The Rooster

We went fishing this evening and the water temperature was in the mid 80's, anywhere from 83 at the lowest to 85 at the highest that I saw. Anytime it's ever like this I can't seem to catch fish. I caught 3 small bass and dad got about that many also. We went through a bunch of different lures. All the fish we caught were on moving baits such as inline spinners and crankbaits and small spinnerbaits. Nothing was caught on the weightless worm or fluke I threw, or the T-rig either. Only fast or steadily moving baits worked. Every fish we got (except for one crappie) was hooked outside the mouth, some even in the side or back. It was like they would strike at the lures we were using but miss and then get snagged instead. Dad ended up losing a couple more also cause he just couldn't seem to get the hook set in them. They were just striking so lightly. All that made me think they were only biting based on reaction instead of feeding. Is that right?? But I couldn't seem to make it work for me by queing on that.

Looks like I'm not the first to vote but I'm the first to respond. I voted baitcaster cause I think ultimately I'd have less trouble from one of those over a spinning reel per advantages it offers. No line twist, strong reel, comfortable to use. Just I would have trouble throwing extremely light baits, but even some of the nicer casting reels I've heard can overcome that. I believe it since the BPS Extreme I have has outcasted every other casting reel I've ever owned. They weren't the best reels though, all at or under $60 except for one of the Abu Garcia Ambassadeur reels which was about $20 more. I think I could learn to throw a weightless worm on a casting reel if I had to. I will continue to use spinning reels for this though since it is the obvious choice, but line twist alone would make that type of reel not desirable for my ONLY reel.

Funny that you should say that about the cheaper reel cause right after I got the President and the Trion (bought both the same day) I fished them and couldn't see enough difference between them to have paid more for the President and I ended up saying I should have just gotten two Trions. ;D Truth be told, I only bought the President over the Trion in the same size cause it was blue and I had a blue rod for it to go on. I'm like that, it has to look as good as it fishes. But I do like the President a lot anyway. Only differences I ever found were that it had 3 more bearings than the Trion and also has an aluminum sideplate on a graphite body while the Trion is all graphite. I did notice that they made the President with two different rotor types. It's made different in how the bail is attached to it that is. I got one that is identical to the Trion but Bass Pro and Cabela's shows it with something entirely different. The tackle shop where I got mine at had both and I made sure I got the one I liked best. Wonder why they did that?? Anyway, after seeing the pictures of the newer Medalist, I may wait and see what's gonna be offered in that in the way of a combo. That reel is SHARP!!! And all aluminum too. So if I do decide I want an aluminum reel to handle a heavy fish then I'll wait on one of those. In the meantime I'm gonna fish the h3ll out of my President and Trion and hope I burn one up on a 10 pounder!! If it's on the Trion then it's gonna be epic cause it's the smaller of the two!!

Hmmm.....so I might be fine with the Pflueger President only. Good to know, I'm wanting to add another combo or two to my arsenal when I go out. I like to have at least 4 or 5 rods rigged up with different baits while out there for a quick cast to the same area with something different sometimes. Thank you Muddy for the comparison there. I probably would never attempt to do to mine what you did to yours, but it's nice to know it held up well under the load. ;D

I have a President and a Trion both and like them really well. Just wondered about that Medalist for stepping up to a stronger frame was all. I'm starting to get a little better at bass fishing and someday I know I'm gonna hook a good fish and I don't want my reel to flex under the load of it. This passed weekend I hooked a keeper bass 15" long and boated it with the President. I'm not used to catching fish keeping size, only close but not quite there. So eventually I guess I'm gonna get to where I can catch them more frequently and want to be prepared when I do. The President did well, I didn't notice any troubles with it at all, but I know a 15" fish is not gonna pull like a 5 - 8 pounder will.

I've cranked bails closed for 12 years now, and recently read where Ike said not to so now I'm trying to make myself learn not to. I'm finding out I like it better so far. Haven't noticed yet whether it makes a difference in line twist but I did find out that by having my hand on the bail waiting to snap it closed I can feather a cast letting the line flow against my palm while the lure is still in the air. Works really well for slowing the bait down and entering the water with less splash. After a few fishing trips where I closed it manually I'm starting to form a habit of pulling the line to put it where it belongs on the line roller so I guess I'm doing what I should be doing. Got two new Pflueger spinning reels this spring also so I want to keep them in tip top shape. I had an Abu Garcia Cardinal for a number of years and after a while the bail got so it would not close when cranked shut anymore. I must have worn off the striking point under the rotor for it to close by cranking it down. So given that experience and what I've read about it now, I'll never crank them shut again.

