Garry2Rs

I second the Cardiff. It's a better and more modern reel than the old Abu C series design. BPS reels are okay, but parts and repairs are always iffy. Garry2rs

There are two adjustments on your reel. The first is the knurled knob under the crank. This a friction brake that puts drag on the spool axle to stop it when the bait hits the water. This brake is usually set to allow the bait to fall to the water under it's own weight, but to stop the spool at this point. In time you will not need it and will control the spool with your thumb. The second control is the VBS and it is a centrifugal brake that does most of it's work in the first few seconds of the cast to keep the spool from out accelerating the speed at which the line is actually coming off the spool. If this brake has too many shoes turned on, the cast will die in the air and the bait will fall to the water. If too few shoes are on you will hear a thrashing sound as loose line bangs around inside the reel's frame. You might even see long loops of line rising off the spool during the cast. In the worst case these loops will foul each other, stopping the spool in mid-cast, resulting in a birds nest. Three on and three off is a good setting but you might want to start with four on two off, then back down once you've made a couple of casts. The actual number you need for optimum casting depends on the rod, the bait and the wind. For Pitching I turn them all on so that the line doesn't get tangled on those short underhand casts, but that's in Baitcasting 201...grin. Garry2R's

Pulling out a backlash isn't rocket science, and the thumb trick sort of works, but it might help you to understand that at the point where the line is binding there will be an upside down V of line holding the running line down. To release the tangle, don't use brute force, this might make it worse. Pull the running line until it stops...Find the V that is holding the running line and pull the V up and to the side...The spool will turn backwards, then stop...Pull on the running line again and simple backlashes will be undone. For more complicated tangles repeat the process. Pull the running line until it stops...Find the V...ETC. Once in a great while I have seen an angler snag another rod or something in the boat with their back cast. All the power of that cast is now released into the spool and it creates a monster tangle. In this case the best answer might be to remove the spool and slide the tangles off the end of the spool like it was a spinning reel. This sort of thing is best done at home, under good light and with a clear head...grin. Garry2R's

The importance or unimportance of your lines visibility is a tough call. With a bait that is moving, or mostly moving, like a jig, crankbait, spinnerbait, top-water etc. I don't believe it is relevant. The fish see something escaping and reacts to it. On a dead drop like a senko, something that is drifting in the water column, like a roe bag or nymph or with a floating bait like a fly, drag is the biggest problem. The water column isn't all moving in the same direction, or at the same speed. This means that the line is being pulled in different directions and the bait doesn't move in a natural manner. The classic methods of dealing with drag are to "mend the line" and/or use a smaller diameter line. Mending the line means throwing some slack up stream or up wind so that the bait is less effected by other elements and of coarse thinner line has less cross section for things like wave action, wind and cross currents to pull on. In my area, just north of the Kawarthas, the water is very clear. On calm days I don't think 15lb. chartreuse banded Tracer or red 10 pound Power Pro bothers the fish. On windy days I am apt to tie on a fluorocarbon leader or put to switch to a spool of fluorocarbon. The fact that the fluoro sinks might be more important than the claimed invisibility. Braid floats and in the wind it gets pulled around, spoiling the illusion of something that is dead or drowning. Garry2R's

There has been a lot of chat about this line on US sites, where Nanofil has been available for several months. Most of the feedback is positive, but there's general agreement that the advertising claims are overblown...Nothing new about that is there?...HAHAHA. Basically, this is a fused line. A number of fibres are lined-up and melted together to form a single strand. Earlier on this thread I suggested that this sounded like an updated and improved Fireline Crystal. Nothing I have read so far tells me any different. In the past fused lines have been stiffer than braids, when new, and harder to knot. Some stiffness is desirable for spinning. A little "body" allows the line to follow the bail-wire onto the line roller more easily. Old Fireline was way underrated in strength. Fresh Fireline ten pound test broke at closer to fifteen pounds! This old line might have been purposely underrated because the paint finish soon came off and the line started fraying almost immediately. A Berkley Rep. said that Nanofil line is smaller in diameter than Fireline of the same (stated) strength and they use a different process than with the old stuff. He said that under magnification that the micro fibres could still be seen...I took that to mean seen under an outer "skin." He talked about their "coating" process and indicated that they are looking at introducing coloured line in the future. In my opinion that also indicates there is a top-coat on the line because we all know that paints and dyes won't stick to Spectra or Dyneema fibres. Further evidence of a skin came from folks who normally darkened the end of their braided lines using Magic Markers. According to these first reports, marker ink doesn't work on Nanofil. Another guy said that a short section of his Nanofil went flat and showed signs of internal twisting?!? Again, this makes me think of a separate outer coating. It would appear that Berkley has plasticized or melted the outer surface of this line creating a skin...However it was done, the upside is that it is very slick, and claims of slightly longer casts seem to be a fact. The downside of this slickness is knot slippage. If it's just a glaze, the question is; "How long does this coating last?" After reading through many pages of angler comments and several articles from writers, who received early samples to test, I have to conclude that most of the complaints are probably not the fault of the line. Knot failure is most often due to bad knot tying or poor knot selection. The Nanofil box comes with a couple of strong knot suggestions. Those who complained that their favourite knots slipped have no case. These were self-inflicted wounds. We should all understand by now that line twist is a fact of life with spinning tackle. Many baits tend to twirl on the retrieve and compound these inherent problems. Braid, by it's very nature, can absorb a lot of twist...Single filaments can not. According to Berkley, Nanofil is a single filament. That means that it should be expected to twist-up just as fast and just as badly as mono or fluoro. There is a learning curve with all new equipment and fishing line is no exception. Folks who try this line and stay with it may come to swear by it. Others who find it no improvement, or too much of a challenge, will head quickly back to what they used before. I will give Nanofil a try, because it just might turn out to be the next evolutionary step. A dedicated Spinning Line...A line providing the strength, small diameter and sensitivity of braid, with the slick finish and body of mono. Garry2R's

The 2500 might be a bit big IMHO. I use 1000's Garry2R's

I sometimes guide on Chandos for LMBass and SMBass plus Pike in the Spring. There are Lake Trout there too, if you want to troll for them. There is no winter fishing.

It sounds to me as if it is an up-dated Fireline Crystal. The line isn't braided, so it must be fused... Garry2'R

I sometimes use fluoro-leaders, but if I break one off, I usually retie straight to the braid. For several years I used Red PP in 10# test for weightless worms. The red seemed to show-up pretty well against the clear or slightly tannin tinted waters that I fish. I switched to 15# Tracer when it came out, and still have that on a couple of reels. This year I am using 10# Suffix 832 on one reel...Sometimes with a short leader...It is hard to see, but I tend to use that rod with a float, for Crappie etc. In a retro moment last week I spooled up a reel with 8# Fluorocarbon...It was as curly as heck and I broke off a huge SMBass on Sunday...In disgust I replaced that reel with a spare that was loaded with Tracer. If the bite is tough, I will add a short fluoro-leader, but day-in-day-out I don't think the fish care as long as the bait falls naturally. If you want to use a leader, learn the Albright knot. It's easy to tie, makes a very small knot and doesn't pick up weeds etc. like the Uni-Uni. Garry2R's

My friend told me that he doesn't think colour is very important because they all seem to work. He like the big ones and has been trying light wire leaders because of bite offs. He uses them on spinning tackle and basically fishes them with a dead drop, then short hops, like a T-rigged Senko. There is a Banjo Minnow web site with "how to" videos.

I have a friend, who is an excellent fisherman, and swears by the Banjo Minnow for pike and small mouth.

Try to be realistic about your goals. Rapala uses 70 feet as an average casting distance when they test what depth their lures reach on the retrieve. If you live in most cities 200 feet is from the far corner of your lot to the far side of the lot 3 or 4 houses away! Casts of that length are only made on the same lakes as where you find the broken down mini-vans full of Cheer Leaders.

From the sound of your post I think you have figured out that bait-cast reels work best with lures from 3/8th's of an ounce and up. With the right rod and reel, spinning gear can do a lot of things, but I only use it for senko type worms and lures under 1/4 ounce.

Think about where fish live...They like the same types of places on all lakes. Try not to be overwhelmed by big water. When I'm on a new lake I try to think of it in terms of a series of smaller waters...Here's the launch and to the left is a lily-pad cove...Fish there...Out a bit is point, fish there...Over there is an island, fish the ends...Okay, there's a weed-bed off of one end...Fish there, and so on. I generally fish for Bass. The key spots I look for are Points, Islands, Rocky-humps, Weed-beds, Bays, Channels, Rock-fields, Collapsed rock walls, Inlets and Outlets. You need to be able to cover three areas. The surface, the bottom and mid-depth. If you had a bag of Senko's a some split shot you could cover them all. Garry2R's

