Teal101

Great start. I'd add a gill in there too. Gotta love stocker trout though!

Anyone have a MCL mating call (or link) to get ahold of him?

MCL Gills are great. Actually I think hes looking to sponsor some cats to spread the word, you should hit him up. I take it the guy I need to talk to has posted in this thread

Looking at getting a gill bait to dead stick over and around weed mats on my local waters. Looking right around the 4-5" range. Want something that floats right below the surface. I've been looking at the Mattlures U2 floater flat tail and G2 Shellcracker (if I can find one!). I think ML makes a floating hardgill, I know 3:16 does, but they're tough to find and $$$. Any other good options out there? Soft or hard, doesnt matter.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife kills off 2-3 lakes a year up here. They have multi species lakes, warmwater lakes, and then trout lakes. When people dump bluegill, perch, or bass into a trout lake they overpopulate and take over the trout, especially the perch. The state then goes in, kills the lake off, and re-stocks it with trout. One of my favorite lakes was just illegally planted with Perch and the future of the bass, trout, and tiger musky in the lake is now in jeopardy.

My reel that I posted was done by Calfish. Top notch service and a great guy to deal with.

Most wire leaders have a ball bearing swivel built in. Theres a guy on that auction site that makes his own fluoro leaders. I use them for musky fishing. He makes them in all sorts of lengths and lb test. I generally use 12-14" 80lb leaders. He uses cross lok snaps and sampo BB swivels if I remember correctly. Best leaders out there.

Oooops, ment to be 2.4oz topraider hahahaha! Thanks for all the compliments guys. The handle works great for slow rolling baits but for fast hard pulling topwaters it is a bit short. Bucks, Swimbaits, creepers work well, the topraider is a chore to burn.

Disassembling it down to bare parts, boxing it up, and sending it to a man named Alan in California for custom paint. He can do every color known to man in clear or matte depending on the reel. This is matte black with gloss white. Custom decals were made with the permission of Abu Garcias brand marketing manager by a third party supplier to make it look closer to stock. Bearings were upgraded with Boca abec 7's and the handle and knob were ordered from Japan. Thanks for the compliments guys. This is my 5th rod, room for improvement, but I think I'm getting the hang of it!

Welcome, now you can never leave.

I built this to go with my white and black Revo Toro. It is a Lamiglas LGM96-1XH 1-8oz, 8', Xtra Heavy blank. I used a Matagi ACS reel seat and Matagi Butt cap. Fuji SiC Ti K guides were used throughout. EVA split grip. Pro Wrap thread and Mudhole winding checks. I've thrown some Castaic and Spro swimbaits on it so far without any hits. Also thrown some big Mepps bucks and Bucher Topraiders for toothy critters. Handled the 24 oz topraider well. I also threw a 3 oz creeper and it threw great. The Castaic is a 1-1/4 oz 6" bait and it was tough to get distance with it. The blank really shines in the middle of its range. Havent thrown anything heavy yet, soon though.

This is the one I use now. I got it because of it's large reading for SU tourneys. Always have a back up and or extra batteries. Works nice enough PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS...DONT BE A HARD HEAD LIKE ME AND FIND OUT THE HARD WAY WHY HE SAYS THIS! I love mine. It is quite accurate and easy to read and operate.

Good to see some other PNW guys on here. At least I know not everyone will look at me weird when I'm throwing big baits into the water.

Tapps and Merwin arent far from Oregon. Merwin is the lake that holds the record iirc. I'm going up to Curlew on Saturday for a week to slay some Swimbait Musky!