Fish Ohio Program

Old certificates and pins from the Fish Ohio Program.

The Fish Ohio Program was established in 1976 by the Ohio Division of Natural Resources. The goal of the program is to create and maintain records of Ohio's trophy fish population. By offering pins and certificates for qualifying catches the ODNR has received submissions from over 400,000 anglers from the buckeye state. The program offers a pin and certificate for 20 species of fish, and offers a special golden pin for those lucky anglers who submit four different species of qualifying lengths in one fishing season (March 1-February 28) Each year the ODNR collects and counts the submissions. They then release the top 5 destinations for each species of fish. The results from the 2012 fishing season can be seen here.

A couple old pins I found during my extensive search of my fishing collection. On top a golden "Master Angler" Pin from 2011 and on the bottom a silver Fish Ohio Pin awarded for a single submission.

I have participated in the program for the last 5 years, while only failing to reach "Master Angler Status" my first year. Amanda has fulfilled her "Master Angler Status" the last three out of the five years. Here's a look back at our submissions. (Some years we actually submitted more then 4 species of qualifying lengths, however in order to create the collage I chose to only show 4 for each year...in most instances I removed the 9" sunfish since it was one of the easiest to attain.)



2010

28.5" Channel Catfish, 15.5" Crappie, 29.25" Carp, 43" Flathead Catfish

2011

41" Blue Catfish, 29.5" Channel Catfish, 28.5" Freshwater Drum, 22" Hybrid Striped Bass

47.5" Blue Catfish, 22" Hybrid Striped Bass, 27" Channel Catfish, 29" Freshwater Drum

2012

28.5" Freshwater Drum, 14.75" Crappie, 29" Channel Catfish, 29" Carp

30.25" Channel Catfish, 46" Blue Catfish, 38" Carp, 23" Hybrid Striped Bass

2013  

13" Crappie, 41" Flathead Catfish, 26" Channel Catfish, 21.5" Largemouth Bass

9.75" Sunfish, 28" Channel Catfish, 26" Carp, 16.5" Sauger

If you haven't participated in the Fish Ohio Program yet, go ahead and submit your fish from the 2013 season and take part in this great program. Submissions are accepted up until January 15, 2014, so fill out your forms here.

12/28, Rocky Fork Lake

For the first time in nearly a month I was able to get Amanda out of the house and onto the water. In her defense the weather has been pretty crappy nearly every weekend for the past month. If the temperatures weren't below freezing, it was raining and windy. Saturday the weather was foretasted to be calm and warm, with air temperatures reaching the mid 50's by mid afternoon and winds under 15mph. The unusually nice weather was enough to get her on the water. We loaded the kayaks and gear up and hit the road. My plan was to work the same spots I had hit the week before. If I wanted company on my wintery weekend outings I needed to make sure she caught fish, or else I ran the risk of fishing solo for the next 2 months.

We got on the water and paddled a few hundred yards from the boat ramp and began working a steep ledge on the main creek channel of the lake.....nothing. We then paddled over to the dam and began working some deep structure. I got a few nibbles on a rod that I had placed in my rod holder, which was suspending an ice jig tipped with a crappie nibble a foot off of bottom. An hour passes and we still hadn't caught a single fish. I told Amanda that we were going to make a long paddle to a spot where, "I know the fish will be." We make the 15 minute paddle and begin working a fallen tree, 25 minutes later I catch the first fish of the evening....a 9.5" crappie. Fifteen minutes after that I catch another crappie, this one was significantly smaller. We continue to work the tree for another half an hour before we decide to head over to the marina and work the metal structures that anchor the docks into place. We round the corner leading into the marina and are met with 15 mph winds. We paddle over to the marina and tuck in behind the docks. We work each metal structure for 15 minutes and then move on to the next one. After covering nearly half of the marina we decide to seek shelter from the brutal wind. We head back over to the dam, which is well sheltered by steep rock walls. Along the way to the dam I mark a few fish off of a small old fallen tree, I stopped paddling and started working the school of fish. In the mean time Amanda had slipped over to the base of the tree and was working her Bass Assassin Tiny Shad along the fallen tree. Less than thirty seconds later I hear the sound of drag slipping on a spinning reel. I look over to see her ultralight nearly doubled over. "Well about time." After a few more slips of drag I tell her, "I bet you have a bass." After a short 45-60 second battle she pulled the little bass into the kayak. Now it wasn't big; but it was her first fish in nearly a month, her first fish of a long 6 hour trip, and quite possibly her last fish of 2013. As she was about to release the bass I said, "Hold it up and I'll take a pic", which lead into the old, "I look awful? I don't have any  make-up on. Should I take off my hat? Does this shirt look bad?" routine.

 We then switched from targeting crappie on deep structure to targeting bass in the shallows. We worked the banks for another hour and half but we failed to find another bass. I did however, find two more crappie and a bluegill.  We had finally found a pattern, the fish had moved shallow and were taking up a little heat from the abnormally warm December day. The sun began to set over the trees and the temperatures soon began to drop, we had stumbled onto the pattern a little too late. We soon called it quits for the evening and made the paddle pack to the car.