You need a decent reel, but you don't need a $300.00 model. I am using a little Curado 50 with great success. Practise is very important, you have to be able to thumb to do this cast. Setting the reel up is the key IMHO. This is how I set-up my reel... I turn on all of the centrifugal brakes. These brakes are meant to control the spool when it tries to accelerate faster than the line is going out. As when your pitching! The friction brake is not needed, loosen it right off. The friction brake adds drags to the spool axle so that the spool stops turning when the lure hits the water on an overhead cast. This constant drag slows the spool throughout the cast and costs you distance. This brake is for people who can't thumb. You can't Pitch if you can't thumb...Practise! Pitching and Flipping are short range casts and a long Pitch is only about 30 feet. These casts are used around heavy cover...You are very close to the fish. This is a stealth technique and the goal is to cast the bait close to the water so that it lands without a splash. Hold the bait, dip the rod tip then swing the rod tip up and out. You will let the bait slip out of your fingers and swing away from you... Let the line start to run off the reel as the bait reaches the bottom of it's arch. You want the bait to remain at about this same height above the water from there all the way to the target, not arch back up then fall down with a splash. You will stop the spool when the bait drops in, or reaches the target, then you will feed line to the bait, so it falls straight down. If you fined that you are lowering the rod tip as the bait reaches the target, and the bait settles without a splash, that is ideal! Unless you are using big heavy jigs and trailers, I think a 6.5 or 7ft medium rod is easier to pitch with. Garry2R's

I have 20# Trilene Big Game on a reel that I use on a medium 7ft. rod for flippin & pitchin. I find the traditional heavy action 7.5ft telescopic rods too stiff for the smaller jigs that I prefer. I also use 40# braid on one 6.5ft rod. Go with what you like...there are no rules...grin.

I have been doing the same things as you and I think it works just fine when we talk about excess grease in new spool bearings. My friend was talking about cleaning older reels. He warned that my solvent rinse will wash grit into the bearing and that spinning them evaporates the solvent, but can leave the grit behind... He soaks and cleans bearings then puts them in fresh cleaner inside a jar then puts the jar inside of an ultra-sonic cleaning tank. As I understand it, this basically vibrates any remaining micro-grit out while the bearings are soaking in a solvent bath. For me he suggested I use pressurized brake or carb cleaner, with the extension tube, so that the liquid could flow through the bearings and carry any grit away. After that using dry-air would dry the bearings without introducing any water vapour. If you are removing the bearings for cleaning this all works fine, but these solvents might not be safe for plastic parts or painted surfaces. Garry2R's

I spoke to a reel mechanic friend of mine about your problem. He mentioned that Shimano reels are notorious for having grease in the bearings...In fact he said he had received a brand new Curado for service this week. The reel was so "tight" that the spool wouldn't spin more than a couple of turns in free spool. He felt that something must be broken inside. Even he was surprised when after washing out the bearings, the spool would spin for more than 30 seconds. One thing he pointed out is that after washing the bearings with lighter fluid, or camp-stove fuel(white gas) etc, the bearings should be blown dry with a dry air source such as the canned air sold to clear keyboards.

Your point is good, but let's face it we aren't talking Pinto's here. We are talking Lincoln's! I would never disagree that I have had my good and fair use out of my old Stradic 1000FG with the white finish and the wooden handles...grin. The good news is that yesterday they still had two of the broken anti-reverse parts in stock, so mine will be repaired this time. My point is that next time, there won't be a part available, so a very good reel will have to be retired. The current non-plastic model Stradic is the FJ. There have been 3 new model since 2000 when I bought my FG. The improvements include a slower oscillation for better line lay, an improved drag, a tapered line roller that might be better, an oil port on the side cover that strikes me a odd because the worm gear, that it gives you access to, is a part that is normally greased...There is also a new profile on the spool lip, which is supposed to add casting distance, but that I think just causes braid to fall off the spool more easily. There are new gears too, but the old ones are still pretty smooth to me. The wooden handle is nice and I have never had dog hair cause the handle to bind on the old reel, but it does on my rubber handled MgFg. The biggest change over the years is that they shrunk the frame so that the 1000 spool is now on a 750 size frame. The smaller frame saves a little weight, but since it is in your hand, I don't really notice the difference in real life. Shimano was one of the first manufactures to have a reel positioned at every ten or fifteen dollar price point. Today they show 20 different spinning reels on their web site. Then they say there are too many parts...Go figure!!! Wake up Shimano...This is a self inflicted wound! Garry2R's

