Anything but big cats!

Once again we're in between offshore trips, last minute cancellations and a sudden development of an itch pushes us find avenues to cure that itch. On such short notice, we regularly hit the pay ponds and this particular pond was rather famous for it's variety of fresh water species and large inhabitants. We've grown accustomed to regularly landing decent cats and sometimes it is just too predictable and repetitive.

What we did this time was to set upon ourselves to target everything but the big cats and put our ultralight gear to the test with a variety of tactics specifically to land new catches. Catches weren't epic but we did manage to surprise ourselves with a nice variety to show off.

Boy vs Fish. Sultan on Evergreen's PropMagic75, gently reeled in to not mess up its fragile mouth using Daiwa Emeraldas & Majorcraft's Go-emotion light spinning rod.

We were literally sweeping systematically across as many water column as we can cover and many more surprises ensues to keep our hopes up for catches anything but big cats.

A surprise take, nicely loaded Temujin 'The Spider'.

A common carp, a rare fatty common carp, a rare catch in this pond!

IMA's Spingulf seems to be racking up species after species here, amazing!

We did as best as we can to target anything but big cats, little did we know that we managed to find ourselves a loop hole interpretation of anything but big cats. These weren't big cats. Cats but not big cats. Passable by our standards.

While the heavy geared boys were hauling up pesky big red tails, This Bassday Nin Sui jigged about the bottom landed this little fella.

Nin Sui in the gob, nothing fancy, just bottom jigging, short to medium intervals.

Another small and skinny cat on the Nin Sui.

When we were about to wrap up our session for the day, I managed to get a hit from something big. I guess there's no escape here in hauling big cats and we have nothing to complain about since we've caught a variety of smaller specimens earlier. I take this as a nice send off from the pond to put a zonker at the end of this ultralight setup of Temujin the 'Spider' paired with a Shimano Stella 1000FE spooled with 6lbs line.

Boy wonders what's he doing fighting with that tiny stick.

Wonder no more, one of the redtail bullies attempting to out run my tackle. Ultralight, but packs a mighty fight!

IMA's Spingulf is the way to go here for all sizes of fish here.

I'd say we did pretty good for ourselves and met most of our expectations to catch 'anything but big cats' with a few creative interpretations of our own mandate. Once again, the ultralight setup of Temujin the 'Spider' + Shimano Stella 1000FE does pack a mighty fight.

Something big lurking beneath...

Friends of Tackle Source recently visited a fish farm / limited time / paid pond for anglers to haul giants and put man+tackle to test. Watch the video below to understand why!

Here are some photos of the bashing adventure!

Even lures need some serious BALLS to haul these giants!

Fully loaded Majorcraft's PE4 jigging rod to the butt!

First casualty of the day! How heavy? hand shaking heavy.

Exploding take on the Jackall's Mascle Deep 4+

Beast #2 on Evergreen's Gold Digger!

Evergreen's Gold Digger bags another gold!

Properly christened, bashed, chewed on brand new Evergreen Gold Digger!

Another freight train take on the Jackall Mascle Deep 4+!

Great things come in 3s!

Ballsy Jackall Doozer lost a ball between fights, came up winning with just one ball!

Basher grouper just doesn't know how to say no to tasty looking lures!

Jackall Dangan Squad Minnow is simply irresistible.

Arms are starting to feel the effects of explosion after explosion of takes!

Money shot of IMA's Honey Trap 95S, sweet!

Muscles vs Jackson Muscle Shot Magnum!

Jackson Muscle Shot Magnum wins!

Freight train against Red Beard!

Red Beard wins! IMA Barbarossa 95!

Most of these battle heroes were brand spanking new and they are now heavy battle ready!

Properly bashed all round. Ready for the next big battle!

These are just a fraction of the haul for the trip. Try counting the remaining haul for the day at Tackle Source bearing in mind that we were struggling to snap pix of all the catches!

