So, get comfortable and grab a cup of coffee'cause this is gonna be long-winded. Or skip to the next post if you're no in the mood for story time.
I had a friend I'll call Bill ('cause that was his name) with whom I decided to go into busuness despite all those stories recommending otherwise as doing so has been the demise of numberous friendships. Fortunately, we endured the experience. We opened a fishing tackle store we humly called Fishing Unlimited in McMinnville.
The local distributor took pity on us (thankfully) with the knowledge at that time that a couple of chain stores which also sold tackle would be our competition in this little town,. Hence, we got some of the first Okuma reels as well as early shipments (and exclusive dealership - for a whi9le) of Power Pro line. The Okuma Reels were a different animal in the early years, buit to sell cheaply. On every box it stated, :Sense of Power" which was changed in the following year to "Feel the Power" as the got the hang of translation to English. Regardless, they were a decent reel for a very reasonable cost. ;Thing is, we kept getting returns for faulty drags. As soon as we got a couple of Ambassadeurs back for the same reason, we reelized something was amiss. That's when we learned about properly affixing the line to the arbor when filling a reel with braid. I cm up with a speedier method involving Super Glue but it was nonetheless effective and stopped returns due to "faulty drags"
While I am well aware of the tenet regarding versatility and steelheading and, between writing about fishing and having been in the tackle business, Ive preached it more times that I could count. Do i practice it? Of course not. I fish spinners exclusively for summer steelhead and have done so pretty much since I started steelheading. I catch some fish that way, but that's not the point of this story. Due to an increase in sensitivity and more effective hooksets, I switched to braid for throwing spinners. The first summer I hooked (after switching) was a remarkable experience, as if I was wired directly to his nervous system. I recall ckearky the fish cartwheeling and spitting the lure, or rather, I pulled it out of his mouth. I know longer rods are in vogue but I prefer a 71/2 footer. I use a Loomis GLX Hotshot rod (which I couldn't have afforded at the time were we not Loomis dealers). The shorter, ultra fast-action rod coupled with the lack of stretch that braid afford was just too much. There was almost no give, no cushion when the fish jumped. I know to 'bow' to a fish but I can't bow enough to make up for the lack of line stretch combined with the rigidity of the rod. I was consistently pulling lures loose, so went back to mono and fished happily ever after.
Regarding swivels, even without creating a leader to use with braid, as a disciple of Jed Davis, I'll take a length of line from the reel so I can put a swivel a couple of feet above the spinner. Increased feel, decreased twist, what's not to like? If you're still with me, thanks. I'll try for the Reader's Digest version next time.
