veloxseeker

LED Lightbar Fail…

This Nilight 26 inch LED lightbar ended up being a fail on my vehicle. I noticed when I opened the box that the mounting system was completely different than the one that is on my wifes vehicle. Perhaps this LED lightbar has a different application, one that I am unaware of. While installing the LED lightbar I noticed that I could never seem to get the bolts tight enough. I wasn’t trying to crank them down super tight, rather, it was more like just a bit past snug.

Nut almost pulled completely out of the channel. The aluminum is too soft.

As you can see from the picture above, the nut that is designed to ride inside the channel for adjustment purposes, has almost completely pulled out. All 4 of those nuts were in a similar condition. Again, I didn’t put a lot of torque on these nuts but it sure looks like it. Eventually I decided to just remove the lightbar and figure out another lighting solution. I started looking for a more robust mounting system and decided to give a pair of round LED lights a try.

These two lights had a better mounting system that rely on metal brackets to secure it to the SSD lightbar mount. The lights themselves are much more robust and better made. These are surprisingly heavy compared to the LED lightbar. We’ll see how long they last and I’ll report back at a later date.

I may have broken my mantra of “Buy once, cry once” but time will tell.

Daiwa Iprimi 62UL…

My wife has been looking for an ultralight rod that isn’t too stiff. She ordered the Graphite Leader Bellezza RV which turned out to be a better stream rod than a perch/crappie rod. Upon researching the Daiwa Iprimi series, she decided to give one of those a shot. As mentioned previously, she liked my Major Craft ultralight rod but I couldn’t find one for her.

Upon receiving the Iprimi, she compared it to my rod and was happy with the action. It is whippy yet has a moderately stiff butt section. A more pronounced parabolic bend if you will. This should be perfect for targeting perch and smaller fish.

This rod should be a good setup when coupled with a 500 or 1000 size reel. We are still waiting on the Shimano Soare XR 500 to become available as that’s the reel that we plan on putting on this rod.

Once the weather is consistently warm and stable, we have a few small creeks we want to fish. This rod should be pretty good in that usage.

Thanks for reading and have a great day…

Vehicle Modifications…

I’ve worked a full week and it was hectic as all get out. Now I know why I was brought back early…due to workload. I haven’t been able to get out and fish unfortunately.

Saturday’s weather forecast was 80F, sunny and winds of 25+mph so I opted to complete a few projects on the Subaru.

First on the list was installing a rear hitch to be able to tow our small trailer when needed. It took about 2 hours and was pretty straight forward. I’m planning on installing a swing-out tire carrier in the near future, so this was a necessity.

Second project was to install an SSD lightbar mount. I selected this one because it bolts to the front bumper frame and it is low enough not to impede air flow to the radiator.

The SSD lightbar mount is 30 inches wide.

I went with a cheap lightbar off of Amazon, a Nilight 26 inch, Triple Row LED pushing an alleged 540 watts. The wife has a 20 inch Nilight LED lightbar on her Subaru and it has proven to be reliable and useful.

The kit I chose came with the wiring harness, relay, fuse holder with fuses and a switch. Install took about an hour and half. One issue I had is that the wiring kit connects the actual lightbar to the harness with spade lug connectors. The quality wasn’t that great and anytime I wiggled the wires, the lightbar would flicker. I cut them off and used higher grade butt connectors to crimp the wires together and added additional shrink tubing over the connection.

I am happy with the progress so far. I enjoy doing little projects like this and had a fun day doing it.

And for those who might be wondering…I didn’t do this to make my vehicle look “cool.” I actually use these lightbars quite often. Since we live out in the country with zero light pollution…it gets really dark at night. It’s nice to turn these on when driving in our area to see deer and other animals before we collide. It has saved me from coming around an S-curve and seeing a black cow BEFORE we hit it.

Anyway, hope you found this post interesting and I promise we will have posts about fishing coming up soon. The Daffodils have begun blooming which means fishing season will be in full swing soon. Take care.

Looks Can Be Deceiving…

The picture above looks like snow but it is actually ice pellets. Here in Oklahoma we deal with ice every winter. Believe me, we’d love to have snow instead.

It makes driving difficult and just getting around is a pain. This is a minor storm and we have more on the way this morning. We’re glad it was 10F before it started, otherwise we’d have freezing rain which coats the power lines and causes outages everywhere.

I did a post awhile back about “Country Living” and this is a negative aspect. Our county doesn’t do much for the roads out here. They just let them melt on their own over the course of a week unless we have sustained cold temperatures. And due to all of the hills in the area, it’s not uncommon to be stuck at home for several days.

Life is good and life goes on. Stay safe out there…

Back to Work. Warning…graphic images ahead.

My how things have changed. At first, the company I work for would not honor any accomodations. But now, they will. So I went back to work this past Tuesday. I still feel that I have a long way to go before I’m fully healed. I am making progress and hope to be ready for Spring fishing.

It is definitely good to see my co-workers and get back into the swing of things. But on the other-hand, I could enjoy being retired!

I had so many plans to go fishing last week but the wind was really a problem. Up to 30+ mph out of the South and then switched to 35+ mph out of the North. Literally 4 days straight of high winds. And you know what that means…more limbs and branches to burn.

