RayburnGuy Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 (edited) Hey guys, Just wondering if any of you have upgraded your factory bearings to aftermarket ceramic bearings and if so what results you had? I've been looking at some ceramic bearings at Boca Bearings website and was considering the upgrade, but wanted to hear your opinions before I spent the extra money. Would really like to know if they improved casting distance and how long they last compared to factory bearings. thanks, Ben Edited June 29, 2012 by RayburnGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jig Man Posted June 29, 2012 Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 I sent some of my Curado 200s off and had them professionally cleaned and Boca lightnings installed. They improved the distance some. They cast farther when I ran the bearings dry. I don't know how long they would last as I sold all of mine and went to the Curado E7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted June 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 What kind of oil were you using Jig Man? Thanks for the reply. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jig Man Posted June 30, 2012 Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 I was using that red stuff. I think it is called Hot Sauce from Quantum. It was highly recommended but for me it wasn't any good. I tossed it and have gone back to the oil Shimano sends with reels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted June 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2012 Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted July 6, 2012 Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 Ben, I service my reels and tried both ABEC7 and ceramic bearings (TG, same company that makes Rocket Fuel). Bang for the buck, the ABEC7's are the best deal. If either the ABEC7 or ceramic bearings increased casting distance, it was not so significant that I was amazed or anything. Finally, I decided that since I'm fishing from a boat, does an extra 5-10 ft really matter? The ceramics are considerably more than ss bearings so I never tried more of them. They were also rougher running initially than ABEC7's, until they got "broken in". Can't comment on the Boca bearings since I've never tried any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 Thanks Bob. I think I'm going to give a set of the ceramic bearings a try in one of my reels just to see how they do. The reason I'm trying to get a little more distance is I'm fishing some old ABU's and was wanting to see if I could get a little more distance when fishing deep cranks. I've never tried to measure one of my casts, but I'm getting the baits out there a pretty good distance using a 6500 and a 7 1/2' rod. I'm always looking for that little bit more though and more distance means more depth and time spent on the bottom. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 Ben, Did you see how the pros on the Elite series strolled their cranks until they had emptied their spools, and then began the retrieve? I know some local sticks here in SoCal who do a smaller version of that, but I've never heard of letting out the whole spool! Ten minutes for one cast/retrieve. I'd have to be pretty dang sure there are fish down there first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobP Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 (edited) Mark, Yeah that was interesting. But if you aren't tournament fishing, you don't have to go through the rigamarole of strolling a reel full of line out with your trolling motor - just troll the crankbait with your main motor or your trolling motor. Ain't no rule against it and you can get a trolled lure 50-100% deeper than you can on a cast. The "no trolling" rule is just a BASS idiosyncrasy and "strolling" is just a way to circumvent that arbitrary rule. Ain't no reason we can't do it higher-speed + lower-drag. The BASS rule is the only reason you don't see every bass boat outfitted with rod holders! Edited July 8, 2012 by BobP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 Yea Mark, I first did that 15 or 20 years ago on Sam Rayburn. All the grass died one year and the fish had started relating to structure instead of the grass cover. While they weren't as deep as in the tournament you mentioned they were still much deeper than anyone at Rayburn was used to fishing for them. This was after the LMB Virus had killed so many fish as well. I was catching bass in 25 to 35 feet of water on Luhr Jensen Deep Secrets and the Hot lips Express which were about the only factory baits available back them that would get that deep. This was before anyone that I know around here of even knew they made baits that would go that deep. Everyone was saying all the fish in the lake were dead because nobody was catching anything. I tried to help some guys and told them I was catching 50 to 60 fish a day and they looked me right in the eye and called me a liar. Needless to say they never got any help and I never told anyone what I was doing. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I guess that old saying about "You can lead a horse to water..." is true. Especially when they're facing the wrong way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lure--Prof Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Ben, the main deal with getting casting performance out any of the Garcia round reels that don't have a disengaging levelwind is to to make sure that the levelwind mechanism and all associated gears, including the nylon timing gears in the left sideplate stay clean, and completely grease free. Just use a little light oil of your choice, and did I mention, NO Grease? Pop the spool out regularly and make sure that the tolerance between the spool sides and the reel frame is always clean and dry too. Over-oiling the reel can sometimes cause a film to get into this tolerance, and this will completely kill distance of course. Be sure to just use a drop or two of oil on the bearings, and if you're using Hot Sauce, just use a single drop. I used a variety of round reels when I was a striper guide on Lake Cumberland, 6000's, 6500's and 6's, which were the cheapo version of that reel, and of course they had bushings. Theoretically, bushings will outperform bearings, because the tolerance is tighter, as the properly maintained bushing provides its thin film of oil as it's bearing surface, while the forgiveness of bearings usually maintains metal to metal contact. Having casted about a billion miles with Abu-Garcia bushing reels, like those 6's and the old red 5000's, some of which I converted to bearings in the late 1960's, I'll say that bearing reels have advantages in smoothness and are actually easier to maintain, but they don't actually cast further than bushing reels. I'm just saying that if you'll keep your 6500's clean and avoid the grease, in order to minimize the friction of the additional reciprocating parts in those designs, that will make more of a difference in casting distance than a bearing upgrade on these particular reels. And these reels will cast a long way, much further than typical modern bass reels, if you throw bait or a rig with some weight to it, coupled with a 7 to 8 foot rod. You might start a trend Ben, when these guys see how far you can cast a Mann's 20+! That wide spool and that levelwind really keep the backlashes down, allowing you to really wind up and wing that sucker! Dean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Thanks Dino. And I agree completely about the grease. The only places I use grease is in the right side of the reel. The gears and what have you that are only engaged when your winding in line. Everything else just gets a drop or two of oil. I can't believe that more crankbait fishermen, especially those who throw the big deep divers don't use the large diameter wide spool reels. More line comes off the bigger spools for each revolution than on smaller spools. The larger spools also create more momentum that a smaller spool. This helps keep the spool spinning for a few more yards. That's my line of thinking anyway. My main rod and reel setup for throwing deep divers is the 6500C mentioned above and a 7' 6" Castaway rod. I can already throw that sucker a far piece, but you know how I am. Good enough is never good enough. I've been doing some reading lately on what a lot of the folks who compete in distance casting do to their reels and a lot of it makes sense. And some of it not so much. I see no need for new drag washers or really anything on the winding side of the reel. All this is disengaged while making a cast so I can't see the need for "souped up" parts in that area. One of the things that did make sense was eliminating as much friction as possible when the reel is in free spool mode. I've gone in and polished key friction areas, such as the tube the level wind guide runs on, to remove any fine scratches caused by normal wear and tear on one of my reels and I still plan on installing new bearings. Whether I try the ceramic bearings or stick with the stainless is still yet to be determined. I may be taking things to the extreme just to catch a few bass, but teetering on the edge always kept me awake a lot better. And there's nothing I'd rather do than catch fish on cranks. A lot of huge stringers are taken at Falcon by fishing in the 25 to 35 foot range with jigs and Carolina rigs and deep diving cranks as well. The thing about it is that not everyone is going to have the proper gear or take the time to learn how to fish deep cranks effectively. Of course I would never give anyone a hard time if I were catching them on deep cranks and they just couldn't quite get there. later bud, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
