bwjay

So sorry!! I thought it was both the Chronarch MGL and Metanium MGL that had aluminum gears, guess it's just the Metanium. I wonder why the Chronarch has the same geary feeling, then...

Hey, welcome to BassResource! I own two Bantams as a result of owning the HG, then trying a Chronarch MGL XG, and returned it for a Bantam XG. The Bantam is SUCH a solid reel with a beautifully smooth and rigid retrieve. It takes a little more work to cast as far as the Chronarch MGL, which looks great and casts great, but unfortunately the Chronarch felt hollow to me, like I was gonna break it by squeezing it while fighting a fish. I know that that won't actually happen, but I didn't like that. On top of the breakable feeling, there was a geariness to the retrieve. I could actually feel gears turning. I knew it could be an issue going into it, and it turned out that that specific reel just had too much geariness for me. It's the reason I haven't gone for a Metanium yet. The brass gears in the Bantam give it more smoothness for sure. So... I bit the bullet and just got another Bantam, and surprise surprise, I love it just the same. It gets out of the way and just lets you fish with confidence. I wanted to love the Chronarch, and maybe I could if it had brass gears, but I didn't want to mod one. I'm hoping Shimano puts out an updated Metanium MGL with brass gears in JDM or USDM, or both, in 2020. My wallet is hoping they don't. Ooh, dark gunmetal too while we're daydreaming. I hope this helps. Though the Bantam is more expensive, and heavier, it balances out my tip-heavy rods, and is a dream to fish, and I don't regret owning two of them. I'm hesitant to buy a third, as I just don't need that many expensive reels, but boy do I sure want another!

I don't see how a foregrip would help me hold my rod any better than just touching the blank for leverage; it might feel nicer over time with cork or foam but I still get leverage by touching the blank and I get sensitivity there. I do still put my finger under the line most of the time for bottom contact/finesse applications, but sometimes if I'm popping/hopping something on bottom and the line is repeatedly going slack, I will just put my finger on the blank since I'm not in contact with the line for half the time while it's on the rise/fall, and rely more on following/controlling the rise and fall of the bait (taking care not to leave too much slack) feeling for tension changes indicating a fish picked it up. I know feeling for tension doesn't work for subtle bites which is why I like to not only be able to feel the line but also the blank itself, based on how I want to hold the rod for a given bait/presentation.

I've read that St. Croix's 6'10" MLXF rods like those in the Mojo and Avid X family are special in some way, better than the other blanks, likely due to a fine-tuned action that makes casting easy and keeps fish pinned while still having backbone. At least that's my guess, any time someone says a rod is special or magical.

Do you find that it's more comfortable for you to hold or looks better or what?

After my first real season of fishing ever, I've learned some things about fishing rods. I won't go into all of them. But one of the things I learned is that I think I prefer a short foregrip so my finger can touch the blank. I can only do this on my Kistler Helium3 rods, which have no foregrip, just the reel seat screw which is padded with EVA foam. When palming the reel, or almost-palming(?) it, I have my little finger under the trigger and my index finger on the blank. I use my index finger for leverage when walking baits, which helps to not wear out my wrist like when frogging for 4 hours straight (or longer). Having my index finger on the blank also allows me to feel more with the rod, and with the NFC blanks that Kistler uses for the Helium3, I can feel a LOT. I feel like if my hand was only on the reel, and a cork foregrip, I wouldn't feel as much. I would still hope to feel a lot, and I will often put my finger under my line when jig/bottom contact fishing, but I can't always comfortably put my finger under the line and have a good grip on my rod, so I really like being able to touch the blank. What do you think? Do you like to be able to touch the blank? Do you think it's even necessary? Do you prefer rods without foregrips or rods with foregrips? Maybe rods that have small foregrips that just barely allow you to touch the blank? I'd like to hear from people to see if they think touching the blank helps, or if they think it's unnecessary.

St Croix Premier with a Shimano SLX (XT?). Done and DONE!

Stretch and get a Bantam. You won't regret it. Most solid and smooth baitcaster I've used, and most people seem to have the same impression.

