Pellet heads!! What's up today?

we had a high of 51* yesterday - sometime before 4 AM. At 4 AM it was 48 and the thermometer never moved off that.

 

Finally, the sun came out today. Low 80's, not a cloud in the sky. Had a hard time staying at work. More of the same tomorrow, cloudy and showers Friday then a beautiful weekend. 90 by next Tuesday.

 

Lot's of sunshine here, it's about time Was never ending raining for a long, long stretch Need the heat to kill off the bloodsucking bugs

 

Here it is nearly the middle of June and we are having a fire.
Yesterday was warm enough for the AC to come on several times, and then the clouds rolled in and the rains came.
Snow down to the 5000 ft level in the Mountains THIS WEEKEND

Early June here can certainly see a stove running a bit.

Just enough rain to water the garden good and make the grass impossible to mow.

 

With our retirement has come boredom, well there is always plenty to do around the place, but as far as fun stuff goes, ahhhhh, not so much.

Went fishing with some friends last Sunday and had a great time.
I went for the fun of it and as a spectator.

Decided after getting home that we needed to get back into fishing.

Had not been fishing since my early/mid 20's and thats just waaaaaaaaaaay too long without wetting a line.

Years ago we sold off most of the gear that had been in the family as we never used it.
We never had the time to go and do.

Sooooooooooooo, I went snooping in the basement and found one lovely Garcia 2510T trout pole that had somehow escaped the garage sale.

Ok, thats great, a pole but nothing else.

No reels or tackle.

Decided that a trip to Craig's list might be fruitful, and it was.
Scared up 6 tackle boxes, 3 poles, 12 reels and more for $125

Took it home, high graded the lot, kept 2 light outfits that can be good if the grand kids go along.

The tackle spanned everything from steel head/ salmon rigging to stuff for bass etc.

Relisted the left overs back on Craig's for $150 and it has already gotten interest.

Headed over to Cabelas and got some good line for the reels plus some odds and ends to round out our new "trout box"

Still needed a good reel and was not sure what I wanted.

Read lotsa blogs and still not sure what I wanted.
Stopped by a local small store called BI MART (Sort of a dept store with everything) and looked at their tackle.

They had a good spread of OKUMA reels and what I had read suggested they were ok.

Ended up buying an Okuma Avenger AV 55B that was on sale.

Seems to be a very nice reel. We will see if it knows how to catch fish

After seeing prices on reels at Cabelas from $39 all the way to $800 I was totally confused.

For what we are planning this stuff will suffice.
Looking forward to the next trip out.

We have some lovely places to fish that are less than 30 minutes from the ranch.

Sunday we went over to the coast (Central Oregon near Pacific city) to a place called Hebo lake.

A nice quiet spot with 5 docks with railings to cast from.

A camp ground and just a way cool place.

 

After getting the new reels I decided to get a couple backup reels to toss in the tackle box for the OHHHH CHIT things that happen and can spoil your trip.

Went on ebay and scared up two sweet vintage South Bend reels

A 730A and a 750A
Both look like new and the 750 looks to having never been used.

The spool shows zero signs of having had line rub across the lip at the front.

The mounting foot shows zero scuffing from having been on a pole.

The 730 started out looking great until I cranked the handle and discovered that the pawl lever did nothing.

Tried flipping the lever several times and still nothing.

Hmmmm.

Got out the tools and took the thing apart.

The parts looked new.

The pawl was stiff on the little shaft and the spring would not move it.

Removed the pawl and found a bur on the shaft hole.
A quick buzz with the die grinder and a small tool and the pawl fit perfectly and the reel works flawlessly.

The 730 had been mounted but judging by the perfect finish on it the previous owner gave up after the pawl failed to ratchet.

All good now.

A great buy for $35 for the pair to my door.

Made in the 70's likely.

Perfect backup set.

All smiles

 

waiting for fishy pics

 

We caught 8 between 3 outfits last Sunday.
All were rainbows from 8 to 14 inches.

Here is a piccy I took early in the day.

 

REALLY happy with the 2 used reels I found.
The 730 and the 750 are about the same size as the Okuma AV 40 and the AV55

Very similar size spread.

I want to get them all refilled with new line and ready to go.

Equipment has changed some in 40-50 years especially the prices.

 

That's good and now you will love the forgotten sport

 

We were in Cabelas the other day and I'm looking at an $800 spinning reel in the case and messing my pants.

OMG

Ahhhh, noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Those boys with Nascar looking bass boats maybe ???? Not me.

 

Yup, one must stay away from the fancy high priced places.

 

Cabelas is a great shop and has everything from the $1.99 kids tackle (Relative term) all the way up to the stuff for those with money $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ running out their Ahhhh well you know.

Having been out of the loop on this type of gear for 40 plus years makes any decisions based on experience pretty much worthless.

The two vintage reels I found are a bit newer than the reels of the same brand that we had when I was a kid in the 60's

I had a South Bend Sunmatic 707 at that time, but all I found left here was the box.
The blogs online all seem to want to call smack on everything that is older than the current state of the art.

The computer geeks do the same thing... The current batch of motherboards is the real chit and then in 6 months the next batch hits the street and the stuff from 6 months before become junk.

A fishing reel is nothing more than a winch.

Add some cool paint or fancy graphics along with a soft cushy knob to run the thing and it is a WOW
Then the new models hit the shelf and BLAH ON LAST YEARS MODEL

Granted there are certainly good, better and best (relative term)

The current batch of goodies seem to be far smoother than the stuff of 40 years ago, but I really don't think the fish cares much after he is getting winched ashore.

Too much data to process

 

Oh well all I am doing is slowly (very) turning the garden. Occasionally working on increasing my trips out and back on the driveway(getting ready for this coming winters snowblowing (sorry JT it will come.).

 

I hear ya.
Golden years my A$$
Since rolling past 60 a while back things have just gone in the toilet.

No ambition and less every year it seems.

 

I wonder if the fish know the difference, if you are using a $30 reel, or an $800 one??



Dan