bulldog1935

If you want it to work and wear 30+ years, stick to Gore-Tex (and the brands that use it) My Marmot light shell and Hagloff's rain pants were both closeouts bought at sierratradingpost that many years ago.

In s. Texas, I'll take the cool respite, because last week was too early summer hot and humid - a month ahead of when it normally hits. It is surprising to look at the 10-day forecast with a few lows in the 40s. Now I get pleasant cool weather when I chop the back acre next week.

@BassWhole! An e-friend whom I've never met, but we go Way back on venerable glass fly rods and vintage reels - after I posted a "pimped" Tica on FFR, Paul sent me 5 new Ticas with a blank check to customize his - I shot a lot of photos to communicate with him, and my choices critiqued and approved by his daughter's artsy eye. While I've always done some of this, a 20-yr hobby business repairing antique reels and speculating in antique tackle bought me a lot of toys - 2020 needed stay home hobbies, and courier from Japan was the only functioning shipping, so some of my tendencies fleshed out a bit. Even before then, my close friend Lou, who both fishes and cycles with me regularly (most every salt trip) had me order him a compliment of the Tsubaki hook keepers for all his Shimano's - that's the style keeper in the first 3 photos of the post you quoted. I've been shopping in Japan a long time - back when you had to use a broker, both because of language barrier and Japan banking restrictions. Masamichi at noppin.com has ordered me a bench-made fly reel, a rolled-from-scratch inshore S-glass fly rod, delivered my first Japanese XUL Rockfish rods more than a dozen years ago, and more recently brokered these trick add-on hook keepers for Livre reel stands that only come from Squid Mania.

they're made to replace the handle cap on spinning reels, can't imagine rigging anything quite like it on a baitcaster. The pop-out hook keeper designed into some baitcaster frames will give you a functioning hooker if your rod doesn't have one, but they're too close to the rod to help with trebles like the spinning reel add-ons.

On spinning reels, what the Japanese call a reel stand makes the ultimate hook keeper. This one is made by Tsubaki, and quite inexpensive - the plug is 6" offshore topwater with heavy wire 1/0 trebles. It also keeps your line from getting twisted and braided in the guides. Inshore, with a baitcaster, I'm mostly fishing swimbait hooks for weedless, and the rod hook keepers work fine.

I'll add a vote for longer ML rather than shorter UL. (Finesse spinning fits here, too) Long ML spinning rods are made with a soft tip that will do anything the UL will do. They also have a powerful butt section for turning big fish, which a short para UL can't do.

Sorry, just can't like photos that make me sneeze. We have the Munsters plague of oak caterpillars. You can tie a really good fly on a 200R hook, a pair of goose biots for the clinging tail, olive wool dubbing with gold wire wrap and black thread to finish the head. Tying this fly can be creepy - you keep checking your hair, back of your neck, and inside the back of your shirt for the one that's crawling on you.

Tica Libra SX1500 or the worm drive Tica Samira SAAT 2000H is my choice for a long-lived $100 reel. Amazon sells them.

stripers will eat cut bait, too ok, then, bull redfish and black drum, big sow speckled trout, snapper - cut blue below - we fished through our bait on opening day, and I got up on the bow and caught bluefish on my fly rod - the samsonite snapper was caught on cut blue. Any list you can put together will be abridged.

@Bass_Fishing_Socal The one that's on the black Tica above (and on the big Tica below) is just about my favorite "reel stand" hook-keeper, and has a stainless hook keeper that won't take abrasion. Here's the Daiwa/Shimano common from a US vendor (they still source from Japan and takes a few weeks, but a good buy. (the Dress Origin reel stands for Daiwa hex shaft, 3 mm stud, you can only source in Japan; also note Ver3 is offshore size Daiwa)

offshore topwater plug UL jig hook (+stinger) Circle hook on my surf reel You can also pin the line for a complicated rig in the o-rings and take the hook back to your line guide frame. hard to see, but there's a rigged wakebait on the left and the line will never be twisted on the rod or braided in the rod guides, not even in the dark

Instead of screwing directly into the main gear, the old style folding handle uses a keyed shaft that goes through the main gear to the handle nut on the other side. Shimano used a square shaft with 3.5 mm threads on the handle nut. Daiwa uses a hex shaft with 3 mm threads on the handle nut. Unfortunately, they don't make these cool upgrade parts for Shimano, but these IOS hex shaft adapters work with Daiwa and Tica, allowing you to replace folding handles with fixed Daiwa handles.

