The Rooster

To me the operative word there is "heavy". I won't be fishing in heavy rain. If it starts that then I'm done. A light rain I am ok with.

Both the Abu Garcia and the Pflueger reels feel solid, like they could take on 10 pound fish and be just fine. I don't like the gears in the ones I have though. They feel just too rough for my taste. I haven't fished the Abu at all, but it's the roughest feeling one of them all just cranked with no line on it. The Pfluegers felt like that too but not as bad and then when fished they feel downright awful, I don't enjoy using them at all, so I can only imagine that the Abu would be even worse. I think the Symetre is just about the smoothest, most fluid feeling reel I've ever handled though. I'm sure it will fish just as smooth. Just dry cranking it though, the word "buttery" doesn't describe how sweet it is. There's no gear feeling AT ALL. I was sold on Shimano before. Decided to try just one more reel on the basis that it was built very well (Abu has brass gears and all aluminum frame). I see what I get for my trouble now. Should have just stuck to the plan and got a Symetre like I have been saying I want now for a while. I finally did though. Only thing I might regret later......while looking at it, I mentioned to my wife that the Saros was a better reel and she said get it but I got the Symetre instead. I probably should have upgraded it right there. ;D

It's about time!!! I finally got a good spinning reel for once. I actually ordered a Abu Garcia 502ALBi first. I really really like the design of it a lot, and wanted it to be a good one for me. It got here today (ordered from BPS) and for some reason it has a roughness in it just like the Pflueger Presidents I've had did, and it's actually a little worse feeling, and that's brand new out of the box. I was extremely disappointed. Don't know if I got a bad one or what. Also don't know if cleaning and lubing would help, but it has never worked for either President, so I'm just shipping it back to Bass Pro Shops. I'm not chancing taking it apart and voiding any warranty I might have. The Presidents I have had didn't feel this bad when "dry cranked" and they get awful out on the water with the resistance of the lure behind them. I can only imagine what this Abu would feel like if I keep it to find out. So I'm just sending it back while I can. I already went to a local tackle shop here in town and got a Shimano Symetre 2500FJ, and it's as smooth as silk feeling. I couldn't be happier. Now with a new Curado E7, last year's Citica E, and a new Symetre, I'm Shimanoed up and ready for the new season!!! :D

If it's an affordable reel, just backstock a couple of them, or find them on ebay cheap enough to make backstocking expensive ones possible.

I hold mine just like you do, hand completely in front of the reel. But my hand is actually farther forward than even yours is, I have no contact with the reel at all after the cast is made. When casting I put a pinky behind the stem so I don't throw the rod in the lake. I found a two fold advantage to holding a spinning rod this way. First, I balanced it out much more than before by moving the reel's weight rearward behind my hand, even made the rod "butt heavy" sort of so the tip is extremely light feeling. Second, I can now very lightly rest two fingers on the blank of the rod so I get a lot more contact and feel even very light vibrations. By getting a spinning rod that has a smaller foregrip I can have my hand closer to the reel to actually balance the rod so it's not hard to hold with it feeling butt heavy, but that also takes some of the light tip feeling out of it too. At no time does it ever feel tip heavy though. Holding it and fishing this way has reduced a lot of hand fatigue for me. Before I used to keep the reel's stem between my fingers always and even that made my hand hurt after a while. By changing my grip and where I grip it I have gotten rid of pain, fatigue, and gained a lot of sensitivity for fishing T-rigs and shakyheads on the bottom. Also, if the reel made the rod feel too butt heavy then I could always drop down a size in reels to lessen the weight of it some. This also helps with casting since I have a smaller diameter spool by doing this and that means tighter coils flowing through the bottom line guide so there is less friction (that's another argument completely but trust me a larger diameter spool like what's on those BPS spinners and US Reel spinners does NOT improve casting distance).

I'm with Sanother siteBasser, check on getting bearings that match the OD of the shaft and fit the ID of the handle you want.

I'll own one of the 500ALBi's tomorrow. Mine will be the 502 size. It's being shipped from Bass Pro right now and will be here in the morning. Other than that I have not fished one or even handled one. I made my decision to get it based on how the Soron SX and STX felt, and also the cheap 100i series Cardinals too. All felt good and smooth and built well also, so I went in the middle price range so I could get the aluminum frame and brass gears too. Only difference I can really tell between the Cardinal 500ALBi and the Soron SX is that the SX has 2 aluminum spools and 7 bearings while the ALBi only has one aluminum spool and one polymeric one, but has 10 bearings instead of 7. Otherwise they seam to be very similar. Both have an aluminum frame and graphite rotor (but the STX has all aluminum EVERYTHING if you want to step up from the SX). To all who said the Pflueger President......after two of them, I'm done. The one I currently have left is in like new, mint condition (including the gear grind that came with it) and it'll be for sale soon enough. President for $60, Cardinal 500 for $70...hmm....Cardinal has aluminum frame, President has an aluminum sideplate only. Cardinal has brass internal gears for both drive and pinion, President has brass pinion only and something else for the drive gear that obviously is not good enough (for me).

What kind were they?? I'll go get some today.

I use 6', 6'6", and am just starting to get into 7' but they depend on whether or not they are comfortable to me. I could completely care less about technique or casting distance. Accuracy however, I do care about and I can hit pretty well with a 6' or 6'6" so I stick with them. Mostly I just fish what feels comfortable to me and that's it.

Or that they don't know any better what to use it for than he did. ;D

I didn't think titanium had to be bent back. I thought it snapped back on it's own.

Wow, they are that weak?? I never would have known, that horrid yellow color prevents me from even looking at them, even in curiousity.

Yes I do see your point. And I agree. If a pro is claiming he is using a specific rod or reel, then he should be using it. If he is just endorsing it then basically you are just paying extra for his signature when you buy it, and thinking because "so and so" signed it then it HAS to be good.

I thought Rick Clunn was an old schooler too. He's certainly been there since pretty well in the beginning.

OK, in keeping with the original theme of things... Shimano Curado. An awesome reel. Could be better if they offered it in the 200 size and in a 6.3:1 ratio together. Also could be better if it had 2 bearings in each handle knob instead of only one, making it a 9 bearing reel, or even if 2 more could be added, I'd do it myself, but it can't be done. It would be slicker feeling for sure. I added a bearing to each knob of my BPS Extremes and they are now slicker feeling than before, and even feel slicker than my new Curado E7's handle paddles do. I know it isn't necessary but.....I WANNIT ANYWAY. ;D Shimano Citica. Another awesome reel. Would be better if they had included the bearing on the inside at the end of the driveshaft, same as the Curado, instead of only a bushing. They could skip the bearings in the handles to keep the cost down, but the reel needs the one inside in my opinion. Not just for smoothing it out, but for wear prevention too. I'll be adding this to mine as soon as I order it. That's the single change I'd make to it without otherwise trying to turn it into a Curado. Basically, I think it would be nice if they offered both the Curado and the Citica with different options. Such as a Citica with oversized grips, or a Curado with smaller grips. Some people like features of each reel, and it's obvious there are those who are ordering parts and custom creating their own Citicados and Curiticas. I know it won't happen but it would be nice. Shimano spinning reels in general. I like them but if you're gonna make an aluminum frame, go all the way. 1/2 of it aluminum and 1/2 of it graphite does nothing for me. I can live with graphite rotors, but both sideplates and stem and housing for the clutch bearings should be aluminum. There are a couple of fishing items that I'd change NOTHING about. The Abu Garcial Soron STX spinning reel. This reel is about as perfect as it can get. 11 bearings in all the right places, solid aluminum everywhere, frame, sideplate, rotor, and even the bail arm connecting to the bail wire. Comes with 2 spools, both aluminum, one ready for braid with no backing required. Sealed Carbon Matrix drag. Brass gears inside, drive gear and pinion both. It's light weight enough to bass fish with and solid and rugged enough for extreme saltwater fishing. Offered in a variety of sizes, and it's NOT ugly to look at either. They left nothing out. Then, also the Shimano Crucial rods. Particularly the spinning rods. It's about as flawless as it can get. It has the perfect grip for the way I hold one, a moderately sized foregrip which is where I hold it at, the hookkeeper is positioned up the blank out of the way so I can keep a couple of fingers directly in contact with the blank and have a lot of clear blank to be in contact with (unlike on the Compre spinning rods with the small cutout in the foregrip and the hookkeeper too close to the grip as well). There are also no exposed threads on the Crucial's handle at all when the reel is seated down. IM-9 graphite blanks, Alconite guide rings, very light weight, and beautiful to look at. Shimano Crucials are perfect in every way. Pricewise, they are worth it too, but......just recently I discovered the Lew's Speed Sticks and they look to be just about as good for less money. Lifetime warranty and all. There are a few tradeoffs compared directly to the Crucial, but not $30 worth which is what the price difference is from the Crucial to the Lew's Speed Stick Tournament series. The Lew's rods look basically like Compres with better handles in terms of features of the rod as a whole. There is also a cheaper version as well, the SG series. At way under $100, it's about as good as it can get. Drifted somewhat off topic, but not too bad.

I hate spinning rods with undersized stripper guides (the largest one closest to the reel). They restrict line flow. They should all be 1" wide in diameter at least on the inside of the ring insert. I hate spinning reels with oversized (shallow and wide) spools that they say promote longer casts, and then trying to pair one of these up with one of those rods that has the undersized line guide. You guys tell me how that's gonna work?? Duh. Worst idea ever. I hate Bass Pro Shops' spinning rod handle grips, the foregrip cranked down on the reel foot does not go down all the way to secure the reel and it forces the reel's foot to be misshapen to stay on the rod. I hate Shimano's Compre foregrip on a spinning rod, that little cuttout is not comfortable at all. I hate the location of the hookkeeper just in front of the foregrip, and on the bottom side of the rod blank on most Shimano spinning rods. It should be on top and further up the blank by at least 3 inches. They got it right with the Crucial, and got it wrong with all the rest. I hate when people say Ugly Stiks are not good rods. They are. They are not made to be light weight and bottom sensitive. They are made to be very tough and durable, flexible and strong. Use them for that and quit complaining that they aren't for finesse fishing light lines and weightless plastics. I hate rods with no foregrip and exposed threads also. There should be no threads showing when the reel is seated. I hate the fugly orange color on Carrot Stix rods. I hate rods that have metal ring guide inserts for the line guides instead of aluminum oxide or some other ceramic like material. I hate micro guides for the way they look regardless of how well they work. They just look ridiculously too small on the rod. I hate how they phase out a particular thing in fishing and then bring it back a few years later saying it's new again. Cases in point, wide spool spinning reels (they were all this way decades ago), and EVA grips (10 years ago every cheap rod on the shelf at Walmart had these, it's not new). I hate a bunch more stuff but can't think of it right now. I love Fuji ECS reels seats for casting rods and IPS reels seats on spinning rods. All spinning rods should have an uplocking reel seat, or a better made downlocking one such as the Crucial.

Actually now considering a Soron Now you're talkin'!!! Which one, the SX or the STX?? That's gonna put you over the $100 mark, either way you go though. Not on ebay. Ah, good point. Forgot already and I just saw the one on there that I ordered too, but I didn't want to trust it so I just ordered from BPS. Can you still get the STX from ebay for under $100??

I use it and voted that way. Sometimes I put the same exact line on both so I have one ready to go when needed. Other times I put a different type line on one so I can switch it out if needed. Most of the time I just put the same line again though. I do not use the graphite spare spools though. It must be aluminum. For instance I have a reel on it's way to the house now that has one spool of each. I plan to order another aluminum spool for it and leave the graphite one at home unused.

But to answer your question, it should be the same as the Symetre. It's a little silver screw on the sideplate right near the handle.

Actually now considering a Soron Now you're talkin'!!! Which one, the SX or the STX?? That's gonna put you over the $100 mark, either way you go though.

I really like that rod's looks. And based on just the picture it does look like it is much higher than average quality for a Shakespeare, the ones I'm used to seeing anyway. That said though, I still like my Ugly Stiks. And I also think there will always be a place for the "plain jane" rods that are traditional looking. But there should also be room for the flashier rods too.

Oh man, you can't go wrong with a Compre. I love those rods. Crucial will be all the better too.

HAHA!!! That's hilarious!! But $400 extra on top of the $100 he AIN'T spendin' still leaves him about $200+ short for a Stella!! That's one expensive reel!! I think I'd just get 6 or 7 Symetres instead. Or, maybe just one and the extra $600 can go into a used Jon boat for the creek. ;D :) Oh, by the way........I went wrong with a Pflueger. TWICE! Just ordered a new Abu Garcia C502ALBi today though. Carbon Matrix drag should be smooth enough for what you're wanting to do. I paid $70 plus shipping. Could have gotten from ebay cheaper but I went Bass Pro instead.

The gears in the Tournament ZX won't work for that.

Baitcast reels or spinning??