Would suggest Rapala fillet knives or Dexter Russel.
I still have two Rapala fillet knives I bought in 1968. They still hold razor sharp edges with very little maintenance.

Note the shaft the gear came off of has a flat surface that runs about 1/2 way down the shaft. That gear should be slipped onto the shaft until it seats against the reel end of the flat surface. The gear serves a dual purpose. It functions as the clicker when line is pulled off the spool by a running fish. The poly washer on the front of the gear is part of the drag system. The remaining drag washers should be clipped inside the back of the spool.
The drag adjustment is done with the screw on knob that holds the spool on the shaft.
Good fishing!

If your using a regular single hand fly rod instead of a two hand, spey-type rod, you're fight with a Steelhead of any size is going to always be a tough one.
When bead fishing, peg the bead 2-4 in above the hook. I tie the hook on with a small egg loop (3-4 wraps in the loop), and put a very small tuft of yarn (my preference is red) in the loop. Yarn is to catch on the fishes teeth to give a little extra time to set the hook.
On the hookset, take in line by hand to set and control a moderate bend in the rod. Give or take in line as needed to maintain the bend, until the initial runs have eased, then get any loose line on the reel as quickly as possible.
Once you're fighting the fish on the reel, with a moderate bend in the rod, and a properly set drag, control of the fish should be easier and pretty straight forward. Don't try to rush getting the fish landed.
Wish you the best of luck.

WD 40 does work. A very good scent to always have on hand is Pro Cure's "Bloody Tuna.

Think Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas have Cabelas brand, waist length wader length, light weight, waders for about $100.00.
Might check them out.

Whether working on laptops, reels, or anything else where you need to remove small screws, .. IF any of the screws falls on the floor, lightly move a refridgerator magnet across the floor/carpet to retrieve them. Works great!

Nice catch, and good advice

In situations like that, I could almost guarantee that some of those balls of shad were being chased by LM bass.
When bass of any kind are feeding on balled up shad, I'm going to fish for them. You're guaranteed to have some good fishing, .. at least until the feeding frenzy ends. That's when I can start concentrating on what my original intended target was.

The rod/reel combo should be well worth the money you paid for it. It'll be good for Bass fishing, but the action is to heavy for Crappie fishing. You can catch Crappie with about any rod/reel combo, but a much lighter action spinning rod/reel (light line) combo would be better, aND a heck of a lot more enjoyable.

Do you want to catch fish or feel like you're still flyfishing? Even a fly fisherman needs to adapt to situations they don't run across very often. I prefer to adapt and catch fish to be released again.
Combining a sinking (or sinking tip) fly line with a fast sinking leader and appropriate weight tippet for your target fish, you should be able to get down to (or near) the bottom of the pool. Vary your casts (even if a 45 degree or more upstream cast is needed) until it gets down where you want it. If an unweighted fly won't get you there, try a weighted fly.
Best of luck.

If you're going to try fishing for Pikie Minnow on the Columbia River, to collect some of the bounty on their heads, the WDFG fishing rules pamphlet will give you some good info about them, and I assume there should be some utube videos about them.

I don't fish for them, but you'll have no problem finding the better areas to fish for them by driving along the highways on either side of the river. Some decent money to be made if you get onto them real good.
Good Luck!!

The problem with your line coming off the spool when it's not wanted might be solved by spooling a little less line. Too much line on a spinning reel spool often leads to the type of situation you described. In my early fishing years, I had that happen when I overloaded my spinning reel spools.

Don't blame you for not liking flourocarbon if it's hard on your guides.
I haven't had a problem with that or the line unwantedly coming off the.spool. I also use flourocarbon as the tippet on my fly fishing gear without problem when fishing subsurface tactics. Use mono when throwing surface flies and skaters.

Using light weight braid is a great idea, but I would suggest tying 3-4 ft of 6 lb flourocarbon leader to the braid. Reason for fluorocarbon is the small diameter for its strength, it sinks, and is invisible in the water.
Using Mono as the leader is fine if that's your choice, but fluorocarbon might bring you more bite from the larger fish that might shy away from a line they can see. (JMO)

If the pond already has a large population of Perch and Bluegill, start trying to reduce their population by a lot. Be sure to add fine structure (ie, weighed down Xmas trees, Corkscrew Willow branches, or other fine bundled braniches.) For protection of new fry. Then, start your Crappie rehab program.
Until there's protection for new fry, make sure any Crappie put into the pond are large enough that they won't have to worry about being eatten by the existing adult Perch and Bluegill.
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If the pond already has a large population of Perch and Bluegill, start trying to reduce their population by a lot. Be sure to add fine structure (ie, weighed down Xmas trees, Corkscrew Willow branches, or other fine bundled braniches.) For protection of new fry. Them, start your Crappie rehab program.
Until there's protection for new fry, make sure any Crappie put into the pond are large enough that they won't have to worry about being eatten by the existing adult Perch and Bluegill.
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