bulldog1935

might as well pay for 3 and get 1

If you follow your AE tracking in detail, they sell many items from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Those must first be imported into China before waiting for that AE shipping container and transport to US. If you want a horror story from '20, a lot of Canada's international mail is routed through USPS ISC in NYC, CHI, and LAX - ISCs are like Duty Free shops in airports - they're free commerce zones without a country. I had a $120 Stradic from Asian Portal in transit by JP EMS Post in April '20. It was routed from Chicago into Canada for a month before being delivered here 2 months later. I talked to a really nice Customer Service lady in Chicago - getting that USPS phone number was a nightmare in itself, US Customs and USPS would pass the buck (you) to each other. It was my local post office who gave me the right phone number.

Don't expect anything coming from China, Singapore, Pacific Rim countries to compare to speed from Japan. Couriers all compete with each other for shipping contracts with Japan vendors, and have nonstop flights from Japan to their Customs and distribution hubs here (Memphis, Cincinnati, Indy). Amazon.jp offers upgrade to DHL, but they also have shipping almost as quick through their own shipping containers and US Customs broker. If you bought from Europe, you'd discover expense and tedium in both post and courier delivery. Even with couriers from Europe, what takes longest is getting out of the origin country. Since you didn't mention a specific Chinese website, AE holds goods until they can fill a shipping container to import through their US Customs broker; then ground trucking inside the US before delivering to a USPS regional hub. International Post is always delayed at least a week at USPS ISC Customs, and Chicago ISC is a freaking black hole. The couriers from Japan clear US Customs while in flight to US. _________________________ adding a ps - what I wrote above all stabilized after the '20 postal crunch shut down the whole world. Before that, JP EMS Post to US was 4 days - part of that was USPS then treating Express mail as Express mail - and Royal Airmail from UK was cheap and reliable. Postal pick-up shut down for a year in both Japan and England. When everything shut down in '20, the couriers scrambled in Japan, because we still wanted Japanese goods and couldn't get them from the shut-down US supply chain. USPS has not recovered from increased postal volume for toilet paper, et.al by mail since '20. Within the US, Amazon distribution grew into a shipping monster.

Thanks for posting Daniel, here's a list of Ocean City links on ORCA. https://www.orcaonline.org/ocean-city-reel-photos/ The company was eventually absorbed by Bronson, and then True Temper, though they kept the trade name around a long time.

On a Shimano thread, I'm not going to say no Shimano will cast distance with this - oops. and where do you think Shimano got the idea for MGL? ZPI first made aftermarket spools for them, selling rebuilt '13 Metanium as Z-Pride

Fan boys fit their name perfectly. Boys afraid of learning anything outside their blinders. First Shimano-branded casting reel - 1974. First Lew's casting reel, designed in USA and built for him by Shimano - 1973. Doyo is a major parts supplier for both Shimano and Daiwa. No spinning reel manages line as well as Shimano worm drive. No Daiwa aluminum spool is as good as Shimano magnesium spool. (solved by aftermarket spool in Daiwa) No casting brake design is as simple and effective as Daiwa MagForce. Still tough to beat Lew's reels for quality and price.

The Long Riders

General rule: Anything that spins (shafts, bushings) should be lubricated with light oil. Grease is for contact stress (gear teeth). Hope this helps. (on my BFS Ambassadeurs, even worm gears get light oil, with the lightest brush of low-viscosity grease at the ends for pawl turn)

everybody still gets the distance thing wrong - there are some places I need to fish 130' to catch fish. But most of the time, read increased distance as reduced effort and improved accuracy and cast reliability. My Synchro vacuum tubes cast 3 g as well as Daiwa Silver Wolf.

harrumph

Eaten white bass all my life, grew up fishing first-light jumps on Lake LBJ with my dad, fly-rod limits up the rivers in spring spawning runs, gave a presentation to fly fishing clubs a few times (got paid). White bass are the perfect freshwater meat-fish, and need to be harvested, because they deplete the food base for other species. But the best fish I've ever eaten was catfish for breakfast on a February camp out. Explorer scouts (Boy Scouts, Emergency Services training, add girls to the group). My dad and best friend's dad were the scout masters. Camping at Crane's Mill Park at the top of Canyon Lake, first thing my dad and I did was run the boat to set out trot lines. Retrieved them the next morning. Filleted the catfish, cut them to small pieces. Corn mean and spices in a shake-bag. Deep-fried over the campfire in a Dutch oven - when a wood match floating on the oil lights, it's just right to cook. When the catfish is done, it floats.

@TnRiver46 58 degrees - it's cool.

Us Four and No More applies to TU chapters as well as internet bulletin boards. GRTU is the single largest business unit in TU, with 10,000 members. I have TIC helpers who don't even fish, just like taking trout eggs to the classroom, and coming back when the kids release their fry into the tailwater at the end of the school year.

@TnRiver46 Back when people had only one rod, they used it for everything. Theodore Gordon dunked worms. He may have also had thicker skin.

