Abu 5600D5 - Hidden Cast Control adjustment

Abu 5600D5 is marketed as a Smart Mag Brake reel, which suppose to reduce the line overrun to 'Zero'. This posting is not to discuss about the no overrun design, but on the adjustment one can make on the hidden Cast Control Knob, which is not visible on this reel. This series have been removed from Abu reel line up, but I suspect the current BCX Series might share this hidden feature.

When you first see this reel, you will notice that the Traditional Cast Control Knob is not available on this reel, at least from the exterior. Instead you will have a Mag Control Dial to set your desired Mag Brake, so does that mean that the spool position is fixed upon manufacturing and there is no way to adjust it? Fact is, when you adjust the Mag Control Dial, you are also adjusting the Cast Control at the same time.

Higher Mag brake - Tighter Spool position and vice versa.

While most are happy with the 'Default' setting when reel is shipped, I am not too happy with it as most of the time the spool is too tight for me (i.e. lateral movement is very very minimal). I prefer the spool to be more loose (slight shift left and right) at Max Mag setting. Thus I set out to explore the reel more and manage to 'tune' it to my liking.

Note - As it is troublesome to adjust it, I will not advice anyone to do it in the field. So you might need to go thru a few test casting session to get to a setting you like.

I have posted this article on some local Fishing forum, simply now to put it on my own blog in order to have a record of my works.

Virgin experience - Newbie 1st try at FW Prawning

For all the fishing I have tried before, fishing for prawn is something I have never ever try before.  Although I have learn from other anglers about the art of prawn fishing, I have never ever tried it until today.  Alas, no longer a prawning virgin already.

In fact, it is something I didn't setup to do, it just happen. I am at the Taman Jurong Pond to pass time with a friend, then met some other fisho friends as well, who are into prawning. As usual, started talking about fishing stuff and inadvertently about prawning, one of them is a prawning fanatic at this pond and share with me some tips and show me a few tricks as well. Since he intend to do some prawn fishing, I shamelessly asked to tag along to learn more about the feeding pattern, when to set hook, where to hunt etc.  And yes I do learn a lot and managed to catch some prawns when I tried using his setup with guidance.  I am very very impressed with his catch, he is still fishing (albeit finishing soon) when I left and he have already catch an estimated 50pcs of prawns, pic shown are just part of his catch which he gave to me.  In the pic there are 30 prawns (yes yes, I counted them), plus the smaller 1st batch he gave away too, that comes up to an estimate of 50pcs.

Some Minor Add-On

Finally have sometime to check out some new Gadgets to add to my Blog

1. New random Post on Side Bar
2. Related Posting after each posting

Something you can't see, that's using Google Analytics to check out the traffic on this Blog, if readership is low then I might just give up writing those tutorial as they are troublesome to do.

Wanted to try out some new template for the Blog to give it a 'fresher' look, but alas cannot find a good & free one. Will spend sometime to check out more from the web.

CR - 1 hour Quickie at Taman Jurong Pro Pond

Ever since I knew more about rubbers lures and how effective it is at the Taman Jurong Pro Pond, I always recommend fisho I know to try out rubber at the pro pond.  After a long long break, I visited the pond 2 weeks back with a non-fishing friend, not to fish but to watch EPL at the little pub there.  As the water is very clear that night, I can see a few schools different species of fishes they released (KBL, Taiwan Ngor and MJ).  Notice that the KBL are of decent sizes, 1kg+ and saw a 2kg+ one too, I find that odd as usually they release 700g to 800g KBL only.  However, with 5 rods at that time and all using live prawn, I didn't see anyone catching any fish.  So sent as SMS to a fellow fisho who like to fish at this pond, telling him the KBL at the pro pond have grown cause no one is catching them.

This evening, fisho friend called me telling me he wanted to go take a look at the pond as he have not been there for a while, so off we go with no fishing gear.  But I brought along two 1/8 oz jig head and some rubbers, in case of zero fighter newbies who need to bring at least one fish home, I can give them the stuff to try.  After a while, friend get really itchy as he didn't fish for a while, and after seeing that I brought the rubbers, he decided to pay for an hour of fishing using their house rod.

After a very short session, he decided to take a smoke and pass the rod to me to have a go, a couple of cast later, I got my first hook up, but alas, jerky drag plus entangle with another angler's line make me lost the fish and also the jig head.  Damn, now left with only one jig head for the rest of the session, thus we decided to go for high drag setting and hopefully bring in the fishes fast to reduce the chance of line out situation.

