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Post 04 May 2023, 00:55 • #1 
Master Guide
Joined: 09/23/18
Posts: 614
Location: Eastern Wa
The hot weather finally came to my area and the wind forecast was favorable so I called a fishing buddy to go try a small lake that was supposed to have grass pickerel in it. I was specifically wanting to catch a new species and grass pickerel was on my list. The lake also supposedly contains rainbow trout, crappie, bluegill, bull heads, carp and largemouth bass.

In addition to my 5'4" Graywolf BFS/1500C combo I brought a stout spinning rod for doughball carp fishing and perhaps throwing some spinnerbaits for bass.

I started out using a little beetlespin variant for crappie assuming it might work for pickerel without any bites. Then I threw rooster tails for another 45 minutes and started to change gear and began throwing a white/yellow spinner bait for bass on the heavier rod. Three or 4 casts later I was into a nice bucketmouth. Not wanting to keep her out of the water long I quickly snapped a lousy selfie and let her go.

Any time I explore new water and catch a really nice fish right away I usually extrapolate the rest of the day to be fantastic fishing but that was not the case with this day and countless other exploratory days in the past I keep forgetting about. In fact after fishing all day the bass was the only "bite" I had even though I also fished with night crawlers, other bass and panfish hardware and doughballs.

I was hoping for a pickerel, and secretly hoping for a big carp on my little 5'4" BFS gem but instead I caught a fluke of a nice bass on my spinning rod. I guess I cant complain. It was a good day. Thanks for looking.











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Post 04 May 2023, 06:51 • #2 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Heck of a bass - would have curled your hair on the BFS rod.
(your thread title is misleading for those of us who mostly look at the photos and don't always read the text)
Lake bass have better forage than the river (limestone creek) bass several of us like to target down here,
which are mostly limited to nickel-size crayfish and dime-size minnows, with the occasional bluegill, and maybe even a bat.

Kinda funny, I know people target Lake Travis stripers on beetle spin,
(put me in a jump and give me a buzz bait)
and I grew up catching bass, pond catfish, overzealous green sunfish on other style "safety pin" spinnerbaits,

but never in my life have I caught a fish on a beetle spin -
- at some point, it must be psychological, maybe I don't give the lure a chance with my glaring track record.


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Post 04 May 2023, 08:36 • #3 
Master Guide
Joined: 09/23/18
Posts: 614
Location: Eastern Wa
Thanks Ron.
When I said "beetlespin variant" I should have just said micro spinner bait tipped with curly tail instead of the "beetle?!#". I dont fish with beetlespins either (did as a kid a little) and not sure why they exist when other soft baits (under a spinner) have better "action".


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Post 04 May 2023, 09:00 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 1760
Location: SJC
Nice fish ! Early season can be strange. Still haven't gotten out with my Graywolf BFS rod to actually fish it. Echoing Ron, that bass must have been a fun fight.


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Post 04 May 2023, 10:09 • #5 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I did score my good river bass the other week on my 5-1/2' ML glass rod -
- one of Josh's quick photos, catching that splash.
In this photo, she's already turned my boat 180

Image

It was an aerobic fight with good runs to both sides of my boat before I could get her close to lip.
At my first lip attempt, she reacted and charged hard, trying to go under my boat to the other side.
The rod did a good job of turning and keeping the bass from getting there,
(This is exactly why I don't take my graphite stream trout rods on a kayak - they're for wading only)
and she had one more good run back to the same side before I got her back to finally lip her.



As I said on the other thread, the inline keel spinner on the wide flagstone is practically cheating -
- it keels the single hook up, and bottom bounces.
A warning on the Mukai max spinner - stock is out (Japan is out) - BFE has one color remaining.
I did find one last gasp of all 4 colors together on Yahoo and adding it to a small noppin cache.
Note I swapped in the pre-tied woolly booger - Mukai comes with a single bare hook for adding your curly tails.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 04 May 2023, 18:16, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 04 May 2023, 16:23 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
that's a good day in my book.. particularly the nice quiet lake, I had competition from 2 bass boats and plenty of ski traffic on my local..

took the new Abu Safari Zoom rod out with the refurbished Abu 4600CB (self-centering and disengaging levelwind) and found a couple bass, one nice 16" smallmouth.. the rod feels to me like a glass/graphite blend, not as stiff/fast as I find most new graphites to be. Just right in fact.





The problem with the self-centering levelwind is that the system Abu dreamed up, uses a spring on the spool shaft which spins freely going out and locks on retrieve. The added friction from this spring means the spool really doesn't spin well.
On the other hand the added friction means I can cast this backhanded in the dark with 4g lures and never an overwind.. the Avail spool lets me cast the light weights well. So overall happy with it, perfect reel for the night-time walleye attempts. No walleye last night sadly..


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Post 05 May 2023, 08:05 • #7 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
the only really good info I could find on 4600CB, other than Abu schematic and ebay listings, was off the Goober Reel Works bench ('81 mod-0) in Japan, and it shows a normal synchro reel -- well, ok, a really hot raced-out one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7I_5JdMkY&t=65 - I tried, no luck embedding this.

Back to the generic use of beetle spin to describe a type of lure - that's probably colloquial, and makes sense.
As I said, I'm sure I have a disdain for the specific brand lure, and would find any other generic name to use.
The spinnerbait rack in the old tackle box in the masthead photo on this forum page still has the few examples I bought twice, 15 years apart, and never caught a fish.
Regional generic for the larger bass lures of this basic style, along with the smaller finesse versions, have always been "safety pin" spinner or just spinnerbait.
(on BR forum, Finesse spinnerbait is a category moniker)

Compared to my bottom-bouncing inline keel spinner, the 3-D target of a safety pin is more effective in deeper water - it presents to the fish as a larger moving bulk, and a very effective shad or lost bluegill shape. I suspect the original intent of these lures was to represent a schooling bait ball, and for small bait, your curly tail would be perfect.

