So my thoughts on the quality of the new equipment I have been exposed to over the past few months vs what was out there 30 years ago is this:
Even the least expensive baitcasting reels by Abu Garcia are much easier to use than the highest end equipment back in when I fished with my father. Basically all you had was a tension nob and thats it even the free spool buttons were on the side so if you had every thing backed off it was a two handed motion to start the cast. Learning to use a baitcaster back then took quite a bit of effort and time. That is just to not backlash anytime you made a cast, now you can almost tune my new Shimano Curado I to cast without any thumb control. Its not the most accurate way to do it and you have to be smooth but I played around with it and an an old Bantam. I think the Lews V Spool was one of the first reels that had any kind of breaking.
I am astounded with the smothness of even my Abu Black Max which is just about as cheap of a reel as you can get these days. I have always prefered Abu and Shimano reels. Probably the reel I am most disapointed with is my Diawa Lexa and that is is just because of its initial MSRP. I think a real at above $100 should have dual braking these days, maybe that is why TW and Gander Mountain have the reel on sale now for $69.99 which is what I paid.
The lines of today are shockingly sensative as are the rods, I have a $50.00 Shimano Clarus casting rod that is worth every penny of the original MSRP and I can feel so much sensation with it I am actually really confused about what I am feeling and spend more time working out whats what than actually fishing at this point. That is to me the allure of fishing for Bass learing and refining techniques.
I think by the time in a few months when I can cast my reels with the right settings and hit a paper cup with a jig from the other side of the world 95 out 100 times its going to be a blast.
Not sure if this post makes sense, I was just kind of thinking of all the differences from the last 30 years and they are as astounding in fishing as they are in comparing my old Apple desktop 30 years ago to my iPad today.