12/23, Rocky Fork Lake Kayak Crappie

Monday I had the chance to get the kayak out and hit Rocky Fork Lake in Highland County. Last weekend I did pretty well fishing from the marina but I wasn't brave, or stupid, enough to bring the kayak along. This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it rained all day long dropping nearly 3 inches over the weekend. The air temperatures were in the mid to high 50's, which meant the rain was much warmer than our current water temperatures. Which in turn eliminated any ice that was still lingering from the previous week. It also meant that the lakes and rivers would warm up slightly. I was hopeful that the spike in temperature would trigger one last feeding event before the onsite of ice.

Monday marked the beginning of a cold front for the region, the daily highs of 50-60 degrees dropped into the mid 30's. It wasn't predicted to rain so I was willing to deal with the cold.  I woke up at 9am and started to load up my kayak. Amanda was unwilling to fish once again so I was on my own. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and hit the water. I initially drove to a cove near the shallow end of the lake, however once I got to the boat ramp I noticed that the water was up a foot (rare for Rocky Fork Lake) and very turbid. Water clarity was less than 2", although the water was probably warmer near the shallow end of the lake I was not willing to fish with poor visibility. I got back in the car and drove down to the dam. Water clarity had improved to 2-3 feet, so I unloaded my kayak and gear.

I made a half mile paddle to a pair of fallen trees that were near the dam. I anchored at the base of the tree and started working my 1/32oz jig and tiny shad. After three casts I decided to grab a second rod and pair my 1/32oz jig and tiny shad with a crappie nibble. I then dropped the jig down to the bottom, lifted it up 1 foot, and set the rod in the rod holder.  I then proceeded to cast and jig my other rod while keeping an eye on the one in the rod holder. About 5 minutes later the line on the  rod holder in the rod holder went slack, I slowly picked up the rod and set the hook........right into a snag. I applied pressure and eventually bent the jig hook out of shape and retrieved my lure. I bent the hook back into shape, tipped my tiny shad with a crappie nibble, and dropped my jig back down to the bottom. This time around I lifted my bait 2 feet off of bottom in order to avoid the branch I snagged on last time. A few minutes later the rod in the rod holder began to bounce, this time around I had found a small crappie.

I took a quick picture of the crappie, because I wasn't real sure that I'd be able to catch another one. I also took a picture of my depth finder. Here you could see that I was in 8 feet of water, but if you look at the picture above the fish finder reads 13 feet. The structure was actually so thick that it wasn't penetrating down to the bottom. You also note that the water temperature was 39 degrees, not too bad for the last week of December. This crappie didn't quite hit the 9" (or the 8") mark so I let it go. I continued to fish this spot for the next hour and a half. I moved out into 26 feet of water and picked up two more crappie, one of which was 9.25". I had a floating fish basket with me so I decided to keep it and see if I could get enough for dinner. After two hours I had 2 fish in the basket and had released 4 smaller fish. I knew of a couple other places that held decent crappie this time of year, but they were another half mile away. With two fish in the basket I decided to make the long haul into the wind. By the time that I got to the next spot I was burning up, I had to take off my gloves and hat for a few minutes. I paddled past the fallen tree and dropped my anchor up wind. I then floated back with the wind and waves until I noticed a school of fish. I wasn't on  top of the structure yet, but I figured I would give this spot a few minutes.

Within 5 minutes I had lost two fish and landed one crappie at 10". The fish finder soon cleared and the school of fish moved off. The wind was too bad to chase them in so I decided to let out more anchor rope and drift in position over top the fallen tree. I picked up a few quick fish, but the bite shut down again. To be honest I was lost, I didn't know if the fish were spread out because of the quick increase in temperature or weather they just weren't biting well. The only thing I knew to do was to keep trying spots until I found a school of them. I pulled anchor and paddled back over to the marina and started working the areas that I had caught fish out of last weekend. Once again I caught a couple quick fish, but the bite shut down. At this point I had 4 keeper crappie, I needed more to make it worth my time. I had one last spot in mind, a steep ledge and hole near a shallow flat. I'm not sure why crappie hold in this spot, but in the past we have always caught quality fish there. I paddled up to the ledge and noticed a ton of fish on my fish finder. I dropped my anchor and drifted back over top of the school and started working my jig. Before I could catch my first fish the school had moved on. At this point I had two options, paddle a half mile back to the tree near the dam and wait for fish to show up at the tree or paddle 100 yards back to the boat ramp and call it quits.

With two hours of daylight left I anchored in 15 feet of water and started working the fallen tree. It didn't take long to find the fish. I quickly picked up a half dozen crappie, one of which went 10.5". I figured it was going to be the big fish of the trip so I snapped a couple pictures. I was right, it was the big fish of the trip.

 

With daylight fading I managed to pick up another dozen crappie, bringing my basket total to 9 and my daily total of 22 crappie. I made the half mile paddle back to the boat ramp and began to load my gear up. I quickly noticed how sore my arms were. I got home and programmed my route into my Navionics App. I had paddled over 2.6 miles against the wind both ways of course....just kidding, but I did cover some water. In the middle of summer I wouldn't have noticed a thing, but now that its cold I'm getting out of padding shape.

