Looking To Step Up To A Baitcaster, Advice?

[drew03cmc]

Like it says, I am looking to step up to a baitcaster and was wondering what I should look for. The primary use for this reel would be to throw it on a 5'6" M action casting rod for stream, pond and lake bass. I would be fishing mostly the lakes around home, but would spend as much time as I could out in the Ozarks. I am looking at the Daiwa Strikeforce, which has a 4.5/5 review on BassPro out of 72 reviews. Also, for a rod, I am looking to get a high quality rod for not much dough. On my spinning rods, I have fished everything from Ugly Stiks to Quantums, and Berkleys. They all fished well for me, but for the casting stick, I wouldn't mind going to something like a St. Croix or something similarly priced. I was going to toss some Trilene XL in 12 pound test on it as a 1000 yard spool is cheap at BPS.

My total budget, including 1000 yds of line to learn to cast the darn thing with would be about $150. Let me know what you think would be a good setup and deal plaese. Thanks!

[eric1978]

It's gonna be a challenge to pick up a "good" combo for $150, but if that was my absolute max budget, I'd probably get on ebay and find a used St. Croix rod and a used Shimano Citica. For maybe $50-75 more and a coupon or a sale you could probably get them both new.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I'm not real familiar with the newer models of Diawa's and Shimano's, but the older ones have been worth the money. My first choice in rods are the Falcons, but the St Croix's are also good. If you're on a budget I would suggest a Shimano Curado 200 off of E-bay, in excellent shape and no "minor" scratches. You can probably get one for under a hundred. I would then probably mate it to a new low end St Croix. You might break that $150, but it will be worth it in the long run. Used rods aren't worth much.

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For line the XL is a good line in abusive situations, but for me its P-line Premium. I've used a lot of lines and I've never found one better. You shouldn't need a lot of line to learn with if you do it right. I would star with enough to fill the spool and if you abuse it change it when you start fishing. Casting is all about a smooth consistent reel and educating your thumb. Don't let some perceived need of distance to mess up your education, accuracy and a smooth cast should be the target and the rest will follow naturally.

[Al Agnew]

Good advice above. Thumb through the Bass Pro Shops catalog, because they seem to give more info about their reels than some of the other companies, especially the weight of the reel and the inches of line retrieved per turn of the handle, which is a better indication of the speed of retrieve than just the gear ratio. For all around use like you describe, you want a reel that retrieves at least 26 inches of line per revolution, and in my opinion you really want a reel that weighs under 8.5 ounces. Pick out some likely suspects and then look for them on Ebay to get the price down.

As for rods, it isn't easy to find 5'6" casting rods anymore. St. Croix has a good one (at least I guess it's still available) that's medium power. St. Croix rods are generally pretty fast action, and that rod won't work well for crankbaits but will work for everything else you want to use. A nice medium power 6 ft. Falcon is a little better all around rod. If you find a 6 ft. Falcon cheap, and it has a longer straight handle, you can always cut off a few inches of the handle. A lot of 6' rods made today have about the same amount of rod in front of the handle as the average 5.5 footer did a few years ago, but just have longer handles. Personally, I don't like longer handles on short rods, just don't see the point.

The P Line Wayne mentioned is a better choice. Line can be pretty important to good baitcaster performance, and as Wayne said, you shouldn't be losing vast amounts of line. To start out with, get the cheapest line you can find or some old line laying around the house, and fill the spool about half full with it. Most reels have about twice as much line capacity as you need for the type of fishing you plan to do. Then attach your good line with a double surgeon's knot and fill the spool the rest of the way. Then go out in the yard, tie the end of the line to something, and back up peeling off line until you've got about an average cast length of line out, maybe 15 yards or so. Put a piece of electrical tape across the line you have left on your spool, and reel the line back in over it. Now when you cast, if you get a backlash it will only go down as far as the tape, which means you won't be losing any more than that at a time even if you have a horrible backlash. When you get to where you are consistently casting to the end of your "leash" without backlashing, take the tape off, strip off another 5 yards of line, and replace the tape.

And when you start out practicing, use a pretty heavy practice lure. Tie it onto the end of your rod, and adjust the spool tension knob on the reel (the knob on the side of the reel that's usually kinda underneath the handle), by hitting the free spool button and letting the weight of the lure pull it down to the ground. Tighten the knob until it drops very slowly when you hit the free spool button. As you get more proficient you can loosen the spool tension for longer distance casting. As many years as I have been using baitcasters, I now loosen the spool tension knob until the spool wobbles back and forth under my thumb, then tighten it to just the point where the wobble stops.

[drew03cmc]

I could probably go up on the budget a bit, but I would love to find some good quality stuff to work with. I will monitor eBay for now and see what I can find.

Thanks for the advice guys, I truly appreciate it!

[Quillback]

Curados are on sale at some of the big box online retailers such as Tacklewarehouse for $139, no sales tax and free shipping. It's a great price for a quality reel. A lot of folks on some of the other bass fishing forums love their Curados and will tell you they are the equal of reels in the $275 range such as Revo Premiers, I don't agree with that, but they are a quality reel at that price. Or you may be able to get one for less on Ebay, just make sure the seller has quality feedback.

[Quillback]

The reason for the sale on Curado's is that Shimano is coming out with a newer version so retailers are clearing their inventory of the existing model.

[FishinCricket]

In case no one mentioned this trick:

When teaching yourself to cast, stretch out as much line as you will need for practicing, then attach a length of electric tape to the spool and reel it in on top of your extra line.. This way if it does bunch up it stops at the tape!

(thanks to whomever provided me with this advice a few years ago.. Priceless!)

[Mitch f]

I would shy away from Daiwa, use only Shimano, or to a lesser extent Abu Garcia Ambassadeur which IMO is one of the most underrated work horses of the industry(but I'm old school). They are ultra dependable and rugged. The one draw back is the profile is a little too big. They do hold too much line though for a standard bass rig. I would rather spend the full $150 on the reel and buy a cheap rod. The rods that used to go for $250 you can get now on sale for $79. I personally would never pay more than $125 for a rod anymore....and it better have a lifetime unconditional guarantee.

[drew03cmc]

What about the Abu low profile reels? Would those be recommended?