Ambassador on the River Things are ramping up at work tomorrow. But I took a hookie day today. My brain was single purpose and its only goal was to get to Mad Rock. When I hiked down to my crossing point, I was going to have to cross where a guy was fishing (he was doing everything wrong). When I got his attention, he was gracious, so when I reached the middle of the river with him, asked if he wanted to come down with me, and of course introduced myself to Joe. After our hike, he started at the tailout above, and I went straight to my favorite pocket water - the air was thick with BWOs. After 20 minutes of quiet, I caught a fish, then four immediate strikes, then they shut down - they were feeding on cycle, as pressured fish do. I went up halfway and waved Joe down the rest. We went over his rig, and I showed him how to rig up a dropper and pick the right dropper fly from his box. We talked about BWOs, their behavior when they hatch, and why the riffle produced them. I put him on the first pocket water and I went down to fish just below Mad Rock. In no time at all, Joe was hooked up. in the net happy Joe happy fish, though, Joe had to think about this part - it first didn't fit with his nature, but then he thought better of it, and we were both happy when the buck swam off. The buck, btw, was milting the whole time we were handling him. I went on down river to fish below the next bridge, telling Joe what I was going to do and inviting him down if he wanted. I saw our buck's redds in the riffle and caught fish in the next run - stubby, fat fish, but not really photogenic. When I came back up, Joe was still pounding the same spot. It was time for both of us to head back. We talked about GRTU and lease access - of course, I told him all about Jimbo. I think Joe is going to join GRTU - it is, after all, the best deal in fishing. And you never know, Joe may become a conservationist. (posted 2/11/2015)

I've been on the board of GRTU since the late 90s. I run Trout in the Classroom for Texas. 40 schools. In HS Aquatic Science classes, it's the teachers who have all the fun. Me, Frank Smethurst and Jimbo, after 3 days filming TU On the Rise in the Guadalupe tailwater What makes these 3 guys infectious, add Gary Borger, Kevin Townsend, Alvin Deaudeaux, et.al. - when you stick a fly rod in their hands, they turn into kids. That Trout in the Classroom thing - it's not about raising trout - it's so we'll have someone to step up on our soapbox when we fall off. An investment in the future, and probably a better legacy than posting silly comments on the internet. I've seen more reverse elitism - people who treat you bad because you're doing something different from them. Even among fly fishers - others too often don't like the cane rod (once is too often).

25 white bass at a time - in the dark

No names, I've been catching big fish on light tackle all my life. We're probably saying the same thing about drag. You're looking from the outside at the fish. I'm looking from the inside, and a lifetime of fishing through spinning reels on big fish. The very worst were made in the '90s when they started messing with plastic (for Light) and long spools (magnifying loads and deflection on gears and rotor bushing). Big drag numbers on paper are just numbers on paper. What matters is two years from the store.

I paid $125 (new ebay) for my first Super Duty G. After 4 hard years, it was good enough to snag a 2nd at $140. The one thing you won't get from it is light weight, though it casts light weights remarkably well. In low end reels, you are paying a bigger share for name, marketing, inventory, seller mark up, which brings the list price of the $30 reel up to $100. Doesn't make the $30 reel any more desirable. Doyo-hate is a strange concept. Doyo is a Major parts supplier for both Shimano and Daiwa, and high-grade tackle has been made in Korea for 40+ years (e.g., Orvis and Hardy). The map shows Daiwa's top 20 suppliers, and Doyo is flagged.

what do I know about big fish on light tackle (10 lb fish) when I was 19, landed one almost this big on a Daiwa Minicast (my dad was freaking).

To me, the drag and weight are the least important things. Good 1.5-lb drag (even 2.5-lb for 10-lb test) is rarely a challenge. If you want lighter weight, go smaller. I fished one of these in salt finesse 7 years. The drag naturally falls into place if everything is aligned and the spool spindle and rotor aren't deflected by the drag load. (mackerel-stopping drag is something else) Think what happens to alignment when the spool is bent toward the rotor, and the rotor is bent toward the spool. At the other end of the long lever, the spindle load is misaligning gear contact, all happening while you're cranking harder on the handle. Design stiffness is the most important property in a spinning reel. kind of a shame no one seems to get this post - it's the crux of spinning reel design If you're fishing threadline braid, line management is the single most important. Even if you're fishing mono, the noted end of the reel is when it no will longer lay a good flat line profile to fill the spool, which affects everything, especially casting. F6 (6-lb fluoro) spool on Vanquish

he loves them Daiwa though he admits that Shimano line management is better - when '19 Stradic was introduced, it dubbed it "The Best $400 Reel You Can Buy"

Here's my note on Valleyhill and Whiplash Factory. The parent company is Chinese. They market only in Japan. Like NS Black Hole based in Korea, they have to try harder in the market they've picked for themselves. They offer a better rod for the price than made in Japan.

@AlabamaSpothunter Sticking to just the worm-drive Shimanos, Stradic to Stella, the current crop interchange parts with '18 Stella - the design is all the same. From Stradic with forged aluminum frame, composite rotor and anodized alloy gears, you're paying for MOC upgrades in the frame and rotor. All but Stella share the hard anodized gears, cheaper to manufacture, and which have gear tooth hardness equal to hardened steel. Stella has all the top-line parts, forged magnesium frame and rotor, titanium bail, and stainless gears. Stainless gears are expensive to broach, start softer, but improve both hardness and toughness with use, and effectively never wear out. Because of the alloy gears, both Vanquish and Vanford are lighter than Stella. Noteworthy, all these reels share '18 Stella over-designed A/R clutch and the same ball bearing line roller. The reels in between mix higher-grade components in the different sizes, swap MOC in the frame and rotor, forged aluminum, composite, and forged magnesium; e.g., Twin Power has forged aluminum frame and rotor, and the titanium bail. Ball bearings vs. bushings in a few spots. The other thing you pay for is labor. Stradic and Vanford are built on the Malaysia assembly line. The higher grades are built on Japan benches with parts matching for improved smoothness.