Garry2Rs

I cast bait-casters with two hands, that's the way I started as a kid and the habit stuck. In a practical sense, I think that two hands makes sense, since it puts my left in position to take the hand-off as the rod goes from right to left. I generally change hands while the bait is in the air and thumb with my left, most of the time. I also cast spinning rods with two hands...It just seems like it's easier to aim that way...it feels steadier...like a rifle vs a sixgun. Fish abuse makes no sense to me, but then I never slapped my kids either.

Flat rattle baits generally represent crayfish or feeding minnows. The heads are often weighted so they land on the bottom nose down. Rattle baits are generally fished very fast or ripped. To rip, in shallow water, you cast and allow the bait to sink to the bottom or into/onto weeds...Then wind down and rip with a sideways sweep. This explosion out of cover triggers the strike. You can also Yo-Yo, which is a slight variation on the rip, used in deeper water. Again, you cast and allow the bait to sink to the bottom....Reel down and rip the rod upward to hop the bait off the bottom. Reel fast to pick-up slack because the strike is usually on the fall....Allow the bait to sink to the bottom again, on a tight line, then jerk upward again. Be careful as the bait gets close to your boat. I have broken rods by jerking upward at too steep an angle, but it catches suspended or deep fish. On a straight retrieve, in shallow water, they are cranked and jerked so they skip along the bottom, if it's clear enough. If not, or in deeper water you keep them moving with a hard jerk, jerk, jerk, then a pause to let them flutter down, then jerk, jerk, jerk again.

Hi Johnny; This is a great time of year to join a Bass club. During the hard water season, each month there will be a meeting with an expert speaker. This will help get you through the winter. Try to join as a non-boater. That way you will ride the back deck in club tournaments, getting a first hand look at the way other guys fish their favourite baits. You will fish some places you might not have ever tried before and also see new areas on water you're familiar with. At the end of the day you have to wind-up a better angler for the experience. Good luck Garry2R's

With swimbaits I use a fairly slow steady retrieve, with the occasional jerk or pause. Unlike most crankbaits, you want the fish to get a good look at a swimbait. Slowing down was the hardest part. I know that I was fishing them too fast and imparting too much action in the beginning. My Ontario season is now over. I winterized the boat. In 8-10 days I will head south. I can't wait to get back to summer weather...grin. Garry2r's

Every Spring there seems to be a post about New Season Resolutions. Something like... "What new techniques do you plan to learn/master this year?" Most of us start out with good intentions. We tie the new bait on and work on technique...Until the bite gets tough...Often, we then fall back to our old "confidence" baits. Last spring I came home from the States with two new ideas...Hollow core braid with leaders inserted inside and big California style swimbaits. I did work on Swimbaits faithfully, throwing them for awhile almost every time I was out. They caught fish both big and small and I feel quite comfortable with them now. With toothy critters lurking in all my favourite lakes, the soft bodied swimbaits didn't survive very long. In a week or ten days I will head for Arizona. I have a shopping list of hard bodied swimbaits I want to acquire while I'm away. I used knotless leaders with the hollow core line all season as well. If you're not aware, the leader is slipped into the hollow space inside these specially braided lines. It is held in place by the friction of the line closing down on top of it, like a finger-trap. Since there are no knots, these leaders can be any length you want. Leaders longer than the rod are simply wound up onto the reel. For casting I seem to like the leader about the length of the rod, but the jury is still out on an exact formula...I'm using everything from 3 to 20 feet. My leaders are 15, 20 50 and 100 pound test on different rods. I used the 100 pound on my actual musky rods, but successfully landed three musky and several large pike on bass rods with 20 and 50 pound mono leaders. The net result of all this trial and error is that I am using fluoro or mono leaders all the time now. I can't swear this catches more fish, but it can't hurt. As a side light, this year an old friend encouraged me to use my old top water lures more. These old baits like the Hula-Popper and Jitterbug were lures that my friend and I used a lot when we were kids. Over time we got away from them, and I had forgotten how much fun they are! How did you make out with your New Season Resolutions? Garry2R's

How many brakes you wind up using will depend on the rod and your casting style. These brakes work at the beginning of the cast to keep the spool from out-accelerating the speed at which the bait is taking line out. Faster rods need more brakes as do harder casters. If you are a first time bait caster turn them all on until you start to cast smoothly. Tighten-up the spool brake under the crank handle until you almost have to bob the rod tip to make the lure move down. This is too tight, but it will stop birds nests when you forget to stop the spool with your thumb. Choose a target that is about 45 degrees above the water and make a few casts. Most folks need this high of a target because until they get the timing, for releasing the spool sorted out, they cast into the water about ten feet in front of themselves and get a big birds nest. Try casting with two hands in the beginning. This will help to smooth out your stroke. After a few casts your bait should be arching out smoothly, and stopping in the air. Now you can turn off two of the Centrifugal brakes. This will give you more distance and the bait should stop just as it hits the water. When you feel that you are using your thumb most of the time, loosen the spool brake off a hair. Adjust it until the bait settles to the water under it's own weight, but the spool stops on it's own. Wait a few days before make more adjustments, then try turning off one more centrifugal brake. If you hear or see loose line on the spool during the cast, turn that brake back on. You will find you need more brakes with bulky baits and under windy conditions. The key is to know why you are making a change. That way you will know what caused a problem if and when it comes. You must learn to stop the spool with your thumb. As you feel more confident, loosen the spool brake some more. Again this will give you more distance. In time many people are able to loosen this brake completely off and let their thumb do the work. For now, don't rush it. You need to acquire a nice smooth casting stroke and the habit of stopping the spool, every time, before you loosen things up too much. Don't forget to turn you wrist so that the reel is tilted 45 degrees during the cast. This will allow you extra flex in your wrist. Try to keep your elbows down at your sides during the cast...stretched out your arms puts strain on elbows and shoulders and doesn't add any distance to the cast. If you have any problems PM me. Good luck Garry2R's

