[Andrew_R]

Jason should install a forum dedicated to Chicago's "other rivers" soon. . . . . . . :wink:

11/20/07

Day 1 of my 6-day turkey vacation began very badly... Got out to the backyard river in the late afternoon after working on the boat all morning. Fished from 3pm until 540.

Within 5 casts at my first area with big rapalas, my Shimano Symetre reel breaks in two areas..... 3yrs old, and not even used 100 times. :shock: WTF. Broken?

Bail spring broke naturally at first, and as I noticed that the reel wasn't performing properly, I make some adjustments moving the bail and right there, the bail splits and breaks in half like a stick of melted butter.......
I'm going to attempt to get Shimano to fix this one - - - - - Either thru warranty if it still exists for this reel, or they will give me a new reel for the sake of giving me one because I will send in this reel along with letter and tell them my story.

If it won't work, I'll gladly let them keep the POS they made and consequently I'll be happy buying a new reel over the winter that will work to its fullest potential.

You can tell why I'm a major fan of Quantum reels now. . . . . . . They don't use bail springs and the bail is made of indestructible titanium.

And besides this broken reel, the entire spool of line on my one well-functioning Quantum reels had rotten line - P-Line Evolution.... This stuff is shit and I've had it spooled on 4 of my reels this year. All containing different sizes of 6-8-10b. All were weak, had very bad knot strength, terrible stretching for a co-polymer line, and at times broke for no exact reasons... This led to me losing a few lures today.

Anyways, in two and a half hours with these unnecessary equipment failures, I got to enjoy my absolute favorite weather and conditions for fishing the backyard river (light rain, dark & gloomy), and I caught my rare, 18th walleye of season from here... Trying to get 20 for year.

Little guy - 17" male, but it made my problems and afternoon worthwhile.

I might be hitting up the DesPlaines tomorrow with my friend. If not, I'll be returning to the backyard river.

 

[Philosopher in Meditation]

Sounds like a bad day to me. I hate it when you go fishing and everything goes wrong, but after a while you get back on track and still have a fun outing. I've had more than a few of those this year and last year. It sucks to hear that about your reel dude, in fact I'm already shopping for a new baitcaster and rod for next season. At least in the end you managed to catch a nice walleye. Better luck next time. :? :x :roll: :wink:

 

[FishinMatt]

Andrew, just call them and they will send you out a new bail assembly. I had the same thing happen last year and they replaced it free of charge.

 

[JB]

Glad to hear that you salvaged the day with the walleye. Not long ago I had a symmetre and determined that it was not all it was cracked up to be. I had problems with it as well. My problems seemed to be that the bail was mounted badly thereby creating alot of needless bird's nest. I swapped out lines, made sure the line was fed correctly onto the spool, etc....

Needless to say I've since filed it in a bucket at home and have written shimano off for awhile. Maybe I should return it as well. I don't know where the receipt is tho.

Anyway, I feel your pain and I was hoping to get out this evening myself but the rains came and changed the plan.

If you get out tomorrow on the DP, hopefully these rains will stir up them walleye!

JB

 

[Andrew_R]

Thanks.

You know Shimano doesn't look too appetizing when you see all of those warranty centers listed on their website...... That's my turn-off... And when you send a reel in for repair or whatever, it's an automatic $20-30. Free money on their end.

Thanks for the idea Matt. I'll be working the phone tomorrow morning. If I get nothing and if they want me to pay up, I'll go for a new reel and then I'll place this reel on retirement at the Andrew Hall of fame. It lived a good, but very inconsistent life.

If you get out tomorrow on the DP, hopefully these rains will stir up them walleye!

I heard snow... eventually...... :?

 

[Philosopher in Meditation]

I heard snow... eventually...... :?

Yup, that's what their saying. :? :x

 

[AL-Quatics]

At least you salvaged something from your outing. Always admired your dedication & ability to catch 'eyes from an urban body of water. Love fishing for walters myself, just wish I had a river/creek close to home that I could spend some time on mastering like you've done. Gotta try linking up with you in the near future on the Creek or DPR for some fall cold water eyes before I move too far north. Nice report.

Alex

 

[Andrew_R]

Thanks Alex.

I found a little break in the rain today at around 4pm so I headed out.... Didn't stay for more than 20mins because the flow was flooded. This might kill my entire weekend....... After this weekend, I can kiss all my time away thanks to exams and important stuff.

Didn't mind the light rain nor cold.... Too much water and current - this is something I haven't experienced for more than 3 months! :shock: :lol:

 

[fishkid]

bad day, but atleast you caught fish! congrats andrew.

 

[Andrew_R]

Thanks fishkid.

I like the signature BTW... I think along those same lines too. :wink: