Yes Meadomere is still usable, and plenty of people still using this ramp. The side closest to the dock is deeper than the other side. I launched there yesterday with no issues. The wake boats are having trouble, as they have to put their vehicle way out.. Katy woods is good right now. I have not been to Dove, or Ferris in a long time. Their docks are in very shallow water.

Disclaimer: Sorry but I don't service reels for people, it just takes too much time. This isn't any info on the Sandies, but I really thought this was a cool outcome. Big difference between fresh and saltwater, a month in saltwater and anything is trash. I'm most of the way thru the Lew's speed spool I found this week. Diawa and Lew's use many of the same parts, and I wouldn't be surprised if they come from the same source.

Anyhoo, on August 29th I snagged a reel with a 5xd near Rock Ledge park. I brought the reel home and pressure washed it, and then decided "Why not". I stripped the reel, and found one bad part. The "yoke" is what disengages the spool from the gears during casting. Only guess is that this part broke, and the fisherman took the reel off his rod and pitched it. I re-used all the bearings for the handle, level wind, anti-reverse, and the handles. I installed better, used bearings from my parts I have collected repairing my reels over the years. I had a diawa CC80 that me and my son found a couple years ago, and it's magnetic backlash system had a problem so I used the (Yoke) from that reel.
By replacing the two bearings on either side of the spool, and the bearing on the spool itself turned out damn good. Never say a reel is trash, if you like to tinker. I have video of when I snagged this reel, and my plan is to go back and try to catch a fish in the same area I found the reel. More than likely this reel will be a "gimme" to someone I cross paths with while fishing. I see young ones fishing with gear that could use an upgrade, and I am sure someone starting out would be very happy with a reel of this caliber. The spool is smooth as silk, but winding in the line is a little noisy. With 20 bucks in bearings it would be as good as new on the inside. When I get the final clip to this reels story completed, I will share it with you guys/gals. I tried to condense the pictures, so there wouldn't be so many.

If you take a reel apart and lay out the parts one at a time, you can get it back together. Some of the assembly requires my opti-visor which helps with the very small parts. YouTube has videos on pretty much every reel made. The oil used during assembly is the key in my opinion. I do not use any grease, on anything. Light synthetic lube from Dad's ol tackle. A drop of oil is too much, I will apply oil with a toothpick so I can apply as little as possible. I run open bearings which are better in my opinion. If you go near salt, cleaning and lubing is much easier with the open style.

]https://www.dadsoletackle.com/american-gas-chemical-co-ltd-tsi-321-in-1-oz-needl.html


As I found it





Pressure Washed



Disassembled




The one bad part


Back together

Great job, Brent. Nothing like reviving an old soldier to fight again. Long time follower of yours and enjoy your insights/adventures regarding Grapevine Lake. Looks like the Zebra mussels were really liking that reel!

quote=JackCaster]Great job, Brent. Nothing like reviving an old soldier to fight again. Long time follower of yours and enjoy your insights/adventures regarding Grapevine Lake. Looks like the Zebra mussels were really liking that reel![/quote]

Much appreciated. I revived a Lew's reel I found on Tuesday, and will have another to gift. If you like to chase the green fish get out on the lake, I fished from the bank for an hour this morning with the cooler temps and had 4 fish on in no time. The cooler wx turned the bite on.

Whacked 'em! Fished with a new contact today, the dad of a coworker came out with me. We chased the green fish early, and about 11am started checking humps for Sandies. We did really good today, upper end was better than the lower end. We worked the humps I have referenced in the last few weeks. Mr. G caught his first small mouth, a 5+ largemouth, a spot tail gar as long as my leg, channel cats, and had more double sandbass than should be allowed. We snagged three anchor ropes, and added then to the collection. The last one had 5 spoons in the rope. Icing on the cake was Meadomere from 5:30-6:46. Nonstop Sandies on the slab double setup, and 5xd. Well over 200 overs today. Go back the last few weeks and look at the map pictures, that's all we did. Two old men were tired of catching fish, and made a memorable connection. Also met a new contact (Vin). I'm heading out at 2am to chase the green fish tomorrow, take care all.

Great report. We hit it Saturday Morning from 7:30 till 12 noon. We found most of our fish out west by rock crusher area humps. We didn't find many big ones though. We caught 50+ but 80% were 9" long.
Island and Murrel didn't show much on the graph. So, we went back out west and that kept us busy.
Slabs for us in 18 to 20 ft tops of humps.

I would say we might have caught a couple vertically jigging. We were mostly casting over the humps, and literally dragging the baits back. The top bait would typically hook up, and then a second fish would hook up on the return. We checked the humps twice from just east of the island, to the humps (north and South) of the crusher. Only checked Murrell once around 10am and it was a ghost town. The very interesting thing, is that at first glance the humps look empty, but then the bottom would just explode as the fish were hugging the bottom. Used Bluetooth thumper earlier in the day, but it didn't pull them in. We changed to music, and then simply would hang back of the hump and pick them off. Late bite in Meadomere has the magnums, and the 5xd was nearly every cast. The jig would pick up slightly smaller fish. Got hung up allot, so make sure you have a lure retriever.

I'm going to say that Meadomere ramp is probably not a good choice at this time. One side of the ramp is shallow, and you have to back way out to get the boat off/on. Bass fishing was really good, sandbass fishing was brutal tough for some reason. Might be the cloud cover. Fished all the usual spots, plus many more and it was really tough. Take care all.

Also, there is a newly repaired ramp back in commission. The point by sandbass point/mouth of Scott's is open.
This is just west of Katy woods, would be a good location to drop off a kayak.
Google map location

Good report. I was hoping that ramp(sandbass point) you could launch a good-sized boat from also.

Not sure why you could not? But I have not been out there in a while. Once the wake boats come out, the kayak and I go other places. The Vine just gets too messy with yahoos to be out on yak with all those party boats.

Great reports and stories as always!

I hope to make it out Friday and provide a report of my own. If weather cooperates I will try to the kayak down to the dam from Rockledge.

I feel your pain on the Wake Board boats.
I was out last Saturday and they were not bad. There were less trailers at noon at Meadowmere, than when I launched at 7am. But I did have to get my front tires wet to get my boat to float so that ramp may be off limits for those type boats now. I guess the new low water ramp there will never be used again for the general public.

Ferris ramp is good, you don't have to back down that far. The dock is in shallow water, so be careful. Fished today, found some sandbass east of the island (but it was a slow day). Mr B. Put a whooping on me, and also caught a nice blue. Wx was nice in the AM, but was hot around 2pm with no wind on the lake.
I'm working the next 3 days, hope everyone is well. Take care.

Now that's a scar! WOW!!!!

Prosise, how about Katie's Woods ramp?

katie woods is good