Buy a low gear reel if you are going to cast them...HAHAHA.

If it's that brown one in the top left, they're the ones I used to use. they're a balsa wood, teardrop shaped diver, much like the Rapala DT-10. The finish used to crack after awhile, but they were a very good bass bait. You can twitch them on the surface near cover, then crank down. Garry2R's

If a person is not catching any fish it could be presumed that they are doing a number of things wrong. You can read and watch TV etc. but unless you have the basics, you might think the host or author is speaking Greek. You need someone to show you, and answer your specific questions...PM me.

When I did a lot of walleye trolling in the Grand River, I put a bobber-stopper on the line at 125 feet. That way I could put the lure out exactly the same distance every time. I used a chartreuse nail knot type stopper...The kind that come tied to a piece of plastic straw. The loose threads were left on, so that it was even easier to see it going out.

I don't know anything about them personally either Johnny. What I did read was that for many years Okuma built reels for private labels, before deciding to offer reels under their own name. Tica is another Asian company that went the same route. At least with these guys there should be some parts someplace. With third party reels, once the order is filled, the actual manufacturer might completely retool for the next client. Even when you detect a family resemblance between a BPS or Cabela's house brand and some other reel, the internal spec.s for the two reels could be quite different, metal vs. plastic parts, quality of bearings, etc. etc. What most people don't know is that many old names in the business are now owned by importers who don't make anything. They order from people like Okuma and trade on the name familiarity of the old brand. I think this is what is called "Good Will" in the business world.

About new spool profiles and cross winding the line etc... 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??? Anyway, the Big Names have to have something new and improved every couple of years to keep us coming back and to give the Talking Heads and writers something to go on about...HAHAHA! On the subject of cheaper reels... If I was going to buy cheap, I think I'd look at Okuma. They seem to give you a lot of bang-for-the-buck. There might even be parts out there... Okuma is a manufacturer, other low-end reels are generally relabelled items made by anonymous third parties. Garry2R's

I don't think that they can be repaired. I was talking to the marina about one of mine, and they told me I would have to replace it.

Since spending more money on a spinning reel doesn't help your cast at all, is it worth paying $100.00 or more for a new reel? These days, with a different model available at every five-dollar price point, how do you know when you have spent enough, but not too much? With the big name brand companies, as refinements are added to their top end reels, technological-trickle-down has improved their lower models to the point that, in most cases, the cheaper reels feel about the same as the good ones. Since I couldn't tell the difference myself, a couple of years ago I bought some $40.00 reels for friends and clients to use. The first thing I noticed was that the aluminum paint wears off of the plastic/fibre bodies quite easily. After two years, most these reels are still working. They have had tough lives, having had a through workout in the hands of children and amateurs. There have been some fatal problems. Not just the frame or body parts of lower end reels are made of synthetic materials...Internal parts are also made of plastic. The first problem I had was a clumsy footed person accidentally stepped on a reel...The anti reverse cog broke off. Of coarse, even if parts were available, these reels are not worth the cost of fixing. Having tried the lower-end stuff, I have concluded that quality is worth the price. Obviously this was not a definitive study, and there might be reels priced in between $40.00 and $100.00 that feature metal parts. I have several spinning reels that retail at over $100.00, but for my money, the Shimano Stradic is the point of diminishing returns. They are light, strong and they work! I have used Stradic's for the last ten years. I like them so well that last year I bought another, that I didn't need, when the magnesium model was discontinued. A few years ago my oldest 1000 had it's drive shaft replaced by Shimano in Peterborough, at no charge. There are still parts available if they should need repairs in the future and Shimano is in Canada so there are no cross boarder shipping issues. Garry2R's

I had an old friend up for a visit and some fishing this week. Sunday we watched NFL football, but we fished four out of five days during the rest of the week. Thursday it poured all day so we stayed home. It rained on the other days too, but we still got a few hours in between showers. My buddy is older than me and because of a balance problem, can no longer stand up in the boat. We have to stay on small lakes because with poor equilibrium, he no longer feels safe in anything approaching rough water. He tells me, with a grin, that "Getting old is not for Sissy's!" It's always good to get together with our friends. This is especially so as we get older...grin. At this point, the fishing has become just an excuse to spend time together...But, even with all these restrictions we managed to catch a few nice fish. Garry2R's

