goteeboy

beautiful to be on the lake yesterday (monday). got there at the crack of dawn and not a ripple on the water. it was beautiful. finally got a lake map and tried some new spots...nada! we did notice the mayflies were out in the millions and the SMB were gorging for an easy meal. I think the walleye were gorging themselves too as we couldn't get a single hit. We did get a couple OOS SMB and they were spitting up mayflies like crazy. anyway, went back to "my spot" where three people i've taken out have gotten their personal best muskies, including me. it was a decent day. now am i getting old or do others get really sore (back, wrists, hands, shoulders) after chucking muskie lures. my body hurts. caught on a big swim bait, here's the biggest muskie i've witnessed out of this particular lake. 43 inch beauty caught at noon in 10 fow over weeds. i caught it's little brother.

it's called cedar park

it has to be motor oil color - a dark pukey green (olive) Yum, w/ the rings on it.

I was at Little Lake (Barrie) yesterday going after the lake's ubiquitous hammer handle pike. So i got into one and as it neared the boat i thought it was a decent size, until it got closer and i saw that it was incredibly emaciated (huge head, skinny body). Once it was landed, i saw that it had a bass-size spinner bait lodged in its throat. Looking at the location of the lure, it most definitely snapped off right at the knot. I removed my lure (a jig spinner w/ grub) and then I began what I was called to do for my whole life, minor surgery on an emaciated pike (haha). The hook was lodged near one of it's gill rakers, so i pulled the hook through, clipped off the barb and pulled the lure out, (which is still in the back of my boat) and then released the fish. Hopefully this fish will eat again and live to a ripe old age. So a couple of thoughts related to this incident. Break-offs will happen but perhaps some precautions can be made. 1. When targeting pike or other toothy critters, you should use a leader. Not only do you save your lure, but you also can save the fish in the case of a break off. Also make sure you tie good knots and check your line for frays and retie when needed. 2. Do hooks dissolve? Put it this way, I'm convinced this pike would've starved to death before the hook would have dissolved. (I'm assumming that at longest this lure was in its mouth since opening day in mid May.) In this case, the spinnerbait hook had a silver coating and had just begun to rust, not to mention that the rest of the wire, weighted head, and skirt, were all pretty much intact and looked practically new. Possible suggestions: use uncoated or thinwire hooks? Well, that's my conservational input for the day. I'll wait for the rest of you to chime in.

Took the boat out for the first time this season to Cameron Lake, which also happened to be the first time on that lake. Much more manageable in terms of size than Balsam. I first get out and the fish finder's not working. Not a good sign for being on a lake for the first time. I felt blind. Then we got to a spot, put down the trolling motor and put it in forward and it spins backward! Stupid me i had the positives and negatives mixed up. I assumed the motor would just not run, but it ran backwards! weird, eh? Well i reversed the wiring for the fish finder, and I once was blind, but now I see. Man, it shows how dependent i am on my fishfinder. How could i have ever fished without one. The free launch in the channel is tricky w/ the current. Better bring a buddy. and be ready to get your feet wet. Caught one 30 inch-ish muskie. neatly hooked and released at the side of the boat. i didn't even have to get my hands slimed. my friend had a cut off going for walleye and lost his favorite lure. a few oos LGB and dinky SMB. no walleye. Cameron's a nice lake, but i think i still like Balsam better. Cameron looks like it has some good LGB habitat too. we'll have to see come the opener.

Son! it has to be Roland Martin. You can see his shows online.

you might be right about the rental prices...i haven't rented since i got my own a few years ago and then i rented pretty much on weekdays which i believe are cheaper. but you know how they do it, they'll charge like 15 bucks an hour, encouraging you to rent for the whole day...they do rent pontoons for about 90-100 a day that can hold 8 people. but anyway, $75 seems like a lot of cash for a half day. also, i know there are two marinas...one (cedar park) has the red painted pontoons, and the other one, further down the road has blue pontoons. i've never rented from that one.

though i've never used it, i remember a lebaron's salesperson recommending Maxima

