ArkLa

No the drag worked.make sure you have all the o rings in the correct place for the drag to work correctly it happened to me too. The reason why the thumb release won't work is because the reel spike is not catching it properly. Remove the larger sprocket on the reel and make sure the jagged spoke is flush so that large sprocket sits closer to the reel then it will catch.

@MassBassin508, the switch wasn't the problem, anytime I would press the spool release with my thumb it was difficult to press down and would seem to get stuck, also when I would begin to reel it would not kick the spool release back almost like it was jamming. So I disassembled the reel, and removed the spring to that switch and it works smoother now.

I have the silver max gen 2 and think it's complete Junk. The thumb bar/spool release would get stuck or even hard to press down. Tried cleaning it last night, I disengaged the switch Bc I think it's useless and it works a little better. I have owned that rig for 3 year Used it prob 4 times and haven't caught a fish on it yet. Save the headache and buy a Lews.

@CattThe Tourney is not until the 22nd. My wife and I will race down to it Thursday night to make it there Friday morning to get a day of scouting in before the start of it on Sat. I wish I could go out there the weekend before to locate some different areas (only been there once). But boy I can wait it's fun just to be out there. Bout the map you mentioned at the begininng of this thread and have been studying it.

So according to this article I shouldn't even fish in my buddies Tourney around zwolle at the end of the month Bc there's no fish huh? Interesting.

Well, I hear where y'all are coming from and understand the possibilities of catching a lot of fish. Last year on the first day my partner and I fished from daybreak till 4 pm and caught one fish that was barely legal. I threw frogs, swim baits, soft plastics and spinnerbaits. Other groups in the tourney caught no fish and some had 15 pounds. The second day I caught 5 fish all in buck brush on creature baits. I also scouted the Friday before the tourney and only caught one fish on a jig during 6 hours of fishing. The weather was beautiful btw.

Catt Thanks for starting this discussion. I have only fished TB once which was last April. My wife an I are heading back there to fish in a small tourney based by the La state park in Zwolle. Last year I fished around the North Toledo bend state park in the the zwolle cove (only have a 15' duck boat). I was eyeballing the SAN Patricio cove, planned on driving the truck to there and putting down. My question is where to start? It will be late April and should be post spawn. Do I fish points in the 15' range or just find any area that's 15' and look for structure? I purchased the hook-n-line map today will study it when it comes in. Just wasn't sure if I should fish the camp piers or will that be too shallow? I'm so used to fishing bayous with back water fishing the banks, its the only thing I know. It's hard for me to fish open water with unseeable underwater structure/contour because I'm not used to it. But I'm willing to learn and do anything to have success out there!