I have been staring at these reels for a long time. They are hard to get and pricey. Several times I have been in the right place at the wrong time and never picked one up until recently. A good friend of mine decided to part with his, so I snatched it up.
They come in several varieties, with this one being the 2023 flavor. I really like the 2021 100th Anniversary edition in Blue.
As I’ve stated in the past, these are really popular amongst Japanese anglers. They have an entire cottage industry specifically surrounding these reels.
I have an old Abu Garcia/Zebco Cardinal 4 so I will show the internals of both.
2023 Abu Daysprout Cardinal 3Made in SwedenAftermarket Avail Shallow Spool in aluminumVintage Abu/Zebco Cardinal 4 from the 70’sMade in SwedenAbu/Zebco Cardinal 4 internalsAbu/Daysprout Cardinal 3 internals.
If it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it! The bearings are better and they balanced the rotor, but for all intents, it’s the same at it has always been. There is no end to what you can do to this reel in terms of upgrades. Only your wallet is the deciding factor.
I think it will be fun to fish with. I have a couple of rods in mind for this reel. I seriously doubt it will replace any of my other reels, but who knows.
PSA: Chris Stewart has quietly returned to the SFS/BFS scene. his website/store are back online and he’s slowly restocking. His website is http://www.finesse-fishing.com and http://www.tenbum.com. Chris is an absolute wealth of information and I consider reading his site a yearly necessity.
I am stoked for 2026! Ready to get out there and fish, make plans for outings and trips, and even purchase some new gear. All in due time.
We are still trying to put the finishing touches on the new house and are working with the builder to resolve a few issues. It has been a long process. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel. Since we downsized a bit, getting things to fit has been a challenge. We ended up combining her home office with the fishing room. Most women wouldn’t go for that, but she loves it.
It will definitely be a nice base of operations! And true to form, we already have EuroTackle B-vibe soft plastics on order for the upcoming season. The tariffs have not made it easy to order things from Japan, and we are not happy about that. All of that is way above my pay grade and out of my wheelhouse. Besides, we spent a pile of money on new furniture and things for the house anyway.
All we have to do is make it through the winter and we have it made. And to all who read this…Happy New Year!
With weight and space restrictions forced upon us, careful gear selection was critical. We decided on two reels and two rods apiece. We packed a variety of plastic paddle tails and jigheads. We figured that if necessary we could find a local tackle shop to resupply if we miscalculated. We packed minimal clothing since most hotels have laundry facilities. The only purchase we made specifically for this trip were pairs of Simms ZipIt booties.
Definitely recommend Simms Guide Socks with these.
Our rods of choice were the Shimano Zodias 5-pc travel rods.
Reels of choice were either the Shimano Excense C3000 or a Shimano Twin Power C3000.
For reel sizes, 2500’s work well, but we opted for the C3000 size. They are built on the 2500 frame yet have a bigger spool. A Shimano Vanford 2500FA would be a great choice due to it’s lighter weight.
Water bottle holder, rod holder and pliers are essentials!
We like soft sided zippered boxes like these. They keep everything contained and easily accessible. Four of these will fit inside a Yeti Panga.
We always carry a spare spool of line and leader material.
We opted for Gecko boxes because they are waterproof and inexpensive. We want our jigheads and lures kept dry and out of the saltwater. When we use a lure and need to change, it goes into a separate bag until we can wash them off in freshwater.
Inside the Gecko box is everything we need to fish for a full day. What you see above is our Day 3 selection. We were carrying too much tackle the first day. By day two we were slowly paring things down to lighten our load. We also carried 1.5 liter water bottles and a Gatorade apiece. The Gatorades were very nice after a long day of wading. Especially considering a long walk on the beach back to the car in the blazing sun and heat.
Clothing was as you would expect. Lightweight breathable garments with hoods. We wore buffs and hats, fingerless sun gloves and sun glasses. it was easy to submerse ourselves and let the breeze cool us off.
There were a couple of funny moments. On our first day of wade fishing, we both had sharks on our minds. We were waist deep and I noticed a bow wave coming right at us. I pointed it out to her and we both started backing up towards the shore. Then it dawned on me…bow wave and no dorsal fin showing. It ended up being two manatees that came close enough to check us out before moving on. Pucker factor temporarily high!
