We've finally gotten the window of opportunity to head out to the east coast with our preferred boatman who was out of action for quite some time now. A cancelled trip one weekend prior to this was all the hope there was for a clear weather action before the monsoon closes in for good. An 11th hour confirmation late Friday raised much doubt about the weather being clear enough with various weather forecast sources (apps, websites etc.) indicates storm or showers over east coast. None of these forecasts mean much when a seasoned boatman says it's safe to go out and meet us at the Jetty in no more than 12 hours to go, we obey.
A sudden rush of panic and weekend activity plans starting to take shape due to dwindling hopes of a clear weather fishing hit me like a freight train. First, cancel weekend activity plans, have dinner, start packing and get an early night sleep as we'll start our journey 4am onwards to arrive at the Jetty just in time for a quick breakfast and preparation before loading our gear onto the boat.
With loaded gear and a boat full of hope and anticipation, we head out shortly after first light with heavy overcast skies. First stop was to try out some popping action around areas with current. Fruitless throughout the session after a comrade's initial line bust being reefed by something suspiciously big, possibly a GT. Boatman says, we'll come back some other time when the conditions are more 'suitable' for popping and we head off to pintail hunting waters.
Typically around these waters, long toms (todak) are everywhere and we usually let our preferred lure sink quite close to the bottom before cranking back fast in search of the 'great wall' hit & strike. Damn todaks are a menace as they destroy leaders and bust our lines taking our Jackson Pintails with them into the deep. Occasionally we safely land them with some damages done to our lines.
Double trouble with the notorious todaks on Jackson's Pintail Tune!
The Jackson Pintail Tune is the go to hunting lure here cranking them fast. Takes are usually quite explosive with the tengiris, barracudas and damn todaks but nothing can stop your fast cranks like you've just hit a solid great wall than a GT. That's when you do a double take if you may have cranked your reel backwards and realise it's fish on!
Sudden take while cranking fast with Majorcraft's Giant Killing casting rod felt like hitting a great wall! Fully pimped up Shimano Stradic 4000FJ takes on a runner.
The so called great wall of GT! Small but brutally fun on these medium weight gear.
Battle ready Jackson Pintail Tune.
An entire afternoon of casting registered no more than 10 strikes and the boatman decided it's time to try some light jigging instead. First jig drop, usually just to test waters, would be a light jigging outfit with jigs up to 50g tops. A couple of small hits was all we got as the gloomy weather sticks around longer.
Tiny grouper takes on a 50g Caprice Kid jig by Evergreen.
Another ambitious grouper takes on IMA's Ganpeki 40g special edition colour.
We then switch to our ultralight gear for some microjig fun and landed a variety of species as compared to the regular light jigging outfit and bigger jigs.
Various other fun captures using Xesta's 20g Nitro jig paired with the ultra fun Temujin 'Spider'.
Free piercing for this youngster using Jackson's Gallop 40g jig.
Even though the catch was disappointing, the variety of game proved to be sufficient to keep the outing fun and exciting with very little catch predictability.
Here's a short action video of our Pintail adventures and do subscribe to Tackle Source TV for upcoming awesome video releases. A full catch report can also be found here. Enjoy!
Tearing down and tuning the Daiwa Emeraldas 2506 INF prompted me to reflect on the pimping process done to both my Shimano spinning reels in preparation for the 2 days of battle in Thailand at Boon Mar & IT Lake Monster.
I've been fishing with my Shimano Rarenium 2500 Ci4 for a while and it's a decently made reel compared to the likes of Twinpower, Vanquish or Stella. You pay for what you get with Shimano reels and they are generally built to serve you well, durable and hassle free. Sometimes the itch gets to you and you wonder if you can do a better job at making the reel better in terms of cranking performance, smoothness and durability by upgrading its bearings/bushings to Hybrid Ceramic Bearings or tuning the handling feel to your liking.