Again, the inline Mukai does the job of a cats whisker on Teeny sinking line, with the added water movement of a Mepps, and makes a more believable offering in a shallow water column.


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Post 05 May 2023, 09:45 • #8 
Master Guide
Joined: 09/26/10
Posts: 547
Location: Montana
Wow, that’s a nice bass!!!!


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Post 05 May 2023, 12:15 • #9 
Master Guide
Joined: 09/23/18
Posts: 614
Location: Eastern Wa
Ron those keel spinners look deadly and you are right the fact that the single hook stays up and the spinner can be bounced makes it unique. Might have to investigate further.
Nice timing on the jumping largemouth kayak photo. Looks like a nice day on the water Doug!

Yesterday i finally got the bike out and tried a small unnamed lake about 45 minutes from my house I have never been to. I took my Graywolf UL spinning rod. Saw some panfish and a few small bass but nothing noteworthy, plus lots of trash unfortunately.



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Post 05 May 2023, 13:46 • #10 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
still a great day out.
My days out have been 3 field trips for Trout in the Classroom fry release, and 4 more to go tomorrow and next week, before I get away to the coast next weekend.
36 schools this year, mostly HS AS classes, but several elementary schools that make it a class field trip.
It will be a busy week - I have 2 class field trips on Tuesday, and a dinner for my folks' 70th Anniversary early evening.



The Guadalupe tailwater, btw, has flow from the reservoir for a couple of reasons: the coldwater fishery is a Stakeholder in the water authority, which we won in court in the '90s; and court injunction to protect minimum flows for whooping cranes in Aransas NWR at the river mouth.


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Post 05 May 2023, 17:01 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
bulldog1935 wrote:
the only really good info I could find on 4600CB, other than Abu schematic and ebay listings, was off the Goober Reel Works bench ('81 mod-0) in Japan, and it shows a normal synchro reel -- well, ok, a really hot raced-out one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7I_5JdMkY&t=65 - I tried, no luck embedding this.


mine don't spin anything like that ;-)
yes, there were a couple versions of the 4600CB, oddly. On alantani dot com the discussion said,
Quote:
The original CB was a self centering levelwind that didnt have an infinite ani reverse.
The other CB just designated that it was made special order for Cabelas and is a standard C3 mechanically.


The self-centering ones are code 81-08-00 or 85-1 or 85-2 on the reelseat.
Here's the sideplate,



and the little copper spring that does the damage on the original spool. I was surprised to find an Avail spool for this one, as it's not the same as any other 4600 spool.




nice work on the kids and trout stocking..


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Post 05 May 2023, 17:51 • #12 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
yeah, I saw those schematics on Abu website and all 3 are newer mods than the reel at Goober Reel Works

Thanks for the kudo, but raising trout isn't what TIC is about.
It's about raising conservationists to step on our soap boxes when we fall off.



Also note, this is simply the end-of-year activity, and no question, the fun part for me, my helpers, the students and, especially the HS AS teachers. Next month, it ramps up again - we organize for new schools through the summer, kick off the program in the fall, try to have tanks running by Thanksgiving, deliver trout eggs to schools in January, and release trout fry in the tailwater again next Apr/May. I've grown the program from 4 schools to 36 - certainly with the help of our FFF brothers in Houston Fly Fishers, who run the program in greater Houston - we cover 400 mi from the Hill Country in the west, San Antonio, and greater Austin in the north.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 06 May 2023, 07:19, edited 3 times in total.

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Post 05 May 2023, 23:56 • #13 
Sport
Joined: 10/17/14
Posts: 68
Location: US-PA
I had a 4500cb that I fished with until the late 90's. Mine was an older version, it had the palming sideplate, but the side plates were green. I don't remember the spring on the spool shaft. What I do remember is not liking the self centering feature. I switched out a gear or removed something and disabled it.

I seem to recall having an issue with fish taking line against the drag and the levelwind sitting still. It definitely cast better with the levelwind disabled. It did have an excellent drag.

At the time I was using it, ABU came out with some "super" reel. I bought one. It was low profile, graphite. It had a small capacity spool, I believe it was the first reel with the ultra cast spool. It also had a trick levelwind that completely disengaged on the cast and floated free. It didn't cast as well as the 4500.

I kind of wish I still had the 4500, but I do very little largemouth fishing anymore, you can't keep everything, or at least i shouldn't.

Tim


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Post 08 May 2023, 08:24 • #14 
Master Guide
Joined: 09/23/18
Posts: 614
Location: Eastern Wa
Thanks Ron for keeping the new generation of youngsters in touch with conservation and perhaps shaping their future. That is fantastic!

Doug,

I really miss my old 4600C. It was my second baitcaster and unfortunately I dont have it anymore. Ive caught a lot of nice largemouth (by northern standards) with it as an early teen.

Found an old pic from 1981 of it, a bass, and a frog colored jitterbug that i was using. Bass fishing at my home lake is not like it used to be 40+ years ago.


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Post 08 May 2023, 10:38 • #15 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I didn't get a bass that size until I was 19


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Post 15 May 2023, 12:56 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
Mike I'd call that a big bass anywhere..

Tim, you might find yourself coming back around to bass, the rest of us did ;-)
had one of those trick Abu graphite reels with the floating disengaged levelwind, it really didn't work very well for casting. I did catch some huge salmon on that reel once but don't use it anymore.


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