Browning reels seem to be a BPS house brand now. Their head office is in Springfield Missouri. You might try phoning them for parts. I have sent many reels to Pro Reel service in Wichita Kansas. Kevin does good work at a reasonable price and he might have parts...Click here... Before you go any farther, sometimes all that is needed is fix a spinning reel is to correct the bend of the bail...If the bail has been deformed, it will bind when it tries to close. Look at the end pieces and see if re-arching the bail might do the trick. Also, most Pro's close their bail by hand, some say it cuts down on line twist. With braid I close the bail by hand and move the line onto the pick-up roller. This saves having loose line jump off the spool or wind around the front of the reel. Give me a call if you are doing anything that will require mailing to and from the USA. I will be going south for the winter, in a couple of weeks, and can save you money on postage etc.

You could buy another cheap reel and throw it away when it needs service, but I would look at the Shimano Saros or Stradic. They are about as good as a spinning reels get and with Shimano, service and parts aren't going to be an issue.

You can convert many of those units to remote control. The remote is like a wrist-watch type of unit. I think that the conversion kit is about $300.00 but it permanently cures the pedal problem. Of coarse there is also the convenience of being able to control the trolling motor from anywhere on the boat.

We hooked 6 good bass in that area last weekend. Two on split-shot rigs dragged along a sharp break-line. Three on weightless Senko's cast to weeds, rocks and docks and one on a shallow crank bait. I can't give you any areas to try because I have only fished that lake for Pike in the spring. Garry2R's

I understand you want to use Senko type worms or soft swimbaits. I assume you aren't talking about anything over about 1/2 an ounce in weight... I'm not sure where on the line you want to use this swivel or what type and weight of line you're using. If you are using a fluorocarbon leader and the swivel is just a connection, throw it away and use a uni-uni or an Albright knot to join the two lines. If you are talking about a snap-swivel, it's not appropriate for these baits. Just tie the hook directly to the line or to your leader. Some guys use a swivel on Split-shot rigs and a swivel is part of the heavier Carolina rig. These are rigs that you drag slowly across the bottom...However, I don't think that's what you were asking about. Garry2R's

Congratulations on a great catch!

On Sunday September the 5th we went to explore a "new to me" lake in the East Kawarthas near the town of Buckhorn. If you know where I mean, keep it to yourself. The cast and crew included my neighbour Mike his 11 year old daughter Natalie... If you have been around this board for any length of time, you will know that this little girl has been fishing with me for the last 5 years and is as good a fisher-person as any adult I know. With tropical storm "Earl" passing to the east of us, the weather this week has been the craps! Everyday has had it's share of cloud, rain, wind, rain, sun, cloud, rain, wind etc, etc. Let it be known that we aren't city kids, we're not sugar and won't melt. On the other-hand we live here, so we don't have to fish today or else! In the interest of comfort and safety we've written off one day after another until Saturday night when we decided to chance it Sunday, come-what-may. In truth, Sunday morning wasn't a great looking day. It was overcast with high winds...At the same time, we knew that our time was getting short. we had to ask ourselves; Do you want to gamble on Monday when school restarts on Tuesday? I said it was blowing hard Sunday morning, and no boatman likes to battle a heavy wind, but as all we all know, on every lake there are degrees of rough water. Even with white-caps on the main part of a smaller lakes, you can still fish, by running with the wind, on one side and hiding along the lee-shore, on the other side of the lake. I have already said, this was our first time on this lake...So with no knowledge going into a new lake...What to do? We motored around a bit and certainly we may have missed many things, but as far as we could tell, other than a few long shallow flats/points there seemed to be very little structure...Can you say "big oblong soup-bowl?" How to start on any new lake? That's easy...After all fish are fish aren't they? These are my first three targets...Soft objects (cover) like weeds and hard objects (structure) like rocks/docks, then the first break-line between the shallow and deep water. So, what happened? We found a few fish on a very tough day. If there are two sides to every story, on this one the downside is we hooked and lost a couple of very good LMBass...On the upside, we landed three SMBass that were over three pound each. I'm not just guessing about the weights, we weighed them on a digital scale. This one hit a chubby Japanese crank-bait... This one bit a weightless pink Senko type worm, wacky rigged... This one hit a brown Strike King Octagonal worm on a split-shot rig... Three good fish on different techniques, but each technique related to the depth/cover/structure. Garry2R's

I have two Stradic 1000's. One is on a ML 6'9" Avid and the other on a 7' ML G.Loomis GL-3 rod. These are my Fluke/Senko rods and I use them for baits of 1/4 ounce or less. In my opinion, these smaller reels are just the right size for these rods and baits. Garry2R's

Spinnerbait in Black. The blades would be Silver or Gold for the flash, on a sunny day, Orange or Chartreuse, for visibility on a cloudy day. Garry2R's

Boca Orange Seal's are great bearings. However they are ceramic and not everyone likes the sound of them. They are also after-market bearings and not what we were talking about. I said the A-RB's are as good as any Stainless Steel bearings available and I believe that is true. Garry2R's