I was wondering if the Pflueger Medalist has an aluminum body ONLY, or if the rotor is aluminum too??

I can't say it was junk but it sure didn't fish like I thought it would. A Shimano Sedona spinning reel. I just do NOT like the way it operates. The Pfluegers I have now fish like I thought that Sedona would have. Not sure what the issue is with that Sedona but everytime I used it I had to fight with it and it was miserable doing it.

I've never seen that Shimano rod before. The Field and Stream rod is nice for the amount of money it costs though. I still think it can be beaten for that same money though. Wal-Mart has the Quantum Torsion rods for $18.96, and they're IM-6 graphite. Available in 6'6" MH and 6' M actions (powers). They're not 2 piece though, only 1 piece.

I was under the impression that fluorocarbon lines were thinner than monofilament for the same pound test. I guess I was wrong. I compared the Berkley Vanish and the Berkley 100% diameter to the Stren mono I'm used to using, and it was smaller for the same size pound test than the Stren was, but when I compared it to the Trilene XL, then I saw that it was the exact same diameter as the XL was for the same pound test. So now that makes me think I was wrong about fluorocarbon being able to cast better due to smaller diameter but still let me keep the same pound test as before. Cause I was gonna get the 10 pound fluorocarbon to have stronger line, but have it be an 8 pound diameter so it would cast better than 10 pound mono would. It also sort of explains why the Berkley Trilene XL monofilament was always breaking on me in the 8 pound size when I pulled a knot tight, but the Stren never does. The 8 pound Trilene I used was .010 in diameter and the Stren is .011 for 8 pound. Trilene was thinner!!! I always make sure to wet my line before pulling tight too, so that's not it. With Stren I just don't have that problem though. Anyway, my question is about fluorocarbon diameters. Was I just mistaken due to only comparing it to Stren mono, or is it supposed to be generally smaller diameter than mono for the same pound test??

Hmmmm..........maybe you know something I don't but I think a bird's nest and a backlash are the same thing. The only differences are the little backlashes vs. the holy crap backlashes!!!

I was thinking of trying one of the new Cabela's Fish Eagle II rods for my Extreme baitcaster. You like them pretty well?? I read somewhere else on here that they had the sensitivity of a 2x4 so I got scared to order one after that. :oAnd man, I'd have tied on a big treble hook and some sinkers and went snagging for that rod. Might have tore it up pretty good by grabbing it, but at least you might have gotten the reel back. :'( Also I can't say I'm not in the Pflueger club anymore cause I'm just getting into their spinning reels. The Trion and President I have are the best I've ever owned. Beat my Shimano Sedona all to pieces.

