations for a reel that at the time was under 15 bucks. If it lasted like my excursions or quantum accurists that would be great, but nowadays things aren’t built to last anymore. This was just an experiment for me that may just at least temporarily bench my quantum icons. When these wear out I will go back to the icons. Maybe the days of needing to spend 150 plus to get a good casting baitcaster are over. Maybe new tech is actually saving us some cash, not saying getting these reels, but low/mid priced name brands. The old Daiwa mag force I have with the twitching bar is a great casting budget red I bought ten years ago that I could tune so I didn’t need to thumb the spool at all. Maybe a different topic, but build quality and part quality now compared to even ten years ago, probably would see some eye popping results.

Yup I think they make up places to put bearings but I will say that ball bearings in the grips are underrated. I have an old Black Max 3600 round reel that I love, but I have to put a bit of oil under the rubber grips or they are just annoying. Wish I had a bunch more of those reels as it seems to far outperform newer reels. I will say that my Abu black max 3600 and 2 5500 C3s are far superior reels to my Revo S, SX, and STX. Out of the Revos the S is the best fit and finish. Seems like where they are made matters.

I haven’t encountered this with any of my reels yet, including the Lews Crush which is priced high to not have a metal frame. Though writing that the Lews and this reel may be me only non metal frame reels. My point for this was to see what the bottom end of the market was and I was surprised by this one. Definitely expect I will be the only one on the site using one, but for folks that this is all they can afford it should get them out fishing and not cause too many headaches. I will do an update in the fall to see if it survived. I will be putting it though a torture test of winching bass out of reed beds with spinnerbaits this summer.

So I hope the mods don’t delete this. I have been around here a bit now and truly had my dad buy for me off Temu. He has ordered from there already and I refuse too with my information. I believe the brand is also on Amazon. Now I do like to fish budget reels, especially spinning reels. In 2022 I retired a Shakespeare Excursion from 3-5 day a week use in season after gosh 18 years or so, great reel by the way and it is sitting on my shelf of special things. I also think about kids or people not able to drop 400 per combo. So I got the reel on Saturday and spooled it up to use on Sunday. Build quality and materials is similar to the Lews American Hero 40ish dollar baitcaster I own. There was some gear noise, but nowhere near as bad as my Quantum icons and Pfluger Presidents. The drag settings were more than adequate and I was easily able to lock it down. Spool tension knob did what it was supposed to and the braking system set at 80% only backlashes when I didn’t load the rod and rushed the cast. That does it with all reels. on the water it was smoother than expected, and in my mind I was trying to remind myself this is a cheap !*,* reel and it should suck, but it didn’t. I even did some sloppy backhand pitches to docks with no issues. Casting distance was on par with my Lews crush. Once I just was dialed into fishing, I found it to be a very capable reel. I managed 2 pike and a 3-4 lb bass on it. By no means am I telling anyone to go out and by one, but I scrounged some money together to buy two more before they disappear. Being in ,y 50s now, trying to get the house paid off and save for retirement and other house and travel things has crushed my rod and reel budget. Maybe this reel is my new excursion, but I would be thrilled if it lasted a 1/4 of what that reel did. Tight lines everyone.

Removed

Got my 1/4 ounce EWG heads from Jade’s Jigs to fish Ned sized baits around reeds when the wind is up. Ordered Friday night and got them today!

So I am 3 years in to buying frames and making my own spinnerbaits. Before this I found that thin wire War Eagles out fished my old go to thick wire strike kings like 5 to 1. Then My father in law schooled my war eagle like 5 to 1 with a bait I made for him with a unique blade combo and thicker wire. So for me the importance goes in this order. Unique blade combos and then wire thickness. Head color, I just buy the unpainted heads and don't see a need to paint them, and the fish seem to agree. One thing I do a lot is fish them in 4-8 fow and when doing this I throw a lot of 1/4 ounce baits and will even go down to 1/8 ounce, 1/2 is the heaviest I have fished. Even in clear water I fish them slow with lots of pauses. That could be though because I fish a lot of reeds and I am convinced the bass feed down instead of up. Blade color, seems like we need at least one nickel blade but I have had luck with a gold blade. I will be trying them more depending on the light conditions.

Structureless lake with green water, including the spray when people are running. That is very crowded. Not sure what the bottom is but the weeds are nasty and lots of algae. To not get stuck with the trolling motor I need to run it just below the surface or its full of weeds and not running. Not a dock guy, but that is where some bass are, but they get a lot of pressure. So we go near the nasty stuff and and deal with the weeds and algae to get a few bites. Vacation lake is a clear water paradise with reed beds and some good weeds. I wish that was my home lake. Clear water bassin is so much fun.

Bandit 100. Caught 100s of river smallies on this bait.

Jade’s Jigs has 20% off on their website through Monday the 27th at midnight. They also have the low free ship threshold at 25$.

Stopped at Cabela’s tonight and picked up some swimbaits and some weights to make some more line through swimbaits. The reviews of the Bass Mafia swim on YouTube sound amazing so I apparently had to give it a go. This swimbait thing is getting expensive. The red.straws are spray can replacement straws from Amazon. They are thicker the normal straws.

So when I put ten in the cart the price comes down to 4.49 for the quantity price and you can mix and match the two sizes. Looks like these are closeouts. the only bummer is their shipping. 150 is a high bar so along with 16 10 packs I got some skirts and ball bearing swivels to get free shipping lol.

Lure parts online has a sale on spinner at frames with Trokar hooks. If you buy 10 packs it’s 4.49 for a 10 pack so basically 45 cents a piece. They still have some 3/8 and 3/4. The last of the 1/2 ounce frames they are on the way to my house;) https://www.lurepartsonline.com/9052-Trokar-Pro-V-Spinnerbait-Heads-10pk

I happened to carpool with my wife to work this morning and she noticed a fisherman garage sale sign. After work we headed over there. It was the second day of the sale, but I got a good deal. Unfortunately the guy passed and his wife was selling off his stuff. Like a lot of us it sounded like he to loved to make tackle, especially jigs, and fish. There was a bunch of protec paint, the huge bottles there too. All the jigs were 12$ total and a buck for the rattles. The jigs were priced at a buck an ounce. Hoping to catch a lot of bass on them!

Stopped at Farm and Fleet and picked up this reel for my number 3 Musky/Bass Swimbait rod. Nothing special but it should get the job done.

So if I go to the river for 30 minutes before work I may start with the action bait and follow up with finesse. Say a bandit 100 followed up with say a crawbug or Ned. Kinda depends on the conditions if I start with finesse or action. On a good day I never take off the lure I start with. You need to figure out what they want that day.

Mine is worse, say I caught 4 fish already on the bait, I will add 4 bonus casts. This is only on the river. On the lake in the boat it’s a gut thing, and I change much quicker. On the river or shore fishing a lake, I only carry one rod so that may play a factor too.

So if fishing a lake from the bank and I don't have the option to move around, I will switch out baits often unless the bait is producing. I do have a quicker hook on a lake vs the river. If I am spending 30-50 minutes at the same spot on a river system, I will ride the bait till it stops producing. Generally in my head I do a 5 or 10 more casts countdown, and then switch. It seems river fish move in and out of a spot more than lake fish.