And then there is this occasional but persistent itch that gets you wanting more, pimping the reel with extra bearing counts & exclusive parts that are only found in a Stella. For me, it's a bit of both but more so to have a reel that lasts as long as I can fish. Past experience with budget reels taught me to take precaution with certain parts of the reel that gets most abuse or water intrusion that causes bearings, bushings or reel failure altogether.
Hybrid Ceramic Bearings vs bushings
So here's what I did to both my Shimano Rarenium 2500 Ci4 and Shimano Stradic 4000 FJ in preparation to battle the monsters in Thailand.
Teflon bushings are ok but they can never outlast bearings when it comes to wear and tear. Better still, Hybrid Ceramic Bearings to replace them all for an even longer lasting reel. Reel longevity also depends on how well you take care or service your reels, I strip mine apart to be cleaned and checked every 2-3 outings.
Stainless steel bearings (left) vs Hybrid Ceramic Bearings (right). Close up reveals ceramic balls (charcoal black) on stainless steel races, hence 'Hybrid' and these are the commonly used Si3N4 material.
Bushing out, Hybrid Ceramic in!
Line roller bearings get the most water intrusion that causes
rust and bearing failures over time even with S-ARB or CRBB or HPCR.
Only a handful of Shimano spinning reels of this size offer double ball bearing supported worm gear shaft, namely the Vanquish and Stella. This part doesn't take much abuse but does give the tiny bit of overall creamy smoothness feel to the reel. Not all reels are created equal and there's quite a bit of free-play shaft sliding and can be tuned out almost entirely using micro shims as shown between the hybrid ceramic bearing and the shaft.
Main gear, Hybrid Ceramic Bearings with tuning shims.
More tuning shims for a perfect
gear mesh gap fitment tune up.
The main gear will be abused quite a bit with torque loading from cranking and it's vital that the gear mesh is optimally tuned with little axial and/or radial play when cranking with the use of high precision hybrid ceramic bearings and shim fitment.
Pawl bushing to be replaced with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings and Stella bushing.
Now this is where pimping gets a little tricky as some similar branded reels share a lot of common parts but with slight design tweaks and they fit a different reel. Note the original black bushing may look like a simple straight cylinder but the inside's tapered shape to fit the pawl like a glove without bearings. One option is to trim the bushing but risks damaging or cutting away too much. Another option is to get Stella parts as they share similar housing and pawl assembly. Not the white bushing has a flange and the original housing also comes with tapered edge.
Glove like fit!
Note how the pawl, bearing and bushing fits firmly into the housing, glove like fit.
Not pictured on this post, pinion gear bearings also swapped out with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings for a full on assault battle against the giants.
Bangkok, here we come!
We made prior arrangement with our Thai fishing guide AhBoy to pick us up from the airport to head straight to Boon Mar for our first day of battle with Barramundis.
When we arrived around the fish farm, not a paid fishing pond, we were awestruck by the amount of ponds stretching as far as our eyes could see. Some workers were seen on bicycles gesturing us in further and it took us a while to locate the actual pond allocated to us for that day. I managed to capture just a fraction of what was in store for us on video. We were literally greeted with explosive lure take ups every 2 to 3 casts for the entire 3 hours. The barras stocked there were very nicely sized of over 7kgs and they were all spirited airborne fighters.
Probably one of the smaller ones but boy do they put up some serious fights.
The next day, we got up early to take on monsters at the IT Lake Monster. Here's a video of what I managed to capture, lure take ups were tricky and needs a lot of hard work but once they take the lure, just be ready for a persistent bull like run from these giant amazonian catfish.
Battles for the day, nothing the Shimano Stradic 4000 FJ with Hybrid Ceramic Bearings can't take.
Battle heroes for both days at Boon Mar & IT Lake Monster.
All in all, an excellent 2 days of fishing, excellent field testing of the Hybrid Ceramic Bearings. I'd say the Hybrid Ceramic Bearings holds itself well against the giants on pure performance and only time will tell on durability and they are definitely a worthy pimp up for a start.
Here's a glimpse at what's to come next, some 'exotic stuff' in the pipeline. yum yum!