On Day 2, we wade fished the back bay. The wind and waves were up, as was the tide. The water was stirred up and visibility wasn’t that great. She was up ahead and leading. We were up on a sand flat and were fishing the deeper troughs. I told her to keep her eyes out for sharks and she responded by saying she hadn’t seen any. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and sure enough, a 4-5ft Lemon shark glided right by me in the trough. Yah, I can’t rely on her to spot sharks! Lol.
On Day 3, we were fishing the back bay and were catching Jacks. Those little suckers fight like mad. We spotted another Manatee cruising around and a pod of Dolphins working the troughs we were in. Obviously we got out of their way. It was a neat experience for us Okies. Surprisingly, it didn’t seriously effect the fishing as we were soon into Speckled Trout.
Anyway, I figured I would share the gear we used in case anyone was interested or planning a similar trip. Thanks for reading…
Both of us needed a change of pace. So we booked flights on Allegiant, reserved a rental car and a hotel and packed the necessary gear. Certain times of the year, Allegiant flies round trip from Tulsa to St. Petersburg, and the flights are inexpensive ( $185-ish ).
True to form, this was a Spartan affair, with no frills or major luxuries…at least we weren’t in a tent this time! We packed our travel rods and reels in our Yeti backpacks and combined everything else into one duffel bag.
I used the Salt Strong app, Smart Fishing Spots and the Salt Strong Community for all of my research on what to bring and where to go. We decided that we would target Redfish, Snook and Speckled Trout, but in reality, we’d accept catching anything.
We primarily fished this bay for 2 days
The weather was great and the fishing was better than expected. Doing our research and due diligence really paid off.
We carried everything we would need for the day.
Since we weren’t catching much on the Gulf side, we opted to fish the bay off behind the main beach. Both of us love to wade fish, so this was what we came to do.
My First Snook It’s mandatory to tie on a new leader after every Snook.If you struggle to tie the FG knot…buy a DaiichiSeiko Knot Assist 2.0. Thank me later!A well earned smile!
We had a great trip and all of our chosen gear worked perfectly. We mainly used Shimano Zodias 5-pc rods in Medium Light and Medium with Shimano Twin Power C3000 or Shimano Exsence C3000 reels. We were spooled up with 10 pound braid and 20 lb monofilament leaders. We threw 7gr-10gr jigheads with various plastic baits to great effect. We did bring TFO Traveler 3-pc rods as backups, but they seemed ridiculously heavy and unwieldy compared to the Zodias rods. They ended up being more of a nuisance than anything. But they gave us peace of mind in the event we broke a rod. I think that if we do another trip like this, we will each pack two Zodias travel rods, since they fit inside the Yeti Pangas.
Would we move to Florida just for the multitude of fishing opportunities? Hell no! Way too much traffic and way too many people. But the funny thing for us was that there were probably 20,000 people on the ocean side of the beach and we fished the back bay for two days and only saw one other person back there.
We will deem this a successful trip and we learned a lot. I definitely see us doing another trip like this.
First off, I would like like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope they are doing well. Secondly, I’d like to give an update on what is going on and why we have been absent.
My wife and I started the process to have a house built back in August. We are finally in our new house. We had to clear some of our land which entailed removing around 70 trees. That part we did ourselves and I can tell you…I’m getting too old to do stuff like that. We bought a shipping container and converted that into living quarters. We had our old house demolished and used the existing slab to build the new house on. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we live on a hilltop. It was cost prohibitive to level a new sight. The estimate for that came in at around $47,000 so we opted for Plan B. Fast forward to Christmas Eve and we now have the keys and are almost moved in.
I say all that to explain why we haven’t been posting. We haven’t had much time. In fact, we have not had a day off since August. We did make a trip to wade fish in Florida back in May. A belated post on that trip is incoming in 2026. But other than that, the fishing has been pretty slim. Factor in the tariffs, and we have not purchased much of anything from Japan. I did pick up a Daiwa Certate and I also picked up a Penn Authority reel in St. Petersburg Florida while we were there. Interesting reel and I will do a post on that in 2026 also.
On a lighter note, we welcomed our third Grandson into the world. It reminds us how fast time goes by and how old we are getting. But we have many things to be thankful for and are truly grateful. Hopefully things return to normal in 2026 and we get to go fishing a lot more. Stay tuned…and Thank You all!