Little Lake is great for small hammer handles. they'll bite anything. look in the shallow weeds as well as weed edges. in the deep water, i've caught a couple 5 lbs-ers. boat rentals are not expensive when compared to other places. they are very reasonable (around 50 for the day i think) and for launching it's only 6 bucks. it's also a pretty decent bass and crappie lake. in fishing there over ten years, i've only caught two walleye, both unintentionally. the guys at cedar park are great. they helped us hold a private fishing tournament as well.

hey Josh looks like you already saw MuskyMike's post. take a look at mine too. it may help. search Symetre and the subject line is spinning reel cleaning - cabin fever preventative [/b let us know how it goes

MuskyMike that's great to hear. I'm glad it all worked out. Do it a few more times and you won't even need the pics. Goteeboy

maybe the sales rep transferred from Lebaron. sounds like classic Lebaron service. IMHO, generally speaking USA customer service is significantly better than Canada...BPS, department stores, Crappy service Tire (need I say more), etc. Now Lowe's, I've only been there once but was very impressed w/ their customer service.

great job. i feel like a proud parent, hehe. I was surprised at how large the main gear is in the stradic. it literally fills up the whole inside. it must have felt so good to clean off all the old grease/grit/sand. i felt the joy in spirit. so, tell us, is she as good as new, if not better than when new? and did you take apart the whole antireverse piece? that i've never done. i just clean it up w/ a paper towel. let us know if you came up w/ any "tips" to make the job easier. again, great job goteeboy

Congrats! so which method got it apart? or was it a combination of methods? helpful minds want to know.

This has always worked for me. You need four hands (two should belong to someone else) At the joint, grab rod, one hand on each piece. Your buddy does the same thing facing you, staggering his hand w/ yours. count to three, pull, and it should come right off. Does that make sense? I hope it does. good luck

Here's our MAPLE. She's a Husky, 2.5 years old and by far the best dog I've ever had. horse face

How does that joke go again??? I forgot the punch line. How many OFNers does it take to pull off a bathroom faucet????? OFNers are amazing in coming to one another's aid.

yeah, about 15 yrs ago i took apart a middle of the road shimano baitcaster and as far as i know its still apart, God rest its soul. but back then i had absolutely no idea what i was doing and no aid of the internet to read up and learn. but now i'm pretty confident that if i can take it apart, i can put it back together. i also found that my daiwa tierra spinning reel was a bit more complicated than the typical shimano.

i believe it's basically the same car as the ford escape suv. i'm not sure if that helps or not.

yeah, one of these days i'll do the baitcaster, but you can see some from tackletour which will also reconfirm the grease/oil question. but the reason the oil/grease makes sense to me is that, you want the bearings to roll as smoothly as can be. and the viscosity of grease would just slow it down, whereas with gears, you want stuff that will stay in the teeth of the gears. at least that's what i've read. i have read some mix oil and grease for gears to make it even less viscous. but for the bearings, oil. i guess the confusion comes cuz we always pack grease into our wheel bearings on our trailers, but there you are dealing w/ a lot more wear/tear and the smoothness doesn't matter as much. anyway, my two and a half cents http://www.tackletour.com/articlereelmaint...urecordpg2.html

gotta go power pro. didn't mean to rhyme.

it usually takes me about 30-45 min to clean one. but the one here took over an hour. there was so much sand. and yeah, it's not about saving money. it's the satisfaction of doing something yourself...like i said....it's therapeutic.

