John G

I'll disagree with you the quality of the reel part of your post in regards to Shimano'. The boxes that the Antares and the Conquest's comes with are beautiful pieces of cardboard that have intricate detail. The box that a Curado 50E comes with is nothing to write home about. Not that the 50E is nothing to write home about, but any objective person will admit that in terms of quality, it's not in the same league as an Antares or a Conquest and neither is the box that it comes in.

I believe that if I am patient, another good deal will show up that has a box.

Your welcome! LOL

I have bought older Shimano Bantams without boxes and a 05' Calcutta 100 without a box but no more. Even it was an excellent condition Conquest 50, if it doesn't have the box, I will not buy it. 21farms has it right IMHO. If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand!

The part about buying a Shimano was actually an attempt at a little bit of humor on my part. Not that buying a Shimano is humorous but I figured at least one person would get worked up over it. LOL

My local Walmart has it but it's expensive compared to eBay.

Uni to Uni for what you want to do.

A little bit more info may help. What kind of reel and more important, what kind of rod. More specifically, what kind of action does your rod have? Is it a Medium/Fast, Medium Heavy/Fast etc. Also, how heavy is the weight that you are trying to throw? Baitcasters backlash for only one reason and that reason is because the spool is spinning faster than the lure can take out the line. There are many reason why the lure may be traveling slower than the spool is spinning, but that is the reason. If I were you, I would buy a jig or use some other aerodynamic lure that is at the very upper end of your rods weight rating and I turn all of my brakes on and loosen the spool tension cap just enough so that your chosen lure falls to the ground and when it hit the ground, your spool does not overrun. BTW, Spinnerbaits are not aerodynamic! Then I would get into a nice open area that is free of trees and bushes or anything else that your lure might catch on. Then I would practice casting. I would use a two handed overhand cast. Put one hand on the reel and one near the bottom. When you cast, try to release your thumb when the tip of your rod is at the one 1 to 2 o'clock position. DO NOT use all of your strength and try to cast to China. A nice smooth cast is fine until you get your casting motion down pat. If and when you are successful casting like this, loosen your brakes up just a little bit. The brakes are there for a reason. There is no sane reason that a noob should be using half of the brakes when you should be using all of them. Hope this helps!

What spinning a reels do you prefer?I was thinking about the Stradic and then going the JDM route with a Rarenium and then I remembered that this a pretty cheap combo that will be used for panfish so now I thinking about the Sahara or the Symetre so I am still undecided.

I was thinking that same thing. 90' is not a short cast IMHO!

For T-Rigs, Rage Tail Craws and if your gear can handle it, Rage Tail Lobsters in a Blue Bug color. I rig the Craws with a 3/0 EWG Gamakatsu Hook and the Lobster with a 5/0 EWG. Your rod specs will dictate the size of the bullet weight to use but I generally use anything from a 1/8oz to 1/4oz. You can also fish them weightless.

I like 10# Yo-Zuri Hybrid or Power Pro

Happy Birthday!

35 to 40 feet with casting gear and a finesse worm is very respectable IMHO. I will report back with my results tomorrow. I have been throwing an unweighted Fluke with the aforementioned rod/reels lately with great results but that is nothing to brag about cause a Fluke is pretty heavy. A Trick Worm might be limit but I'll find out tomorrow.

How far are you tossing that un-weighted Zoom Finesse Worm and what size line? I ask because I will be trying that tomorrow with a Conquest 50 and a Scorpion XT1000. Both reels will be spooled with 10# Big Game and the rod will be a Loomis MBR782. My guess is that I will not have much success.

I would be adding an additional bearing to each knob before I changed spool bearings. The XT1000 casts great out of the box IMHO and others!

Loomis MBR 842, 843 and 844

I have noticed that Japan EMS has not been doing the best at updating their tracking info. X2 on what did you get?

Nice bass? Are my eyes deceiving me or is that a large spider on your boat?

I have the old model IMX and the GLX MBR844 and if I really wanted another IMX, I would be patient and watch the classifieds here or other bass fishing sites and ebay and wait for the older model IMX to show up before I bought the GL3.

Metanium HG

I will be getting the 1000 from JLS when I get the cash.

You have to kill any animal that kills (eats) a human cause it's a proven man eater. It will do it again. Actually, people are on the menu for the Nile and Indo-Pacific Crocodile. The American Crocodile, not so much.

Great choice! The 1000/01 is special. The 1500's are good reels but nothing special.