I didn't find the quality of fish that I had last weekend, but it was a successful trip none the less. I didn't find any bonus fish either; no bluegill, bass, or perch which was quite surprising. I think next time around I'm going to buy a few dozen minnows and see if I can end the year on a high note.

2013 Kayak Wars

Last spring Amanda, Rylan, and I decided to get rid of our small jon boat and buy kayaks. Money wasn't necessarily flowing in enough to support both my fishing habit and a boat payment, so we made a compromise and we each got our own kayak. I bought Amanda a $499 Ascend fs12t and I got myself a $700 Malibu x-13. Less than two weeks later I ran across a few guys on a forum who were talking about kayak wars, an online kayak tournament. I went to the website and started reading through the rules and regulations. It was an online kayak tournament that awarded points for species of fish over a set length. Photos were taken of the fish on a measuring device and then submitted for points. It was simple enough, so I started persuading everyone to make a team and compete. After a week or so we started our very own team. It was now mid March and we were a month and a half behind. At this point we were two people short of a full team. I went back to the forum and announced that we were in the tournament and looking for a couple members. A week later I was contacted by Russ Mcdonald and Tyler Nelson. Tyler was pretty excited at the opportunity but Russ seemed to have reservations. He kept telling me that he wasn't sure he could contribute enough to the team.....after a little persuasion we reeled him in too.

A few weeks later Tyler Nelson made a few posts on the forum about selling his kayak. I didn't think much about it, but that was the last we heard from him. For the first month and a half I lead the team by a substantial margin.  I believe at one point I hit 500 points and Amanda, Rylan, and Russ  had somewhere around 200. One month later I went to submit a few pictures and I noticed that Russ had not only caught up, but even passed me in points. All I could think about was his comments, " I don't know how much I'll be able to contribute to the team".....yea sure.  I made it a point to go out every evening and try to gain a substantial lead on him. We went back and forth for about a month and then he eventually pulled away. He found a hot channel catfish bite, and even managed to find a few gar. He stole the lead and never looked back. Along the way he set 3 regional records, a 42" Flathead Catfish, a 50" Gar, and a 15.5" Goldeye.

As a team we ended up with 3,065 total points of which Russ had 1,210 points, I had 935, Rylan had 580, and Amanda had 340. 3,065 points was good enough to land us in 22nd place in the world wide freshwater standings and 6th in our regional freshwater standings. Not to bad for a team of four from southern Ohio.

Here's a few pictures from our 2013 Kayak War season....I limited it to two per angler, but I could have put up a dozen incredible catches each.

Russ Mcdonald 1,210 Points

17.25" Smallmouth, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

42" Flathead Catfish, THE CURRENT KAYAK WARS RECORD (NorthEast Region)

Sean Stone 935 Points

21.5" Largemouth Bass, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

41" Flathead Catfish, MOST MEMORABLE KAYAK BATTLE

Rylan Hayes 580 Points

27.5" Buffalo, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

15" Crappie, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

Amanda Jones 340 Points

A MONSTER 9.75" Green Sunfish

19" Smallmouth Bass, A NEW PERSONAL BEST

I also want to Congratulate Jeff Bennett and Rob Orr of "UP A CREEK" for placing 23rd in the world wide freshwater standings and 7th in our region. They both had an amazing year as well, but didn't have the all around support they needed to pass us up. Here's a couple pictures from their 2013 season.

Rob Orr 1,370 Points

40" Paddlefish

26" Hybrid Striped Bass

Jeff Bennett 1,290 Points

31" Northern Pike

14.5" Crappie

 All in all everyone had a pretty good year. Just wanted to congratulate everyone on an amazing year and a good effort. Rumor has it that there may be a regional "All Star" team in the works for next year. It should make for an interesting 2014 season.


Check out each team and our individual stats here:

Our team
UP A CREEK

12/15, Rocky Fork Lake

During the last two weekends we have seen 5+" of snow, 1" of ice, and nearly 2" of rain locally, needless to say the fishing conditions have been less than ideal lately. This morning I rolled out of bed around 8am to hear Amanda say she was going to go shopping with her mom. On Amandas way out the door she said something to the effect of, "Its cold, and its snowing so I guess you won't be fishing." I rolled over and got on my phone to check the weather forecast. We were predicted to have a high of 28 degrees and a windchill in the single digits, which made the temperature outside feel like 10 degrees. Match the freezing cold with 16 to 22mph winds and we had ourselves one heck of a day to go fishing.

I pretty quickly ruled out the idea of taking the kayak out though. Twenty mile per hour winds, slick boat ramps, strong possibility of having to break ice, going by myself, etc. were all reason enough for me to leave the kayak in the garage. I grabbed two ultralight spinning combos spooled with 6lb. test, a few tackle boxes with panfish baits, and a bottle of Berkley's Crappie Nibbles. In all honesty, I expected the lake to have a thin layer of skim ice at the very minimum so I knew that there was a possibility that I wouldn't get to fish after all.

