Bigbox99

I've always wanted a Timco Fenwick just to see what those are all about.

I consulted the council and no one knows why medium power rods exist. The mystery remains.

Follow your A B Cs https://jdmfishing.com/product-category/reels/shimano/baitcasting-shimano-reels/curado/

I am immensely disappointed that thread exists and my day is ruined.

Lol, lmao even.

I use both and there is no difference in strength. For starters both arms are large muscle groups and should be of equal strength. Hand dominance is about fine motor control for things like using tools, writing ect. Also when setting the hook you aren't, or shouldn't, be just using your arms. Put some larger muscle groups and weight into the hookset to drive the hook home. For my reels I use dominant hand to move the bait. For cast and wind that means a right hand retrieve and for jigging and worming that means a left handed reel. For punching and pitching I use a lefty and flip/pitch while palming the reel. For everything else I switch between casting and palming grips after the cast no matter what side the handle is on. For kayak fishing I use exclusively right hand reels so I can handle fish with my right hand while controlling the reel with the left to use the base of my thumb to press the thumb bar and let out line when a fish pins my rod to the side of the kayak.

Not a fan but it's a perfectly functional reel from a major manufacturer sold under a reputable brand. For that kind of money I would want an aluminum frame but that's not going to stop the reel from functioning and catching fish. It's more of a quality of life thing. Those graphite powder mixed ABS plastic reels feel awful winding in a high resistance bait or fish but I'm sure it's a big upgrade and feels wonderful compared go whatever dying reel you were using prior. I'm sure you'll love it.

No. It's a number on paper. I want a rod that floats in my hand.

Yup. Looks like they are trying to pull what Kastking did in its early days and sell Aliexpress fishing products at huge markup to US anglers that have never heard of Aliexpress. It's not that this is a bad idea or anything but they always way overcharge and sell the cheapest garbage. There's all sorts of good Aliexpress stuff that could be sold in the US like the Johncoo Ares, Seasir Megacuda, that Artsea 95mm handle with the Zillion HD knobs, all the Ray's Studio stuff ect. There is a market for people that simply won't buy off Aliexpress but at least bring over the good stuff.

Anyone who falls for this gets the fishing reel they DESERVE.

The back stories are all made up nonsense. They are selling a bottom of the barrel Aliexpress reel and making up some bull crap back story like Kast King did. Why people are swayed by this I don't know. A fishing reel is a mechanical object. You can discern all there is to know from the object itself and when that object is a $20 Aliexpress reel then that is all there is to know. Some made up origin story or their scammy shamwow website is not going to change the fact that they are selling a plastic Aliexpress reel for 100%+ markup.

Worse. Looks like some of worst Aliexpress plastic reels sold at a mark up. I'm glad Aliexpress reels exist for ultra budget anglers and will recommend the aluminum frame reels I have experience with but there are some absolute garbage reels out there and this is one of them. I've seen that reel all over Aliexpress in the $20 range for years. No way I would pay $50 for one. If you want a cheap reel then look at something like the Seasir Megacuda. It's $40 and has an aluminum frame.

Assuming this is the blacked out lews TP1 rod and matching means the reel and rod match color wise then my recommendation would be to track down a Tatula LT or if you want to try something cheaper then the Piscifun Carbon X. No experience with either since I don't use egg beaters but the Tatula is a solid product and the cheap Piscifun reel has pretty good following too.

All plastic non braids are mono filaments. I choose the one I use based on the properties of the line. If I want a high hardness sinking line at the cost of easy line management I get what people call "fluoro". When I want a highly elastic floating line I get what people call "mono". I usually stick to those 2 since they cover both extremes while also having a ton of overlap. I would probably buy a clear plastic mono filament fishing line called "co polly" if it was in the middle of Sunline Sniper and Berkley Big Game in properties. I probably have and just didn't notice. I think is was Suffix Seige. I don't really over think fishing line.

I don't like way 20 handles but I don't use line conditioner. I run 14 often and occasionally 16.

Don't do that. Also why are you doing that? How does this "make sure its clear to tie on"?

About the same. My Shimanos don't stay as smooth but they are otherwise equal in quality and durability to my similar Daiwas.

Those pond boats are obscenely heavy. I have an 8 foot pond prowler and it takes significant effort to get into the back of my truck on 35s and takes an enormous amount of effort to shove it into the water once fitted with a battery and trolling motor. There is absolutely no comparison between it and my 77 pound kayak rated for over 400lbs that I unload from the top of a car. I love standing up and punching mats with the Pond Prowler but it's such a pain to load and shove around I don't use it nearly as much as the kayak for small bodies of water.

