Bigbox99

Your local Walmart may have the Vengence 76H for $20 on clearance. It'll throw 2 oz baits with ease.

I use one of these in ML casting as a car rod. The ML is an extra fast because all the rods up to MH have the same back portion of the rod so it casts like an XF. The ML is the tip and the middle sections are more like a M. It's basically a MLMMH rod XF action https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqI9vOL

The 1st gen reels were good. The current ones are not as well liked and use a plastic frame in many of the models that were aluminum on the 1st gen reels.

Habitually cut, strip off some line and re-tie with fluorocarbon line.

I curious on how they did the slant bridge with these. If it is a machined part or cast like the old ones.

Great reel with heavy fluorocarbon. The tws let's line flow out smoothly and the braking system can handle stiff heavy fluorocarbon without needing to use spool tension to compensate.

Looks cool. I wish they had a carbon grip just to knock it out of the part with a modern rod. To me the posion adrena was the bass fishing iphone moment when we went from black berry's and flip phones with buttons to a glass touch screen that worked with human hands. Ditching the tree bark for a carbon tube handle assembly was like the rod stepped out from a time portal from the future. I would like to see that at sub $200.

While palming the reel working a bait? Thats normal. If you cast this way you severely limiting your range of motion and energy input on the cast. That's not always a bad thing and it can be a tradeoff for the ability to instantly engage the reel and set the hook once a bait lands. For short pitching and casting scenarios this becomes a beneficial trade because I don't need that extra distance a normal hand on the rod grip trigger finger on the rod trigger type cast allows for and I DO want to be able to set the hook as soon as a bait punches through a mat or is pitched into cover.

You still have to switch hands between casting and palming when using a left handed reel. I use both and it's the same thing. You cast with the rod's trigger on your trigger finger then switch to a palming grip of the rod to center the mass of the reel at the fulcrum point of the rod (your hand). Since you are changing up grips anyways its as simple to just stuff the reel into your open left hand to change hands as it is to move your right hand up fron a casting grip to a palming grip with a left hand reel. I do both and it's the same thing. The only reason I own left hand reels is so I can palm while pitching, punching or target casting (this last one is debatable because there is bait flight time). If all I did was normal casting I would just use whatever i learned 1st because they are functionally the same thing.

Another dirty secret is that the majority of rods from Japanese companies (Shimano, Daiwa ect) are actually two peice rods that join at the grip and for the US market they simply glue the two together so they can call it a one peice rod since the US market has an irrational HATRED for two peice rods. They have to remove a feature and gain nothing in return to appease the US market and this boggles my mind to no end. The reel seat doesn't have to be that way for a 2 pc joint at the handle. It can be absolutely normal looking. I have rods that join at the handle and the "exposed blank" at the reel seat looks exactly like the blank. I suspect the choice to use that reel seat was to harken back to the 1st gen Steez rods with their air beam reel seat.

I use both. Because I am right handed I and I have greater fine motor control in my right hand a right handed reel is preferred when the primary means of moving the bait is with the reel and use left handed reels when the primary means of moving the bait is the rod. Much like writing the pinching of the knobs between my fingers and rotating at the wrist are intensive use of fine motor control and my left hand simply isn't as good at this. I reel slower and fatigue faster than my left but like writing left handed you can improve over time as you develop the fine motor skills with use. That's why it really comes down to what hand you learn on. I learned on right handed reels but have taught my left hand too and it has gone from being a fumbling mess trying to reel a baitcaster like a spinning reel to being adequate at reeling a baitcast reel. As far as arms go there should be no "strong arm" like there is no "strong leg" unless you are disfigured. These are large musle groups and have equal strength so setting the hook should not be impared no matter which side of your body the rod is on. I say body rather than arm because you should be using your body to set the hook and not just freezing and swinging an arm. The switching hands thing is also the same with left hand reels as it is with right since you should be using a casting grip and then switching to a palming grip of the reel. I think people not palming the reel or palming with too few fingers in front of the trigger trying to be cute with a left handed reel is why there is such an obsession with reel weight lately. People aren't palming the reel properly and centering that mass into their hand so the felt reel weight is exaggerated. There are instances where you can cast while palming the reel but this restricts wrist movement and should really only be used for pitching, flipping and short target casts. You still end up with only 2 fingers in front of the trigger when palming but it's a compromise that allows you to instantly engage the reel on a pitch or lift the thumb bar up with a thumb tip after pulling out line for a flip cast.

It won't hurt but a different casting technique is needed with heavy baits to reduce wrist and forearm fatigue. You really shouldn't cast these heavy baits with the same wrist and forearm intensive casting stroke as normal bass baits or you will wear yourself out. For baits over 3 oz (your weight range for fatigue will vary) I use a casting technique I call "bend and send". I put the rod over my shoulder and to cast I let the weight of the bait preload the rod from the motion of placing it over my shoulder and cast by pulling down on the rod butt and pushing the reel seat up and forward with my other arm using my shoulders to put in power and rod loading as a spring while my butt grip arm pulls back to rotate the rod parallel to the right arm.

If you want you can get an entire "swimbait" rod and reel for around $80. 76H Vengence from Walmart for - $50 Seasir Megacuda from Aliexpress - $30 It handes 2oz baits just fine and I will be trying out a hudd 68 special rof12 this spring.

They still sell them on Aliexpress. That's where Gomexus stuff all originally came from. They want $17 for a knob now. Last time I ordered just knobs They were around $5 a peice.

Daiwa.