Friend landed 2 fish shortly, one KBL and one MJ, and after that I have a go, I simply cannot believe that I have 7 takes and zero hook up and friend got 2 to 3 takes and also zero hook up.  However, we both ended the one hour session pretty satified with the bite rate, but non too happy about the hook up rate.  I think the jig head hook got blunt after the 2nd fish is landed, this unable to increase the hook up rate.  But nevertheless, it still prove to us that rubbers work well at the pro pond.

Tips

Bring your own tackle, their reels is in real need to service and have the drag system changed. Drag is jerky, and is either low or very high setting, not good at all.

Use rubber with good tail action, commonly found rubbers like Sure Catch, Angler's Pal, White Rabbit are okay, but the material is a bit hard, trim the section between body and tail thinner to achieve better tail action; Without good tail action, catch rate is significantly reduced. Remove the bottom triple hook as well, snag too easily as the strike zone is just above the bottom of the pond; Best are those soft unweighted rubber to be used with jig head, can use as it is with good tail action.

Tips - Kelong Fishing @ Sibu Kelongs

A kelong visit with family or friends are always an enjoyable trip, to enjoy the outdoor, sea breeze, blazing hot sun, sea all around.  These days the kelongs found in Sibu Malaysia are converted into a family resort style, no longer used to haul in fishes from the net.  To spare you the agony of reading the history of kelongs, google for more info.

Back to fishing, whenever I visit kelong it is generally to fish.  Heck, what could an angler ask for when he is surrounded by sea? So what can you expect to catch from a 'hut in the middle of the sea'?

What I can share with you is what I have learn from fellow anglers, who so unselfishly shared their knowledge with me. I should now in turn share with you almost everything I know about fishing at these beautiful kelongs, except for some closely guarded rigs which I am not suppose to share openly without their permission.

Instead of telling you what rig to prepare for a kelong trip, allow me to do things a little bit different here.  I will put up some different species of commonly found fishes and the method to fish for them.  There are usually hundreds of method to fish, and as a matter of fact I am still learning as always.  But these are my usual methods whenever I want to specifically target for a certain species.  Most method are using baits instead of artificial lures, as I am not experience in luring and kelong are a pretty tough place to lure due to the height where we will be fishing.

Comments are always welcome!!!

Spinning Reel - Complete Strip down, Clean & Re-Lube

This is a picture intensive posting, but I will put up the images in Thumbnail (as for this series of Reel Maintenance), these images are for reference mainly as there is an old Chinese idiom, a picture is worth more then hundred words.


Most of us started fishing using a spinning reel, as it is easier to operate and also generally cheaper then a conventional reel. And usually your first experience using a spinning reel will be a budget model, either you purchase or borrowed from friends or family member. (No one in his or her right mind will lend an expensive reel to a newbie fisho)

Some friends I know can’t be bothered to service these budget reels, they would only spend money to service the higher end models. However, budget reel can last a long time if one bothers to take a bit of time and effort to keep them in tip top shape. One fishing pal I know of uses the same budget reel and have landed hundreds of fishes, while mine have landed maybe a hundred plus and both of our reels are still going strong.

Many a time anglers are afraid to open up their reels to clean and re-lube them, worried that they will not be able to put everything back together again. Spend a little time and effort, that first reel that your parents buy for you (most likely hidden in your storeroom) could once again become your workhorse and rekindle the fishing passion that have long passes you by.

Before you start, please do make sure that you have the schematic drawing of the reel with you. In the older days, it is printed on a sheet of paper, while nowadays some are printed on the box itself. Having the schematic drawing will guide you along if you have lost your way while putting the reel back.

Some classic reels schematic are available off the web, Google for it if you can't find yours.

Disclaimer - Dismantle your reel at your own risk. I will NOT be liable for any responsibility if you are unable to re-assemble your reel back together.

Roller Bushing on Spinning Reel - Direct Replacement

Very often you heard about by having a roller bearing instead of a roller bushing will enhance your fishing experience. I will show you how to do it, however should your roller bushing is of an odd shape or size; it is not possible without any modification. See previous posting on having an odd shaped roller bushing Roller Bushing to Bearing


In this posting, if your reel is equipped with a bushing that have a bearing that is of exact fit or if you think your roller bearing is rusted and need a change, you will find it useful.

Before you proceed, do ask yourself if you really do need to 'upgrade' to a roller bearing. Reason being roller bearing are highly prone to rust due to it's exposure to the elements esp the salty water that your line picks ups.  And if you do not maintain your reels often, this might not be a good idea.  Nothing wrong with the bushing design really, it is almost a maintenance free part, thus I am not really surprise to find some mid range reel, ie.g. Daiwa Kix, using bushing rather than bearing.  Anyway if you do fish on a regular basis and have some extra cash, do consider to upgrade those mid range reels' bushing to ceramic hybrid bearing, not fool-proof but definitely a few notch above the standard ball bearing in terms of being rust prone.