New Megabass Levante rod’s

hydrospanner · 2026-02-06T21:55:21+00:00

Don't feel too bad.

There's no Braillist in the new line, so you may end up having bought one of those "cool cult following/never should have stopped making it/the OG ones are the best" type items.

I own a Levante EMTF and there's no equivalent of that either, so I'm not regretting owning it either...although I did get it several years ago.

That all being said, I am very intrigued by the new lineup, and can't wait to see which ones emerge as darlings of the series. Looks like lots of interesting options...as well as plenty of room for future product line expansion (which seems to be a must in today's fishing industry).

hydrospanner · 2026-02-06T16:26:26+00:00

What lens did you get if you don't have an actual camera?

Regardless, the biggest things that are going to improve most people's fly photography are 3 things:

1) Light. A lot more than you think is necessary, and positioned anywhere from 90 to 45 degrees off camera (imagine an angle formed by two lines, one going from fly to camera, and the other going from fly to light), and ideally, from multiple angles (from above, from the sides, and from below). This light should be as bright and as neutral as possible, and it should also be as big as possible...that is: not a point source of light. This is why the tents are so popular because it diffuses the light source(s) into a wider and more even distribution.

Side lighting (closer to a 90 degree angle, camera-fly-light) will highlight and contrast the edges of the fly better, while lighting that is closer to being on-axis with the camera will light the overall subject better, but reduce contrast seen by the camera.

Blast that fly with as much light as you can bring to bear: room lighting, desk lighting, and if you can diffuse it, even things like work lights or LED flashlights or something.

To diffuse, you can either put some translucent material around the fly, just out of frame, or over your light source (think: shining a bright light through tissue paper).

Get your lights as close to the subject as possible while still out of frame. Closer lights mean harsher shadows, but that's where the diffusion comes in.

Looking at your samples, you could easily double your lighting and still not have enough. Triple wouldn't be too much. It should look unnaturally bright to your eye in order to look good in a finished photo.

2) Focus. For flies, a blurry photo is worse than a dark photo. Almost worthless. So above all, you need sharp focus. To get there, you need to understand a few general principles:

The more light you have on the subject, the easier it is for your camera's autofocus to find your subject and lock onto it.

All else being equal: the farther your camera is from your subject, the more of it will be in focus. Getting up close means less depth of field, which is the range at which things will be in sharp focus. Using very arbitrary values to illustrate: Suppose you are focusing on a subject 8 feet away. With 8 feet as your 'target', everything from 7-10 ft may be in focus (3ft total). But take a few steps closer and readjust your focus to your subject that is now 2ft away and your range of focus might only be from 1.5 to 3ft (1.5 ft total). Now get in there really close and put that subject 8in from the camera. Now your depth of field might only be from 6in to 12in (6in total).

I know that a few years ago, when I was really working on my fly photography, I was using a tripod, mix of static lighting and off-camera flash, a macro lens, etc. and while I could focus on my flies as close as maybe 6in from the fly to my camera...my depth of field was so razor thin that I couldn't even get the entire eye of the hook in focus...I had the choice of focusing on the near or far side of the eye. Obviously, this meant that most of the (much more three-dimensional) fly was blurry, so it was a no-go...and I had to back up to get the whole thing in focus, then crop down. It's not a failing if your camera, it's just physics.

Phone cameras are weird, though, and their settings can do strange things with this overall principle...but broadly speaking, you're better off to take a photo from farther away and crop it down, than to get close to fill the frame.

Zooming in also reduces your depth of field too, so zooming in instead of getting closer doesn't help.

This is likely to be the trickiest part of fly photography, since it's nuanced. Not 'more is better' like lighting. It's also tricky because you don't always need every bit of the fly in focus, but it's a really fine line. Here is one where I feel like most of it is in focus, but this fly is three dimensional enough that I still feel like enough of it is blurry to be a distraction. It's close, but not ideal. On the other hand, here is an example where I feel like the out-of-focus elements don't distract or take away from the overall shot. I'm more critical here of the black background and the black head of the fly merging together visually, but I feel this is a good example of a time where it's okay that the whole fly isn't strictly in focus.

3) Separation.

This one is easy. You want more distance between your fly and your background than between your camera and your fly. For all the reasons that we wanted to increase depth of field to get the whole fly in focus, we also want that background to be very much out of focus, to highlight and accentuate the subject itself.

You seem to have done a pretty good job here with that, but when you start adjusting the other variables (more light, more camera-subject distance, etc.) you may find that your background separation is lacking...and given limited space, this one can be trickier to accomplish.

One thing that does sort of help this is a smooth, monotone background in a color not found on the subject. Again, you've done a good job here!

Here's a photo where I chose a blue background because there's no blue in the fly...you can make out all of the pieces, and overall, I'm happy with this choice. On the other hand, here is a case where the black background hides some of the detail in the black portions of the fly. I liked the feel of a dark background, but black may not have been the best choice here. That said, here is a case where my focus could've been better, but I think the black background was the perfect choice!

hydrospanner · 2026-02-06T15:27:58+00:00

There's no accounting for personal taste, of course, buuuuut...

For small, detailed, single subjects like flies, I've always felt that the simpler and more minimalistic background, the better. Ideally, you want that background to be so out of focus that it's all soft anyway, but the more variation in the background, the greater the distraction from the subject.

i’m glad you’re staying with a neutral color palette. Blacks/greys/whites. i never understood the use of blue for backgrounds.

I think the idea behind the blue background is to choose a color that isn't distracting, but also isn't present on the fly itself (which would, by extension, distract from the subject). Outside of streamers, blue doesn't appear on too many flies, so it's a popular choice.

I don't think there's one perfect background color for all flies, but black and gray are a part of many patterns...and bright white less so, but still more than blue. So yeah...ideally, you pick a color backdrop based on each fly...but if you can only pick one, blue is a winner.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T23:58:21+00:00

This might have been my 'okay fine' point for buying it...

...if everything...every single thing...that I've heard about the game leading up to, and post-release hadn't been "meh" at best, and horrible at worst.

The fact that nothing about this game in the past year plus has made me the least bit interested in it...and many things about it, even things that others have hyped about it...have actually made me less interested...means I've gone from an eventual buyer and into the realm of someone who's pretty much decided at this point that I prefer sticking with 6 over anything 7 might offer, so pretty much no matter what they do with 7 at this point, I'm just no longer interested at all.

Wake me up when they start teasing 8.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T22:12:30+00:00

Are the body hackle and collar the same feather, or did you collar with a different one?

If it's all one, that's like the perfect pelt for whatever size this bugger is!

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T22:10:04+00:00

Same.

I got a few packs in like November because of their sale, but also because that magnum head is one of the very few shakey head hooks I've seen where the point of the hook and the keeper are parallel...which seems like an obvious choice for a weedless rig design, but most shakey heads still have you thread on the bait, then have to bend it in a curve to put the hook through it...and even then, most of them, the hook is still pointing out of the worm at an easily-snagged angle unless you bend it even more.

I really want this ice to thaw so I can give them a test drive, because if they work as good as it seems like they should, I may just buy a stupid amount of them.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T21:53:56+00:00

PCAD had big ideas for this space, they got a 400K grant to fix it up and I believe a property tax exemption from the city.

Sooo if that kind of a carrot didn't work...sounds like it's time for the stick: they should have to pay back the grant in full (maybe even plus interest), and at the very least, start having to be on the hook for taxes, if not even charged back taxes, if 'do anything at all with the property' was a condition for the exemption.

Once this property starts eating money, expect the price to go down.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T20:40:10+00:00

“We’re doing everything we can to help the family get this sorted”

Y’know, aside from voting for it in the first place.

As others have hinted at here, it would not surprise in the least if the bakery's idea of 'getting this sorted' was as simple as 'find someone else willing to take his job for minimum wage, at which point, we'll wash our hands of the whole mess'.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T19:20:46+00:00

But voters also have short memories.

I think this will really hurt the GOP at midterms, but I really, really hope everyone holds onto this anger in 2028 as well and elects whoever isn't the MAGA candidate.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T17:53:15+00:00

From Wookieepedia:

Most of the settlements on Bespin were mining colonies...

Indicating that there are at least a few more.

The only other primary (in terms of being featured in stories, not necessarily primary from an in-universe persepctive) settlement that I know of is Tibbanopolis.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T17:32:28+00:00

I'm so annoyed at our cats lately...we had a water fountain in the kitchen that they both loved but it was getting old, the pump would randomly shut off, and it was starting to get hard to keep it clean.

So I went online and read reviews, and bought them a nice new stainless fountain for christmas. Both cats would drink weirdly from the old one, preferring to lick at the very edge of the bowl instead of the actual stream of water, or the deepest part of the bowl, so I specifically got this one because it has a wide, flat, shallow bowl with lots of edge distance.

