Darren.

Welcome aboard! I fish Shimano Stradics from the FI to CI4+ and in between. They are hands-down my favorite reels in feel and use. I have spent time hands-on with Pflueger Presidents, and several other brands and simply prefer the feel of Shimano better. Great brand and great reel, the President, just wasn't my choice. I have also have a Diawa Lexa 2000SH (gave to one of my sons) and really like it, too. I think Daiwa makes fantastic reels. You'll find opinions all over the place. Since you want an "everything" reel, you probably want at least a 2500 or 3000 size (same as 2500 but deeper spool). My preference is for 1000 size for everything. But that's me. Best advice is take your rod to a local Bass Pro/Cabelas/etc., and put several different reels on it. Which feels best in your hands? Do you like a tip light feel or a tip heavy feel? Do you like beefier reels or small profile?

Welcome aboard! Def show to the fish and game authorities.

Welcome aboard! Used to work in Rochester, lived in Caledonia. Wasn't in a big bass-fishing-phase of life back then, but did fish Gravel Ponds. @J Francho, @ww2farmer are just two of the many fishermen in your area that can provide some great insight into the lakes there. Good luck!

Post some pix/link! Where'd ya get 'em?

Very sorry for your loss. Thoughts and prayers to you and your family.

If I am right, I think he means the Mattaponi river in VA...the flow of three rivers, the matta, the po, and the ni...forming the mattaponi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattaponi_River

Welcome aboard!

Good stuff, man!

I had some 8# vanish years back. Don't recall problems with it breaking or anything. But obviously some do not have issue with it, while some do. I'd look at your knots for one. Are you tying them carefully and slowly cinching down, using saliva to moisten (if u need to)? And how many fish have you caught with the Vanish leaders you've been using? Is this an anomaly? Yeah, I know, you may have had a PB, and you lost a fav lure, so anomaly may feel more like a devastating blow! I get it. Happened to me, too. If you've completely lost confidence in the line with this experience, there's no reason to keep using it, IMHO. If you want to stick with fluoro, as @ww2farmer suggested, try Red Label. Or you can go with a copoly/fluoro bond like Yo-Zuri Hybrid which is crazy strong.

Congratulations!! 7.5 is mine, too.

LOL. I have somewhat opposite story in that I was spinning, then I went casting, and back to spinning for 95% of my fishing. Have told it before and it is entirely a personal preference, should not fall into the "spinning stinks" or "casting is the best" argument because xyz... So let me say that you can do almost everything with casting gear. I did find I liked it better initially. I am down to one casting setup, well, two in that I've got one Chronarch 50e and two rods. A MH and ML. The ML loads great with really light soft plastics. I honestly found I could throw most everything with it that I could on spinning. The reason I went back to mostly spinning is simply that I have less issues with it - especially skipping, windy conditions, etc. I will say that I set out to conquer all that with casting and did pretty well. It just got to the point where I ended up asking myself if it were truly an advantage to use casting. My answer was no. So to your question, it seems you're getting the response that you might actually want...casting. You know when you flip a coin say three times over a couple choices and when the flips are done it tells you what you really want.

Welcome aboard! I've got a spool with a very tiny "nick" in the lip, but I've not had any problems with it. That said, you could try to smooth it out with high-grit sand paper (200grit and up) to ensure it is smoothed out, or simply see if you can buy another spool. I'm not sure my sandpaper suggestion is great, so I'd wait to see what others suggest. We do have reel repair folks here like @Delaware Valley Tackle, @J Francho, who will have other, probably better suggestions than mine.

Congrats! Nice catch!

All depends. Reservoirs I fish vary greatly with whether or not the turbines are drawing water, or the general water levels being high/low. There are days when it is a silty green with maybe 1 or so feet of visibility where I put in, and others where I can see the bottom in 6-8'. In the open, deeper water (10-20'), rare to see past 5 or 6' (that's a depth-guess, and only when I've thrown a shiny rattletrap )

Are you talking terminal knots (line to hook/lure) and/or line-to-leader line knots? I echo those saying practice! Easy terminal knots to tie, pretty bulletproof for me, but plenty of other knots in the book to try: Palomar Uni Line-to-leader: Uni-to-Uni Alberto/Mod'd Albright There are excellent tutorials out there. Grab a spool of your line and practice. Make sure you cinch down slowly on all these knots. Do NOT pull them tight too fast. Heat generated will weaken the knots. Lubricate with saliva if you wish, and test pull the knot before using. Give a good tug on the line, holding the hook/lure carefully so as not to impale yourself.

Cheers to that, mate! Heck of a humbling thing to hear a teen ask.

Welcome aboard!

It's cheaper... Don't use O's myself, and to make it like I want it (perpendicular to bait) I'd have to use 2 Os. Disadvantage is you end up hooking thru the bait, usually, while with Os you don't have to. I suppose if you don't shrink the wrap - or you use a large enough wrap you can do the same, but you run the danger of the worm slipping out...

It works well, but the senko will still get busted up, just maybe not as quick as w/o. I have pretty much stopped using shrink wrap on my wacky rigged baits. Not for any particular reason other than I didn't see that the lifespan was that much better.

Faves, not in particular order: Spinning: 5'9" MXF Shimano Compre (old cork handle model) 5'9" MLF St. Croix Premier (shortened it from 6') 5'6" L (more like ML) BPS MicroLite travel rod 6'3" MF Carbonlite (shortened it from 6'6") 6' ML BPS MicroLite 6'3" MLXF St. Croix Legend Tournament Walleye (broken tip, now somewhere in the 5'8"-6' range) Casting: 6'6" MF Carbonlite 6'6" ML Carbonlite

Welcome aboard, Jim!

LOL...indeed. I will use them to wash the inside of my windshield on occasion, but if they smell like gas or worse, no way.

Hi Mark! Welcome to the forums!

Jim, in addition to Patrick's suggestion of the Carbonlite, which I also like, have a look at St. Croix's Premier lineup, BPS (usually) has a wide range of those spinning rods. And perhaps a person in the know from BPS can confirm whether or not the Carbonlite series of rods are going the way of the Dodo? Online only one spinning model is available. So Jim, also consider the new Pro Qualifier 2 rods, which now occupy the price range the Carbonlites did... http://www.basspro.com/shop/en/st-croix-premier-series-spinning-rod Edit: just back from browsing BPS...been a while since I've visited, and not thrilled with the changes to the site, but oh well. There are many rods in your price-range. Fenwick is another I'd throw in the mix. If your local BPS has some, take your reel in with you (or borrow one from them) and try it out on several rods to see how each feels in your hands.

Thanks, Dwight. Always enjoy Roger's posts. Was hoping it wasn't anything really serious, perhaps health-wise. Though a broken ankle is no small thing to suffer from.