Myself I would tend to think that if he was able to make such a long cast successfully in order to put the tape on it, he wouldn't need the tape at all. Otherwise after a cast like that he'd have one heck of a monster backlash to fight before he could even install the tape. Also, I'd say get a 6' rod to start with. I find the shorter rod way more comfortable to cast with. Since your primary goal is to learn to cast it and have some success fishing with it while doing so, then a 6' rod would work better, for me anyway. It's true that a longer rod will provide more momentum when casting and will throw the lure farther, but what good will it do you if you have huge backlashes to fight after the cast?? More momentum means a faster moving spool and the line coming off faster also. If you aren't on the spool good with your thumb then I think you'll have a lot of trouble. Also a longer rod means more chance of doing stupid stuff (that I sometimes still do :) such as hitting the ground as you come around on a side arm cast, or hitting low hanging tree limbs as you cast overhead. You start to make a cast with a 3/8 oz. spinnerbait, let it hit a bush nearby and you'll think you've never really had a backlash before that. It'll be worse looking inside that reel than the bush the rod tip just smacked!! Shorter rods are just easier to use in general I think. They're not as tip heavy with the lure hanging down it seems cause of the shorter length, and therefore it's just easier to cast with them. That's my experience anyway. I try to use a 6' rod for anything I cast if possible, just for comfort reasons. I can cast a baitcaster pretty well on average, but I still opt for 6' anytime I can. By the way, I was at Dick's today and saw the Field & Stream rods. They had 2 different ones. One was an IM6 and it was on sale for $25 I think. It's red in color and has stainless steel guides I believe. Is that the one you're looking at?? The other is an IM7 rod by Field & Stream, called the Angler series, and it has much better guides on it, the Fuji aluminum oxide guides, concept spacing, and a Fuji reel seat (all of which the other one doesn't have). Overall it felt much better to me than the other one did, and it was only $40 on sale also, usually $50. Not a huge jump up in price but I think it's a much better rod overall than the first one is, it compares to the Quest LS-7 I bought there last year, really it feels like the same rod with a different name on it, but blue instead of maroon. I'd buy one in a minute if I needed one. They're nice. Didn't see any 2 piece rods though, and I was looking cause I remembered you wanted one. They sure did have some nice rods there though. I checked out the All Star Select rods for $60 and they're really nice. Also the St. Croix Triumph, was on sale for $70 and it felt fantastic, but it's a bit high for your needs right now. I might be moving into one of those though in the future, that was a really nice spinning rod, felt very sensitive and light. Never knew they were that nice, I never have seen one before.

Some of them I read are double shielded. I'm guessing that means on each side instead of only one side. Any better??

How do you like it?? How does it feel?? Compared to rods in the much lower price range that is.

I always wondered if that could happen. It doesn't happen often though that I get a scratch on the rod blank but it has happened before. Now I have something new to worry about. :-[ And an excuse to buy a new crankbait rod.

I don't think you'll have too much problem finding a cork handle since most of them have that. Today I noticed that there are some 2 piece rods in Bass Pro Shops though. The Tourney Special is available as a 2 piece, but it's a 6'6" rod. I like it but you may not. They sell for $50 at regular price, but sometimes they go on sale. If you go to a Bass Pro Shops, check those out. I think they're nice rods.

What is the shield for?? To guard against dirt from getting in??

I'd like to use custom rods but not only do I not know where to get them made at but also I wouldn't even have any idea what I want or need. I'm picky about my rods though, I don't like using a rod and reel that doesn't look good together. Laugh if you want, but if the reel and rod colors are ugly together, or mismatched then I won't put them together no matter how good they'd fish when mated. If I used custom rods then I could match the colors and also have exactly the grips, guides, number of guides, length, action, power, everything that I want. Too often I find a rod I like but the rear handle is too long, or the grip is not shaped right to be comfortable. Something is wrong just about everytime so I end up settling for only about 80 to 90 percent of the things I want in a rod instead of getting the whole 100%.

Micro, you have so many reels that it probably gets lost in the bunch! ;D I can't stand scratches. I take great pains not to put any on my reels. Like for removing the line from the spool I use nail clippers to cut the knot so that the clipper never actually comes in contact with the spool. It's a slipknot I tie to start with so lots of times I'm able to loosen it and pull up on it so the knot actually comes out of the spool for easier cutting. No chance of scratch that way. Then I'm actually so bad about scratches that if I get one I'll use a sharpie marker as close to the color of the reel as possible to touch it up. Wipe off excess ink and it's like putting Old English on furniture, the scratch just disappears. I've even been known to do it with rods too. : Of course if it's a metallic reel, that doesn't work so well, but my BPS Extreme is green so it's simple to fix. I guess you could say I'm OCD about it. I just can't stand scratches. When I see that a treble hook has scratched my rod from having it hooked to the hookkeeper I don't like that either. It's enough to make me not use the hookkeeper cause I think it might scratch the rod. And until right now I thought I was the only one who worried about it. Wait till my wife hears this, she says I'm ridiculous worrying about it.

Oh how wrong they are if that's truly what they think.

This is an old story, but a long time back I had an Abu Garcia Cardinal C3R spinning reel. I loved it so much and wanted another aluminum spool for it so I could have 2 ready to go with different lines on each. I wrote them and was just asking how much it would cost to get one. This was in the days before internet was available like it is now. I expected a letter back with a list of prices on different items. Instead I got a spool in the mail, free of charge. It actually was a used spool, must have came off of a returned reel, but it was just as good as new, I could just tell by the markings on it that it had been used. There was no letter with it at all (and therefore no bill either), only the reel spool. I didn't mind at all that it wasn't factory new and perfect. It still held line and casted the same as the other one, and didn't cost me a cent. I love it when stuff like that happens. Say, come to think of it......isn't Abu Garcia now part of Pure Fishing??

