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greenmtnman

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  • About Me:
    Obsessive is a nicer thing I've been called...
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    Adventurer

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  1. I'll take them if it falls through. Stay out of this Jayfish! LOL
  2. I think you just contact him and he has them. He's super fast at responding, generally.
  3. I admit to not even taking care of mine. Lays on the bottom of the ocean while I f*4# around or release a fish or whatever. Deep wade, swim, wetsuit 90 nights a season. As Bob recently said to me "you're a maniac with your stuff" won't even need to service this year, but he serviced mine last year in 3 days. J
  4. No. Colton Terrapin 100%. Another season with it laying on the bottom, bashed into rocks, dragged through sand...works exactly like new, maybe the slightest touch of roughness from getting beaten up. Don't always do a great job rinsing, either. Very happy.
  5. Color doesn't matter, although preference for lighter colors. Either of the larger sizes, looking for both. Pay $ but I also have some plugs i might be able to trade (Mike's Darters?).
  6. I am with you! I carry a 7" serrated full-tang stainless Cressi knife for the same reason on my surf belt. ALL the time. 100%. Although with a great white/deep wading/swimming situation it'd be like having a BB gun when attacked by a grizzly bear. I did use it once to free myself of a braid tangle that started to get a bit out of control once. I also pulled it on a drug addict who was trying to fight me once in the middle of the night while fishing. That was scarier than the shark.
  7. My first trip to the keys, I was bound and determined to land a bone fish on my own from the flats on the fly rod. I succeeded on day 7 of 10 days there. However, this dumb yankee did not understand that in Florida, unlike in New England, that very big bull sharks will cruise into water that is waist deep. Here, the great whites tend to cruise the bars and edges of deeper water- unless making a charge at a seal. So I am wading a flat at false dawn (are you seeing where the stupidity/ignorance is coming in?), I'm at least 150 yards from shore, adjacent to a substantial current line. I had caught 2 bones and hooked a tarpon. Next thing I know, I see a fin in the distance. It slowly- very slowly- cruises towards me. As it gets close I realize how F$&%ed I am. It's HUGE. So, long story short, I freeze and the shark is huge. It got close enough that I stuck my rod out and jabbed it in gill. My rod did a slow bend to the point I thought it would break. So it was maybe 5 feet from me? I was totally frozen. It slowly rotated in the slight current- it was longer than my 9ft rod. And then it just slowly drifted back with the current. We had black tips come within 2 feet of us, nurses rub against our legs (they're like puppies, eh?) and rays swim over our feet. I touched a sleeping logger head that had to be 250 pounds or more. We were very dumb.
  8. This. Most of my spots don't absolutely need a suit- but it's insurance. Others, are essential. But those are few. I would think fly Fisherman would be the first in line. That extra 30 feet you can get out, or 100, or whatever, can actually make a huge difference- which is often not the case with spin. It also allows you to avoid trying to pull a fish through the last bit of shallow structure, which is a serious break off hazard... I love my suit, and if I had to choose one over the the other forever (Waders vs wetsuit), the decision would be immediate and easy. wouldn't even be that big a deal, just in late November and early December would be uncomfortable
  9. These are words to live by. I hope I didn't insinuate on here that this is a sealed van staal-spinning reel-like situation. I do not intend on this lasting without actual maintenance and care- no fly reel will, they are inherently flawed due to how they must function. So far anyways. However, so far this real has been very dependable and thought I would share.
  10. I'd rather not. It's not my style. Let's just say that three were from major large companies, one who looked me in the eye and said it would be fine. I threw that reel away at the end of one season. Then a couple from other smaller companies, and I've tried some eBay reels just for the hell of it.
  11. I'm glad you've had good luck with your reels. I considered a VS, but the design doesn't make as much sense to me. Can I ask how much you wetsuit? I spend 80-150 hours a month in mine from May until November. Also, both of those cost more than the Colton. The islander is a lot more, for the same size looks like it's twice as much money. Are the made in the USA? The Colton is made in USA.
