bulldog1935

I have a recent example of Ali Express shipping organization and logistics to share. I purchased six different reel modification parts from different vendors. One example is a handle shaft from one vendor and bearings from another that will let me swap the wood tee-knob on the 70-mm surf reel handle for a Studio Ocean Mark EVA knob I already have around (and not have to use the stupid 90-mm-pitch handle that came on the reel) When the different orders reached the US Customs broker - yesterday - they were all combined into one USPS package, which is now in the US Mail system.

What often gets overlooked in fly rods are the venerable glass fly rods from the 60s and 70s. They were the highest-tech in their day, tend to be 7-1/2' and shorter, exactly where glass fly rod tapers exceed graphite in just about everything. They load quickly, so they launch a fly line with less start-up effort than graphite, and talk to you with sweet, deep-flexing progressive tapers. Old Phillipson rods shine in 6'6" and 7' lengths. Other great brands are St. Croix, Heddon, and some really outstanding rods made by Vince Cummings and Russ Peak - a few outstanding Fenwick models. Good shopping will find these for $100-200. (The Cummings and Peak rods are in the $500-600 range) Here's my Vince Cummings Water Witch, c. 1930 Medalist and pb sight-fished river bass.

How about bottom-bouncing? Ned rig, etc. In our clear flagstone rivers, bottom-bouncing a sinking fly line and cats whisker, I've seen 5-lb bass follow the mud balls and slam their head sideways into the bottom a half-dozen times trying to find and eat the fly. (ok, this one's 9-10 lbs) It's the way to catch a limit of white bass when no-one else is catching any, and turn heavily hit rainbows in our beaten tailwater. The other thing is stealth. In his stealth talk, Gary Borger makes his point using fish IQ (6) and natural selection - brave and inquisitive fish become food. Big fish aren't smart, big fish are cowards. Try getting out and set early before you can be seen, make fewer select casts, and expect they're just getting too wary for any of the old stuff to work. Most of the really big fish I've caught, the lure was sitting at rest - easy in the case of topwater, but when they pick it up from the bottom, you have to feel it before they reject.

I got to ride my daughter's HS wrestling career three times to State. It's the greatest ride of your life. Enjoy and brag on.

actually, I wasn't planning to buy any, but did answer the OP's question. I don't have a need for a reel in my sights - set and backed-up.

two vendors with new stock show up at the top of an ebay search for pflueger president limited edition

Browning bought Silaflex, one of the west coast glass makers that came out of WWII aircraft production. My first graphite rod was a Browning Hi-Power, and my first Lew's was marked for Browning. um, they also made Ma Deuce.

@BassWhole! you could certainly say that about absolutely everything on this forum including the forum itself - and you'd have 3 fingers pointing back at yourself. Putting together gear that works right, tuning the gear to eliminate annoyance and improve performance is all part of the fun and satisfaction of the sport. Certainly Tail Slap's answer was in context with the OP's question. If it doesn't interest you, it's not worth taking another to task - just move on and find something that does interest you.

In a thread overloaded with platitudes, I think A-Jay did the best job of addressing what you get and what you pay for. There should be targets in our outfitting. It's a different chore to outfit oneself for a day in a kayak, shore fishing, hiking/busting creeks and loading up a bass boat arsenal.

we know what's happening - the spool pin is riding the ramp on the pinion gear without finding the slot. Here's an old Abu pinion showing the wear that results with that over time. One thing to try, the red Hot Sauce Grease that everyone derides here is soft enough, it might get by the friction problem causing your second dilemma. I wouldn't live with the first problem you reported, and would jack that one up and put a new one underneath - sub-PE#1 would be right out.

@JS8588 you've done your homework, and you first post is pretty complete, listing some of the best mono/fc line options out there. The couple of places I still use mono are reels to loan to friends, spooled with my favorite 12-lb Seaguar Abrazx. I have a few back-up spools loaded with 10-lb Tatsu. Deeper spools naturally load and manage mono/fc better than braid, even when using large-diameter mono for braid backing. The Japanese always take line tech to the next level, and Seaguar grades offered there are application specific. @Tail Slap loaded up a few of these recently - maybe he can report for us. I tend to pick up new lines from Asian Portal, often just to round out a cart for $100 free FedEx express. In addition to SunLine and Seaguar, Toray and YGK offer high-tech, low-memory mono/fc lines. (down to lb-test no one here would ever consider) When you get to the really small stuff, it's limp by definition, and low-memory lines aren't near as springy as they are in bass-fishing test. A dozen years ago, first tried the best copolymer I've ever fished in my salt XUl niche, and added it to FW light spinning - Kamikaze Firepower from Oz. Freakishly limp, extreme low memory, great knots, toughness, and abrasion resistance. Unfortunately, over time, it became cost-prohibitive to ship it from the S. Pacific.

couldn't sit through his intro long enough to get to his actual thoughts on the topic - the trouble with YouTube. (similar problem with most blogs - Hemingway's approach to writing copy remains the best) TackleAdvisors produces good videos focusing on the subject, my friend Prof Salt on offshore kayaking, etc. - those, I can sit through.

the grown-up 13Fishing rods all have natural blanks I think it's a trend in low-end tackle to use bright, spashy or unusual color to differentiate their combos in the low-end market.