I've got 2 Bantams and love them, both the HG and XG. They are just butter smooth and super rigid. They are just plain fun to fish. They aren't going to win distance contests but they make up for it with everything else IMO. I read a LOT about reel modding, adding more bearings, re-greasing, swapping out gears, handles, spools, and on and on... the Bantam is one reel that I haven't read about any "required" Day 1 modding. It is just great as it is out of the box. You could re-grease it and throw a longer handle on there and be done. The XG has a longer handle though so you might be good there; depends on personal preference. You're gonna love it.

Depends on how many other rods you have, OP. Two Sierras makes more sense to me if you don't have many rods. Get one spinning and one casting. Unless you really don't want casting, in which case sure get two spinning rods. But do both have to be the same exact 702sf?

I agree with FishinBuck07 for the most part. You probably only need 2 spinning combos rigged up though. I prefer baitcasters for most stuff due to casting precision, but spinning gear is good when you can just toss a bait in a general direction and don't need pinpoint accuracy. I think if I was targeting largemouth or smallmouth, 2 finesse baits among everything else I'd use casting rods/reels for, seems like enough.

It could happen with most high end sticks. I've told people my story and they said they did something similar (fierce hookset and jig/whatever came flying out of the water, hit the blank) and it didn't crack their mid-to-high-end rod. Could be the Expride blank, could have been the perfect storm of conditions, maybe the other people just got lucky. I don't know. But it was a good enough rod for me to want another one. I caught 2 nice lake trout on it this year hopping/dragging a 1/4oz chartreuse round jig head with a white twister tail off the bottom. One of the fish smashed it and it was a fairly obvious feeling through the rod, but the other one subtly picked it up off the bottom and the only way I noticed it was a super slight heaviness, a tiny bit more load in the tip. I pulled just a little harder and felt it was still heavy, so I flicked my wrist up and nailed that sucker through the upper lip. My hookset was IMO pretty weak and still it kept this fish pinned for a nice 1.5-2min fight as it ran a few times. I actually didn't catch a bass on that rod, just lakers and walleye! But the action seemed pretty good, only lost one fish I think, a suspected pike right by shore as I set the hook HARD after it smashed my lipless and horsed it to shore. It popped off right at shore - I suspect it was a perfect angle head shake with my drag set slightly too tight, giving the fish some leverage. Generally though it was closer to a fast action given its somewhat soft tip. Overall a great rod. Like I said, I'm gonna get another one. I will just be very careful with it... no more trying to rip lures free with the rod, will always grab the line and do it manually. Accidents happen... but the Expride is too sexy and too good of a rod to not use it just because it's kinda spendy to replace.

I cracked my 6'8MXF spinning Expride using a 1/6oz Ned head, when trying to free it from a tree, while bank fishing, and the whole blank severed shortly after. I was quite sad at the time. Still pretty sad about it actually. Great rod, very light, very sensitive. Sending it to Shimano shortly for warranty replacement... 50% of the cost of a new stick is better than having to pay for a whole new one. But it still stings.

I should never have to "condition" my fishing line. If a line needs to be babied like that, I can't depend on it. I did have a bad first experience with 14lb Sniper on my Bantam, blew it up so bad I had to cut it out. Seemed like it wanted to fluff up, but the reel was also new and I was trying to dial it in. I may try 14lb Sniper again but for now it's just a leader material for me. It certainly isn't the worst FC/mono/copoly memory that I've seen, but it's not like braid or anything.

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't caught much worth sharing. Bank fishing got worse through the summer as vegetation thickened, and some of my spots got completely choked so I had to stop fishing there. I caught the most fish this summer on a 5" watermelon red flake Senko. Big ones and little ones were eating them with little to no reservation. I caught a few on frogs as well but nothing huge. Sadly I think I am pretty much done fishing since I can't get to where fish are when I'm stuck on shore. I almost bought a pedal kayak but decided to wait until next year since I could get a good deal between now and April/May next year, and even if I bought the yak in early August, I would have gotten maybe a month and a half out of it. Hopefully next year I can slay 'em and post more in this thread. I am going up north for a few days however, for one final canoe trip, and I am hoping for my trip partner to hook into a big laker, but I'll be going for lakers and smallies as well. Hopefully my fishing for the year isn't completely over yet. I'd love to cap it off with a toad!

I have the 6'8LMHF, 6'9MHXF, and 7'HXF. The LMHF with a Bantam balances just in front of the EVA foregrip/reel seat screw and is the best balanced H3 I have. The MHXF and HXF balance further away from the foregrip with a Bantam. Yes, these are slightly tip heavy rods. I imagine the 7'3HXF would be similar to the 7'HXF. Put a heavier reel on it to balance it out. The Bantam is an excellent choice.

The SLX DC has a larger frame than the SLX and XT though so be aware of that. It might still be smaller than the Curado DC and I think it's definitely a little smaller than the K. Check out Ladybass on YouTube, she's sponsored by Shimano and has a few videos about the new SLX models.

I agree with Darren; a shorter rod, perhaps a ML, is probably the way to go. Shorter so it is more accurate, plus you could use jerkbaits too. If you don't have many pike or larger game fish that may eat your bait, that might demand more backbone, then ML sounds good. I almost bought a ML spinning rod the other day but ended up going with the M (St. Croix Premier 6' MF) because we have a lot of pike up here in Minnesota, and I intend to use the rod for lake trout and walleye as well. A ML rod would work, but I want to be able to get them to the boat faster so I can release them fast. Lake trout are particularly sensitive so you want to get them up quickly and let them get back to deep water quickly, if you're not going to eat them. I think I will eventually get a ML spinning rod when I have a kayak, but right now I want to keep my rod collection to a minimum, and a M rod is, for me, a better option for its versatility.

I will say that all of my Helium3s are tip heavy... I've got 2 Bantams and the only rod that balances close to the EVA reel seat screw (could call it the foregrip I guess) is the 6'8LMHF. The 6'9MHXF and 7'HXF balance a little bit further up the blank. I love my Bantams and don't really mind the extra 1-1.5oz of weight especially if it balances the rod out, but at 3.6oz for the 6'8LMHF (feels pretty light to me eh) it would be cool if you could slap a light reel like a Metanium MGL on it and have it be balanced. But that would result in it being pretty tip heavy. So that is definitely a valid concern. But the rods themselves are pretty light. My 7'HXF weighs 4oz. As for the sensitivity, I've found them to be pretty good, but I haven't been able to fish much open water with them, being relegated to the bank this year, so most times I'm just dragging stuff through mud and vegetation. I can still tell the difference between different types of vegetation and the difference between a bite and hanging up on grass. I can still feel individual bits of gravel. They feel pretty sensitive to me, but I have never tried an NRX so I don't have "the" baseline to compare them to. I'd say your statements are definitely exaggerated and reek of bias, but you do have some valid points. Still, I think it's unfair to say that a Helium3 is not even worth $150. The actions are great, the guides are great, the cork is nice, and they're pretty sensitive. And they're made in the USA. For $150, if it came between a St Croix Premier or a Kistler Helium3, I'd take the Helium3 any day of the week. Way lighter, more sensitive, and IMO better action. They're absolutely worth ~$200 IMO. Maybe not $300 (haven't tried a "high value" $300 rod but maybe most are no better) but I think they deliver respectable performance and construction. I don't know if you have a personal beef with Trey Kistler or what but they fish well for me and many others.

I have 3 Helium3s and I love them (6'8LMHF, 6'9MHXF, 7'HXF). I don't know about "garage build"... the unpainted blank is unassuming and doesn't show smudges or scratches. The cork is quite nice. But what's more important is how they fish, and I've found them to be great rods. You'll find many reviews on the Kistler website of people talking about how great the action is, keeping fish pinned at all times, even doing topwater and treble baits with "XF" tapers. One guy said "when I forget to delay the hookset, this rod does it for me". When they're on sale (like for $250) with the member discount (just make an account on the site and you get a discount) they're a great deal IMO. I loved my 6'8MXF spinning Expride until I cracked it with a 1/6oz Ned rig hitting the blank trying to rip it out of a tree. It was a very light rod and quite sensitive. Plus it was a real looker. I don't think you can go wrong with a Helium3 or an Expride. The American-made lineage of the Helium3 adds a little pride for me, but that's just personal preference.

