kenmitch

Thanks. Got me one of the new Lews Speed Spool LFS in 5:6:1 to try out. Still had $8 on a gift card so only paid $59.90. Low geared reels usually are closer to retail pricing for some reason or another.

Amercanlegacy has the combo on sale for $129.99 currently. Guess you'd have to find other use for the gift cards.

Nice....Luckily for me all the what I would have bought on impulse items were already out of stock. They had\have some blow out the inventory really good deals it looks like.

Might be worth a look at Cabelas as they have a sale going on. Some good deals to be had if not sold out already. Looks like most of the crazy discounted items are going fast.

It's illegal to transport live fish as well as the water they live in. Page 7 covers it. https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/publications/documents/00000839.pdf

FFO stands for Fishermans Factory Outlet in case anybody is scratching their head and trying to figure it out. That sucks....Many really good deals can be had on ebay these days if you time things just right.

Seeing how Bass Pro shops has them online I'd imagine Cablelas will follow soon. The above option is for if you feel like you already waited long enough.

eBay has a 10% eBay bucks back promo going on til the 27th as long as it shows up on the main page for you.

Save some bucks and shop on eBay for a reel as there are many on sale currently. Even if you buy the cheaper offering you can at least get some more bang for the buck! eBay currently has a 10% back in bucks promo going on if your eligible for it. Here's a couple of Abu examples as 2 of 3 options are Abu. Revo4 X is $68 and up....Slight variation in price by gear ratio. Revo4 STX is $114 and up....Same as above The only Abu I've used is the Revo MGX-SHS I picked up a couple of years ago. Haven't had any issues with it so far. Probably got 100+ hours of flinging lipless baits on it. Don't even want to think about how many casts that equated too. There's a lot of options currently on sale on eBay that'll come in under your budget. Take a look at some of the Lew's offerings as they've got some nice reels on sale for under or at your stated price points. I would think that price would probably dictate quality of a reel more than longevity. It would really depend on how a person takes care of them in the end.

Debating bearing replacement myself. As others have stated above it's hit or miss depending on the end users casting skills. I'm still researching my options....Been debating for a week already.

That's what I thought. I wound up with $100 in ebay gift cards and my son gave me another $50 so I've been looking at some reels currently on sale. Debating on when to buy.

Is there a valid code? Didn't see one.

I'm eyeing the new Revo Rocket. Not in any rush. Just got to find a really good deal on it. Impulse buy price is $150 shipped on it.

I'm kind of leaning towards some SS abec 7's currently. Figure if they're overated they should at least be abec 5 quality.

American legacy has it on their website for $50 I believe. They have other promos that will soften the blow. Think 10% off giftcard promo. Might have other offers, promos still. On phone currently so it's harder to look.

I'm not brand loyal, but I may be somewhat brand selective. I prefer to go the bang for the buck route and select the one that I can get the best deal on at the time of need. Luckily there's usually more than one option available that will soot my needs which really helps in the bang for the buck department. My reels are Abu, BPS Carbonlite 2.0, Lew's, Lew's, Pflueger, Lew's, Abu. The last reel I bought was a Abu C4-5600 for my swimbait rig. I set out with the intent of buying a Shimano Cardiff but got one of those too good to pass up deals on the Abu. I had to exercise some willpower to get really good bang for the buck for my swimbait combo. In the end after ebay bucks I'm into the Abu and a Dobyns Fury 795SB for around $112 shipped. I did have to jump thru some hoops to achieve the deals but well worth it in the end. I do have a couple of Lew's reels I'd like to upgrade at some time but I'm in no hurry. I'll wait it out for one of those too good to pass on deals that pop up from time to time.

I flipped once. I lost 2 rods, tackle,line,killed my phone, inflated my pfd. My bad in the end as I leaned too far truing to grab my sinking rod. I got it but sadly lost 2 more. I don't use anything still. I feel stable and secure. I stay aware of my surroundings and constantly look around while reeling in.