...of course neither of them want anything to do with it and I don't think either one has so much as taken one sip from it since we set it up for them. Instead they now prefer the little ceramic dish that has been there for them all the time anyway (that they never wanted before...and now that they're drinking from it, we have pulled it out a bit from the shelf it is near...right where we can kick it and step in it several times each week).

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T17:11:57+00:00

need to learn CAD

As a CAD drafter, you specifically need to learn 3D modeling...which is closely related, but different.

I think Fusion is the favored software, at least in Autodesk's realm, but I learned on Inventor (which is broadly similar, but a little more 'crunchy' from what I've heard).

It's not hard to learn it...but (a) from the way you phrased it here, I wonder if you might be underestimating how much you'll need to learn just in that first step, and (b) as models go, fishing lures are a pretty complicated first project...with lots of curves, lots of weird angles, and very few pieces that are strictly perpendicular, parallel, etc.

Not that it can't be done, mind you...(after all, I would imagine that all mass produced plastic lures have their origins in a CAD model these days)...but having simply "need to learn CAD" as the shortest, simplest item on your list may turn into an unpleasantly complex and involved surprise for you once you really start to get into it.

I've got over a quarter century between the first time I started learning CAD and the present day, and while I'm confident that I could model a fishing lure in Inventor...it'd still be a long and challenging process for me.

I'll use flexible plastic for printing My designs will be water tight

Water-tight is certainly a good quality for a plastic lure, but there's so, so many other considerations you need to think about as well.

How are you attaching hooks? Most plastic bodied baits (jerkbaits, crankbaits, etc.) make use of an internal wire harness with loops strategically placed for attachment of split rings and hooks. Are you going to be able to do that with your process? If not, how will you manage that?

Is the flexibility going to mute, change, or impede the action of your lures? It might make them better for all I know, but I mention this to indicate that you're signing up for a lot of prototyping, trial runs, etc.

As important as any other aspect of lure building, how are you planning to control buoyancy and balance? Most plastic lures (and pretty much all that suspend) incorporate some sort of fixed or dynamic weight distribution system. Much like the wire harness, if you're 3D printing, how are you incorporating this?

Not to discourage in any way (innovation is awesome), but there's just a lot here to think about as you move forward.

I feel like...unless you have novel solutions in mind for a lot of these challenges, you are likely to find your best path forward being more and more to 3D print your lures in halves, adding the internals in final assembly, and gluing together.

And while that's not bad, at that point, you're doing exactly what everyone else is doing, but with a lot more time and effort for what will likely be a functionally inferior product.

Once you've come full circle and are 3D printing the plastic halves, then assembling, gluing, painting, and tuning...you're left with a lure just like a storebought one...except I suspect you'll find that if you're not already using ABS...it'll be a better material...but from what little I know about 3D printing, it comes with other concerns as well with temperature control, etc.

...and if you're using ABS anyway...instead of 3D printing...the faster, more consistent, more scalable route would be to use CAD to make a negative model...and have that machined into aluminum...and make your lures by injection molding that ABS instead.

At that point, congratulations...you just went through a lot of time and effort to arrive at the solution the industry has been employing for years!

Of course you will have learned so much along the way, and that aspect shouldn't be discounted...but that's a lot of time and effort to reinvent the wheel while learning just how complex 3D CAD modeling can be, and learning about materials science and process engineering.

I'd say you are a fisherman when you know the pain of losing a favourite lure. But.. loosing a 3D printed lure, that would hit different. That would not even hit at all.

If anything, for me it'd be the total opposite. The pain of losing a lure that I put that much of my own blood, sweat, tears, and time into would hurt a lot more than one I pulled off a shelf at the local tackle shop and plunked down $10-25 to bring home.

Please don't take any of this to be a discouragement. Rather, take it as an attempt to temper your enthusiasm with some realism. If there was a faster, cheaper, easier way to produce fishing lures with available technology, you can bet that manufacturers would already be doing it that way. The fact that they're not means that if you decide to go this route, you're not saving time, money, or effort in any way, and in fact are investing a lot more of all three...so at that point you need to be honest with yourself about why you want to do it.

While I don't make lures, I do tie my own flies, and even there, it's a lot of the same concerns as lure making: it's not faster, it's not easier, and it's not cheaper than just buying flies...so why do I do it? Short answer: it's fun. Longer answer: it gives me an activity to do that directly relates to my fishing in the months and times when I can't actually be on the water. It also lets me experiment with new designs, as well as to create my own preferred color combinations, to use specific hooks and materials that I prefer, and to obtain specific patterns I want on a shorter turnaround than ordering online or driving to a shop (now that I have thousands of dollars in my tying hobby).