Two ideas... 1: It might be the rod. Light baits won't load up a Medium Heavy rod. 2: Try washing out your spool bearings and the bearing under the spool tension knob with lighter fluid and lightly re-oiling them. Higher end casting reels use sealed anti-rust bearings, but the Citica has plain SS bearings. These type are often greased to protect them in transit from Asia and while in storage etc. Garry2R's

This might have hit the board before, but it was news to me. Yesterday I dropped off a 12 year old Stradic to the reel repair depot at Shimano's head office in Peterborough. The two young guys manning the shop were pleasant but told me they might not have parts for such an old reel. It seems that Shimano's new policy, at least in Canada, is to only support reels for FIVE years after a model change. After that, if the part you need is out of stock, you are out of luck! In the past I have thought and said that it's very hard to choose between a $80.00 Sahara spinning reel and a $180.00 Stradic. It's harder still between the $100.00 Symetre and the Stradic. Because of the very fast technical trickle down, this years Symetre has all of the features that were introduced on the top-of-the-line reels only a couple of years ago. The more expensive models have better bearings and more metal parts, but so what, if there are no replacement parts?!?! Why not a new reel every few years? By the time the carbon/plastic frame starts to stretch or the non-sealed bearings get gritty, you can toss it to the kid next door or straight into the trash and get a brand new one. Since those better bearings, frames and metal parts might be smoother, but don't help your cast with spinning gear, in my opinion, the only excuses for paying a higher price was longevity and repair-ability. In the past I though this worked for me. However, since there is now a new model about every 3 years and the new five and out policy also comes with a second surprise, any repair will now cost $25.00 plus parts, Shimano has effectively removed the advantages that I saw in using their better spinning reels. I don't say that I haven't had good service from my old Stradic. It has only cost me about $15.00 a year to own so far and it might be another five or ten years before it needs parts again. On the other hand , I might have bought my last Stradic and I now know that I will never consider buying a Stella or even a Sustain. If you bought one of these high end beauties just before the new model hit, you might live through a $330.00 lose a few years down the road, but can you imagine the heart-shock of finding out you have a five year old $900.00 paper weight?!?! Garry2R's

Many years ago I had a book called Precision Trolling. There is an even better edition out now, that you can order on line. These books give you the running depth for all popular lures at a given line length. The data was based on a standard line. I believe it was 10 pound Trilene XT in my book. Trilene's XT is a large diameter line for it's strength. Ten pound is .014, which is around 12 pound test XL and about 50 pond test in Fireline braid. Each lure was given a graph. The graph showed the running depth for each foot of set-back...The length of line let out behind the boat. At some point each lure would stop going down...Most of the smaller diving lures that I used then, like the Shad Rap SR05, SR07 or SR08, would reach their maximum depth of about 11 or 12 ft on 125 to 150 feet of line. Beyond that line-length, water pressure against the line, would cause the bait to rise. Surprisingly, trolling speed had very little effect on the maximum running depth. If you use braid or mono of a smaller diameter than the XT you will get as much as 10% more depth but as you can see that's only an extra foot of depth. Whatever you use within reason won't change things very much. I don't think Fluorocarbon was tested in my book, but I suspect that the results would be about the same. It's not whether the line wants to float or sink, it's line diameter. Fatter line gets pushed up sooner, thinner line stays down and the lure digs deeper. I gave the book away a long time ago, but here are some hints. Today the max. running depth is marked on most lure boxes. Rapala has a small booklet that uses this same data, and shows graphs for most of their lures. Since Rapala uses the same data you might get one of their booklets for a fraction of the cost of the trolling book. Since I found 125 to 150 ft of set-back was normally where my lures ran their deepest, and since I didn't have a line-counter reel, to make life easier I put a brightly coloured bobber-stopper knot on my line at 150ft. Then I hand-pulled 50 yards (150ft) of line and tightened the stopper knot. I left the long ends of the knot-string untrimmed, to make it easier to see. After that I just ran the line out until the knot came off the reel and I knew I had the right set-back. If I stopped to cast the knot never came off the reel. Good luck Garry2rs