Upon arriving at the east shore marina at Rocky Fork Lake I noticed that 90 percent of the lake was still ice free. The only ice around was in sheltered coves and small feeder creeks. I drove around the marina just to check out other vehicles and to see if the herons were around. The herons keep no secrets, they know where fish are being caught and they will stay relatively close to those spots in hopes of grabbing an easy meal hand delivered by a friendly angler. More often than not, if you find a heron you'll find fish.  In the process of driving around I found that I had the lake to myself, not only were there no herons but there weren't any fisherman either. I have spent the last few winters fishing the marina so I more or less knew where I could expect to find the fish without the help of the herons. One spot in particular is where a series of docks extend over a shallow flat, over a steep ledge, and into 30 feet of water. The series of docks I chose was anchored to the bottom in 3 separate spots along the length of the docks. The first two anchors were in 4 feet of water and the last anchor was in 8 feet of water. Shortly after the last anchor there are two more docks that extended out past the anchor. Between the last anchor and the last dock the water depth plunges from 8 feet to 28 feet in less than 5 feet of dock. The anchor itself has always seemed to hold fish as well as the ledge, so I figured that this would be a good place to start.

I put the car in park and began to dress in my winter clothes. Luckily I had grabbed an old back pack to carry my tackle boxes with, and in that back pack was a pair of Amanda's wool gloves. I normally don't wear gloves, but with the wind chill I figured I'd give them a shot this time around. I quickly tied on an ice jig, a Stopper Lures Moon Jig,  on each of my rods. My plan was to tip each of the jigs with a crappie nibble and then drop one jig down a foot off of bottom and set the rod on the dock. The other rod I planned on vertical jigging and working the entire water column until I found fish. For the most part that is exactly what I did, I set the first rod 1' off of bottom and set the rod on the dock I then proceed to jig the anchor that held the dock into place. Every 10 of 15 seconds I would look over to my other rod laying on the dock and see if I could see any movement on the line. After 20 minutes I landed my first fish off of the anchor in 8 feet of water, a 9.25" crappie on the vertical jig.

I went on to catch nearly a half dozen crappie off of the dock anchors on the vertical jigged rod, while nothing seemed to have touched the other rod. I went over, picked it up, and reeled it in to see if my crappie nibble had been stolen....Nope, I still had a crappie nibble. I proceeded to move that rod around, setting it a foot off of bottom at random points along the dock. I put it on the ledge, in 28' of water, and even suspended it halfway off of the bottom but nothing seemed to be interested in the jig unless it was moving. After my first half dozen crappie, the bite seemed to shut down. After 20 minutes without a bite I decided to grab my gear and move to another series of docks. I got everything over to the next dock and started working the ice jig again. I chose to fish the 1rst anchor on this series of docks because it was set in much deeper water. The first anchor was in 8 foot, the second in 20 foot, and the last anchor in 33 foot of water. It didn't take long to pick up a couple crappie, but it seemed that after the first two fish the bite shut down again.

I worked deeper water and then shallower water, but I only seemed to pick up one fish every 20 minutes. I wasn't satisfied with 1 fish every 20 minutes because I knew I could catch that much at the first series of docks near the ledge. Once I hit 10 crappie for the day I decided to head back to the car, which happened to be parked in front of the first series of docks. I put everything up except one rod, my camera, a couple round head jigs paired with baby shad swimbaits, and my measuring board. I went back out to the end of the docks and started working the anchor in 8 foot again. Sure enough the fish were still there. I even managed to catch a bonus perch on the moon jig. A few casts later I found a snag near the bottom of the ledge, which happened to break off 2 of my jigs. Down to my last jig, I decided that I would just fish until I lost it and then I could go home and get a bite to eat. At this point I was up to 12 crappie and 1 perch on the day.

My last jig was a 1/32oz round head jig with a white Bass Assassin tiny shad. I went back to the anchor and started working the tiny shad near the bottom. Over the next hour I landed an additional 14 crappie. At one point I had started keeping track of how many crappie over 9" I had caught and how many under 9" I had caught. Surprisingly I had 9 over 9" and 9 under 9" at one point, but by the end of the trip I had landed 14 crappie over 9" and 12 under 9". Keeping track of this was pretty entertaining. I'd catch one over 9" that would put the crappie over 9" up 1 fish over the crappie under 9". It was almost like a sporting event if you will, a basketball or football game where the score was derived from fish lengths. "The two teams went back and forth until late in the fourth quarter when the crappie over 9" pulled off the victory by a comfortable margin." (Just a little look into what was going on in my head at the time, sad but entertaining.) The biggest crappie of the day went just over 10", one of those fish that came late in the fourth quarter........  It wasn't a monster but I snapped a picture anyway. I had a spell where the fish quit biting once again, after 10 minutes without a bite I decided to head back to the car.

