Because I'm a tournament angler if I lose a fish it can cost me dearly, so I have the habit of changing out all the hardware before each and every tournament, I go thru tons of line, swivels, hooks but i feel it is worth it, I inspect each rod and reel and clean the reels before each time, makes for a lot of work, but I can't blame a lost fish on hardware failure.

Today I started preparations for the Flathead Bash this weekend, was stripping the line from my poles and getting them ready, last tournament I had found a broken foot on one of my E-cat rods, so I went with a back-up rod and reel, this pole was a Big Cat rod that has Power Pro on a 6500 Reel, I had gotten a new 7000 earlier in the week and had already lined it up, so took the 6500 off and put the 7000 on and was putting the line thru the eyes and as I was going thru the tip noticed something didn't look right even with the bifocals I caught something, now this was the first time that I had used this rod and reel, but during the tournament at Mount Vernon this rod and reel had a 51# Flathead that I had fought for better than 40 min. and a 36 Flathead that again was a 30 min. battle plus it had caught two other 15# flatheads, all of these fish fought hard and really ripped the drag on the reel, at one time I saw the mono backing on the reel while fighting the 51#, today I saw the tip was cut almost clean thru the eye where that Power Pro had been hauling the bacon while fighting these fish, so fellows never take your equipment for granted always keep checking it out, cause all it takes is just one little thing to go wrong and you just may lose that fish of a lifetime, Lynn and I have been real fortunate with catching some major hogs over the past two years, 88# Blue, 56# Blue, 51#Blue, 56# Flathead, and I would hope that we can keep up that family tradition, but I owe a lot of it to the maintenance of my rods and reels................Doc

Amen Doc!

So True Doc  ::  ::  8)

great post doc!
I was riggin up my rods this evening getting them ready for the weekend and decided to switch reels,take the Penn off the tiger rod and put it on the surge rod that had a Abu on it. last time i used this rod was when i caught that 41# blue,i remember as i was fighting the fish i felt a odd "pop" feel but i thought maybe it came from the reel since the rod still felt solid and i never noticed anything broken on the rod when i gave it quick go over while still fighting the fish. well this evening i found out what it was. it was the reel seat on the surge rod,it had a crack that started at the reel seat itself and wrapped around to the trigger and it was real visible when i clamped the larger footed penn on it. ticks me off but also confirms the suspicion i had about the reel seats on them rods being weak. i can just imagine if i was lucky enough to hook into a hawg this weekend to only have my reel yanked from my rod. ill get a pic of it when i get a chance.