Some quick math... 105*0.012 = 1.26 / 0.014 = 90. So just in theoreticals you should be able to fit 90yd. It is possible you didn't spool it tightly enough. It is also possible the 105yd @ 0.012 number is a little overstated. My guess is a bit of both. You're really bombing that frog though... I wouldn't be very confident in setting the hook at 60yd as it is so any further would be pointless for me, personally. But if you have to cut line off every now and then, you are losing that capacity and maybe at some point it would be an issue for me, obviously for you as well.

Why's that? Braid has been very good to me in terms of preventing backlashes and overruns. And it's easier than anything else to actually fix the backlash. I found FC and copoly love to bite down on themselves and it makes it challenging to undo a backlash. Braid slips nicely and I've had almost no backlash problems with it. My casting isn't "wrong" per se, but I do keep spool tension tighter than maybe I should. But other than that it fluffs up a lot less than FC and copoly in my experience, due to no memory I think.

I use braid to FC or copoly leader on all setups besides frogging or heavy cover jigging, where I use straight braid. I'm out to catch big fish and I'm not going to take the time to find out if big ones will or won't care about braid. It's not something I want to worry about. I just make sure to wet the crap out of my connection knot (double uni) which I also make sure looks right as I cinch it down. Actually I just remembered, I've been trying some Yo-Zuri Hybrid 10lb on one of my baitcasters as it got pretty low on braid and I decided to try some non-braid on a baitcaster again to see if I have a horrific experience like I did when I tried Sniper. My casting skills have improved and so far it's been OK. I may use straight copoly/FC on lighter pitching setups or for cranking, but braid is still my go-to because of its sensitivity and almost lack of stretch and lack of memory. Yeah, it takes a few minutes to tie on a new leader, which sucks since it's time not spent fishing, but it's worth the peace of mind (not spooking a big one) to me.

15lb braid with 10lb fluoro is still just fine for finesse IMO, and any other application you want for your spinning setup (in case you decide to let a friend/family member use it for all baits). Some people like to go lighter but I don't really see the need. Like I said, if you think fish could be really line shy, maybe for like stream trout, you can go lighter on the fluoro. I would use 10lb fluoro for most things and if you're going on a trip where you think you might want to downsize the fluoro, just bring a small spool of lighter fluoro with you in addition to the 10lb. I would still use 15lb braid in that instance. I personally don't think there is any meaningful sensitivity to be gained by downsizing to 10lb braid and I would not go any lighter than that. Some people will even use 20lb braid on spinning, and most reels will still fit a ton of 20lb braid on the spool, but I've had no reason to upsize the braid. Fluoro is already pretty darn transparent... going from 10lb to 8lb isn't gonna make much difference. 6lb maybe but that's so low that I would be too worried about breakoffs from minor contact with cover and not tying/wetting knots perfectly. 10lb Sniper ties and casts just fine for me. It's pretty supple. Note that Sniper breaks under its rating (10lb breaks at 7-8lb in my tests) and it's gonna vary from line to line. But for me, 10lb Sniper has worked just fine. I use 14lb Sniper or 14lb Sunline FC Leader (hoping to try 16lb FC100 System Leader soon) as a leader material on my baitcasters. I have actually quite enjoyed the FC Leader though some people say they don't like it. It's worked well for me. Bass still gulp my Senkos in 6ft vis water so I'm not worried.

On spinning, I use 15lb PowerPro to a 10lb fluoro (Sunline Sniper) leader and it works great. I get a little more abrasion resistance (than 10lb braid) and it still casts a mile. You can use thinner fluoro if you want but it's already pretty clear... if you anticipate that fish are going to be ULTRA line shy, sure, go to 6lb or 8lb. I don't feel the need to go that small. I would advise 30-40lb braid on your baitcaster(s) to avoid dig-in and make backlashes much less of a headache. I use 40lb Super8SlickV2.