We ended up coming back to this local lake in the evening because we tried to get to it in the morning but there were too many cars. The parking lot is completely underwater due to all of the recent rains as well as debris clogging the overflow pipe. Apparently, maintenance is not a high priority for the local water department.
We had to wade through waist high grass and contend with ticks to fish the shoreline and with the water level being so high, the fish were practically at our feet with almost all bites happening within a foot or two of the shore.
We had caught several smallish bass up to 2 pounds and had lost quite a few more in the hour we fished. Crappie jigs aren’t made for hooking a bass. Since we couldn’t get to our normal Crappie spot or even cast out to it, we just started hunting for them.
As we were about to leave, we decided to fish one more spot and that’s where the Crappie action started. It seemed like an odd place since it was 15 ft from a guy who was fishing and there were two boats being loaded at the makeshift boat ramp.
She was closer to the spot than me and was casting parallel to the shore when I heard her drag start screaming. Due to high weeds and small trees, I couldn’t really see what she was fighting, but I casually told her to tighten her drag a bit figuring it was just another bass. When she saw the fish I heard her yell, “Holy S*&%” and that’s when I reeled in quickly and started heading over to her. Upon her hoisting the Crappie up for me to see…I muttered the same thing in disbelief!
There before me was the biggest Crappie I had ever seen in person. What was more special was that it came from a small local lake and we had no idea they were that big in there. We managed to catch 5 more from that spot and all of them were 12 inches plus, but none as big as the one she caught. All were safely released back into the water to continue on.
True to form…She caught the biggest fish of the outing and a day later, she still has a big grin on her face. She takes her fishing seriously and a photo will be framed and placed on the wall amongst the others.
All is well here and we have been fishing every chance we get. Trout season started late due to weather related events but we still managed to get to the trout pond multiple times and did quite well.
Most of the trout we caught were in this size range.
The weather has been all over the place this year. A typical week consists of winds 25-40mph, wildfires, temperatures ranging from 38F to 93F and intermittent rains. We squeeze in what we can, when we can. I will admit that since I have been working nights, it’s easier for me to get out before work and fish.
Several times a week, before work, I have hit the local lakes in search of Crappie and perch. One of our local lakes has an issue with the overflow pipe so it is still flooded and the parking lot is submerged. I’ve managed to catch a few bass but haven’t been able to locate the Crappie. Rather, I know where they are but just can’t get to them due to high water.
The other local lake has been a big producer and we have caught and released a pile of Crappie and perch.
Bluegill in spawning olors.Male Crappie doing his thing.Decent size Crappie.Nice Shellcracker or Redear sunfish.Gillcracker-Bluegill/Redear HybridFishing from a Beaver DamFloat fishing for perch and Crappie
We have only purchased a couple of rods this year and the only one of note (for me anyway) has been the Shimano Soare XR S510L-S and it has been a joy to fish.
I prefer a Light action rod due to fishing in current or heavy cover. The added “horsepower” helps set the hook or pull fish out of weedbeds or cover. This rod has been outstanding! Sensitivity is a 10 out of 10, hooksetting has been a 10 out of 10 and backbone has been a 10 out of 10 as well. It has quickly become one of my favorite rods.
My only real complaint for this year has been with shipments of goods. USPS, UPS and FedEx have been terrible so far. Missed delivery dates, re-routing packages to out of the way places that are non-sensical and other issues. Couple that with the inability to speak to a live person and frustrations mount. I wish they would stop putting “Expected Delivery” dates and times and just deliver the package. Most have arrived DAYS later and I have to wonder…what am I paying for??? USPS has been the absolute worst and I have received a litany of lame excuses. One example was the driver had bald tires. He delivered to our mailbox but wouldn’t leave a small box. Makes no sense.
Anyway…I don’t want to end on a negative note. Congratulations are in order for Mr. Nelson over at Classic Fly Tying for winning another award at the Fly Tying Contest held at Mountain Home Arkansas each year.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Bob over in Virginia who is always pushing the envelope on light tackle and coming up with creative ideas and solutions for panfish. He’s a wizard when it comes to these things and pushes me to learn and be a better angler. Cheers brother!
All in all, 2025 has had a good start and we have a few things in the pipeline in regards to fishing. Stay tuned for more. And if you are on Instagram, we post there quite frequently since it’s easier and faster for us.
I was late to the spoon fishing game by all accounts. A very knowledgable gentleman by the name of Christopher Stewart was the first to open my eyes to the possibilities of using spoons for trout and panfish. It helped that he stocked and sold Japanese spoons as well as rods, reels and lines.
