fishwizzard

They didn't answer the real burning question, is the new spool compatible with older reels that take 34mm spools? I don't need any/many more reels, but I would love a few of those spools. Also, I have been blowing smoke at and talking dramatically to my reels for years now, good to see I was on the right track.

By using a lighter rod and a reel that can cast that low. My neds (1/16oz-#4 head with a TRD) weight in right at 3/16oz, so at the lower limit for most "normal" casting reels, but right in the sweet spot for a lot of more finesse capable reels like the Alphas or Aldebaran lines. It does take a lighter-than-average casting rod as well, but once you get one you will likely find a lot of other uses for it. That being said, I still prefer using a spinning combo for the ned, there is something about the ergonomics of a spinning reel that I prefer for a slow retrieve with pauses every 2-4 cranks.

I have had three or four of them over the years and liked all of them. They are very good for the money and I regret selling/trading them away.

In the summer I wear these AFTCO shorts. They are amazing, super lightweight, nice high inseam, quick drying, and crazy durable. They are also my hiking shorts and after like 3-4 years of use they don't have a single rip or snagged thread despite spending a lot of time pushing through greenbriar and wild raspberry thorns. When I want more sun protection I wear a thin pair of poly leggings under them. I prefer the leggings/shorts over pants for a few reasons. First, I can pull my permethrin-treated hiking socks up over the leggings, giving me very good tick protection as they have to withstand 3-4" of contact with the socks to get to my ankles. Second, when they get wet, the leggings dry a ton faster by virtue of being tight to my legs and absorbing less water then pants in general. Thirdly, the leggings take most of the damage and are cheaper to replace then decent LW hiking pants.

I use 8lb J-Braid to 7lb Sniper when I care about casting distance and 6lb Supernatural Mono when I don't. I am firmly in the "tiny heads w/ tiny hooks" camp and on a straight pull the 6lb mono will bend out my hooks most of the time, so there isn't much advantage to going much heavier.

Right now I use either 6lb J-Braid/7lb Sniper or 6lb Supernatural Mono, depending on which combo I am using. I am going to replace the 6lb braid with something a bit thicker once it needs replacing, it's so thin that it's annoying to tie a leader knot with it if there is much wind/my hands are cold.

People who will write six paragraphs waxing poetic about fishing rods have been loving on the 7'6" MML since it was released. To be fair, people who are predisposed to get excited about tackle getting excited about tackle isn't super surprising, but if you want to see what the big deal is, that should be a very good rod ro be able to try out.

I buy my heads pre-made, so it's already installed. It's not a huge deal, but it does slow the process down a little.

Another pair of tips I picked up somewhere, stick a piece of silicone tubing/drinking straw over the weedguard and a small bit of cork over the hook point while tying. It really speeds things up and lets me get better wraps with the wire as I can pay more attention.

I feel the same way, very unimpressed with my 795SB. The OAL:handle length ratio feels off and the blank is dead as a doornail. I got it for throwing 68 Specials but the rod gives no bottom feedback at all and the handle length too much for smaller glides as I use the rod to work them a lot of the time. It’s still sitting in the rack, waiting the day I decide to go try to catch a huge Potomac River blue catfish.

There was an USDM Alphas, but for some very dumb reason Daiwa just called it the "SV105", which makes it really hard to search for, but it's mechanically identical to the JDM "Alphas SV". The Alphas AV/SV105 reels are not really "BFS" reels, but they are better for lighter lures the most "standard" reels. I have three of them and they really shine in the 1/4-3/4oz range. They will throw down to about 1/8oz but it's not ideal unless you are using light line and rod that loads that weight really well. They will throw over 3/4ox but the breaking can't give the same level of control. There are other, more finesse focused Alphas reels out there, but the OG version and the two SV versions are very good reels for lures in the 1/4-3/4oz range. I have two of mine on Loomis 3 power MRB rods and I think they are a perfect fit for them. The Alphas AV is the most "wild" of the SV reels/spools I have tried, but that is only relative to the usually very controlled SV experience. If you have a good thumb or an ego that lets you keep the brakes above 50%, they are very very good reels for most "heavy Medium to light MediumHeavy" rods.

I have settled on 18lb Shooter fluoro or 40lb PP for heavier jigs, the fluoro for most fishing and switching to braid when I am fishing a spot where I know I am going to be dealing with pad cover and want a thinner/less stretchy line for ripping the jig free from snags. Last year I was experimenting with using braid for glide baits and snapped one off using 50lb PP. The next day I happened to find a 300y spool of 80lb PP on ebay for like ten bucks so I bought it. That stuff is insane and must have a breaking strength a lot higher than 80lbs. It was (obviously) unusable for what I was trying so I stripped it off the reel and did some yard testing with it. Tied to a fence post and then to a broom handle, I could lean all ~210lbs of me into it and have it hold. It took enough force to break it that I lost my balance and fell over when it finally snapped.

If the CT is the same size as the other 100 sized Millionaires, it's pretty small and very palm-able. I have a Ringa SSS and size-wise it's taller than an TD Zillion/SV103, but feels smaller in hand. It's a wonderful comfortable reel and I have liked it on every rod/reel seat I have stuck it on.