I guess it depends on how tempermental the reel is on how easy it is to cast. But I usually don't have mine so tight that the spool won't throw off some loops if I release it and let the lure hit the ground. It's a good bit looser than that, so loose it would bird nest pretty bad if you just let it go and hit the ground that way, I'd probably have to cut the line out of it with scissors. I set the brake pretty high on it though, an 8 or 9 out of 10. It won't stop a bird nest at all, but it helps when I cast it. With it set that way I get a long cast, a good 50 to 60 feet with a 1/4 oz. crankbait (Bandit 100 series mostly). Sometimes longer. With the wind at my back I can cast it 70 or more feet. I don't have any trouble at all with the settings that way. Maybe once or twice per trip I might have an overrun, but never badly. This adjustment just seems to work. The reel I'm using is a Bass Pro Shops Extreme with the 5 bearing system. I can cast this bait at least 50 feet and not even have to touch the spool with my thumb until just before the lure hits water (or trees depending on how good my aim was :). I'm talking cast after cast of not even thumbing the reel while the lure is sailing through the air. Even when it starts to slow down it doesn't backlash. Then I just ease my thumb into it to stop it so the lure can drop to the water, and that's it. Begin retrieve and hopefully catch a bass. If I'm throwing a heavier bait, such as a spinnerbait 1/4 or 3/8 oz. size, I might get onto the spool faster with my thumb cause I think when I first cast it the heavier weight of the spinnerbait gets the spool really moving faster than with the lighter crankbait, but it slows down faster in the air cause of a bigger profile, however the spool is still spinning really fast so I need to start slowing it down sooner than I did with the 1/4 oz. crankbait. But with any and all casts I make, at the very beginning of the cast my thumb doesn't even touch the spool while it's spinning for at least a full second or 2 once I release it so the line can flow out. And with that 1/4 oz. crankbait, it doesn't touch at all until the very end of the cast just before the lure hits water. I've found out that I can set up other reels like this, semi-loose tension knob with about 90% magnetic braking applied and then I can cast 1/4 oz. baits without thumbing the reel much at all, as long as I'm careful with the cast not to whip it excessively. I just gently cast it with NOT a lot of arm into it. Just seems to work for me. I use a 6' medium rod with a Bass Pro Shops Extreme reel to cast with, but I was doing this just the other day to teach my nephew how to use his casting reel and he has a 6'6" medium/heavy rod with a Bass Pro Shops Megacast reel on it. Two distinctly different reels and rods, even length is different. But it still worked the same. At least for me. He backlashed it a dozen times and we finally had to cut some of the line out of it on his last cast. He'll eventually learn and so will you, but it will take some experience and patience to get there, along with some practice and occasionally some new line to replace what you cut out. ;D

Well, I'm sure this has been done before, but here goes. What kind of braking do you prefer on a baitcasting reel?? Please pick one, and also pick which you prefer, internal or external adjustment (in other words, 2 votes). And please tell us why you like what you like. To date, I've used all 3 types, magnetic, centrifugal, and the combination of the two (sort of a combination anyway) as my Bass Pro Extreme has the inertia brake, which I believe I like the best out of all of them. But I'm looking around for some more baitcasting reels and not sure if I just want to limit myself to the BPS brand of reels only. So in that case I'd have to consider either magnetic only or centrifugal cause I don't know of any other brands that use the intertia brake.

The Symetre has an aluminum frame. The Sahara doesn't. And the Symetre "may" have more bearings. I don't know about that, didn't check. But either way, the extra $20 for the aluminum frame would be worth it. I think anyway. EDIT--I just saw that the Saraha DOES have an aluminum frame. Sorry for any mixups this caused. I should have checked instead of relying on memory only. Now I'm wishing I'd have paid an extra $10 to have stepped up from the Sedona to the Sahara. I didn't like the Sedona at all after a while of using it. Something about it's operation, just didn't like the way it worked.