every spring i clean my reels. here's are pics and instructions on how i do mine. i read a couple diff forums (tackle tour, wmi bass) and found a way that suits me. i hear it costs at least 20 bucks to have them cleaned. so given how expensive that can get, especially if you have multiple reels like i do. i decided a few years back to do it myself. i hope this helps and inspires you to give it a try. it's actually quite therapeutic. Also, I'd give myself a couple of hours if this is your first time. You don't want to have to stop half way through and forget how to put it back together later. This is me doing my buddy's Shimano Symetre. I will try and post a baitcaster cleaning soon. tools needed: --small phillips and flat screwdrivers. --small needle nose pliers, especially if you got fat sausage fingers like mine. --a small adjustable wrench, --q-tips, --toothpicks --paper towels, --small bowl. --old toothbrush (or new if you like) --zep biodegradeable solution, --acetone. --grease and oil (i use quantum hotsauce) --clear plastic bag --digital cam (optional) --compressed air in a can (used for keyboards) (optional) Step 1: Remove spool. Underneath, pull off three plastic washers and silver toothed washer/gear, remove small screw on base (this keeps nut in place) and remove brass nut with wrench (not shown). Then remove handle. VERY IMPORTANT: keep track of the order of washers and pieces coming off (also which side is up or down). Also, keep an eye out for thin brass washers that stick to other pieces. Otherwise you'll end up with 1 or 2 washers and not know where they go. Take pictures if necessary. Step 2: Clean side plate with toothbrush in Zep biodegradeable solution mixed w/ water . Rinse in water allow to dry. Use canned air "DUST OFF" (for keyboards) to get water out of crevasses, grease out of bearings, etc., or roll up paper towel into a point and absorb it out or a Q-tip. Note: i clean all parts (gears, reel housing) in the Zep cleaning solution and rinse in water, except the bearings which i clean in acetone. Acetone is a bit more pricey. Step 3: Remove each piece, one at a time. clean and dry and place on table in order, facing up the way you found it in the reel. Two piles. One pile of what's inside the reel. Another pile of what's on the spindle between reel body and spool. Keep these piles separate. Note: manually remove visible grease with paper towel, q-tips, toothpick, and toothbrush. Then soak in zep and brush clean. Dry. acetone for bearings Pieces from spindle Step 4: Remove anti-reverse mechanism, 3 small screws. clean bearings inside w/ paper towel. Dry. The spindle is removed by unscrewing the spindle at it's base inside the guts. See screw on left side of pic below. The spindle pieces should look like this. Clean and dry and place in order. Use a Q-tip to clean inside the worm gear. Pull some cotton off if it's too thick. RE-ASSEMBLY Step 5: Cleaned and ready to be greased and put back in. Remember, grease on gears, oil in bearings!!!!!!! And be a bit stingy, don't over grease or oil, it'll all fly out anyway. Make sure grease is deep in each tooth. not too much, not too little grease. grease anywhere where metal meets metal or metal meets plastic/graphite/reel housing. no more than two drops per bearing when adding the reel handle bearing (one on each side) remember...there are two sides of the bearing case. The ball bearing visible side faces to the outside of the reel, the sealed side faces to the inside (photo below). Replace the rubber gasket too, if applicable. Guts are done, close her up. You can add a dab of grease to each screw and even a thin layer of grease along the edge where the two reel covers come together. the dust will catch there instead of going inside. Step 6: putting the spindle parts back together. place a few drops of oil on bearings inside of anti-reverse mechanism (above, gray piece) put a drop or two of oil on the spindle where it goes into the brass worm gear. replace, toothy gear/washer, plastic washers, spool. Step 7: The drag and spool. no pics here. Remove drag cap. Take off square/pentagonal shaped wire. be careful, it'll jump on you. remove w/ a toothpick all the drag pieces AND KEEP IN ORDER (usually from bottom to top, felt/metal/felt/metal, more or less depending on reel). If you're drag washers are greased kinds and not dry, i just blot the old grease in a paper towel and reapply new grease (not too much, just so the washer is saturated). if dry, i apply a very light coat of grease (i don't know if this is recommended but that's what i do). and clean inside of drag area before reinserting. Step 8: The Bail. Sometimes this area is the sandiest and dirtiest and is also the most confusing part. there's at least one or more springs in there so it helps to get a schematic. And a trick I learned to not lose anything is to unscrew everything in a clear plastic bag so nothing goes flying. Open the bail plate (where the spring is), very very slowly and try to see how it's arranged so you can put it back together. Wow! that's it. i hope that was helpful. Have fun w/ it.

test okay, i think i figured it out.

i haven't used it enough to see a huge difference though i'll be using more of it this year. here's a very thorough article on flouro. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbontest.html http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbon2.html it is more of a comparison between diff flouro brands.