first post

[saltydog]

Welcome to the Darkside, and there is no cure for reel flu but more reels....

[T Rad]

Salty Dog, thanks a lot! So far I still have my old red 5000 from the 70's, used all those years, along with a 5000c acquired used a little later, a recently acquired D, a one 5000, 5000AL, and a V5000 that I will have to buy a spool for, all gifts for work done accept the first 2. I love it. My "clients" usually don't have money so a "thanks" or an old reel is enough for me. That means I learned tricks like a piece of rag or felt or ball point pen spring under an old pawl so it would go another year or two. Usually works just fine. We won't win any prizes for looks or casting distance with those kinds of "fixes" but we will keep fishing a little longer! For us old guys, a little longer is just fine!

[BMITCH]

Welcome to all that I haven't had a chance to reach out to.
Bob in NJ

[PuddlePirate]

Hello, first post, no more lurking....this REEL NUT is now onboard LOL! I've followed Alan's advise over the past decade or so, on the Internet - via the various fishing forums - Thanks Alan! Started lurking here a few days ago, stumbling onto the site by Googling Reel Repair Forums. Noted Mike's ABU forum up in Canada and was tickled to find Alan's portal here, full of wide ranging reel knowledge, mods, tools, you name it......Y'ALL ROCK! I had to join the madness! 

I'm a retired US Coast Guard veteran..so you can only imagine what was left to do, after pulling a day or so of duty. My reel collection ranges from an old 50s or 60s vintage ABU 5000 (white pearl handles), my first real expensive reel purchase an old 1973 ABU 5500 C (black), Penn 140s, JigMasters, the first generation ABU 7000, ABU XLT1 Synchro, ABU Promax variants on into the Shimano Curados/Citicas, Daiwa 600 & 900H series, Penn Senators, Newells, Penn Squalls and more recently AKIOS 757 & 666 and a single Galvan 8 weight fly reel with 3 spools. I build custom rods, and do basic reel upgrades to my gear to improve functionality and performance within my meager abilities to do so. I'm looking forward to learning and sharing here as the years roll on.

I've been an hard core surf fishing nut for many years.....still have my self built Bamboo Calcutta long blank with home shaped cork grips. This old blank was used with a Jigmaster strapped down onto a rope reel seat base via hose clamps. Old Varmac chromed guides and squidding braid 30lb test for my mainline. I still own 3 original Fenwick surf blanks, two from 1972 and one from 1983 but have moved into the world of Graphite using a Carolina Cast Pro and three Rainshadow blanks 10ft - 13ft. My plug and popping tackle is MHx, GLoomis and a few old Fenwicks. In the process of building a few fly rods and own a TFO 8 wt BVK.

Made an old school Penn Squidder mod that basically was a round piece of leather, inside the left side plate, spinning around on that side's axle, inside the star\clicker piece, controlling over run during hard casts. It was primitive but, it certainly worked in keeping that first second or so of launch in overrun check.

I have a Technical Poling Skiff, 17ft Sundancer, which is used to chase inshore species along the South Texas coastline, sight casting & poling flats with fly and plugging gear. I also fish Lake Calaveras near San Antonio, chasing freshwater redfish, stocked by the power company as well as Choke Canyon reservoir for black bass and the Guadalupe River, via kayak, for Guadalupe, Black and Small mouth bass with a winter mix of stocked rainbow trout.

Yes...I'm a sick puppy for gear and fishing....so I feel I fell into fine company here! LOL!

[Shark Hunter]

Puddle Pirate Huh?
You are in the right place for your sickness. Welcome!
You build any heavy duty 130lb class rods for these?

[PuddlePirate]

Puddle Pirate Huh?
You are in the right place for your sickness. Welcome!
You build any heavy duty 130lb class rods for these?

Nice Senators! Handle mods are very nice and usable!

Puddle Pirate is an inside military slang for CoastGuardsman. Much like Squid for Navy or Jarhead for Marines.

I have years ago during my days living in South Florida (1987 - 1991). Built up a standup rod, roller rod with bent aluminum butt (fighting seat) as well as a steel line rod for a Coast Guard Commander who wanted a matching set for his offshore boat. IGFA 50 - 130 for the bigger pair and 30 - 50 for the steel line rod (wahoo stick).

These blanks are typically 5'8" to 6' for the 130 class and depending on the application, some are ring guide (beach and sand for shark) or roller guide (offshore trolling) with butts suitable for the style of fishing. From the beach, keeping roller guides at a minimum, opting to use a roller tip only, helps control sand issues. Even though many will keep their gear out of the sand, here in South Texas, the wind can blow pretty hard up the beach from the south, carrying sand particles which always find a way into the smallest spots. That coupled with a very saline Western Gulf of Mexico, salt deposits build up and dry into white crystal particles around the rings and rollers during bait retrieves as well as lots of Sargassum seaweed, mixed with sand particles. No rollers on the sand, except for maybe the tip, is the choice of most shark setups.