Low Profile Baitcasters, My Learning Curve

In 2006 at the age of 17 I received my first low profile baitcaster. Up to that point I had spent much of my time perfecting the art of using spinning and spincast reels. One day (which may or may have not been the last day of my Junior year in High School) a bunch of friends and I hit a local creek for a few hours. One of my friends was using a low profile baitcaster, which at the time mesmerized me. I watched as he threw a 1/2oz spinnerbait across current, and then proceeded to hook and land a decent bass with little effort. My curiosity soon got the better of me.  I slowly worked my way over to him and started asking him questions about his reel. Why do you use that kind of reel, how does it cast, whats that knob for, etc.? Conversation died and the fish stopped biting. Soon the sun set and we all headed back to our vehicles. On the way up the hill I told my friend that I was going to have to buy one of those reels. He set his stuff down, reached into his tackle box, and pulled out an old brown baitcaster. He said it still worked, but he had no need for it anymore. After a few rounds of, "let me give you something for it"---- "No, no its fine. I don't use it anyway", "Here's $20",------"I don't want your money.", I was a proud owner of my first low profile baitcaster. The reel was a Bass Pro Shops Mega Cast, a reel that Bass Pro offered for around $30.

I spent the whole summer learning how to use that reel, and to be honest there were several occasions in which it was one birdnest away from getting thrown into the water. Looking back at the situation, it was probably some of my fault. I was throwing lures that were too light for that baitcaster, probably casting way harder than I needed to, and I didn't know how to work the magnetic brakes or the tension knobs correctly.

In the winter of 2007/2008 I bought my second low profile baitcaster, a Quantum DS300CX. Bass Pro Shops had a winter sale and placed the Quantum Bill Dance rod and reel combo on sale for $69, I thought it was a good price so I bought it. Spring came around and I started throwing my favorite bait at the time, a 3/8oz texas rigged worms. I spent more time picking out birdnests than I did fishing. Both baitcast reels were then retired to catfishing and carp fishing. They did very well in those applications, as casting a .5oz-1oz egg sinker was more than enough weight to cast the reel effectively. The retrieve speed of the low profile baitcasters was much higher than that of my spinning reels at the time, making fighting fish much easier. The line capacity was much larger which allowed me to use heavier line (12lb test), which also aided in landing channel catfish and carp. However, as far as bass fishing was concerned I was stuck with my spinning reels.

In 2010 I purchased my next baitcaster, an Abu Garcia Silver Max for around $50. In the last three years (2007-2010) I had upgraded my catfish reels to Abu Garcia's Ambassadeur 6500's, mainly because we had started to get into some larger fish that were stressing our small baitcasters to their limits. In fear of losing a fish of a lifetime I did my research and found that the Ambassadeurs were the go-to reels for catfishing. These reels were said to be "lifetime" reels, meaning that they would last you a lifetime. (And after 4 years of heavy use, I agree.) My point is that by 2010 I was becoming a big fan of Abu Garcia. So when the time came to replace one of my low profile bait casters I went to Abu Garcias line up of reels. In 2010 I was still in college and very broke so I had a pretty tight budget. I found the Abu Garcia silver max for $50 and bought it. Spring rolled around and I took it out to a pond and tried it out. I tied on a 3/8oz Texas rigged worm and started throwing it around the pond. I couldn't cast very far with the light weight, but I quickly noticed that the reel was very forgiving. I didn't birdnest much and when I did it wasn't very bad. For the next two years I found myself alternating between spinning and baitcasting reels for bass fishing.  The baitcaster was reserved for when I used larger/heavier baits and the spinning reel for baits 3/8oz and under.

Late into the 2011 season I decided to try the next model up from Abu Garcia's Silver Max. I wanted to see if spending a little more money really made a difference in performance. I went to Bass Pro Shops one evening and decided to buy the Abu Garcia Pro Max2 for $80. I took it out to a local lake and instantly fell in love. I remembered telling myself that,  "This is what a baitcaster is supposed to feel like." The reel had a gear ratio of 7:1:1 which took up 31" of line per handle turn, making it the fastest retrieve of any reel that I owned at the time. It casted at least 10 yards further than its little brother the Silver Max. Birdnests still occurred, but they weren't nearly as bad as the ones I got from my first two baitcasters. This reel drove the final nail in the coffin of bass fishing spinning reels.

In 2012 I decided to pick up another Abu Garcia Pro Max so that I could have two combos for bass fishing. I was getting tired of having to retie lures every time I wanted to make a change. I could  use braid on one reel and mono on the other if I wished, or just simply have one bait ready as a back up. I knew that the Pro Max2 was a good reel, so I didn't want to experiment much with reel selection. However, I discovered that Abu Garcia made a Pro Max with a flipping lever, which allowed the angler to flip baits without having to thumb the spool. It was a good option, or so I thought. I went ahead and purchased it with the thought of using it as a Texas-rigged plastics and jig combo. I planned on reserving my other Pro Max for everything else. For some reason, I just didn't like the second Pro Max. It was still leaps and bounds better than the Silver Max, but it didn't live up the the first Pro Max. It didn't feel as smooth, didn't cast as far, etc. I'm not sure if there was a design change, or if it was just a bad reel.  In the end I decided to use the black Pro Max solely and retie when I needed to make a lure change.  