I don't know about braking alone doing much, but spool weight/breaking profile made a huge difference for me. I bought a Steez A last year to use on a jig rod that I pitch with maybe 75% of the time. I fish a few little park ponds by my house fairly often and due to their lack of shoreline cover, there are places where I know that have stood at the exact same spot and pitched to the exact same target hundreds and hundreds of times. The stock spool on the Steez A is pretty heavy and deep, and I was less than thrilled at the distance I was getting as compared to the other reels I had used on that rod fishing those same spots. On a whim I took a finesse-tuned spool (RCS SV1012) off of another reel and stuck it in the A. The difference was night and day, same spot, same rod, same line, same lure, I was able to pitch 10-15' further with the same effort and accuracy, and with more control in terms of line-fluff. I have found the same idea to be true with other combos as well, by changing to a more finesse oriented spool/reel, I have seen a big improvement in my pitching. Obviously there is a downside, and that is line capacity. That same Steez A combo proved a lot less ideal when I took it out to a place where I was making long casts into deepish water, I quickly found that I had to limit my distance to make sure I had enough line still on the spool when the jig hit bottom. But for a dedicated pitching reel, I will take the lightest/shallowest spool I can find.

That's the main "practical" reason I use BFS tackle. It's not the main reason, which is "it's fun", but being about to to up in line diameter while still having a very light weight reel can be really nice.

I use a j-rig a fair bit, mainly for it's seemingly magic ability to resist snagging in rip-rap when bank fishing. It must be something to do with the angle of pull, but it seems like I can consistently go all day w/o having to break one off in spots where I will easily lose 4-6 jigs or t-rigs over the same time frame. It also casts/pitches very well compared to a jig/t-rig of the same overall weight, so I will use it when I want to use a lighter weight paired with a high-resistance plastic to get a slower fall or when I want to hop a lure back to me. A Rage Craw rigged on a 3/16 Jika works well in tandem with a 1/2oz jig and the "heads" are compact and light enough that it's no issue to keep a couple of them in my jig box.

Slack line sensitivity is the only reason I put up with fluoro. If you have a friend who is willing to humor you it's pretty easy to test, get about 30-40' of line, tie a sinker on one end and told the other in your hand. Close your eyes and have your friend tap line near the sinker with a pencil as you slack/tighten it. Fluoro vs braid is night and day once the line gets slack. Fluoro vs mono is less so, depending on the mono.

For me, anything I fish where I will let it fall on a slack line or work with slack in the line, fluoro is a "must". I fish mostly jigs and plastics, so I have fluoro on most of my combos from 7lb up to 20lb.

I’ve used a pair of Astral Brewers for wet wading for the last 3-4 years and loved them. They’re very grippy on wet rock and are reasonably comfortable to hike back to the car in. The real game changer in terms of wet wade comfort has been wearing a pair of thin neoprene socks along with them. I don’t buy anything special, just whichever pair I can find for under $10 on Amazon/ebay. In addition to adding a little warmth, they remove almost all of the discomfort that comes from gravel/sand getting stuck between my foot and the shoe. They also feel 100 times better when I’m walking around with them on dry land versus wet socks. They do start falling apart fairly quickly, each pair will generally last me one season before they get holes inthem, but for the price I pay I am extremely happy.

There are lots of “OK to decent” spots around there but few great ones. Pretty much every park pond you can spot on google maps holds bass and a lot of the random looking ponds have access or at least are not posted. Allen Pond/Governor’s Bridge/Melford all have bass and are within a minutes drive of each other. Cash Lake is decent if you have a yak and Pax Ponds park is small but reasonable. You also have Walking Fish Pond right in Crofton, but I haven’t been there in years and it might be posted now due to some very close development. There are also some spots that are less “official” but still somehow not posted, Most of them require little bit of hiking to get to. Shoot me a PM if you’re interested in that sort of thing, they all require a little hiking/bushwhacking to really access. The Crofton area also puts you in striking distance of a lot of the southern Maryland spots down Route 3, that’s a whole other discussion but if you don’t mind driving 45-60min, then you have a lot of options.

The only issue I have had with outdoor storage is spiders. My first trip this past spring was an exercise in control, I had three wolf spiders come out to say hello in my first hour on the water. I keep all the hatch covers on so I have no idea where they were hiding and how they survived the 40min trip to the lake. I don't really mind spiders in general, but don't like sharing a 10sqft cockpit with one.

I like the 4” Ochos better then the 4” Senkos. I feel like they fall horizontally more reliably then the Senkos when wacky rigged and like their wiggle better when t-rigged as well.

That’s basically how I do it. I keep my drag set low enough that I can pull line out with just my pitched fingers. So thinner lines get a little less drag and thicker lines that are easier to grab get more drag. It’s not a terribly precise system but the way I hold the combo when fishing places my thumb directly on the spool, so if I ever need more drag I can just add pressure.

I’m in the “don’t like it” camp, but the rods are good enough to make it not matter a lot.