  12. I also believe that no reel is waterproof. This was my initial issue with putting down hundreds of dollars. I tried to go the really cheap reel route where I spent like $79 and just figured I'd buy 2-3 a season because I have ruined $400 reels in as little as 3 weeks. I've never had a reel make it more than a couple months without starting to not function as new. This is the only one. I treat it like it's very water resistant and try to take care of it, but when you swim with your fly rod, or are fishing with your stripping basket up around your arm pits, it's going to be underwater a lot. I do my best. I've only had the reel 7 months. It's easy to open, it takes just a minute or so. You can service it yourself. I am happy to update this at the end of the season.
  13. This same language will also be going into my letter. It boils my blood that we have to accept options that only have 20% reduction, 50/50 chance of working, and will only rebuild in 13 years not the required 10. It's laughable. It's only a delay. This is just phase one, I believe collapse is coming. I am not usually one to be jaded and pessimistic, but here I am. Ugh.
  14. If you didn't see my original post, you can find it here In short, I wetsuit the surf 120-150 nights a season with fly rod and spinning rod. I want to catch 30-40lb on fly rod in surf, in wetsuit, finally. I've broken a ton of reels and rods. I wanted something that would stand up, and was sick of supposed high-end stuff breaking. So I ended up buying a Colton 1012 Terrapin after two very long conversations with Bob, owner of Colton. I talked with several companies, and the owners of most. Bob was the only one to take me seriously, and completely guarantee the reel would do what I was asking. I was still nervous. It's a lot of money, and I don't have much, and I have ruined so much equipment supposedly "rugged" enough to do what I ask of my gear. In short: I could not be happier. This is not a BS review. I paid for my reel. In short, I have over 180 fish on it this year so far to 21 pounds so far this season. I fought but ultimately broke off a fish that would have definitely been a personal best. I had a night of 55 fish in heavy current and moderate surf, four straight hours of catching fish mid-20" to low 30". Talk about going home tired, I could barely steer my car on the way home. I fished with the reel three times in waders all prior to May, and since all use has occurred in my wetsuit. It has been underwater many, many, many times. Full submersion. I carry the extra spool in my waist pouch. It is underwater more, depending which line I'm using. I rinse it at the car after each trip, thoroughly. That's it. I fully and completely admit- Bob don't read this please- that I haven't even serviced it yet. I have pulled it apart to look for water and found none. It's still silky smooth and powerful. Actually...it's total overkill if I'm honest. The drag is INSANE. I fish an 11wt and 30lb straight leader and it's way too much for either. I'm not sure how many clicks the drag knob has, but let's say it has 25. I'm using like 7 to 10 clicks then, and pushing my 11wt to the max. Bob told me it can do full drag for hours running at 55mph...I laughed when he told me, but I believe him now. I'm really excited to pair this up with a 14wt and really get after jumbos in the heavy structure I fish. I'm running it with 50lb gel spun braid and it holds 300yards with my SA Sharkskin floating 11wt line with room to spare, and with my intermediate Rio outbound I'm sure it could hold 400yards (currently 300). I have noticed a little rust spotting on the balance weight on one spool, which I rubbed off and is now gone. The little o-ring on the inside of both spools broke and is gone now, because I'm making in the field changes in the dark without a light (because I'm hiding from all of you trying to steal my spot). I notice no effect on performance? Here's hoping long term. Those are the only things that have happened, and if you've seen how I use my stuff you'd understand why I'm tttooottttaallllyyyy OK with it. I think it's a little weird for me to post this up here, I'm not trying to push this reel. I'm simply trying to provide some data for anyone else that's like me. For maybe the other 3 guys that are doing what I'm doing hahaha. Yes, this will hold up to the wetsuit 100 nights a season or more and balance out a 11-14wt (I haven't tested it with less than 11wt). You mileage may vary, but so far so good for me. After destroying at least 6 reels, this is the longest I've gone without locking one up, bending the spool, breaking something off, or freezing it up. Maybe I'll update this at the end of year.
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