In 2012 I also purchased a Diawa MF100THS for around $90. The Diawa Mega Force 100THS was a model that offered a new feature called the"Twitching Bar." To be honest, I bought the reel purely on the fact that it had this cool new feature. I had read about it in a magazine and wanted to try it. The twitching bar was a feature that allowed the angler to twitch his/her bait without moving the rod, a technique that shines in finesse fishing. With a simple press of a button, the reel would quickly retrieve a small amount of line....thus twitching your bait along. Diawa also claimed that the twitching bar could pick up slack line before a hook set. These were all things that sounded cool to me on paper, but once I got the reel in my hand and used it a time or two I realized that it was all useless. I liked to feel my bait when I twitch it in order to see if I hit something or if a fish decided to eat my bait. With this new twitching bar, feeling my bait was next to impossible. The twitch bar was so abrupt that many times I actually twitched the bait right out of a fishes mouth. One evening I was twitching a fluke when all of a sudden I hit the twitch bar and I discovered that a fish had eaten my bait. The line was tight and the sudden twitch spooked the fish and it took off before I could set a solid hook. I fought the fish for a few seconds, but the fish eventually freed itself. In a fit of rage I bit my line in two at my reel, took the reel off of my rod, and threw the reel into the river. (Thus the reason for no picture) 

During the winter of 2012/2013 I decided to splurge a little and buy a reel over $100. Since I had seen such a tremendous difference between the $30 and $80 reels, I figured that there would be an even more noticeable difference in the $80- $150 reels. I did my research and narrowed my options down to three reel companies; Abu Garcia, Shimano, and Lews. These companies were leading the pack in innovation and performance. I went to Bass Pro Shops once again and began looking at my options. They only offered Abu Garcia and Shimano, so Lews was out of the question. I grabbed each reel within my budget, held them in the palm of my hand, and turned the handle a few times. Before holding the reels I was pretty sure that I was going to buy Abu Garcia's Revo line of reels, but once I held Shimano's Curado I started to second guess myself. The Curado was super smooth, the power R grip 2 handles fit nicely between my thumb and forefinger, and it was very light weight. Both reels sported a tremendous list of features, nothing one had was more spectacular than a feature or part that the other had. I asked the lady behind the counter if she had a preference between Abus Revo's and Shimano's Curado, in which she replied "I own a curado and I love it". My response was, "I'll take it."

On the way home I was in a bit of shock, after paying nearly $500 at the cash register for the reel, a rod, and tackle. I kept telling myself that I could have bought 2 of Abu Garcia's Pro Max reels for the price of the Shimano Curado. A couple months later I had the opportunity to take the Curado out and use it. To make a long story short, it was nothing short of amazing. I started with a 3/8oz bait and worked my way all the way down to 1/4oz jig head and grub. It threw all of the baits well and birdnests were nearly non existent. The reel was super smooth, there wasn't any play in the handle, the drag was smooth, it casted well, and just felt comfortable to hold. It sounds corny, but it was a pleasure to fish with. I didn't have to think about avoiding a birdnest or trying too hard to cast a lure. Everything became second nature.

After using the Curado I couldn't make myself go back to Abu Garcia's Pro Max.....I had spoiled myself. I spent a month or so using the Curado as my only bass rod. I had gotten a new job and money was starting to build up in my bank account so I decided to get yet another reel. This time around I wanted to break into the $200 class reels. Both Shimano and Abu Garcia offered reels just at $200. This time around I didn't have to do research, I knew what I wanted. While shopping for the Curado I had seen a very sharp looking reel in the shamano line up of reels. It was white and black and had a recessed reel seat making it a lower profile reel. The Shimano Chronarch which came in at $199. I didn't even pick up an Abu Garcia Revo this time around. I walked up to the counter and asked for the Shimano Chronarch in the highest gear ratio offered (7:1:1). I bought it, put it on a rod, and took it to the lake. Other than its lower profile, which makes it feel smaller in your palm, and its clean white appearance it handled nearly identical to the Curado. In this case the extra $50 did not make that much of a difference. Needless to say, it is still a phenomenal reel. Ive spent 8 months of solid fishing with both Shimano reels and have yet to have a single problem with them. I can't say if they are better than the Abu Garcia Revo line of reels, but what I can say is that I have no reason to try them and find out. 


SUMMARY

In the last 7 years I have discovered that when it comes to low profile baitcasting reels, you get what you pay for. With that said, I have found some general prices that separate bad reels from good reels and good reels from great reels. Reels under $50 are "Junk", don't buy them and don't give them to other people. They are good for casting weight over 1/2oz and will backlash at the drop of a hat. If your just learning how to use these reels, please do yourself a favor and don't buy them. The chance of you leaving the rod and reel in the corner of your garage to collect dust are pretty high, and if your like me the chances of it ending up at the bottom of the lake or river is even higher. Reels that are between $60-$100 are what I consider "usable" reels. You can go out with most lures over 3/8oz and expect to handle them with ease, stay fairly stress free, and birdnest free. The reels that I bought in the $150 to $200 range I would consider "Performance" reels. These reels are going to let you throw the lightest baits in your box, birdnest the least, and work day in and day out. Another important thing to note, is not to buy a reel just because it has a new cool feature. More often than not, its just a way to get your money.  If its been on the market for a while, take a look at the reviews and see what people have to say about it. If the reviews are consistently good, then buy the reel.

