12 Volt Man

yes, definitely a wrasse of some kind.

I would consider a Ford Escape instead. I love mine. bought new in the fall of 06, nothing but awesomeness so far. no issues.

I can't stand the big tire on the back of the liberty's. looks so out of place.

I think its great. great comedic ad.

if it pushes the buttons of the P3TA whacko's - great.

they are all nutjobs anyway.

St. Croix makes great rods. second only to G. Loomis.

this sort of thing is actually quite common in other industries, like the pet and fish food industry, for example.

our regulations do not allow some items because of ingredients while the USA does.

the first step is to avoid mexican food prior to hunting.

until your friend gets the pardon, it will be difficult to get a decent job so the sooner he/she gets it the better.

most job applications where background checks are required will say:

Have you ever been convicted of a crime or offense under the criminal code for which a pardon has NOT been granted?

yes or no.

if someone has a conviction without the pardon, they can pretty much kiss that job good bye.

usually, this is where the application gets automatically rejected.

^

agreed. a friend of mine has applied for a pardon for a conviction from a few years ago.

the legal process is not quick. it usually takes over a year minimum.

if people are telling you they can get it done in a few months for X amount of cash, they are scamming you.

tell your friend to go to a real lawyer.

I use Berkeley Trilene XL in green colour for all of my fishing.

4 pound for UL

8 pound for bass

12 pound for salmon/big stuff.

its a great overall mono.

ps:

so what if you have people over and they park in your driveway and you are now over the limit. will you be fined $5000 if someone complains? LOL

something tells me this law will easily be overturned and won't last.

even the worst laywer could win the appeal against this one.

if I own my house and driveway and I own my cars, I can park them there if I see fit.

its my property and my cars.

not sure how this will hold up?

pretty much anywhere along that whole bayfront shoreline is good for bass.

in the summer when it gets weedy, I have caught many using a frog popper type bait like the Rapala Skitter Pop.

I shore fished from our beach hotel with my 3 peice St. Croix Premier travel rod and a daiwa 3500 size reel loaded with 12 pound mono.

caught quite a lot of nice fish (snappers, small baracuda etc), but no monsters. although I talked to another fisherman who was flycasting off the beach and had a big tarpon on for a while.

it can be a lot of fun.

some hotels won't let you fish on hotel beach property so you have to watch.

I have made many road trips with my one peice rods without any sort of tube.

I just pack the car and put the rods on top of everything else. they can't get crushed or damaged if they are on top.

so far so good (touches wood) LOL

for shimano's, just leave the factory brakes on.

the ones that come seperate are much stronger apparently but destroy your casting distance.

I use 3 brakes on, 3 brakes off. works great.

I agree on bringing a good travel rod and a 4000 size spinning reel loaded with 12 pound test mono.

St. Croix makes a very good 7 foot medium power fast action Premier Travel rod (3 pieces) that is really good. its rated for up to 5/8 oz lures and comes with a pvc rod tube for travel but it will fit in most suitcases. I got mine at basspro in Vaughn for around $200.

well worth the investment if you like to shore fish while on vacation. compared to the cost of the trip, $200 is nothing

enjoy your trip!

These new tapered lip spools are okay, I have one on my latest Stradic, but I can't fill them with braid into the taper without the line falling off...I wonder if they can really cast any farther than the old profile with a little more line???

what is the model series of your stradic? the newest models, (both the FI and the Ci4 series) have the Aerowrap 2 line lay system (this is different than the normal aerowrap found on the Saros and below and all older model number stradics) that is supposed to be amazing with braided lines.

if it is an older model, there should be washers that were included with the reel. these are placed on the shaft of the spool to change the taper of the line wrap.

you will have to consult the instructions, but what you can do is add/remove the washers on the spool shaft to give the line lay a cone shaped pattern, with the fat end of the 'cone' at the spool base. this should allow you to put more line on the spool without it spooling off at the spool lip.

its worth a try.

I vote for buying the best equipment that fits your budget.

this year, since I hadn't bought a new spinning reel in 5 years, I splurged and bought a Sustain 3000FE.

I have to admit, I was quite surprised at how much better it was than my older stradics.

for the following reasons:

1. cast noticably farther -the new spool lip and line wrap system make a big difference

2. the new one peice bail wire is a lot better than older models

3. the handle that screws into the drive gear is MUCH more solid than the older type that has a slot where the shaft just fits in.

4. even smoother drag

5. I love the new septon paddle handle.

6. the oil port feature, although not new, is really cool.

Now, I believe you can get most of these features on reels that are not so expensive, like the Saros for example.

my point of all this is that shimano has really improved their spinning reels since they redesigned them.

it used to be that daiwas were better for spinning.

not anymore IMO.

check out a good quality shimano like a saros, stradic etc. and you will be very happy.

skip the cheaper models if you can.

hope this helps

I agree that a one piece rod is better than a two piece.

even though today's ferrule design is 1000x better than it used to be, even on the high end two piece rods, the one piece version of the same rod still fishes better.

it is lighter, casts better (better transfer of power as it is one continuous piece) and is slightly more sensitive (again, because it is one piece of graphite).

the only disadvantage is that it is not good for air travel.

but even a 7 foot one piece rod will easily fit into just about any car (I used to drive a small volkswagen golf and had no trouble), so unless you are flying somewhere, get a one peice rod

probably the best bet is to set the amount you want to spend, and then look at choices based on your amount.

otherwise, you get opinions everywhere at all price and quality points.

you have everything from St. Croix Legend Elites to Berkeley Cherrywood rods being mentioned here.

thats like apples and oranges.

both will catch fish.

but the high end stuff will be lighter, balanced better, cast better, and be more sensitive generally speaking.

that being said, I cast another vote for the St. Croix Avid if it fits your budget.

its around $170 or so but you would swear you are fishing with a $250+ rod.

a lot of bang for your buck IMO.

I used to make my own for catfish, shrimp etc.

I haven't made it in a while, but it was something like this:

corn meal

flour

egg

beer

salt

pepper

paprika

something like that.

you can also substitute unsweetened grated coconut in place of the corn meal to make coconut shimp. mmmmm!

as long as you don't eat a stradic, you will be fine.

the california lead label has been on shimano reels for years now. almost all my shimano boxes have this.

the earliest reel that I have the box for with the label was a stradic 1000FG purchased in 2001.

that means its been going on for at least 9 years now.

some of my boxes actually have in printed right on the box rather than a sticker. some have a sticker though.

why is it that EVERY YEAR @ this time, this site turns into a salmon/trout fishing pissing match ?

probably because this is the time of year that the salmon are running..

I like lures too. the other day at Bronte I had a big salmon hit my spoon so hard it almost pulled my rod from my hands. set the hook and it broke off instantly.

still, it was quite a rush.

salmon hit moving lures like a ton of bricks.

its awesome.

count me in as another one who must actually handle the reel I actually buy. so that means online retailers are out.

its also easier if you do have a problem to return it.

I ordered a team daiwa tierra spinning reel from cabelas that was out of balance right out of the box (had a distinctive wobble to it which it wasn't supposed to have).

Cabela's customer service is very good, so it was no problem, but still, it finished me from buying another reel without playing with it first.

the replacement was fine though.