I do a lot of shark fishing along Padre Island National seashore and my rod of choice there, is a cut down Fenwick blank that measures 10.5ft, single piece, the old honey colored blanks that have long since been retired. It started as a 14ft blank, I cut it back from the tip, making the tip sized to the largest tip ring guide Fuji makes before going to roller. I use a Daiwa 900H (Penn 9/0 size for comparison) and or a Daiwa 600H (Penn 6/0), depending on my bait offering. The extra length in the blank allows me to elevate my mainline over the nearshore breakers, breakers that are typically full of Sargassum seaweed as well as providing a little more elevation for my long sets, to allow the line to clear over the first 3 sandbars, where the wave action over these bars are rough and full of shells.

I've sized down my shark reels now. I lay around 1500 yards of 65lb test braid (PowerPro) and top shot around 300 yards of 65lb mono (Big Game) which allows me to spool a huge amount of backing with enough mono on the working end, to provide a bit of stretch to counter strong surges from the fish. This also allows me to cut off that mono section for fast change out, if and when the working end gets worn from shell and or chaffed from use to a point, it's unreliable.

I also use a stand up 130lb class straight butt, ring guide rod, with Numark Port Mansfield stand up fighting belt on the 900H. This setup is used when running a good sized stingray bait and or albacore head or other suitable big bait offerings, if and when the shortfin makos swim Padre Island during early winter. The 900H has around 1800 yards of total line and I can make sets out to 400 yards with this reel.  

My lightweight shark setups, aimed more for 4 - 6ft blacktips and bull sharks, I will use the 600H and or Senator 4/0 wide on a 11.5ft Fenwick casting blank (single piece) with Fuji ring guides. It's light enough to fish all day and spooling 40lb braid with a mono top shot, there is plenty of backing to handle this class of shark with a lot of work to land - light tackle essentially for sharks.

I use a kayak to deploy baits (Ocean Kayak Frenzy) and make sets anywhere from the outer 3rd sandbar out to the 5th or 6th sandbar, 300 - 400 yards off the sand.



Here's my Daiwa 600H on the Fenwick 10.5 with a typical Western Gulf blacktip.

[PuddlePirate]

Puddle Pirate Huh?
You are in the right place for your sickness. Welcome!
You build any heavy duty 130lb class rods for these?

Nice Senators! Handle mods are very nice and usable!

I have years ago during my days living in South Florida (1987 - 1991). Built up a standup rod, roller rod with bent aluminum butt (fighting seat) as well as a steel line rod for a Coast Guard Commander who wanted a matching set for his offshore boat. IGFA 50 - 130 for the bigger pair and 30 - 50 for the steel line rod (wahoo stick).

These blanks are typically 5'8" to 6' for the 130 class and depending on the application, some are ring guide (beach and sand for shark) or roller guide (offshore trolling) with butts suitable for the style of fishing. From the beach, keeping roller guides at a minimum, opting to use a roller tip only, helps control sand issues. Even though many will keep their gear out of the sand, here in South Texas, the wind can blow pretty hard up the beach from the south, carrying sand particles which always find a way into the smallest spots. That coupled with a very saline Western Gulf of Mexico, salt deposits build up and dry into white crystal particles around the rings and rollers during bait retrieves as well as lots of Sargassum seaweed, mixed with sand particles. No rollers on the sand, except for maybe the tip, is the choice of most shark setups.

I do a lot of shark fishing along Padre Island National seashore and my rod of choice there, is a cut down Fenwick blank that measures 10.5ft, single piece, the old honey colored blanks that have long since been retired. It started as a 14ft blank, I cut it back from the tip, making the tip sized to the largest tip ring guide Fuji makes before going to roller. I use a Daiwa 900H (Penn 9/0 size for comparison) and or a Daiwa 600H (Penn 6/0), depending on my bait offering. The extra length in the blank allows me to elevate my mainline over the nearshore breakers, breakers that are typically full of Sargassum seaweed as well as providing a little more elevation for my long sets, to allow the line to clear over the first 3 sandbars, where the wave action over these bars are rough and full of shells.

I've sized down my shark reels now. I lay around 1500 yards of 65lb test braid (PowerPro) and top shot around 300 yards of 65lb mono (Big Game) which allows me to spool a huge amount of backing with enough mono on the working end, to provide a bit of stretch to counter strong surges from the fish. This also allows me to cut off that mono section for fast change out, if and when the working end gets worn from shell and or chaffed from use to a point, it's unreliable.

I also use a stand up 130lb class straight butt, ring guide rod - Senator 130 class, with Numark Port Mansfield stand up fighting belt on the 900H. This setup is used when running a good sized stingray bait and or albacore head or other suitable big bait offerings, if and when the shortfin makos swim Padre Island during early winter. The 900H has around 1800 yards of total line and I can make sets out to 400 yards with this reel.  

My lightweight shark setups, aimed more for 4 - 6ft blacktips and bull sharks, I will use the 600H and or Senator 4/0 wide on a 11.5ft Fenwick casting blank (single piece) with Fuji ring guides. It's light enough to fish all day and spooling 40lb braid with a mono top shot, there is plenty of backing to handle this class of shark with a lot of work to land - light tackle essentially for sharks.

I use a kayak to deploy baits (Ocean Kayak Frenzy) and make sets anywhere from the outer 3rd sandbar out to the 5th or 6th sandbar, 300 - 400 yards off the sand.

[Dynamo]

"Here's my Daiwa 600H on the Fenwick 10.5"

This Fenwick, which model is it? What kind of action does it have? Any specs, perhaps? BTW, welcome to the site. You will love it .

[PuddlePirate]

"Here's my Daiwa 600H on the Fenwick 10.5"

This Fenwick, which model is it? What kind of action does it have? Any specs, perhaps? BTW, welcome to the site. You will love it .

Thank you Dynamo, and yes, in with many with the same passion! I have a lot to learn, many here are simply ingenious with mechanical mods and tweaks.

That old cut-down Fenwick was purchased in a hunting\fishing store in Virginia near Norfolk. I can't remember the name of this place to save my life. It was a 2 story place with a lot of gear as well as mounts on the walls. The blank is a Fenwick SU 16810, 14ft and rated at 10 (scale rates 1 - 10 for Fenwick blank power). I cut her down to 10' 6" from the tip, wishing I had opted to make it 12ft in hindsite to enhance castability but, during these years my mind was locked on sharks from the sand and power was more important than parabolic action. This blank will cast 6 ounces of lead, with a Newell P338J right at 100 - 110 yards. Add a bait and this distance is cut down considerably, making 80 yards more realistic. I've been spooled with the P338J filled with 30lb mono on the Avon fishing pier (big shark) and spooled one more time in Biscayne Bay - Miami Florida (free lined live foot long mullet - targeting tarpon - spooled by a shark) a second time LOL! Both times I simply held on before all went POP. LOL!

Speaking of spooled.....I fished Padre Island National seashore, the weekend prior to our recent Government shut-down. Using a Shimano Curado 200E7, spooled with PLine 10lb test Flourocarbon, casting a 1/4 oz leadhead jig and a "Chicken on a Chain" colored paddletail plastic swim bait at sun rise. Making casts, paralleling the sand and working the first wade gut, I hooked up big. So big, my Shimano got spooled in moments, as "Mr. Whatever" cleared the outer 3rd sandbar. My target was slot redfish, speckled trout and the occassional skipjack of spanish mackerel, chasing massive schools of dusky anchovies migrating south to Mexico by the millions, big fish simply hammered and burned me out of 24 bucks of fluorocarbon  LOL! My thought, big redfish around the 35+ inch variety and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bit over 40" either 

Fish or cut bait! There are times the gear is perfect for the presentation but, darn the luck LOL!

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

welcome to the "neighborhood"...

[Dynamo]

"That old cut-down Fenwick was purchased in a hunting\fishing store in Virginia near Norfolk"

Hey, I live near Norfolk! Thanks for the specs on that rod, is it was a Palm Beach style build, or did you just build it like a surfcasting rod?

[PuddlePirate]

I built it like a surf casting rod with split grips so I can use it like an 8 & bait if and when I opt to use a Newell P338-J for casting smaller baits, not targeting sharks. If and when you need to heave 8 - 10 ounces, the Newell fits the bill nicely with backing to hold some decent ground if you do end up with a 4 - 6ft shark on the line, which is always a possibility in the Gulf.

Here's that same blank with my son, rigged with the 4/0 wide. This is more of a ultra light setup for sharking, if there is such a thing. He can work this without too much strain and it's great for the younger fishing crowd and or females that want to engage bigger fish without all the heft with 6/0 and above gear.

Fuji reel seat, Fuji guides, split grips with a reversed baseball bat taper.

[Dynamo]

Nice, large tip! I think I've seen that photo somewhere else . . .

[Killervine]

 Well come PuddlePirate, I myself am new to these parts as will and it's good to know there is a fellow local on the site as well! What's the fishing report for the Reds at Calaveras Lake this time of year? Are they still running the whole lake or did the cool weather drive them back to the dam area or other side of the wall? Last time I was there was in early summer for some Tilapia Bowfishing.

[alantani]

gentlemen, welcome!!!!!