Hopefully this has helped anyone who is just getting into low profile baitcasters or anyone who is just ready for an upgrade.

Low Profile Baitcaster Cleaning

With winter knocking on our door, most guys are starting to put their bass gear away for the year. I'm not one of those individuals but I do use this time of year to clean my reels, rods, re organize my tackle, etc. Now that daylight fades at 5:00pm, I'm forced to do most of my fishing on the weekends. This leaves a lot of time during the week to do the projects that I fail to do during the warmer months.

Over the last couple months I've had a few guys ask me who I have clean my reels? In which I respond, "I clean my own reels." I then tell them that there's really no sense in sending your reels off to have them cleaned for $10-20 a piece, when you have all winter to do things for yourself.  So in order to help a few guys save a little money, here's how I clean my reels.

The first thing you'll need is the right set of tools. You will need the following:

• 10 mm Wrench
• Set of small screwdrivers
• Electrical tape
• Isopropyl Alcohol
• Cotton Swabs (Q-tips)
• Paper Towels
• Oil
• Grease
• Reel Schematics Chart.....Find it Here
• A clean open space to work
• A reel (In this case a Shimano Chronarch)

After you have all of this lined out and ready to go its time to get your reel.......and lock your dog/cat/small children out (nothing like having your reel completely disassembled when someone or something decides to bump the table). Take your reel off of your rod and set it down on the white paper towel. The paper towel will help to collect dirt, dust, sand, algae, etc. as well as any parts that may get away from you during disassembly. The first thing I do is tape the line to the spool, here I use the electrical tape. At this point your done with the electrical tape so you can set it aside. The second step is to remove the left side plate. To do this on my reel you have to flip up a tab and rotate it counter clockwise. Most reels will have a very similar mechanism to unlock the side-plate.

 

Once the side plate is open you will see your spool and mechanical brakes, simply grab the shaft and pull the spool out and lay it onto your paper towel.

Now its time to break out the cotton swabs and Isopropyl Alcohol. I chose alcohol as my cleaning agent for a couple reasons. The most important of which is that it evaporates quickly, leaving behind little to no residue, and requires no drying. I'm sure there are reel cleaning agents out there, but I don't use them because I see no point in it. I simply fill the cap of the alcohol bottle with alcohol and then dip the cotton swabs in it. I then swab the reel until I feel confident that I have removed all of the "gunk." If your reel is as dirty as mine was, it may be a good idea to start with a paper towel dipped in alcohol to remove the majority of your "gunk"  before using the cotton swabs............or go through half a box of swabs like I do.

Here you will spend a significant amount of time getting into all of the nooks and crannies of the reel. I probably spent around 20 minutes and went through 20 cotton swabs in the process.

Once you have cleaned your reel to your liking its now time to move onto the other side plate of the reel. This side plate requires tools and has a lot of parts so pay close attention to what you do. As I begin to remove parts I place them in a row along the top edge of the paper towel in order as they come off. For those of us with bad memory, this is one sure way to keep track of what goes on in what order.

Start by grabbing a small screwdriver to remove the screw and cap off of the drive shaft of the reel. Set the cap down in a position where you can begin to line the other parts up in order behind it.....top left or right corner of paper towel. I started in the top left and worked my way right. It's the way we read so It was just habitual to me, feel free to do it however you like though. One helpful thing you can do is take pictures as you remove parts, this will help you get the reel back together if you do have an accident. Now grab your 10mm wrench and remove the nut.  From this point forward different reels will have different parts.....or at least that has been my experience. For this exact reel I removed a washer, drag star, spring, another nut, and 3 washers while laying them all out in order. (See above picture) Now at this point you will have all of your parts off of your reel all the way down to the side plate. Now you can remove the three screws holding the side plate on, they are located around the edge of the side plate. Try to gently pull the side plate off while keeping the reel as level as possible. (drive shaft will be pointing upward.....picture above) If your side plate does not come off easily start looking for other screws that are holding the side plate on. On the Shimano Chronarch there is a small screw on the inside of the reel, where the spool sits, that holds the side plate to the reel frame. Once the last screw is removed the side plate should come off. (If this does not work on your reel check your schematics to see where the other screws are) At this point your reel will look like the picture of mine above. Continue to KEEP THE REEL LEVEL. If your reel tips you may have to do some minor reassembling. Most of the time the small springs ("Yoke/Turnkey Pawl Springs) will fall out, just put them back onto their shafts. However, much worse can happen if you tip your reel, so do your best to keep your reel upright and level. Look around to make sure your dog/cat/small child hasn't wandered into your work space. (I'm sure that's humorous to some, while others just looked over their shoulder to make sure the coast is clear.)

