brophog

I find 7ft to feel short these days, but I definitely agree with the opinion that rod handle length makes a big difference here. I'd rather a 7ft rod with an 11" handle than a 7'6" rod with a 9" handle in many situations, despite the fact my preference would generally be towards the longer rod. Before I made the switch I would definitely tie on some lures to the longer rods. Longer rods will make everything feel a bit more tip heavy and rod manufacturers tend not to increase handle length proportional to rod length because a lot of the expense is in the handle.

I never use any of that stuff. I simply use lighter line. "6lb" mono is a lot stronger than people think and performs way better than 17lb line. Obviously heavier line as its place in bass fishing, and I'm not suggesting light line for every application, but often times the situations that call for heavy line don't require as much casting performance.

First, I agree with everyone that the rod is the bigger issue. 5-21 gram rods are more common in the Asian markets that the US, but even then you'll usually find one or both ends of that range are a big compromise. Line choice is also often a bigger issue than the reel. The line you'd ideally use for 3/4oz is very likely heavy enough to compromise performace at 3/16. I quoted this part though to get rid of the fear that a new reel will be outdated. Reel technology these days is really good, and honestly has been for years. Companies like Daiwa and Shimano will put out new reels every year with marketing claiming they're the greatest thing, but usually they're simply more specialized and the gains, if they even exist, are often very minimal. You'll find a lot more performance improvements matching the correct rod and line to an application than you will chasing the newest reels.

I'm slowly getting used to split grips after hating them for years, but that's mostly having not much choice in the matter. Fewer companies are offering full grip as an option, because like was already said a manufacturer can save a lot of money minimizing the material needed in the handle. This is something to keep in mind when buying cheaper rods. They had to save money somewhere and the handle style and material is an easy source to cut costs.

.35mm mono line ("12 lb") is going to have an actual breaking strength more like 20, depending on brand. It's incredibly strong stuff. IMO, even in the roughest stuff imaginable a bass fisherman doesn't need more than that to horse a fish out. In heavy rocks or similar where you know it's getting banged up you may want to re-tie more frequently.

"Ceramic" bearings covers a pretty wide range of material combinations. A full Zirconium bearing, generally ran with no oil, will be very noticeably loud. A hybrid bearing, with stainless races and SiC balls, generally ran with a light oil, won't be very noticeable at all. Most bearings sold as ceramic bearings for these purposes are of the hybrid style.

Some reels, notably magnetic braking systems like Daiwa uses, will maintain some braking force even with the settings turned to minimum whereas a simple centrifugal block system can completely turn their braking off. Free spool tests can be pretty deceptive for this reason. It doesn't really matter that it seems to free spool forever on minimum settings because you're not going to cast it with no brakes, anyhow. If you spin the spool and it barely spins or just a few revolutions, clean your bearings and lube with light oil. If you spin it and you're getting a decent number of spins, but it just isn't spinning 'for days' like your friend's reel then you're right where you need to be.

I don't often buy older reels, but I certainly still keep many around. While more modern reels are often far less weight, they often sacrifice durability to achieve that.

Trout magnets shouldn’t be a casting standard. Lures under a gram don’t cast well on anything. Sometimes acceptable for a given user, but never well. For the way many use a trout magnet, they really should use a heavier head, but jig head makers tend to put far too large (and thick) hooks on most jig heads so users throw things like 1/64 oz heads for smaller species just to get smaller hooks when the advantage that small head is really in fall rate and their retrieve never takes advantage of it beyond the initial drop. Some people don’t like using floats with BFS, but when using a trout magnet I really like their small peg floats to take advantage of their inherent subtle action. And the bonus is even a small float can double your casting weight.😁

We all have different perspectives on these things. I only use casting gear these days, but I’m not doing the entire spectrum with one combo. So, if I was limited to only one combo, it’s a spinning combo.

I believe these were remote tournaments. Kayak competitions often just set a designated time and (sometimes) multiple eligible bodies of water and the angler is responsible for following the rules. The fish aren’t ever seen by a tournament organizer in person, they’re simply caught by the angler, a photo taken, and then that’s submitted to a website. In some tournaments, you can even be outside the kayak as long as you’re tethered to it, for instance in shallow creeks. That’s why you can conceivably take a photo with no legs in it. There are usually people inspecting the photos for issues, like checking to see if it’s the same fish, but Kayak tournaments by their nature tend to be more governed by trust than other tournaments.

I'm not arguing, either, fwiw. I'm only going to attempt to explain myself further this once and bow out. Thanks. Go down product line after product line and you'll see companies that have something like a 1/16-3/8 spinning or 1/4-1 casting, very common blanks, but rarer to see it offered the other way around. We've seen "bfs" rods come a long way in the last few years, domestically, but we're still looking for the exceptions and not common occurrences. BPS has had at least an option in the L/ML range of casting for, I dont know, 15 years, maybe longer. Yes, many of us on here know we could pick up a Pro Finesse back in the day or a Carbonlite now, but the average fisherman walking into that store isn't going to randomly run into such a rod because it's still very uncommon. Consequently, while every reel manufacturer for decades has had a $100-ish sort of 100 class casting reel, we don't see much of that in shallow spools meant for these lighter applications. If we did, better believe rod companies would start converting those 1/16-3/8 rod blanks into a casting option.

This isn’t about BFS fishing, imo. There’s a real strong tendency in the industry in this country to look at what sells and everyone just produces that product. Go down the aisle of your favorite fishing retailer and just look at how many white and chartreuse spinnerbaits there are or watermelon or junebug worms. Obviously this is a problem with BFS as the rod companies will say they don’t want to produce a rod if no one is selling a reel for it and the reel company makes the same argument about rods.

Double check me on this, but if I’m remembering correctly those models break down just above the handle.

I had to justify the need for the new rod rack.

I find that’s only the case if you feel the need to put a reel on every single rod you own. I know, personally, I’ve bought rods over the years because they were a good price even though they didn’t go into the main rotation only to later come across a situation where I was glad I had it.

Hard for me to get excited for new reels these days. Part of that is the standard is so high now, for both casting and spinning, that it’s hard for something new to show much improvement. It’s also the prices raising so much that it just feels like it’s best to buy older or used gear and save an awful lot of money. Just a few years ago the idea of a Steez SV Light would have had me very excited.

To a certain degree, that’s true….but also consider all of your reel components tend to scale with the capacity of the reel. Those 200, 300, 400 class reels aren’t just there to hold more line, they’re designed to throw the kinds of weights, handle the kinds of torque, and bring in the kinds of fish that such a larger capacity is intended for.

My reading of this thread is that the BPS Graphite is not the rod you’re looking for. This is a ‘beater rod’ that you accept has limitations but it’s relatively low price means you’re not that upset if it breaks. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you want something more than that.

Depends on the spool depth. If it’s a deep spool I’ll just leave old line on as backing and replace the upper half or whatever that may potentially be used. Shallow spools are fully replaced every time.

Let's focus on this. What is it you’re wanting to do with this reel? Is this something you’re wanting to throw 1/32oz total weight or just want it to throw 1/4oz better? What is it's desired role on this team, or are you still at the point you're just trying to find anything it does well enough?

Your question is confusing. You didn’t ask it what the effect of overall spool weight is on casting light lures, you specifically asked it the effect of braided line’s weight. Had you asked it the question you’re inferring, like what is the effect of overall spool weight on casting light fishing lures, then you would have gotten a very different result. Especially when we’re talking the low line capacities of shallow bfs spools, the overall weight difference between equal diameter braid and mono is not going to be that big. In that case, the other factors inherent to those lines will be a larger contributing factor.

Do I get extra spools? Because if I get extra spools, it’s a 34mm Daiwa casting reel. If not, it’s a 35/3500 spinning reel, many brands would work for a spinning reel, imo.

The Light casting model is about on point to it’s ratings, but the rest of the casting models are all off in terms of power and often quite a bit on their ratings. The H/XFast 1/4-2oz, for instance, is a pretty good rod if you treat it like a standard 1/4-1 MH/Fast, but if you think it does anything even remotely near what a 2oz Heavy rod should do, you’re going to be awfully disappointed. Consequently, they don’t have a 1/4-1 or 3/8-1 MH in their lineup, like most do, so it fills that role very nicely, but you have to know ahead of time that’s the model you want to fill that role. I do like them, though, because they make a pretty decent rod that’s available in 2 pieces and that’s something that’s far too rare.

For some people with injuries, they’ve had to learn to use the other hand. I taught myself to do all of my casting decades ago with my left hand, even though I’m right handed for most things. I don’t cast any better with my right hand than most people would with their non-dominant hand because I don’t use it for that task. If I had to learn today, I’d just use a left hand reel and do it that way, but that wasn’t an option decades ago.