Cast control setting....That's the knob I have to tighten on my MGX to keep my spool from rocking back and forth. I don't set this like the guides say too as it kills my casting distance. I'll start out with my lure dropping pretty fast, but tend to loosen it as I go along. I always wind up at the point where the spool has play so in the end I just take the side play out of the spool and go a click or two more. I've found that I prefer to just use my thumb to control the spool when needed. I'm currently using the MGX on a St. Croix Mojo Glass 6"10" Med/Mod rod with 30lb sufix braid. This setup for the most part is my lipless crankbait rod. Sounds like what I'd expect out of better quality bearings. The MGX rig is my lipless crankbait setup for the most part. These baits tend to be bullet like with little wind resistance. I guess if I go for the super long cast they can get a little sideways and wobbly at times. Fishing out of a kayak I like to creep up slowly to potential targets and feel that the further away I can stay the better. Adding even 10-20ft of casting distance would be beneficial too me. I've caught all my larger bass on long casts to cover. I did catch a 4lb'r once more or less pitching my lipless next to some submerged cover as I was eyeing another spot when I noticed the potential of what was up close. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm leaning towards upgrading the MGX 1st as most likely it'll be the rod in my hand most of the time anyways. I'm currently debating on the bearing choices and if I'll go hybrid or just get some higher quality SS offering. I'm leaning towards the spool bearings and contemplating on the other ones. The reel is pretty smooth when cranking so I'm not sure the others are of any benefit. I did see a kit with the 2 spool bearings and the cast control bearing. Not sure how much impact the cast control bearing has on overall distance.

Thanks guys! Is there anyway to tell what quality of bearings the stock ones are? Never examined them closely. Abu MGX-SHS is one reel I plan on doing. Couple years old now and it's my favorite reel. Feel like it'll last and would like more casting distance. Would be nice to be able to do some lighter weight finesse type with it. Abu C4-5600 is the other one. Got this one for less than $40 shipped brand new is why I'm considering it. Was looking at kits for this one. Haven't even spooled it up yet. Best to try it as is 1st? I'd assume ones with shields are better. I've seen some without 1 or both shields. I kayak fish sitting 99% of the time. Extra distance would come in handy. The C4-5600 will be for swimbaits for the mist part.

I'm wondering about ceramic vs stainless steel at the same grade. If both are ABEC 7 rated is there much difference in performance? ABEC 9 SS vs ABEC 7 ceramic? I'm looking at doing some reel tuning on a couple of reels soon is why I ask.

Thanks! Good to hear as I wound up ordering some stuff from them. I used paypal just in case. Been looking for some line for my new swimbait combo and couldn't make up my mind. Wound up ordering a couple of options and some treble hooks to upgrade some lipless baits. They do have a 20% off code HOLIDAY for regular priced items if you need some fillers to get free or cheaper priority shipping. Guess I'll make up my mind which line I'll use when they get here. As far as the original topic of the thread. I would have also questioned and returned that spool of line. I tend to only buy items on Amazon that are sold and shipped by Amazon. Sometimes I'll deviate and purchase items that are fulfilled by Amazon and sold by another seller.

I lean towards braid on all my rigs. 30lb Sufix on my baitcaster rigs and 10lb-20lb on my spinning rigs. I recently picked up a rig for swimbaits and still haven't decided on what line I'm going to go with. Seems like P-line CXX is a common choice and cheaply priced. I'm still debating the braid vs other options on this one. I switched to braid when I got back into fishing about a couple years ago. Started out with Trilene XT due to it's price point. It didn't take me long to figure out braid was worth the price premium once you figure in the value of the lost lures and tackle. I fish with straight braid for the most part. I do have one spinning rig with some 20lb high vis red braid on it that I may use a lighter weight braid leader in moss-green if I feel the color may work against me. I now fish from a kayak and the strength of braid does have it's downsides if I get snagged too deep. It's hard to break and I really have no leverage as I wind up just pulling myself up to the snag. On the plus side of things it's nice to know that I don't have to horse the larger ones in and it adds to the experience when they pull me around in circles. I like the strength vs diameter of braid and the no stretch aspect of it. I guess in the end a person just chooses what works best for them.

Turn them down as low as possible. You'll probably have to fiddle a little if you drastically change weight of lures. It's best if you can train your thumb to handle it. Thumb trumps all.

I ordered the Abu one in silver from Amazon to try out. I figured it might come in handy if I decide to target the monster carp in my local lake if I dont like it for swimbaits.

I'm looking at alternative handles. The one above is nice but looks to be somewhat pricey. Anybody try out or use the Abu Garcia power handle? I went with the C4-5600 instead of the C3.