What can I say, I love trim colors . I'll have to admit my new Zillion is my least-favorite-looking casting reel. But form follows function... I'm working on improving that - I didn't like the Zaion star drag, either, and found the last color ZPI star drag out there... Not fond of festive rod colors, and there's a plague of them in recent new glass fly rod blanks.

@J Francho I like it for abrasion resistance and diameter - really tough for the sand. Also tough to bend for an Allbright knot. This will always be my leader knot, though - I've been rolling good ones for 40 years of fly fishing.

Mine are both Omen Green, 7'1" bait and 7'7" spinner Note the 7'2" ML spinner has the exact same rating

yeah, but check out this beach braid rig 46-lb braid and 40-lb Seaguar Gold leader. The 72-mm-dia spool is only 5 mm deep, and holds 350 yds. @JS8588 I will add this - you really want reels with special shallow spools if you want braid.

The scraped boudin links make it easy for camping, providing the necessary cooked rice. At home, you can make it fancy with cooked rice and cooked-down chorizo (Italian sausage or ground beef). This is my daughter stuffing the camp recipe to grill at home - still the world's simplest relleno.

I've only ordered parts from Ali, including reel trim and piecemeal titanium fasteners. They are very reliable - like Amazon of China. They handle all their own shipping in cargo containers to US distribution. Guess I'll have to flesh this out for below. Vendors send product to Ali Express by China post. Ali collects them in a warehouse, fills their own cargo containers and ships to their US customs brokers. They're mailed USPS by the US broker. One time a vendor didn't ship to their warehouse on time, and Ali gave the instant paypal refund.

the Very Best camp food I remember is running the trotline first thing in the cold Feb morning, and dutch-oven-fried catfish for breakfast (boy scout troop). You drop a wooden match on the crisco in the dutch oven, and when it lights, the hot oil is ready for the fish pieces from the cornmeal bag. When the fish floats, it's done. 2nd best would be a trout that went belly up (sometimes the hook just strikes the wrong nerve). Papered and sauteed in browning butter. Since everyone else brought up grill food, fresh redfish fillets on Cobb grill. The most creative camping invention was chile rellenos - stuffed with mixed boudin, canned lump crabmeat, and Italian cheese blend. For RV camping, Stevo brings his pizza oven and stone. Honorable mention goes to hot dog sourdough pizza. Gucci dogs from Randy's butcher, spicy catsup for sauce, American cheese; garnished with relish and mustard. If you're doing that sausage and eggs in the same skillet thing, might as well add onions, peppers and cheese for breakfast tacos. Aluminum foil is an essential breakfast taco ingredient - it steams and blends the oils.

My last rod purchase had the $300 JDM target. I went through every BFS rod on Asian Portal, and narrowed down the entries. I was all over Major Craft BFS rods, with Jackall a close second. But I chose to raise my ante over this remarkable Valleyhill BFS MM, and it was the wide lure range plus wide technique range that sold me.

12-lb Seaguar was my bread and butter for most of 20 years. I first made the braid switch on spinning tackle - with proper manual bail technique, you wonder why you ever used mono on spinning tackle. Same result finally switching baitcasters to braid. New line for me is X-braid in BFS sizes. Maybe casting 2 g past 100' on a baitcaster is indeed cheating. It turns sight-fishing a fly rod on the flats into an obstinate chore.

always a wise approach. My buddy Donny had 3 hours to kill waiting for the rest of us - Feb when he arrived at Rockport driving from CO. His time in always reliable Tackle Town paid off, and the Vudu shrimp he left with was the next day's top pick - he released 27 redfish and kept his 3 slot fish. Of course, I get planning kudos for nailing the tide event (picked it 6 weeks before), Josh for providing exceptional digs, and I can't complain, releasing 16 of my own. etc. ... ...another kudo for Josh's chef skills

Don't forget Winchester rods made by E. W. Edwards (after Winchester bought the company)

It was Joe Kennedy Fisher who put in his catalogs and new rod paper to use Gulfwax (paraffin) on plastic ferrules - yes, candle wax works. My fly fishing bag carries one of those little quarter-diameter flat candles. First thing I do to a new or old rod.