Garry2Rs

Can't you just picture Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson up on the podium, leaning on his cane, taking a medal? Gray Power!

My season started with Crappie in May when I returned to Ontario. I found that I had missed the prime bite because of the mild winter and early Spring. The water was very low everywhere up here, so when Pike opened in the lake I like, we were at August levels...I did well opening weekend, but then the weather got hot and the pike disappeared from the shallows. Low water and early spring aside, Bass season started really well. Unfortunately I tripped jumping out of my pick-up's box and tore up my ACL on July first. That cost me all of July and I am still recovering. Through August and September my fishing has been very sporadic. Low water has made passable spots impassable and normally good spots barren. We all know that the fish are always there...What I'm saying is every trip requires finding their new low water spots. I hope to rescue the balance of the season when I get down south. We have a new fishing friend next door, and hope to spend many warm days fishing with her this Fall. I have some rods to build, when it gets cool down there, then in the Spring, we can look at the pre-spawn and spawn before I return home. Garry2R's

Some folks, like myself, live in fishing country. We have an advantage in that we can practically drop a line on the way home from the grocery store. Additionally, by going south I gain several months of open water and open season that my frozen friends in Ontario won't have. However even with all that, I would find it impossible to fish 250 days a year...To accomplish that, a guy would have to fish 4.8 days a week, in all 12 months! That sure wouldn't leave much time for Xmas, New Years, illness, birthday parties, Grey Cup, Superbowl, Stanley Cup, hang overs, car repairs, shopping, laundry, keeping the peace with your girl friends or a job.

In my opinion there are already too many diversions and games being called "sports" in the Olympics. We already have artistic ribbon twirling, what's next Olympic Texas Hold'em?

Oops...I thought this thread was hinting that the Jays could win a few more games by playing in the Minors.

Bass Pro sells a rod handle tape that works but stains the cork. I like leather Tennis Racket handle tape myself. Many new rods seem to be coming in with skeleton grips or very small diameter handles. These look sleek and that's fine in a style sense, but not much good for guys like me with big paws and a touch of arthritis. Glad to hear that I'm not the only guy that thinks the latest handles are too small and/or too slippery! I will add "Choice of larger grips" to my list of good reasons to support your custom rod builder!

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Sorry Chris, it was my daughter's birthday and I spent all my time with her. I'm sure you can understand. Garry

I was down to visit family and friends in the city on the weekend. In my travels I stopped at the Sail store in Burlington. I picked up a Saros Reel on sale for $100.00 and a spool of white 832 line. The line is marked down to less than $20.00. In the past I have used white line and had no problems. Usually I start be dying the last six feet black with a Magic Marker. Whether this improves my catch, or not, I'm not sure... Since no braid holds it's colour, we all wind up using very light coloured braid after awhile. Anyway, If you're in the market for new braid, this is a good deal. Garry2R's

The Tracer is a much better line than the old fused black or crystal. Tracer is braided using 8 strands and is round and smooth. Like all braids the flashy paint soon wears off. I don't think bass mind the bright end, but if your worried, perhaps a leader might be in order.

Fuji New Concept Guides have been around for a few years. The basic idea is a scientific guide lay-out to get the line, coming off the reel, under control quickly. This gives the angler longer casts. There are a number of formulas to calculate this guide layout, but at a spot, roughly 27 times the diameter of the reel spool, there will be a guide that is often called "the choker guide." All line wobble will stop at this point and the line will flow straight and smoothly out the rod tip. This works best on a custom made rod, where the exact reel that will be used, and it's spool size are known. The latest development is a guide that also reduces tangles and furthers the gains made through using the New Concept. Over the last year Fuji has introduced the "K" series of guides. Some custom builders and a couple of rod companies, like Rapala Canada are using these new guides, However the whole idea and how it all works might be a little fuzzy to most folks. Since the Inmates here at OFC are among the best informed anglers around, I thought some of you might like to see this video from Fuji. "K" Series guides link Scroll down the page a couple of inches to find the video...

Nice stuff Chris!

