well it happened again this morning. headed out for a morning trip was getting bites and seeing some really nice bass up fairly shallow. that was a surprise since the surface temp is 83F now. since i was getting bites shallow i was working a big bite trick stick on one of my favorite rigs: BPS extreme reel on a BPS extreme medium heavy 6' rod. after my second fish my reel started making a grinding sound that got a bit worse each cast so i set it down and used another rod. when i got home i gave it a good cleaning but it was no good still rattles like a true bill lewis lure. that makes the 4th reel dead this year (still got 2 reels limping along til i can get some replacements but the drags arent very good) had just one go bad last year but i guess ive let things go too long without replacing some. guess ill have to pour a couple of glasses of mt dew and have the wife make a toast with me to the memories of all the fish that were caught by the newest dead soldier :cheers: