grub_man

About 10 years ago I wrote Abu Garcia about getting some new drag washers for a casting reel from the same era of your spinning reel. If Diawa hasn't thrown out their old parts, they may still have the parts laying around somewhere. Call or write Diawa. I think often times emails sent through a company's website don't find themselves in the correct hands, or get ignored. Joe

When casting baits over about 1/4 oz. I see little difference in performance. A high capacity wiffle spool, such as that on the Pflueger Trion, would be my choice for throwing those heavy lures as it has a lot of inertia by moving a lot of line further from the axis of rotation. When it comes to casting light lures UNLESS the spool is made of magnesium, I prefer to use a small deep spool such as that on say a Shimano Citica 100. The magnesium wiffle spools offer an advantage because they are signicantly lighter than the aluminum spools and can achieve the same amount of inertia by moving the line further from the axis of rotation, thus sending off more line per revolution giving longer casts. The rule of thumb is higher inertia spool for heavier lures, and a lower inertia spool for lighter lures. If any of my explanations are unclear, let me know and I will try to clear them up. Joe

If I recall Mitchell marketed the Spidercast rods in the mid '90s as a reasonably priced option to handle the early spectra lines. It would probably be safe to assume the rods were manufactured to Michell's specs and were probably never offered as blanks. I would suspect that they are some sort of graphite glass composite, in an effort to keep people from abusing the blank. With a rating of 1/4 to 2 oz., I would consider it a Heavy powered rod. Joe

For a reel that receives such light use, a drop of oil on the bearing once a year should be plenty to keep it serviced. Joe

The first thing I would check is the levelwind worm gear, and the pawl that goes into it for wear, and make sure that it isn't gummed up. Other than that, if the problem occurred under a fresh respooling, did you run the line through all of the guides on the rod? If you only use the first one or two, you could have the line at an angle that favors build up on one side of the spool. To double check things, walk out all of the line and wind it back on, or drag it all out behind the boat and wind it back on. Joe

Epoxy a second bead behind the first.

My Skirt tube from Netcraft was about $13, but I think it was still cheaper than the pliers. If you are an archer, you could use a section of an arrow with a field tip. Then glue a wire with a little hook to pull the material through the shaft. The collars will slide onto the shaft over the field tip. Joe

Cadman, That is the reason that I choose to use unpainted lead these days. The fish have told me that they really don't care. I do know that color matters to some. There aren't many things fit to use right out of the package. I don't think it is worth the price of a commercial product that you must tinker with to get to perform as it is supposed to. Also the reason that I began lurking around here to get good info on how to do things myself a little. Joe

Hi, I'm Joe, like many of you, I couldn't find the lures that I wanted on the shelf. So, I decided to get into making some jig skirts and spinnerbait skirts for my personal use. I'm still very much a beginner, but have picked up some great tips here, wich really helps the learning curve. Joe

From my experiences of buying them and busting the eyes out, I would guess that a lot of painted ball heads are uncured powder paint. I'm sure that if you busted all of the eyes out and baked them they would hold up much better. Joe

I have very little experience molding, but it sounds like a great prototyping technique. I don't think it would make for an efficient way to make a finished product due to the flashing mentioned above. Joe

I just started making my own skirts, and I am trying the green craft wire. It seems plenty stiff, 24 guage, but I would think that a 26 guage wire may be a little better. Then again if I would splurge on atying vice I would be able to pull it tighter. At less than $2 for 1/4 pound, it is more than reasonable, and I now have enough to tie for a long time of personal use. Joe