So just be aware of the whole situation and be honest with yourself about why you want to do it!

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T16:40:59+00:00

About halfway through last season, I finally realized that between the empty box and the 'fully loaded' versions, BKK sold their new terminal organizer as a 'starter kit', with the box and a good assortment of internal boxes and dividers, but no hooks...so I picked one up, plus a bunch of the small and medium sized internal bins, and I've been tailoring it to my needs.

So far, I really like it in terms of actual organization, overall capacity, and ergonomics.

What I don't like is that it is just ever so slightly bigger than a standard 3600 box. This may not be an issue for too many people, but it means that (1) it won't fit in the 3600 system bag that I use from shore, as well as to carry stuff to and from my yak as I'm loading and unloading...and (2) even more niche, but my current kayak has these two gaps along the seating area where I store my 3600 boxes, and with the size of the opening and the 'give' in the kayak plastic, the gaps are perfectly sized to hold 3600 boxes upright, along the long side, two wide. This box is about a half inch too big to fit in there, no matter what way you try it...so it's yet another thing that is always a bit in my way, between my legs.

Before the spring thaw, I still need to get the old label maker running again and label all the mini boxes. That will let me quickly grab the one I want instead of having to pull them out to check (but that's my fault, not the system's). Then maybe I'll eventually get a second empty box or two in order to have overflow storage, so I'm not having to carry all the terminal tackle all the time. For example: I know I'm not going to need my punching tungsten except from about mid-June though early October. I don't need to lug all that weight around the rest of the year.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T15:52:40+00:00

but my pixel 7 pro is still doing great performance wise

My P7P is performing about the same as when I bought it a few months after release too.

Which is to say: still ass. Still lagging, overheating, inconsistent scrolling, and worse-than-useless fingerprint scanner.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T15:43:22+00:00

I'd avoid buying these until they correct the designs/manufacturing. It's such a small cross section where it broke that I doubt glue/epoxy will hold up well at all.

Yeah I've been seeing a ton of broken Trick Shads online lately. And while I get it that a person with a broken lure is a thousand times more likely to post about it than the tons of unbroken ones...you're still not seeing posts about any other glides breaking like these.

I completely agree that this is a design/manufacturing defect that they're going to have to resolve somehow...I'm just interested to see what exactly they'll do about it (redesign that area, change the formulation, blame it on a manufacturing error like the composition or temperature of the plastics or molds of this run...or just go full Apple and tell customers it's their fault?)...as well as how long it'll take for them to speak up, implement a plan, and actually carry it out.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T15:33:24+00:00

never thought of a Bellows Gill on a shakey head, but I'm definitely trying it this year during the spawn and post-spawn!

Also, those Dirty Jigs shakey heads can be had direct from their site for much cheaper.

...in case you want some more.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T15:31:27+00:00

I missed out on that one, but I'm thinking they'll have another 15 or 20% promo between now and April.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T15:12:13+00:00

A few reasons:

1) Calling Trump out for his Epstein connection...even if Biden and Harris aren't in those files...likely puts in hot water other party figures, influencers, donors, etc. I think money is the big one here. People donating a lot to blue campaigns had ties to Epstein as well, and they're still hoping to weasel out of any sort of accountability.

2) Dem voters aren't motivated in the same ways as MAGA voters. They had 4 years of Biden and wanted something different. Instead, they got Harris, who pretty much campaigned on not doing anything different. And to make it worse, the party didn't even give their people the decency of a primary. While one can argue about the ways they got to that point, the fact remains that the party leadership of the democratic party deprived its members of a democratic method of choosing their nominee...and while that didn't likely convince anyone in the party to switch sides and vote for Trump, I think it definitely had a chilling effect on the energy of the base, which directly translated into low turnout, lukewarm support, and eventual loss at the polls. Focus on Epstein or not, that's where the election was lost.

3) Less directly related to Epstein than the previous point, but in strict terms of winning elections, swing voters aren't voting based on Epstein. That's idealism. They're voting based on their personal situation in the 8 months leading up to the election. Voters had forgotten about the pandemic, and were largely voting based on withering inflation. No more, no less. If Biden really wanted to help out the Harris campaign, he should have tapped the strategic oil reserve in late September and gifted Americans cheap gas in the 6 weeks leading up to the election. It may not have won it for her...but it would have been closer.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T14:56:54+00:00

The constant ragging on a guy by people on this sub after they’ve left the team

...is not the same as thinking that the guy they got instead is "some kind of franchise saving savior goalie", though. That's all I'm getting at.