At this point I will not remove any other parts, you should not disassemble your reel any further unless you really want to box it up and send it off to be rebuilt. I have completely disassembled reels in the past and am confident enough to do it now, but in the process I have effectively killed a half dozen reels.....call it a stiff learning curve. I do not want this blog post to be the end of a dozen reels, so please don't go any further unless you feel 100 percent confident you can put it back together. This is all the further you will need to go to clean and re lubricate your reel. At this point you will need to get the alcohol and cotton swabs back out and remove any old grease, dirt, oil, moisture, etc. Make sure to clean the drive gear as much as possible, because you will be re lubricating it soon. Its the largest gear in your reel, so it should be easy to find.....if your having troubles continue reading and look at the pictures below.

Once you have the reel completely dry and clean its time to re lubricate your reel. I start off with the grease first. I use two brands of grease and oil, ardent and quantum. I bought them to experiment and see if I liked one over the other, but as far as grease is concerned I have no favorite. Pictured above is Ardent's Reel Butter. Take your grease of choice and lubricate the drive gear as shown below.

Now here is where you will have to make a decision of your own, do you lubricate the whole gear or do you follow other guidelines such as 3/4 of the gear, 1/2 of the gear? There are dozens if not hundreds of self proclaimed pros at cleaning reels, and it seems like everyone lubricates their reels differently. Some people think they are protecting their gear more by lubricating it heavily, however others lubricate lightly as to ensure a higher performance. I'm no pro but I do have a preference. I  prefer to use a light coating of grease rather than to over grease my gears. Your reel will feel smoother and your handle will turn much more freely with a lighter coating than if you give the gear a heavy coating. (This can be tested by assembling your reel and then spinning the handle and then letting go. Reels with light lubrication will continue to spin while other, more heavily greased reels will stop soon after you release the reel handle.) Excess grease will also spin off and land on other parts that do not need to be greased. Excess grease will also trap sand, dust, dirt, etc inside of your reel and wear on your parts. Enough on that though. I simply lubricate 2/3 of my gear and then spin it around a few times to evenly disperse it among its groves.

While you have the grease out go ahead and grease around the clutch plate, the metal plate near the bottom of the reel. See above pic. Then with a cotton swab remove all excess grease off of the drive gear and the clutch plate. At this point you should be done with the grease, and now its time to use oil. Earlier I mentioned that I bought a variety of brands of grease and oil to try and see which ones I preferred. I mentioned that I did not have a favorite in grease, well the same cannot be said about oil. I did develop a favorite, Quantum's Hot Sauce Reel Oil. I have found that this oil will stay on metal longer than its competitors. It lubricates the metal parts even when they have been exposed to water. (Rain or even the accidental drop in the water) Quantum claims that it forms a molecular bond with the metal.

Before reassembling the reel go ahead and re lubricate the bearings with one drop of oil. Bearings will look like small metal disks nearly 1/4" thick with a hole in the middle. I know that probably doesn't help a lot but there's one pictured below.

There will be a bearing on each side plate, which support the shaft that the spool sits on, however for now just do the right side plate bearing. Your next bearing will be on the inside of the right side plate where the drive shaft runs through. It won't look like the bearing under the tension knob, because it isn't encased. On the picture above the other bearing is located in the hole above where the oil needle is pointed. Give it a drop of oil and begin to reassemble the right side plate. Make sure that everything is seated level as it goes back on. Since you have your items in order from which they were taken off, it should be pretty easy to put back together. If you have problems check your reel schematics. With the right side plate, completely reassembled you are free to move on to re lubricating the left side plate.

Inside of the left side plate you will find a bearing that the shaft of the spool sits in, give it a drop of oil. Some spools will even have bearings inside of them so check there as well. Also on this side you will see the end of your worm gear, (Pictured below it in the brass colored washer) some of your higher quality reels will have a bearing here, give it a drop of oil as well. If it doesn't have a bearing you can still give it a shot of oil.

Your almost done now. Go ahead and place the spool back into position and close the left side plate. Now onto the worm gear (Silver gear in front of my oil needle seen in pic below), if its pretty clean and in good shape all you have to do is take a paper towel and remove the moisture and add a couple drops of new oil. However, if you can see dirt/grit inside of your worm gear you will have to remove the left side plate, the clip, brass washer, remove the line pawl cap (Black cap seen to the right of my oil needle below), line pawl (metal claw underneath the line pawl cap), and then remove the worm gear. Then with a tooth brush scrub the dirt out. While the gear is out of its sleeve, take a cotton swab and remove any dirt that is left behind. Then put it all back together in the opposite order.

Now for the final touch, flip the reel over and grab the handle. You will find that each handle sits on a bearing, give them a drop of oil too. Some reels will have plastic caps on the handles that keep dirt from getting into the bearings, if so remove cap and add a drop of oil to each handle.

Now your all done and ready to hit the water again, whether it be next week or next spring. Unless of course your like me and you have another half dozen reels to clean. In that case you have a long night ahead of you.

 I hope this has helped a few of you out, maybe even cured your cabin fever for a bit.
Thanks for reading.