This isn't a very good time to be shore fishing for pike. Pike don't like warm water and go deep in the summer. Having said that, there are generally some smaller pike in the shallows at all times of year. Spinnerbaits are good pike baits, available in whatever weight you prefer and are very snag resistant. They only have one hook (or two if you use a trailer) and the hook, or hooks, face upward...The wire spinner arm acts as a natural weed/snag guard. Think about stopping the line with your hand, at the end of the cast, closing the bail quickly and getting any slack out of the line, so that the bait doesn't sink to the bottom and fall on it's side. This is a big rookie error that negates the snag resistant feature of the bait. Rapala Husky Jerks and other brands, don't go very deep if you fish them as jerk-baits. Here's the drill: Cast out...Pick-up all but about two or three feet of slack...Make a sweep/jerk with the rod tip...Pick up all but about two or three feet of slack and sweep the rod tip again...Etc. If you are over or in a good looking spot, the sweep/jerk can be quite subtle...Only a few inches. You want to keep the bait in the strike-zone as long as possible! What you are doing by starting and ending with slack in the line is causing the baits to dive and coast...When you jerk again the bait changes direction, underwater. On the surface this would be called "walking-the-dog." These baits only dive to about 4-6 feet. As you near shore, raise your rod tip and use shorter jerks to keep the bait from going too deep and snagging.

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HTHM stopped in over night on his way home. We got out this morning for some Bass. It was a short day because Albert was anxious to get home after a week on the road. We caught a bunch and lost a few on plastic toads, but we really did okay with 4 inch senko-type worms...

I bought a reel through American Legacy last summer. They seem to be good people to deal with. I asked them to send my reel USPS they said "No problem." I don't think I paid anything extra at the boarder.

What are you saying? There's not a great trout and salmon fishery in the Mississippi? HAHAHA...But then again, when have you ever known a reporter to get the story right?

Start by cleaning the brake drum with lighter fluid. It might have some packing grease on it from the factory. Be sure there is oil on the spool bearings, it might have dried out in storage. One of the bearings is under the spool tension knob, you have to remove the knob to reach it. Put three brakes on and try again. You might need three or four on some days. The smoother the bearings the more brakes you need because the spool spins easier.

Winning teams aren't built with trades until all the pieces are in place. They are built by drafting wisely then staying with the young players while they develop. There won't be a Stanley Cup team in Toronto until the fans, fired-up by the local sports press, stop screaming for quick fixes. You have to except that neither Rome not a winning team is built in a day. For almost 50 years the Leafs had traded the future for retreads to "save the season." Look how well it has worked!!! Does anyone remember the sporting press bemoaning the stupid way Pat Gillick wouldn't make a trade while building the Blue Jays?...They called him "Stand-Pat"...So how did that work out? I guess that's why sports writers aren't General Managers...HAHAHA.

My three Chronarch's are the old gold painted SF models. Compared to the Core and the Gen 2 Revo they are big and quite heavy. I have used the Core...It's nice, but I just can't get my head around paying more money for a plastic body reel! I used a Generation 2 Revo last week. We were jerk-baiting for Pike and switched off rods so my friend could try one of my hand made ones. His Revo seemed very small in my mitt and felt sort of frail. I don't doubt it's a great reel, but I have large hands and to me, it felt tiny. I suppose that's why I jumped all over the news of an even smaller version today...grin. High speed reels were designed for quickly picking up line while using bait dragging type techniques...Texas rig worms, Jig and Pig, Split-shot or Carolina rigs etc. These are presentations where you pull/drag/hop the bait along the bottom with the rod, then pick-up slack and pull again. As reels and spools shrank over the last few years, it became impossible to give the angler the normal 24 to 28 inches of line pick-up per crank without increasing the gear ratios. That's fine for the drag type presentations, but I'll bet 90% of the guys who own reels with these "Burner" type 7:1 gears are throwing crank-baits with them. This might be okay with small baits, but as the bait or the diving lip gets bigger, it's like peddling a bike up hill in high gear...With your wrist! These guys are wearing themselves out for no good reason. Meanwhile, the reel manufactures are tell us Ship...wink...is Shinola!

