FrnkNsteen

Mine is Mojo "Spinnerbait" 7' MHMF with Revo3 S 6.4:1 loaded with 17lb Suffix Tritanium Mono. Works great for that. Centrifugal break casts it great and the gear ratio is perfect for my cranking speed.

I'm throwing mine on the slower SLX MGL, which I believe is a 7.2, and works fine for easily picking up slack between twitches. Just a 1/4 turn every other pop and you're good. I like this little reel for that. I always struggled with throwing a jerkbait on a casting setup due to how they fly so inconsistently. One time they fly nice, then the next time they tumble, catch air and cause over-run in the reel. I don't know why it isn't an issue with this reel other than maybe because it casts so well you don't have to overpower it and risk the over-runs.

I used to tighten until it slowly dropped until I bought newer Daiwa and saw they directed to set for no or side travel. I now set all my reels this way. Going from having exceasive side to side movement, I slowly tighten the cast control until slop in the spool goes away, then stop. Basically I have no tension on the spool, but no slop either. I then use a little more brake, but also rely on my thumb as the lure is about to land. You do have to be quick if your lure is about to hit something like a dock or stump!! ? The worst is trying to skip and having the lure hit the water right by the boat. Those are the onea that you don't need to look down because you HEAR the backlash!! Vvvfffppphhhttt!!! UGH!! ??

No worries. I just took it as a miscommunication. Glad to hear you got it figured out!

Agree with previous suggestions of whopper plopper if overcast, or colorado spinnerbait. Something with a thump. Maybe a buzzbait.

LOL!! It was a water release like they do with grouper or tarpon. I touched the leader!! LOL!! ??

Well,.. It may have been, but with the coloration and striping, it looked exactly like Tiger Muskie pictures I found inline. Really wish we would have gotten a picture. I've seen a LOT of muskies that were either spotted or striped, but all were more of a silverish color. This was a bright sunny day and the colers were bright greenish blue. Beautiful fish! Length was estimate, but was within +/- a couple inches because we instantly measured reference points. LOL!! So were we! My wife kept apologizing like she did something wrong, but she didn't. We just weren't prepared for that. Never had a muskie up in that area of the lake, or even a follow. It grabbed it after it ticked off something and was just a weight on the line. I couldn't bring it up for quite a while. 21 Zillion G on a Mojo MHMF spinnerbait rod. I can say Zillion drag was smooth as can be. Anyways,... Sorry for getting off track and highjacking the thread. Don't know why sizes of bass would be dropping because we caught good sizes and numbers of Bass on Rainy. 95% were larger than the slot. Can't speak to LOTW though!

Unfortunately we didn't get a pic. We lost it while trying to land. We didn't have a net big enough to get him. My wife grabbed our bigger net we use for walleyes and northerns, but when we got the head in, it only came to between the back of the gills and pectoral fins. The lure got caught in the net so I tried to grab the tail and scoop my arm under the body while she lifted the net with its head in it, but it only had the rear treble of the OG Slim in its lips and spit it as I was reaching for it, then slowly swam away. My wife immediately said that we should have snapped a pic BEFORE trying to land. Beautiful blue/green striped Tiger Musky!! We gauged length on where its head was in the net at the windshield to where its tail was forward of the front boat cleat and grabbed a tape measure to measure length feom spot tospot

I know that area too. Used to do fly-in trips out of Tinkers Too resort near Nestors Falls using Northwest Flight Service.. Beautiful area up there!! I remember hearing of a year the water was so high that it got up into the cabins there too. The guide we used said floating bogs were floating in the current of the lake flowage and blowing apart when they hit the bridge going under the highway towards LOTW.

Yep,.. All the pole docks were underwater with sandbag bins stacked on the to keep them from floating away. Floating docks were above water but the bridge sections to the shore were deeply submerged. I nearly drove the trollung motor up on a few docks because you couldn't see them until right on them. Learned to watch for arm rails and poles up on shore leading into the water. Question for the OP.... How do they run tournaments up there with the small slot lengths? On Rainey you could only keep smallies under 13.5". Slot lengths for everything were pretty limiting. Walleyes had to be 13.75 - 17.5 with only one over 28" if I remember correct. Highlight of the trip was a 52" Tiger Muskie caught off a sunken island on a craw colored OG Slim! ?