Anyway, this is just a quick update of what’s been happening. The wife DID decide to buy a Daiwa Iprimi Ultralight rod and I plan on doing a post about that soon. Take care out there..

Some Decisions are Easy…

I have decided to cancel my Canadian fishing trip to Ontario this summer. I have also decided to cancel ALL future fishing trips to Ontario.

There are plenty of amazing places to fish so I will choose one in the US and spend my money here as opposed to Canada. Several of my friends are doing the same thing.

I’m sure you can read between the lines and agree or disagree, that’s fine either way. But this decision is mine and I’ve made it.

Stay safe out there…

Testing the Shimano Vanford 1000 after bearing install…

I had a couple of hours between doctors appointments today so I decided to test out the Shimano Vanford 1000 after upgrading with bearings. It is better for sure. I cast for over an hour and reeling at various speeds to give it a good workout. It is definitely smoother now and will probably get better over time.

Conditions weren’t great today because the wind was blowing a steady 20-22mph out of the WSW with gusts over 30mph.

And as usual, I managed to pick up 4 more bags of trash. It seems like a never-ending process, but I’ll reach my goal eventually.

Until next time…

Graphite Leader Bellezza RV GLBRS-642UL TW spinning rod…

My wife was looking for an ultralight spinning rod for panfish and opted to try this rod since the price was really good. This was a pre-order rod and arrived in 2 weeks. Neither one of us are familiar with Graphite Leader rods and decided to try it.

I should’ve paid attention to the lure and line rating and noticed it wasn’t what we were looking for.

Balanced with the Shimano Twin Power C2000S perfectly. NOT what we’d use for small panfish.

Fit and finish was superb. It is listed as an Area Trout rod but to me seems more like an Ultralight Saltwater rod as it is pretty stiff. In fact, it is stiffer than what she was looking for. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it fishing in a stream or small river, but for small perch and such, I’d use something else.

She likes my Major Craft Ultralight rod, the FTA-582UL, but I can’t find one for her. I guess they quit making it. We might look at the Daiwa Iprimi line of rods for an ultralight rod for summer panfish. Lesson learned. Stay tuned to see what she decides…

It’s the perfect day to go…

Yah, it was the perfect day to go fishing but I have chores that need to get done. 65F with almost no wind and full sunshine! Around here, that means it’s the perfect time to burn brush. So that’s what I did…sigh.

While the fire was going I decided to walk around and try this camera out by taking some pics.

Dead standing Oak. Still serving a purpose.

Life emerging from a previous burn pile. In the spring, I go back and loosen up the soil and add compost to help the area regenerate. Bio-char helps.

Enjoying the sunshine. I interrupted her nap.

On Chore Patrol. Might as well be comfortable.

Some downed limbs are so long that I lay them over both burn rings.

This chore is almost complete. On to the next one!

Out here, chores never seem to end. I could honestly burn every day for about a month just to get everything cleaned up. I try to get all of the chores done during the week so my weekends are free.

This is just a tiny snapshot of a “day-in-the-life” out at my place. Take care and we’ll see you on the next one.

Almost Done…

Most of you know that I am always trying to leave things cleaner than when I found them. And this applies especially to the water I fish. I encourage everyone to do the same.

To date, I am 3/4ths of the way done on cleaning the shoreline of one of my local lakes. With the lake level being down almost 5 ft, I can access more shoreline than normal. Yesterday was a tough day for sure. I cannot count how many glass bottles and beer cans I picked up. I started out with 10 Walmart bags and 2 big trash bags. The end result was I used them all.

I don’t do this for recognition or anything, it just needs to be done. Afterall, this is a retention pond for our local drinking water supply. If I wait for someone else to do it…I’ll be waiting a long, long time.

68F while picking up trash, but there’s still some snow around.

And of course, if I’m at the lake, I’ll being fishing. I took the Major Craft FAX-B642UL rod and the Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS reel with me. Some of you may remember that I really started to try and learn using a baitcast reel last year for the first time. It was nice to know that I hadn’t lost anything over the past few months, I cast without any backlashes or any issues at all.

Obviously I did more trash picking up than casting…but it is always good to get out.

Testing out the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra…

So my new phone finally arrived late Monday evening. I’ve been playing around with it and the camera is pretty amazing. Coming from an old Note 9, it’s light years ahead.

So I was out burning a brush pile yesterday morning and decided to try the Slow Motion camera option. Might as well combine chores with a bit of fun. Enjoy.

https://videopress.com/v/jbZaBq8W?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Slow-Mo Brush Pile Burning

The Bearings Arrived…

I decided to try and upgrade the Shimano Vanford 1000 with hybrid ceramic bearings. I ordered them individually from Plaig Bearings in Australia. They do offer complete kits for upgrading the reel.

I upgraded the bearing in the line roller, replaced the spool support bushing with a bearing and the rear worm gear bushing with a bearing. I wanted to start simple and see if that made a difference…and it does. Granted, it is minimal, but there is a difference.

I also did the same upgrades in my Stradic FL 1000 and noticed the biggest change in this reel as opposed to the Vanford.

For all intents and purposes, I am happy with the upgrades and will spend more time with the Vanford 1000 to give it a good test run.