What many people do not realize is that there is a system. You need to match the rod and reel, as well as the line to the type of fishing you are doing and to the target species. And this is especially true when using spoons. We are NOT talking about Johnson’s and KastMasters here, simply because they are not manufactured in the weights we will need. In some cases we will be using spoons that tip the scale at 1 gram or less and fish them very slowly for panfish. I find trout prefer a more erratic action and almost always hit on the drop…or when I stop reeling and let the spoon freefall for a few seconds.
What I have discovered is that spoons allow me to fish almost the entire water column effectively. I can vary the speed, the depth and the action without changing lures often. And in cases such as this, I prefer a JDM Area Trout rod due to their being more of a moderate action rod specifically designed for light lines and lures. I have yet to find a US rod that comes close to being suitable for fishing sub-1 gram spoons and other various light lures. You have to remember that in the JDM (Japan Domestic Market) world, they make rods with ratings of Super Ultralight, Extra Ultralight etc etc. They are truly specialists in their fishing pursuits. This is why I harp on JDM tackle since it opens a whole new world of tactics and techniques and it is very effective.
Various spoons ranging from 1 gram to 10 grams.Purpose built Daiwa Presso Spoon Wallets.A wide array of spoons of different sizes, colors, weights, shapes and actions.
I would also like to give a huge shout-out to my good friend Robert in Virginia. He is a true Master of his Craft when it comes to ultralight angling. He is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable anglers I know and is always on top of the JDM market. He freely shares information and tips which can be rare these days. I have hinted several times, unsuccessfully I might add, that he should be writing about JDM tackle since I think many people would enjoy the information, and it is hard to find good, reliable sources. He has tested more rods and reels than I could ever fathom.
Thank you for reading and if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them or find the information. Cheers.
It has been a slow start to 2025 in terms of fishing. We have made several trips to a nearby trout pond and have found that it hadn’t been stocked, was completely iced over or some other impediment. But today we managed to get into them and catch a bunch. And I can tell you…it was good to finally catch some decent trout. Several of them pulled some serious drag and put up a great fight.
We are typically catch and release only and today was no exception. Fishing with spoons has proven to be very effective and I wonder why it took me so long to start using them on a consistent basis.
Her first trout of 2025
It was great to get out and catch some fish. I think both of us needed that, especially since the weather has been up and down. 80F one day and 38F the next.
However, we as sportsmen need to speak up and call out bad behavior that gives us ALL a bad reputation. Several fishermen have been observed keeping way more than their alloted 3 trout. Some have been noted as showing up at dawn to keep 3 fish only to show back up in the evening to keep 3 more. And they’ve done that all week. I’m sure there are arguments on all sides, but the rules are the rules. Ethics and sportsmanship matters! Don’t be like these guys…please.
On a lighter, more positive note…we are still out here fishing and trying new gear and methods. There will be future blog posts as well. Thank you for reading.
2024 was a wild ride and if I’m being honest, I’m glad it’s over. We could only squeeze in one vacation last year so we didn’t get to take any major fishing excursions. However, we did hit our goal of 50 outings apiece for the year.
With our youngest son being a Sophomore in college, funds were tied up in education which was way more important than fishing gear.
I was tempted to do a “Most Used Gear of 2024” post but not much has really changed. Besides, we fished for everything from Carp to Stripers so the gear list would be rather long anyway.
I did manage to purchase 3 rods last year. There were only 3 that popped up on my radar and I eventually got them. They were the Palms Egeria Native Performance EFNS-61L, the TenRyu Rayz Alter RZA-612S-LT and the MajorCraft Finetail Works Tune FGW-4102UL.
Palms Egeria Native Performance EFNS-61LMajorCraft Finetail Works Tune Area FGW-4102UL
As for reels, I only purchased two new ones. The Shimano Twin Power C2000S and the Daiwa Airity ST SF 1000. Both are mid-tier and incredibly smooth reels. I’ve been very impressed with both.
2024 Shimano Twin Power C2000S2024 Daiwa Airity ST SF 1000S-P
Other than new Veles lures we bought throughout 2024, we continued to rely on the proven EuroTackle B-vibes in 2 inch and 3 inch varieties for most of our fishing. They are tried and tested and reliably catch fish when nothing else will. We are trying to find Tungsten jigheads in suitable weights to get away from lead heads.