I say get something stable and light you can unload out of a pickup or top of a car and drag out across the dirt to the water without fiddling around with trailers or some pedal drive. Something with a high seating position so you don't have to stand to pitch and can fish seated the entire time. For me thats been the Perception Outlaw 11.5. I fish out of mine 100% seated because I am barely comfortable standing up in a Pond Proweler and any kayak is way too unerving for me and I have zero problems pitching with 7 foot rods from that lawn chair on a surf board shaped Outlaw 11.5. It's also light enough to easily car top. I do my loading solo and with one hand if I wanted to.

Perception outlaw 11.5 and just fish seated in the very tall seat. The low sides and almost flat bow make it east to pitch while seated. It's light weight too and easy to transport. It's affordable and super stable but the very high seating position turns you into a sail so it's not good for long distances or high wind. It's just about perfect for a light weight highly mobile super stable fishing platform for not too windy days.

Retie your terminal knot frequently. I'll do it every few fish, after a single big fish or just a few times throughout the day from casting with no fish caught when using fluorocarbon line. Fluorocarbon line has a very low threshold to plastic deformation and you are deforming the line at the knot with every hookset, fish you catch and cast made. If you don't cut and retie religiously you will experience "mysterious break offs" with fluoro. It's to the point that I only use fluorocarbon for a main line and braid to leader is done with Big Game mono because it's so much more resilient to this kind of failure due to its high elasticity and very high threshold to plastic deformation.

It's the direction the line comes off the filler spool. You want the filler spool of line and the reel facing each other and the line to come off the top of the filler spool and onto the reel's spool. Think of it like an old cassette tape. You want to wind on line in the same direction as it was on the spool. For a reel it only goes on one way so the filler spool should be orientated to match. Failing to do this will result in line being wound on backwards and wanting to jump off the spool from the memory it has from the filler spool. Even if it's on wrong if you just wait a week or so it will take the memory of the reels spool anyways and behave itself.

I had the same experience with a Piscifun Alloy M with 15# basix. The narrow level wind placed close to the spool and weak magnetic brakes didn't play nice with the stiff slinky like line trying to make its way off the reel. Things like T Wings and cone shaped level winds placed far from the spool really do have an impact. My solution was the same as yours and I switched to braid. Braid is flexible enough to easily snake its way out of a narrow level wind at sharp angles on a power cast. Also, you could have has a spooling issue if you spooled the mono on backwards. If you're been braid only until this point you may not have been aware that this is a thing.

This is another one everyone buys for $80. I've used the gen 3 rod from this combo and it was probably the worst rod on earth. A lighting rod really is a massive improvement and the fact that you can get a lightning rod and an aluminum frame reel perfectly color matched to each other for what Abu wants for their walmart combo makes it kind of hard to stand buy and watch people get told to buy a Black Max. Look at any "best budget reel" thread here and there will be a never ending stream of people responding with BLACK MAX IS THE BEST BUDGET REEL HANDS DOWN type of statements that boggle the mind. It's like they aren't aware there are alternatives. That's what I thought but I've put 2 years into to a Piscifun Alloy M, Johncoo Ares and the Histar Black Mamba without issues. I think a lot of the issues people encounter with cheap reels stems from a combination of user error and plastic frames and clutch components. Things like the clutch spring wallowing out the hole in the plastic frame it is stuck into and them coming out or just the frame flexing and things getting out of alignment. Things that an aluminum frame prevents. After owning many "graphite" reels I refuse to own another at any price. Also I distinctly remember in the 2010s the BPS Pro Qualifier getting shade for being a house brand reel that would never last. A user did a 5 year review on it and during that time it became the go to $100 reel recommend here. We still have members using those reels to this day.

Because people still buy plastic blister pack reels like the Black Max from Walmart or $50 plastic Amazon reels or vastly over pay for rod and reel combos when reels like this exist offering an aluminum frame that are a far better option. Some people simply won't spend over $50 on a reel and to those people the SLX, LFS or Tatulas might as well not exist. Honestly, I think these people are the majority of anglers out there. Whenever I eye what the locals are using from the bank it's always a pre made combo or blister pack reel. It's for those people I buy, review and recommend cheap aluminum frame reels paired to big box stores rods. I even try to match the reel to the rod so there can be no argument in favor of rip off combos about color matching. I paid under $100 for a MH that fishes like a MH+, floats in my hand and let's me throw chatterbaits, magdrafts, ploppers and buzzbaits when an absolutely vile combo (I've handled them in store) like this lews struggles to even be a MH in power, is enormously tip heavy and has a plastic reel on it for an outrageous $150. Also I think this is fun. I am a tackle enthusiast so that also means I get excited about cheap stuff too. I enjoy the hunt for cheap rod and reel pairing that does what my high end rod and reel can do. There are times like the past two trips I take nothing but the cheapie fleet out fishing.