I'll agree with @swhit140 The LFS frame reels are stouter, the P2 pinion is a great durability upgrade in this reel, and Lou's mag brake doesn't add any mass to the spool. It also lets you change spool bearings, and not affect the drive, since the P2 drive bearing is separate from the spool/spindle. Looks better than my Super Duty G, which is my workhorse reel, and at lower cost.

PE# (Gou) is the traditional Japanese measurement for silk thread diameter - It ends up being a whole easier scale to compare lines than comparing 1/1000ths inch or 1/100ths mm - and how all Asian rods are rated for lines. (Korean rod with Japanese line rating) Japanese Silk (japantackle.com) https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/japanese-line-size/ It's Jun at Japan Tackle who says PE#1 is the finest you want to use on a baitcaster, primarily to prevent line dig-in

answering the OP - until it tastes the steel.

Spool depth/capacity is a deciding factor in what line works and lays best on a reel. 1000 size doesn't quite define that, and you're going to find a fairly wide range of spool depths and capacities in 1000 size reels. 100 m of quality 4-lb fluoro isn't enough on many 1000 spools, and might find that 6-lb is just perfect. You're going to get much better line lay by fitting the correct line diameter for the spool design than by stacking extra yards to fill a spool. This is YoZuri 6-lb copolymer on a 1000 spool, and next is PE#0.5, 4-lb fluorocarbon on an 800 UL spool.

What is wait? I've fished tackle out to 30 years as long as it's going strong, and adding new along the way - not necessarily upgrading the old, until it's ready to be retired. I didn't begin adding in low-profile baitcasters (Super Duty G) until 5 years ago, and still fished my Lew's BB-25SW a few years more (compared to LFS, the larger spool on this reel still casts a long way, though the drive was finally getting sloppy). When I try new, if something gets my attention, will probably buy more than one. And for that reason, none of my low profile baitcasters have twins. The different models I added have their strong points and found their niches (except the Custom Inshore, which nothing makes sense about it, and I kind of hid it in favor of better Tournament Pro and Team SP). When I'm ready to add another baitcaster (nothing in sight), it will likely be a Metanium. I have a 30 y-o Loomis GL2 I never expect to retire (retired the Penn 4400SS), but supplement it with newer rods.

the trick to getting your hook back is getting them turned over, flat on the deck. Caught a big one on this lazy day in the Arroyo Colorado barge canal, and Lou and I looked pretty pro getting it handled. And yeah, would rather it had been a big flounder.

I'm familiar with Stu Apte fly rods made by Diamondback, and that's about all that will google. My friend from FFR caught this nice bass on his Stu Apte Signature casting rod and a Shimano Core reel. He bought the rod from Offshore Anglers in the early '90s, and all he can put together from his research is the rod was made in Arkansas. Anybody familiar with these rods, their history, or their maker?

oversized Gizzard shad in reservoirs is why they began stocking stripers - the shad were out-growing the largemouth and white bass they first stocked to prey on them.

In blackwater on the beach one day (blackwater = calm, low tide, gin-clear but black with bait) I hooked a 20+ lb stingray on a fly rod. Took me a half-hour to drag it up on the beach, while my buddies were limiting out on specs. It's OK, they waited for me to get my trout limit, too.

well this page is sorely needing a knife photo, so posting off topic, here's the neck knife I carry daily when fishing the salt. It's titanium, carbide edge, and nips braid like a champ. here's my neck knife nipper for freshwater

Many people on this forum won't consider buying a 5+ ounce reel. But the weight wars between the manufacturers pretty much create the issues you guys complain about. Stainless steel gears don't wear, they just work-harden. My longest-and-hardest-service Lew's Super Duty G doesn't get a complaint, and my bronze-geared long-lived Tica spinners will probably out-fish every other reel I own.

I'm going to reiterate this point even stronger. I have three '19 and '20 Shimano 1000/2000 size spinners, and would never swap the felt drag washers for carbontex. The little reels won't crank against more than 3 lbs, and there's no reason to give up smooth wide ranging drag for a big meaningless number. I did upgrade one felt drag (not Shimano) to carbontex - that was with spooled 10-lb braid, and wasn't able to get 2-lbs measured drag - the carbontex gave me 2-1/2-lbs I was shooting for..

hmm, this spool isn't 1/8" deep. never thrown a wind knot and caught dozens of fish