We are currently kicking around several ideas for excursions in 2025. Possibly hopping on a plane to the Tampa Bay area to do some inshore wade fishing for Redfish, Snook and Speckled Trout. We will definitely hit some of our favorite rivers to be sure. As usual, we are pouring over maps and seeking out those “thin blue lines” that hold possibility.
Here’s to a successful 2025 to all! Thank you to everyone who read this blog last year, even though content has been hit-or-miss , we really appreciate it. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a hearty shout out to Darell over at Classic Fly Tying for being a faithful reader. We really appreciate your support and wish you all the best!
I’m ready to see what 2025 brings. With the passing of my wifes mother, we have been dealing with lawyers, probate court, realtors etc etc. Plus, I have moved departments at work and now work second shift, so outings together haven’t been easy to arrange.
No worries though, as we have still been fishing. 2024 was a good year and we have high hopes for 2025.
November 1st is the official start of Trout Season in Oklahoma, but our local pond doesn’t open until December 1st since it’s a smaller body of water. True to form, we arrived at zero dark thirty only to find an empty parking lot which was very odd. After an hour of casting and only catching Crappie we gave up and headed home. Obviously we didn’t get the memo and started searching online to see what was going on.
Not a single jump, splash or ripple was spotted.
Neither one of us have FaceBook or anything like that, so we had no idea what the issue was. We should have looked at the Official website before leaving and we would have found this…
I completely understand the conditions that are required for trout. The drought ended in November when we received 10 inches of rain. In fact, the trout pond was actually 3-4 feet higher than we had ever seen it. After further digging we found that the price for trout had increased to $7.00 per pound and the State budget is $600,000 statewide. A few years ago we had a $25.00 fee for a trout stamp but they decided to eliminate that. Maybe one day Oklahoma will figure it out and realize that people don’t solely focus on Largemouth Bass.
Irregardless, we will keep going out and hoping for the best. Maybe they will extend the season or adjust the time. Instead of December 1st through February 28th, they will go from January 1st to March 31st. It is not outside the realm of normalcy to see 60F-70F in December, but you can count on January to be cold. But that’s just my two cents…
We hope everyone has a great Christmas and lots of tackle under the tree!
THIS JUST IN>>>>>
ROD: Smith Troutin Spin Multiyouse TRMK-423UL REEL: Abu Garcia Revo Beast running 4.6lb P.E. line.
A good friend of ours from Virginia just sent us a picture of his son with his PB Smallmouth Bass. This young man is a Two State, Two Time State Powerlifting Champion and has a bright future ahead of him. To say his papa is proud is a massive understatement! Well done young man and here’s to many more PB’s in the future.
Finally! The weather cooperated and we hit the river again. Saturday was 93F and promised to be the last hot day of summer. This morning we woke up to 41F and a chilly start, but it’s a welcome relief.
We have really missed fishing the river, but it’s been too hot and not enough rain to put it in prime shape. As I’ve stated several times, we don’t like to add undue stress to our beloved native smallmouth, so we leave them alone for the hottest parts of the summer. We also lost the Mother-in-Law at the end of September so we have had to deal with all that as well.
Anyway…we arrived at 0801 with 43F temperature and were geared up and on the river bank by 0815.
My first fish was a Crappie…not quite what I was expecting
It took us a bit to figure out where they were since they weren’t in their usual haunts.
Her first fish was a nice one
We found them hugging the bottom so it required a longer drop of the lure than normal. This is why we carry a selection of jigheads from 2.0 grams up to 4.5 grams.
My rig for the day…Tenryu Rayz 632L and a Shimano Twin Power C2000S
My wife brought two rods this time. One for jigheads and one for hard minnow lures. Certain stretches of the river require hard lures due to the fact that they just won’t bite a jighead and soft plastic. Don’t ask us why…we are just as baffled as everyone else.
Fall is just starting
Once the sun was up and had burned off the mist, the bass started cooperating. Plus, it was nice to ditch the coats.
Zip thoroughly enjoyed himself!
As usual, she caught the biggest fish of the trip. We had a great time and caught quite a few fish and hopefully can squeeze another river trip or two in before the weather turns cold. Even then, trout season will start soon so we have that to look forward too.
Catch you on the next one…and we will try not to make it so long between posts.
Velox Seeker 