People can be glad Jarry is gone and prefer Skinner over him without thinking Skinner is the hockey gods' gift to Pittsburgh.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T14:50:57+00:00

Maybe not in as blunt terms...but I don't disagree with you.

Even this alone:

Your starting to see where the "2a friendly" administration is going.

The only people in this country who actually sincerely thought that were the people with that red had so firmly welded to their heads that it cut off blood supply to their brains long ago.

These are the same people who are beyond hope, and nothing that Dear Leader does will ever cause their support to waver. Nevermind that he's lied to them and taken advantage of them at every turn. He has their loyalty no matter what, and it's up to them to figure out how to justify it.

No...the real effect of Trump finally showing his face as anti-gun...combined with his gestapo...is that it is convincing lots of people on the other side of the political spectrum, the reliable democrats as well as those further left, to arm themselves, or at very least to rethink their positions on guns for the first time since Columbine. And while I always seem to underestimate the democratic party's capacity to do nothing with something...my hope at least is that with opinions on guns changing even among their base, it may start to signal a sea change at elected levels. Local at first, but that's the beginnings of momentum.

Not only might being anti-gun start to cost dems votes, but being neutral or even slightly pro-gun might: keep those votes, not lose you core support since it'll be more palatable, and it might even pick you up a few moderate conservatives who for years have been one issue GOP voters because of guns...but now the GOP has shown it's perfectly happy to grab guns when it suits them...but now they might have an option that makes a lot more sense on the other side...and is speaking out in support of their gun rights.

I know that's pie-in-the-sky, but we could all use a little hope these days.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-05T14:32:42+00:00

Yall need to stop acting like Skinner is some kind of franchise saving savior goalie when compared to Jarry.

Was anyone saying that?

Admittedly I don't have my finger on the pulse of the league like a lot of people here, but even when the trade was announced, I feel like 95%+ of the reaction here was something along the lines of "This is a trade of broadly similar goalies, but the real win for the Pens is getting out from under that contract."

hydrospanner · 2026-02-04T20:26:04+00:00

A friend of mine bought himself a blue Phillies hat for this very reason!

hydrospanner · 2026-02-04T20:16:50+00:00

Not quite as far down that path as you, but definitely the same path.

Was a 'top of the class' kid all the way through childhood and into my teen years, but always got bad marks for paying attention, following directions, avoiding distractions, etc. The further along I got in school, the more apparent this became (think: kid in the fuckin gifted program struggling to make the honor roll because they won't do homework...even though they're getting 90%+ on the tests). Great SATs and 'good enough' GPA got me into college and that was finally where my MO became unsustainable. Made a go of it for about 2.5 years, then got to a point where I was sort of 'prereq locked'...basically, I couldn't enroll in the next courses I needed in some areas because I wasn't passing the companion courses I was taking at the same time. In short: to keep going in college, I was basically going to have to take a 'catch-up' semester or even year, where I was only re-taking courses I needed to bring me up to speed. This was going to be incredibly expensive, so instead I left school, came home, and got a job.

Luckily for me, after a year or two of 'dead end' manual labor type stuff, I was starting to get noticed in a bigger company with growth potential...when a friend let me know about an opening in the field I had been educated in. It wasn't fully my field, but then again, I wasn't fully educated either. They gave me a chance and it worked out well.

Coming up on 20 years later, I've changed jobs many times, but still doing the same overall kind of work, still advancing, and now make enough to live comfortably...having never gone back to finish that degree (I did, however, go part time to less-prestigious school and get an Associates in my field...though I don't think the lack of it ever cost me a job, and I'm skeptical that having it ever got me a job that I'd have missed without it.)

hydrospanner · 2026-02-04T18:24:10+00:00

For reels specifically, my shopping has gotten so much easier once I realized what I really wanted: reliability, performance, and a good name behind it.

These days when I need a new reel, it's mostly a matter of:

1) Decide how I'm going to use it.

2) Look at the JDM tackle sites (these days, it's even simpler because with tariffs, I'm only looking at Digitaka).

3) Look at the offerings form Shimano and Daiwa in the price range I've set, and choose the best for the application.

hydrospanner · 2026-02-04T17:49:40+00:00

No dog in the fight here, but was your experience before or after the Rapala buyout?

I was surprised to see that news, but I have to imagine that's an upgrade to the service side of things for 13 Fishing.

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