fishwizzard

On casting reels I use braid with I fill the reel up 100% with braid. Then when the line starts looking lower then I want, I tie on whatever backer and fill the reel back up. Then I take an old empty line spool and using a powerdrill and a old foam paint brush, run the line onto the spool. I then take a second empty spool and run the line on that to get it turned around. Then I re-spool it back onto my reel, filled up perfectly to the top. When the line gets low again I do the same thing, trashing the backing and spooling fresh backing on to whatever amount fills the spool back up. When I get to the point of having less then a full cast of braid on the reel I pull it off and then the old used braid becomes backing for reels I use floro/mono mainline on. Circle of life and all that. It sounds fussy but it only takes a minute or two. For combos I use a lot I maybe have to do this once or twice a season.

That’s why I keep a four piece breakdown paddle bungee-corded together and thrown in the hull hatch on my kayak. I had it in there in case I lost my actual paddle in rough water but it has saved me on the one occasion I did forget to bring my main paddle.

Honestly at this point I prefer rubberized cork to natural. Even on super expensive rods the cork is usually so full of filler that I’d rather have the more durable rubberized version.

I am very happy my sv103’s and sv105’s but I do prefer the Steez SV/A frame size and shape to the sv103.

I am always intrested in small frame reels but I didn’t feel like the Steez SV TW was “worth” $500 so if I do get a Steez CT it will be once they hit the used market. I really wish the Alphas CT looked better, I love the Alphas frame reels but there are so many better looking variants out there. I am also a bit cranky Daiwa went with a 30mm spool instead of a 31mm one.

I would be too if it were not gloss black.

I use the 12lb for testing new reels an it gets a lot of memory imho.

What's the weight on those? I like a compact, but heavy spinner.

Some are, some make you think you've just been poisoned.

2oz would not get you a very good tip, surely a single is atleast 1.5oz? I am crazy enough keep a scale on my tackle bench but not crazy enough to bring a jigger out with me drinking.

For most jigs I have found that with a "average" sized trailer to mach the jig size, the total lure weight will be a little less than double the published lure weight.

That is not bad at all, I would have thought the prep and masking would have taken longer. Did you do anything special to prep the surface of the reel frame? My quest for the "perfect" 6' bfs rod has taken a new turn. I was looking at the 16' Destroyer Cliffhanger when I was offered this used Phase 3 Criffhanger for a price too good to pass up. It's in great shape other then a bit of wear on the reel-seat coating. I have not gotten to fish with it much at all yet but got to spend an hour casting with it into a 20'x50' stretch of thawed water at a local pond. It's so far everything I have been looking for in a short bfs rod and I cannot wait to get it on the water for real. It has an amazing tip and I think it's sweetspot is going to be right around 3/16oz, which was exactly what I was looking for. Right now it has a PX68 spooled with 7lb Sniper on it but I might switch it out to my Airy Red Pixzilla and 10lb Sniper. The 7lb is thin enough that it gets too damaged when I get an overrun and I hope the 10lb will work a little better and not cost me too much distance.

Man, at this point you might as well get a MB Addermine and have a complete "test". ? What line are you using on these combos?

Thanks! Most of my spinners are Shimanos and I was wondering how the newer Daiwas compare in terms of size. Also, man, the new $100 is just awful looking. I get that it's mostly anti-counterfeit driven, but there has to be a way to make it look less garbage. Even Mr. Franklin looks less then pleased with his new surroundings.

Looks great dude. About how many hours did the entire process take? Last year the rain robbed me of wade-fishing opportunties and I am already champing at the bit to get out there. It's a Loomis SJR6400 IMX with a Stradic FJ1000 on it. I want to get into making and fishing hairjigs in a bunch of the small suburban streams around where I live and I think this might be the perfect rod for it. The low end of it's rating seems way way off, 1/64oz does not even come close to loading the tip. But once the lure weight gets up to around 1/8oz it really shines. It will cast well up to around 3/16oz and the power/taper is about perfect for MWF and Slider fishing as well. Right now I have 6lb Supernatural mono on it but I cannot get it to feel like I have it spooled on correctly, it might still be a little thick for the small spool. If it doesn't work out I am going to try a few of the fancy JDM monos before I give up and use braid/leader.

If you ever have one of those reels handy and think of it I would love a picture of one next to a dollar bill or something like that to get a sense of scale. It's so hard to judge the size of most spinning reels from pictures and without a clear shot of the empty spool it's hard to even use published line capacity to make a guess.

The Academy sale got me for thirty bucks, but I needed to restock on TRDs in any case so don't feel too bad. another site has most 5" Senkos for $5.62 per pack as a daily special. That got me me too but at that price I would be a fool not to stock up.

By all means use as much care as you can, but at the end of the day you are sticking a hardened steel tool into a far far softer hole.

Flukes for me, they were an early confidence lure, I love to fish them and have a "perfect" combo to do it on, but last season they rarely made an appearance.

I only use Kietechs these days when I am fishing them almost weightless with just a pair of nail-weights for balance. Their slow wiggle is lost imho when you get much weight on them, for everything else I prefer the more durable SK version.

I will say my favorite way to rig a 6” Zoom Lizard is on a 1/16-3/0 Slider Pro head. It has a nice “medium” fall rate, the hook is fine enough to give good hooksets with ML rods but is thick enough to use a MH rod and 12lb line in lite cover. The long shank of the jighead gives great plastic life and I can swim, drag, or hop it depending on what I am trying to do. The total package weighs in around 5/16oz and one of my favorite presentations for scouting a new spot.

I go to a few each year but I live so close to the Chesapeake Bay that all the really local ones are mostly all saltwater tackle. I go mosty for the food vendors and to get out of the house.

I have replaced both 7” curly tail worms and bushhogs with 6” Zoom lizards. They are all about the same size and have close to enough action that I don’t feel the need to carry all three. This spring I am going to try larger weightless lizards in place of Trickworms and fished in the same emerging pads. I want a little more weight to make casting a bit easier.

The Potomac is tough/dangerous for bank access until you get quite far north unless the river is very low. I love it though and hope the rain is more reaonable this year that it was last. The C&O canal is great but sadly all last year NPS had the water levels incredibly low, to the point where Widewater was really the only place worth going unless you were really looking for a grind. I hope whatever repairs they were doing are completed by next spring. I haven’t been out to check the water levels since early fall, if you decide to head out and scout around let us know what the levels are like, if they’re back up to reasonable levels I’d be happy to meet up and show you a few spots.

The Cabelas bags are great but if if you can swing it the good old Pelican case is the gold standard for easy, secure gear storage. Plus you can cover them in stickers.