Cgolf

Looks good. Will take a few days of use for all the changes to sink in lol.

I am a minimalist with rods in the boat, and carry 3 spinning setups. I carry a medium and medium light Dobyns Sierras for plastics and medium ugly stick for jerkbaits. That gets it done for me.

I definitely will leave trailers on baits with certain hooks. I had a swim jig with a bait on it for 2 years and no rust. Light nickel hooks, I won't leave baits on long, but others I don't worry about too much. I do try to pull most baits off though after the last trip of the year, but there are always a few that get missed. On another thread, someone said what's losing a trailer vs a 3 to 4 dollar jig. Well I counter that with what's a 4 dollar jig when you regularly toss little used trailers that run anywhere from 0.40 to over a buck for some swimbaits that have life left in them and never caught a fish. They add up quickly too, but we just don't think about it. The only jigs I have really lost over the years are the light wire slider spider heads and not that many of them either. Whatever works for you stick with it. This is like the scent argument, don't think we are changing each others minds;)

For now going with the icon for sure. Depending on how much tackle I get I could still add a fuego CT, or Accurist. Thanks all, this has been a learning experience. Choosing a reel is definitely not as easy as I thought it would be.

This will tell you how much I pay attention to gear ratio, is the Abu on my spinnerbait rod already had a 7:1:1 reel on it. I generally see how the bait is coming back in the water and adjust my retrieve from their lol. At least I had the right reel paired with the right technique. I will say I did like the 7:5:1 crush on my jerkbait rod, let me pick up line quickly on a take.

Current argument aside, what I find interesting is that probably 99 percent of the angling community would call you a liar if say Abu and Lews were made in the same factory. With the whole global economy thing nowadays they ultimately probably wouldn’t be surprised. in a way it reminds me of the difference between Chevy, GMC, and even Pontiac. Difference was we knew they came out of the same factories and the firebird just had different features and slightly different bodies than the camaro. Heck Toyota and Pontiac teamed up on the Vibe/Matrix. The difference was that this is known. With the reels all we know is the brand on the side without this site I wouldn’t know Quantum is made out of a different factory. what would be a cool pinned thread is what reels are made where. I think many would find that useful. I would be very careful buying a Doyo reel based on my Abu experience. Would also like to know where my Pfluegar spinning reels were built because the build quality was lacking, looked like they forgot to grease one of the reels.

Any thoughts on Quantum in general, or the icon specifically? Kinda surprised by the love Quantum is getting, was totally unexpected. I know my 2004 reels are awesome, hadn’t thought they were still a player anymore. Just getting as many opinions as possible lol.

Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to simpler times when the name on the side of the reel, or anything, was who made it. Just seems weird to potentially rule Lews out based on my 2 lackluster Abu reels. Heck my early 2000s Abu C3 are tanks for musky and some of the best casting reels I have, I thought those were made in Sweden or something, curious enough to look tomorrow.

The other thing holding me back on the icon is the 6:3:1 gear ratio, but the Accurists aren’t a lot higher. The crush is my fastest reel I think, others are in that 6:3:1 range. That said I am not a speed demon by any means, but the new reel is likely for my spinnerbait/swim jig rod, so extra speed would be good. That’s where I saw them. After the Dobyn’s rod wait earlier this year, I’m not sure how I would feel ordering from them again.

Lew's Tournament Pro LFS Speed Spool Baitcast for 140 good reel and price? Lew's Tournament MP Speed Spool LFS Series Baitcast Fishing Reel for 120 good reel and price? I will think on the left hand Icon overnight. I have one left hand baitcaster and I do ok with it, but am really used to right hand reels. I would think since I reel left handed with spinning reels it would have been easier, but it is still a touch weird.