On small bass you probably don't need much of a hook-set with braid, since there is no stretch in the line and small bass have fairly soft mouths and narrow jaws. On a big fish I set the hook at least twice...HARD. I also shove the rod tip underwater if the fish start coming up! I don't want a big bass to jump because bass in the five pound and over class have very hard mouths. Crankbait hook points are often just sitting on top of the shell crushers that line their jaws. If the fish manages to break the surface I reel fast and pull sideways to prevent slack in the line. That's one of the nice things about using 30+ braid, you have plenty of extra muscle built-in. I have changed many of my crankbait hooks to a size or two larger in the short-shank Mustad KVD series. My opinion is that this helps with hook-ups because the wider gap is better at reaching beyond the hardest part of a good fish's jaw. For the last couple of years, I have been adding composite crankbait rods to my collection. I still use graphite in heavy cover, with all types of Frogs, Spinner and Buzz baits and Texas or C.rigs but the softer rods seem to enhance a crankbait's action and with 20 pound M/Fl. or 30 - 40 lb. braid, they don't hurt my hook-ups. Garry2rs

I have had a few St.Croix rods, three musky weight casting and at least two spinning, a trio of high end BPS, a few Shimano and about a dozen G.Loomis, perhaps three spinning, but mostly casting rods. Last year I started building my own... My favourite all time spinning rod, based on throwing senko-type worms and Flukes, which is what I do with spinning gear, is a 6'9" ML Avid. I don't know if they even make it anymore...This rod has landed many five pound bass, but it's soft enough that if a Fluke, catches on the edge of a lily-pad, it doesn't go into orbit when you pull/shake it loose. I have a beautiful 7ft. spinning GL3 Loomis, but I don't love it...I had a 7ft. Mojo, and sold it quickly. When I started building my own rods, I had to learn more about the rod blanks and I realized that the Loomis, and many of the others I have been less than thrilled with, were too stiff for the style of fishing that I do. I built a rod for my daughter, to throw senkos with, on an inexpensive Forecast blank. The action of this blank is more like a crankbait rod, so it is more progressive...I also built some casting rods for myself on crankbait blanks and found that the softer action suited me much better than the high modulus rods I had been using. Ten years ago, when I move to the Kawarthas, I threw a lot of spinnerbaits. They were a great all around bait for bass and the small musky i was catching around the shallow weeds and rocky shoals. Being new to the area, I was still using HM bass gear. Today I have moved toward square billed cranks and other shallow diving baits to cover the same part of the water column and don't want to catch a musky unless I am using the proper gear. In the past I wrote off a very nice crankbait rod because it was hard to get a good hook set on those small Musky. The problem was, although I like the rod, which was a G.Loomis crank-bait casting model, throwing spinnerbaits on it was all wrong! I needed the stiffness of a higher modulus graphite rod...At that time, I just didn't understand enough about the equipment I was using...None of us are born wise I guess...grin. At this point, I have a collection of G.Loomis rods that I plan to sell off and replace with my own home built ones. Not that mine will be better than Loomis! Mine will be good, because I will use very high-end guides and build carefully, they will have large diameter handles that are easy on my big old hands, and most important, I will think more about what I want to throw with each rod. Today we have many-many baits that all do the same thing. I love new baits, but my goal is to simplify my tackle box to contain what I like to use, and have rods that are designed around those baits. Garry

I'm not trying to pick a fight. Most of my spinning reels are Stradics, but a few years ago I bought some BPS reels on sale along with a couple of CTC combos to use as loaners for non-fishing friends and for beginner-clients to abuse. I was surprised at how good these basically $30-$40 reels were. They had nice smooth drags and cranked smoothly as well, at least when new...grin. I suppose this is because plastic castings can be made to quite close tolerances without any machining and it is more cost efficient to make one drag system that fits all size 2500 spools than to build separate systems for each model. However over the next couple of years most of these reels broke down and needed parts. The main problem was beginners would step, sit, lean or otherwise force the crank or revolving bail assemble back against the anti-reverse lug. On better reels this part is metal, but on cheap reels it is a piece of plastic, which sears off. In the case of the low end Diawa and Quantum reels, they were hardly worth fixing, and in the case of BPS reels no parts were available. It's no secret that I like Shimano, and it's because of the availability of parts...I know I am paying a little extra because there is a parts inventory. I also admit that a low end Shimano would no doubt have the same faults. Other brands, in any price range, may or may not be easily repairable down stream. I have been told that many "name" brands are in fact built by third parties. It's a fact the the grey Curado was not built in Japan. Shimano had contracted that model out to another part of Asia where costs were lower... Where do reels come from? Places like Cabela's and BPS contract for reels with certain spec's. The contract goes to the lowest bidder and a production run is made by someone like Tica. At the end of production, the moulds are scrapped or recycled and they go on to build for someone else. There might be a few parts out there when the design is new, but when the next model comes out it might be made in another shop all together. On the other hand, with most of these reels you are getting an awful lot for your money.