Maxed BB Daiwas

My fishing buddy decided to get his Daiwa reels some pimpin hot ball bearings from hedgehog studio and the package arrived surprisingly quick from Japan. Hedgehog studio produces some fine ball bearings and some custom parts to jam more bearings into most Japanese reels.

Hedgehog studio offers 2 types of bearings for the 'Max BB' series. These are the salt water series  and they also offer fresh water 'high precision' versions without any special coating of specific material used. It comes with Japanese instructions but with sufficient graphics to guide you through most of the installation without much problems.

These 2 Daiwas were rather easy to dismantle and most of the upgrades don't require you to open up the body. They are either for the spool support, line roller or just knob handle bearings for smoother and longer lasting reel.

The Daiwa Emeraldas looked fine as per the previous pimping condition with minimal grease packing needed. A straight forward swap and some marine grease rubbed all over the line roller bits.

Daiwa Emeraldas Max BB replaces 3 bushings with high precision bearings. 1 for the line roller & 2 for the spool support.

The Daiwa Certate was also quite a straight forward pimpin so long as you don't mess with the mag-seal bits as the magnetic oil seal is 'proprietary' and can't be sourced easily. Max BB upgrades both spool support bushing to bearings, 1 line roller bearings to 2 line roller bearings with bearing housing plastics and rubber seals. 2 handle knob bearings are also included in the pack but this Daiwa Certate came with a pimped up ZPI foam handle knob.

Max BB 'Certate' consists of 5 bearings and some custom plastic/rubber parts. Line roller bushing replaced with an identical bearing+housing+seal set. You get 2 ball bearings for a smoother line roller.

This Daiwa Certate wasn't a virgin as it came with ZPI's foam knob handle. Spool support bushings show typical signs of wear, no surprises, new ball bearings ready to serve. Spool clicker base was packed with filthy grease, not good for new bearings.

Thoroughly degreased and cleaned spool support parts. Teflon shims stack of 2 to fine tune line lay on the spool. Greased up and loaded back into the main shaft ready for battle soon.

Only thing left would be to have these 2 reels get some tight lines action!

Attack of the groupers!

Monsoon decided to hit a day before we were supposed to head out to the east coast for some light jigging which left me with 2 days void of fish fighting fix. To fill that itch, pond fishing would be the quick and dirty solution. A fishing buddy also recently acquired himself the super-fun ultralight combo tackle consists of the Evergreen Temujin 'The Spider' paired with a Shimano Stella 1000FE. It was a no brainer decision to hit the grouper pond for some stupid fun.

I'll let the pictures speak for itself. Enjoy!

Peek-a-boo - Jackall's TN50 in a compromised position. Taken on the drop!

Another shot of the TN50 in the kisser. Goal keeper grouper.

DUO's Realis Shad 59MR chased & attacked while bumping at the bottom.

Evergreen's Corsair 65 lightly twitched at the bottom was simply irresistible.

DUO's Tetra Works Perakko worked slowly taken without a doubt.

Feisty fella was aiming for the Perakko but missed!

Close call on the hook up and yet landed safely using the Perakko.

Grouper's favourite, Bassday's Nin Sui 6g.

Max fun on the ultralight Evergreen Temujin 'The Spider' & Shimano Stella 1000FE

DUO's Realis Crank M65 11A instantly sucked in digging about at the bottom.

IMA's Issen 45S? check!

Reeled in and landed safely using the lure's original puny fresh water hooks. Says a lot about the rod action and Stella's smooth drag.

DUO's Ikakko snapped up without hesitation, taken on the drop between jigs.

In too deep.

Unrecognisable, Evergreen's PropMagic 75 reeled slowly with occasional flashing twitches.

Head first!

Double whammy, with time to spare for a chat in between.

Evergreen's PropMagic 75 on the left, DUO's MOAB 85F with a twist tail add on.

DUO's MOAB 85F with a twinkle around its tail.

Don't head towards the light! Sucked in deep!

IMA's Ikuri 60 cranked slowly at the bottom.

IMA Ligid 70 in stealth neon colours attacked without hesitation too.