You'd think that would be true that it couldn't flood like that, but it's absolutely not. My family, friends and I go to Rainy Lake every summer ( well, except the two previous years blocked by Covid. We were finally able to go up there mid-June for the first time in three years and the water was higher than I or the resort had ever seen. The resort owners home, store and office were in the water, as were the majority of cabins and year round homes around the lake Rainy Lake is approximately 225,000 - 240,000 acres depending on what you are reading and I had to offset the lakemaster maps 9 feet to calibrate them. I know the areas we fish like the back of my hand and can confirm how high the water was. We've been fishing this area for 25 years. Shorelines and reefs that are typically at waters edge had 8-10 feet over them and peninsulas and saddles we typically fished were completely gone from sight. I read an article that said water was flowing into Rainy Lake 28,000 cu ft/sec faster than it could flow out and was flowing into Lake of the Woods 25,000 cu ft/sec faster than it could flow out.

Plus you can buy a JDM Alphas SV cheaper than a Tatula SV 70. Last I saw, the JDM Alphas SV was less than $200, while the SV70 is $229 No brainer to me. I really like my Alphas SV!!

I am apparently an exception from the norm. I don't like braid on my spinning reels, or fluoro (fc) either for that matter. Most of my spinning rods have 8-10lb mono on them. I just feel I have better slack line sensitivity with mono or fc than with braid, and since I dont like fc on spinning reels,... it's all mono for me. Now, my wife struggles with feeling light bites at times, so I do run hi-vis braid on her reels so she can see her line move better. For baitcasters, I tend to run mono or fc depending on lure choice. I run braid on a few reaction bait setups like chatterbaits, swim jigs, frogs, etc, but the rest are various size mono or fc. Topwater, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and anything shallow get 12-17lb mono. Bottom contacting or cranks/jerkbaits get fc. Lipless may get either braid or Big Game mono depending on where I am fishing it.

Agreed! Zillion is the Daiwa to go with. Either go Jdm for good price but aluminum gear and smaller handle or watch for 20% off sale and pick up USDM version.

Well,... Then maybe the rod is a little over-rated and whipping the smaller reel spool a bit more than it can take. Curious if a larger spool in a bigger reel may not rotate as fast, therefore backlashing less. Let us know if a bigger reel helps!!

So what was he asking about then? Sounds like he already knew what he wanted? Not trying to hijack or question,.. Just genuinely curious since it sounds like he knew he wanted the Chronarch.

Makes sense! People would then have to decide if feel is $90 better, or wait for a sale or used option to reduce the price difference.

I don't have the Chronarch MGL, but I can attest to how much I like the Curado MGL 151 I bought. I wanted something to cast small shallow crankbaits or poppers on a Dobyns Champion 704cb. Love it! It palms nicely as mentuoned above and throws light 1/4oz poppers and cranks very well. I don't honestly know how much better the Chronarch could be. My guess is the law of diminishing returns applies here. Besides,.. As Mrpao said above,.. There will likely be a new model of the Chronarch coming out soon so you can also buy the current model on closeout when that happens and have both!! ?

Ok,.. I'm not a swimbait fisherman, so I can't speak from direct experience (Other than throwing heavier Muskie lures), but,.... What's coming to mind is wondering what your reel has to do with basklashing when you go to heavier baits? The brakes of the reel do not have to slow the bigger bait as much as they have to slow the spool from over-running the lure after the slingshot effect of loading your rod during the cast. If going to heavier lures is causing you to backlash, you might need to go to a heavier rod that is more matched/balanced to the heavier lures you are throwing. I would suggest trying your current reel on a heavier rod to test, then decide what you want you new setup to be. I agree that heavier lures can be hard on smaller reels and shorten their lifespan,... So agree you may want a bigger reel. Just trying to save you from buying the new reel and having the same issue because you're overloading your current rod.

I like the couple Lexa reels I have

It usually does!! My wife is great and fishes with me most of the time. She laughs that we spend all this time prepping all these different baits for our fishing trip up to Ontario and invariably, they want something different and we may not use any of it! This year,... Had all the usuals set for some good smallie fishing and they didn't want any of it, no tubes, no wacky, no senkos, very few mepps. This year they were hot after craw colored OG Slims and chigger craws or blue pearl paddletails like zoom boot tails or cane thumpers. Tore them up on those and they didn't want much else! ?

I didn't do that, but I did label terminal tackle slots 1/0, 2/0, etc. Then I bought one with the sizes molded in.... Only to realize you can't see the molded in callouts when loaded with hooks and weights!! ? Back to the Ptouch!! ?

I must!!,... Can't tell you how many times I have rearranged my tackle boxes thinking,.., " Oh, I'll like this much better! Or,... Organizing my bulk storage. Bought myself a Ptouch labeler to make it even more OCD! ??

^^I'm guilty too^^

Start with the advice above, but when you feel you're ready for a baitcaster,... Watch some of the many Youtube videos out there and practice, practice, practice until you get a feel for it. Smooth casts are key. Don't snap your wrists while learning. Today's brake systems are very forgiving while you learn. Start with the brakes heavier than normal, even if casts are shorter, then loosen them up as you get used to it.