Good point Chris. I'll suggest one more from the rod building side. A set of mini guides will save move weight and improve the action of any casting rod. However if lighter is better in today's market, maybe we could approach McDonald's with a similar idea... Cut the 1/4 pounder to down to 3/16th and advertise it as an upgrade...HAHAHA.

Fishing Insider has a stories today, and at least one store is already taking pre-orders for, a new series of Abu Revo casting reels. These third generation Revo's are lighter by 20% thanks to shrinking and space-age plastic side covers. They are also stronger thanks to a new gear set and redesigned gear case. The profile, of what was already a small reel, has been lowered, and the spool widened. This is said to improve casting...(?)...One model of the STX will offer an 8:1 gear ratio. Okay fine...Let's look this gift horse in the mouth. I understand we have an aging population, but I don't understand why we need these ultra-light reels. Especially if we have to give up metal to save these trivial amounts of weight. Personally I don't want plastic parts, even if they are NASA approved. The bottom line is the reel is between your hands. This is where you will notice any weight savings the least. This whole gear ratio thing is a hoax, in my opinion. Until about ten years ago we used 5.3 for cranks and the 6.3:1 was considered blazing fast...How come we "need" 7:1 and now 8:1 gears today? Let's look closer. All makers have been leaning down their better reels for the last ten years. To shave some weight and retain frame strength, they have shrunk and re shrunk the reels frame. Now the old spool is too big, so they shrink it too, but oh-oh, now with a smaller diameter spool the gears won't pick up as much line as on the old model...What to do? Well kids, there's an old saying in sales..."If you have a problem, Brag about it!" They stick in 7:1 and now 8:1 gears knowing that these will be harder to crank, but they tell the consumer "It's an up-grade." Hee-Haw! A wide spool doesn't improve casting, except in the friction-less world of an advertising department. Since the level wide no longer moves during the cast, a wider spool means that the line has to travel at sharper angles to pass through the eye in the level wind...Wider angles equal more friction, more friction equals loss of line speed which leads directly to shorter casts, do not pass GO and do not collect $200.00. One more thought... Most North American fishing product launches take place at the I-Cast show in mid-July. Why would Abu jump the gun? One thing is that Shimano generally grabs the award for best new reel...I wonder if we will see a replacement for the real Chronarch, that was dropped last year and replaced by a relabeled Curado? Right now there's a huge price gap between the Chron-ado and the Core...

My toads are fished very fast, like a buzz-bait... I like the hollow body stuff too, but fish them slower, with more finesse. Back a few years I loved Flukes, but they were a little fragile. The solid body frog/toads are more durable and can be fished faster. Some blow-ups are small fish just grabbing a foot, or the skirt etc. I try to stop reeling when this happens. There is often a larger fish trailing... If the bait goes dead in the water, or even sinks a bit, the big fish will often move up and grab the cripple.

It may be too late for top-water in my favourite weedy bay, but I will be in the Northeast Kawartha's with a plastic toad. If the doesn't work out I will move on to more open shallow water. If that doesn't work, it will be Senko time around rocks and docks...grin. Last week on a musky hunt I had plenty of bass action on a Jerk-bait and a large spinner-bait, but I'm looking forward to using plastics, until I'm forced to change my mind.

You have to remember that most of the Good-Ol-Boys with American TV shows made their bones back in the 70's and 80's. Bill Dance, Roland Martin, Hank Parker, Jimmy Houston and Denny Brauer are from the age of heavy mono and unexposed Texas rigged worms with a slip sinker or Jig and Pig with real 1/2 inch thick pork chunks with leather backs...Those chunks and worms weren't as soft as the plastics we use today, and these guys all predate the invention of Extra-Wide-Gap (EWG) hooks. Back then, worm hooks looked like jig hooks with the eye turned back inline with the hook point...The angler had to compensate for line stretch, and drive the hook point through their tough baits. Very often the worm would slide down the hook shank and ball-up in the bend of the hook making the job of setting the hook that much harder. Two other points...Worms in that era were unsalted etc. You had to set the hook as soon as you felt a bump because fish spit them out quickly, and second the crushing plates, that act as teeth, for a Bass of 5 pound or more, are wide and almost as tough as bone...Yes their hook set was exaggerated, but they got paid for what they weighed-in, not the ones that flipped off!