So here is where I am at. I have really cooled on the lews knowing they are made ultimately out of the same place as the Abu Garcias, that while solid aren't my favorite reels to use. Ironically though I really like my Lews Crush, and those on here that have them don't like them and others won't touch them. I did find a place that has them for 100 bucks. So that leaves with with choices in the Daiwa lineup or the Quantum accurist. I have the option to shop multiple stores this year after turkey day, so I can look to other places. The 140ish number was meant to be prediscount, on me for not being clear, but looks like I can't go wrong in the tatula line from the 100 to the SV's. Leaving the crush out of it, my Dawia laguna and viento and my old quantum accurists all feel better than 2 of my 3 abu reels. Off all my reels though I lean on the crush the most lol. It is interesting that Kastking never got a mention. Of course if a Lews or Abu is on deep discount after turkey day, I may not be able to resist, time will tell. These are really difficult decisions lol, especially being someone that isn't brand loyal.

so I just grabbed a UG from my 3 accurists and looks like I got the second year of the series way back in 2004. The tackle tour review of the new one is really solid. A 100 buck aluminum framed reel makes me think in direction I never thought I would go. So many choices lol. besides being a little light on casting distance I should have picked up longer handles. These feel a lot short compared to more recent reels.

Tackle Warehouse has a Tatula SV TW or TWS for 200 is there another model? realistically it looks like I can’t go wrong, and all have their favorites. The new Quantum Accurists being good surprised me with what I have read about recent Quantum reels. My old ones have been rock stars minus a bit of casting distance. One of these days I may give a Shimano baitcaster a try. I am biased from my mountain biking days where they made good stuff, but really made you overpay to get it. I did try one of their 30 buck spinning reels and will see how it goes. My Lews spinning reel in the same price point is sold after around 5 years of steady use. Just comparing their reels to their competitors they always seem to be a bit higher. That said I know they have their fans on this site and back in the day on river smallies. Thanks for all the opinions and ideas, keep them coming, it is really helping me out, and probably others too.

I haven’t had loud braid in a long time. I fish 50 lb power pro and 30lb 832. I do remember that some rods, especially the cheaper ones before I upgraded made more noise. It could be a combo of certain braids with certain guide materials just make more noise?

I am newer to the jerkbait game, but the rapala shadow raps and shadow rap shads have been very good for me. The Jackall rerange also got bit, but the most savage strikes this year were on the 6th sense provoke. The bass and even a walleye just crushed the thing when they hit it. I will likely stay away from the Megabass jerks because musky have already lightened my jerkbait numbers.

I tossed it some this summer on the vacation lake and due to the mood of the fish, didn't catch anything on it. I will say the action seemed the same to me. I think it runs shallower due to the wide aggressive wobble it has. For me I always thought that it punched a huge hole in the water and fished bigger than it is. If the bite slowed I would switch to something less aggressive like a bandit 100. On the old Xcal I even had a trophy musky take it, show itself on a nice jump and come off after said jump lol.

The other thing you could do is throw the true Ned rig definition out of your mind and just fish it with the hook or weight needed for the situation. Sometimes it’s a true Ned rig other times maybe it’s a short jig worm. For a weed less presentations I fish it on a slider spider head with the 2/0 light wire hook. This has done well for me. That is a mix of two classic finesse presentations.

I have 3 quantum accurists that have a fair amount of use over the 10-15 years I have had them and I haven't done a lot to maintain them. Only complaint with them Is I can't bomb lures out there with them like I can with the newer reels. The quantums I am semi retiring now will go on vacations as a backup reels and one may see action for deep cranking because I have yo zuri 10lb hybrid which in theory is better for deep cranking than braid. I think they were 100 buck reels back then, but I got them all at half off. Almost feel bad taking them out of the rotation.

These actually felt like they were just misaligned, meshed to tight initially? I will say once I lubed them the did feel better. I learned in my RC car days that a proper gear mesh makes a huge difference in both sound and binding up. Metal gear boxes always had some sort of lube in it. My Revo S on the other hand is very smooth. The pflueger almost looked like they forgot to lube or cut way back on on how much they used. To give you an idea I have had 20 - 40 buck reels that are lot smoother than these pre lubing, so this was not me being picky. Daiwa has a questionable track record with me. I have had 3 regal spinning reels, I love them minus them munching bail springs, all 3 have broke at least 1. I had the 70 buck magforce reel with the twitching bar that the bit that lays the line properly on the spool would get out of sync from time to time and bind up the reel, but wow that thing casted like a dream. My Laguna and Viento baitcasters have been great to me though. Thanks for the heads up on the cheaper LFS, I will stay away from that one. So general question, are Lews and Abu sourced from the same place? I think I have seen that on here. Daiwa makes their own right? Reading all this, I think I just have bad luck with reels. Maybe my next purchase will turn the tide:)

