new2BC4bass

Kept out of sunlight and high heat...until I die.

I enjoy using my Smallmouth 6'10" MH-MF. First fish I caught with it was a nice size crappie on a 7/8 oz. lipless crankbait. Back home we sometimes called them 'papermouths'.

I agree with this. I started out with MHF because that was what the vast majority of people suggested. Now I have several rods with Mod.-Fast, Med.-Fast and Regular actions. Although not Moderate action rods, they handle treble hook lures just fine as long as you don't tighten the drag too much. I've never made a fish water ski. Although not Fast action, they have no problem setting single hook lures in the weight range I use. You probably should increase drag pressure a little from what you would set for treble lures. I prefer a mono or co-polymer line (because that is what I grew up with) except when casting into heavy cover. Most of my MH rods carry 12# lines. However, if I only had one rod to do everything, then I would most likely consider 40# braid. Not a fan of leaders, but with only one rod I'd probably use one for some lures to help avoid the soft braid from wrapping around the hooks. I've never been one to worry about what the fish thinks of the line I'm using. After all they're dumb enough to try to swallow hunks of metal. A MH rod with one of the 3 actions I mentioned should be as easy as a MF rod to learn to cast with. Although more powerful than a Medium power rod, they will flex deeper into the rod, and not recover as fast as a Fast action rod which should be beneficial to a newbies casting stroke.

I use MHF casting rods with 40# braid spooled to cast unweighted 10" ribbontails into slop all the time.

Love casting reels, but like you when I think 'arsenal', I think rods.

Impressive!

I'm another that feels Okuma reels are underrated. Especially am fond of my Helios Air reels. Really can't comment on the Hakai. Had it and a new Zillion out for a short time one day. Definitely need more time with it before making any comments on how well it performs. Not going to fish it for 15 minutes and tell you it's the best thing since cinnamon buns! Hakai purchased used. Can't budge the line size dial.

I'm about 6.7:1 ration BC versus spinning. Grew up with spinning. Tried BC in 2009. Never looked back. I also bank fish, but only in open areas. Trees and bushes, not water cover. Prefer 7' or longer BC. Spinning 7' or shorter.

I have all three, but none are current models. Personally feel it's a stretch to say one is far superior than the other two. There are several things that can contribute to a reel feeling superior in an individual's mind. Among them are your casting stroke where one brake type may be a better fit to your style of casting. Were you comparing the reels on the same rod using the same lure and same line? Line, lure, lure weight, rod length, rod power, etc. can all make a difference in how a reel's performance feels in hand. Ergonomics bothers some so it can also fit into the equation.

As many as I can carry in the car.

No.

Brian, want to stop by my place and set up a spread sheet for me? Heck, I'll even let you have the pleasure of filling in all the blanks. Texas isn't that far from Florida. P.S. I'd even let you set up the new computer I bought a few months ago. P.P.S. Columbia Craw....your rod set up definitely looks a little neater than mine.

My only experience with P-Line was with 10# FloroClear. It was not a happy experience. Maybe I got a bad spool. If I had to worry about abrasion resistance, their CXX is one of three that I would look at first. The previously mentioned lines are all good. I like Siege, McCoy Mean Green, and Izorline XXX of the lines currently in production. I have a lot of AN40 on hand. No idea why it went out of production. Line is probably not something a person would consider a rabbit hole, but there are many, many good lines to be tried. I have more on hand than I will ever use.

Don't know how we accomplished it, but back in my youth my dad, two brothers and I caught thousands of fish on 8# and 4# XL using Mitchell spinning reels. I use braid in slop. Don't know if it was because of the light lure, but when I tried 10# 832 on a (7'2") rod rated down to 1/16 oz., I was not impressed with distance. However, I did not try another reel on that rod with mono spooled on it. I have other spinning reels to try braid on (and different power rods), but guess I am biased because so far I prefer mono. In my youth I fished worms, crayfish, Beetlespins, Roostertails, leeches and grubs 99% of the time. We fished for whatever swam in the water (except for humanoids...they refused to bite).

Same here. All but one of my most expensive rods were bought used at about 50% of the original price. The new one was purchased on closeout at about 25% of the original price.