I am with you two on the Junk fishing, it just takes me a bit longer to switch between techniques in some cases. For shallow water I generally have a slider rigged plastic snapped on (by choice because snap gives a better drop with slider head), Square bill rod, lipless rod, then maybe a musky rod. Depending on the bite the square bill or lipless rod may be a jerkbait. The bonus 5th rod will either be a spinnerbait or swim jig. If I need anything else lure wise, I switch it out on the rod it suits best. If I have the bite dialed in, I may go like 2 spinning rods and 1 multipurpose rod, all depends. Not complaining as I love my boat, but it does force me to compromise. The flipside for me is since I either get locked in on one thing and zone out or want to constantly swap out lures, this really makes me focus and think out what I need so there is that plus. I probably have ADD or something. It also really makes me think about packing for vacation knowing the space in the boat is limited, which is a great cold weather project. As far as vertical 3 is the max being that I am fishing from the front deck. With 2 casting musky lures with 7 foot rods, clear vertical deck space is a must. It is already tight quarters with two casting. A few bills have been buested bouncing off the console over the years. Could I maybe do another rod rack and get 6 in that spot, maybe. At this point I am so used to it it doesn't bother me. Most of my setups serve multiple purposes very well and I don't feel too held back. That is why I was curious how everyone uses all those rods. Doesn't sound like anyone uses multiple setups just changing the line size keeping the lure the same.

Yes it is over complicated now. IMO Zman has you thinking if you aren’t using elaztech baits and their heads you aren’t fishing a Ned rig. See it all the time on here. When most of us have been fishing a Ned rig all along. For many reasons I prefer not to use elaztech but have good luck with other Ned plastics on a Ned head chasing smallies and trout on small rivers and creeks. The Producto tourney grub works great and an anglers choice 1/2 wart hawg that is skinnier than a Zinkerz and heavily salted. Other baits like the smallest Keitech creepy crawler also excel.

To start this isn't a troll post, seen that a bit on the tackle side lately. So my setup is a very narrow beamed 16 foot single console deep vee, with a custom deck over where the seat next to the console is supposed to be. For rods I have a 3 rod vertical rod holder in front of the console, I know amateur looking but only safe way to store them, and maybe room on the floor for one rod in the 6 foot range. So realistically 3 rods not used up front with one in hand for a total of 4. If only one in the boat I can have 2 or 3 in the back, but bass net and musky net are space hogs too. Also have tackle bags on deck because there is no under deck tackle storage. It is a dance routine to land a fish, no running around the boat to work a fish for me. Generally I do fine with the 4 or 7 rods in the boat (1 might be a musky rod so 3-6 bass rods). Heck it has saved me money on only having a limited # of upper mid range setups. What I want to know is what folks use the 3X - 4x the rods in the boat for? Maybe this is why I gravitated towards snaps to switch tactics on the fly;)

Do you know anything about the 100 buck speed spool LFS? Best I can see is it has lower quality bearings and a different cast control system. Still has the aluminum frame though. The different cast controls might worry me. The Crush I have reminds me of how well my 2 Daiwa magforce BCs have casted. I do have the Tatula 100 as a backup reel as well. I am guessing some would take that over the Lews KVD. The 3 Abus I have are ok. Two of them Revo STX and Revo SX feel a bit geary, but are very solid performers for me. I don't hate them the geariness feel just bugs me. Have the same issue with one of my Pflueger President reels so much so that I stopped using it on a trip. Adding some lube post vacation did help quite a bit and it is back in use. Perhaps all metal gears will just have that feel.

So I really think the Lews KVD reel is going to be money, the problem is I am guessing so will everyone else. Was hoping to pick up two during black friday sales, and was wondering if these are sold out, what should I look at next with 140 pre discounts? Was looking at a 8:3:1 for swim jigs, spinnerbaits and some topwaters and a 6:2:1 as a good all around reel.

As for flipping sticks being a gimmick, don't tell Denny Brauer because he won a classic and a fair bit of money with one. As far as gimmicks really haven't seen any other than gag gifts like spoons shaped as body parts or beer can or homer simpson shaped cranks. One trend that needs to slow down is fast action rods. I get it for those fishing flouro, but as a braid user I really like a moderate action rod. Thankfully some companies fast really are like a moderate in other brands.