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im kinda in the same boat as the origonal poster , but im looking for a UL/Light reel thatll take a beating if i do some light saltwater fishing. id prefer an aluminum frame , but its not a must. id rather sacrifice smooth-ness for a durable reel that will last. those quantum catalyst looks good , but ive had my eye on the abu cardinal 601alb. the abu has got a good review for the 502 model on tackletour , but the more i look into them , they seem to have spool wobble or something else. i currently have a flooger president 6725 , but i just want something with more 'balls' to it. any suggestions?

i dont have much , so i keep one double sided plano for terminal tackle , and a few of each plastic in separate bags. thats it. id like to use another plano box ,since i have a couple more, for my plastics. but i worry about them drying out or bleeding into eachother. i keep my tackle bag inside if im not fishing. i shouldnt have a problem , right?

what about abu's 500-600 cardinals?

do the swimming shiners have a hollow belly for t-rigging , or solid for teh jigs/?

yes. i plan on giving sufix elite a try sometime.

from my limited experience - green w/ char. tail zoom fluke with a 1/4-3/16 oz unpegged weight on a 3/0 ewg. green swimming senko w/ the same weight and hook. origonal floating rapala - you cant fish these wrong. im still yet to catch anything with a regular senko/trick stick , but i still try.

so ive been going to this lake everyday saturday for the past few weeks and today has been the most productive. it was about one million degrees out with no breeze. as soon as i walked up on one of the spots , i notice a gang of baby bass. i threw out my F7 black/silver floating rapala on my UL rig and pull up a 10" peacock (didnt get a picture). i stayed for maybe an hour and didnt pull up anything else. after a short drive around the community , i go to this other spot and it started to rain. but i like the rain and there wasnt any lightning so i stayed. there was small bass there as well but they wouldnt take the hardbait. so i throw out a green/char. tail fluke with an unpegged 1/4oz bullet on the baitcaster. when im reeling in the first cast , a peacock smashed it. the way she was fighting , i thought it was an easy 5-6lb fish.... i let her go , reposition the bait and cast again. another hit. on the third cast , ANOTHER peacock similar in size. didnt get a pic of that one 'cause she slid out of my grip before i could grab my phone. after that . the bait was pretty much trashed (ive used it numerous time before this outing) so i threw on a trick stick. nothing. swimming senko. nothing. brush bug. nothing. lizard? nothing. another hour passes and the sun comes out. i started getting dehydrated so i called it a trip. over all , it was not a bad outing. found out the retrieve i need to use on the fluke and im getting much better at casting.

i made the switch as well. picked up a citica 201d. i practiced for maybe 15 minutes for a few weekends and decided to only bring my UL and the BC rig and now im pretty confident in it. i still have a hard time casting into the wind , but other than that im good. if you dont mind used reels , and id suggest getting one used incase you decide its not for you , check out the flea market for some great deals. its where i picked up my citica from and i couldnt be happier. my $.02.

theyre ok rods. most of my previous rods were uglys. i sold one of them with two reels for $20 to a co-worker that wanted something to hold him over till he recovers from his tackle getting stolen. on one of them , the insert (i think thats what its called) fell out of one guide and the tip. now its useless. i still have my 7' MH ugly , and it has held up fine. and i recently bought a 5'UL ugly stick lite. its an OK rod and does its job , but it is very whippy. id suggest the clarus , or the new voltaeus which is supposed to be 'shimanos ugly stick' and is a few bucks more than the uglys. the warranty is a huge plus as well...

ah , i see. :-[ never used tungsten before , but the price looked good...

http://www.lurenet.com/catalog.aspx?CatId=YUMWeights

at the moment , i just have a 10" tool bag with a shoulder strap that i carry my tackle in. - one double sided plano box with a few cranks and tackle for freshwater. - another smaller double sided plano box with tackle for saltwater , which isnt much since i dont go saltwater too often. - a few ziplock bags of plastics but i usually bring one with a couple of everything - cheap-o multi-tool that i use for the needle nose - bug spray - nail clippers (im trying to break the habit of biting the line instead of cutting it) - maybe a spool of line if i think ill need a leader - and i need to pick up one of those small first aid kits for now , i just carry two rods with me. a 5'UL rig and a 6'6M casting rig. islandbass , love the rod caddy. i actually seen that picture before and decided to make my own....but with 2"x6"'s , lol. my job was going to throw out some perfectly good wood , so i took it.

went there earlier and what a let down. everything was only 10-30% off. mainly saltwater tackle. i ended up grabbing a 10 pack of 1/4oz jig heads and some DOA 3" paddletail baits to try my skill at teh jigs and called it a day. meh.

i got the same combo. at the time sports authority had it for $59.xx but i had a $10 off coupon. love the reel , havnt used the rod yet but it seems to be good , especially for the money.

i guess now is the time to learn to use jigs... would they be effective from shore?

well , i tried splitting the belly open with a razor but my cutting skills are not on point today and its not straight...at all. lol. at the moment , the largest size hook i have is a 3/0 ewg and i can t-rig it like that , but it would be better with a 4/0 for the 4" size im using. also , how do people fish this in saltwater?

never had bass , or any freshwater fish , but i do love fish. what size are they best to cook? are peacock bass edible/tasty? - ive always wondered this.

just picked up a bag of these we had on clearance. im just curious to see how everyone fishes these. they dont have a split belly like money minnows or flukes do and ive never fished a jig before.

butterfly peacock bass. they were brought over years ago from brazil and grow up to 25+lbs there. they put up a fight no matter how small they are.

i just picked up a pack last friday. threw it out t-rigged with an unpegged 3/8oz bullet and pulled in a small peacock bass. thats all my input on this subject.

was my first outing with the baitcaster and i did very well , imo. went over to a local community lake on sat. and cast around for a couple hours. i tried a 5" swimming senko that i picked up from BPS (you guys wernt lying about these things being so soft) t-rigged with a unpegged 3/8oz bullet weight. no luck. so i took out a super fluke in green with char. tail on the same 3/0 ewg hook , t-rigged with the 3/8oz weight and managed to pull out this beast.... not much at all , but it was my first BC fish. went out again yesterday to the same spot and left with nothing. my fiance wanted to see how she does casting. so sure enough , she threw out two perfect casts with no backlash whatsoever. she probably made em out 10-15ft, but after all my practicing in the backyard , she put me out there.

my first 'real' reel purchase was a flooger president 6725 for my UL. ALOT of people talk about their smoothness and over all good construction. they were right. i saw sports authority had a 6740 w/ 7' M action rod combo for $50. i snagged that one. wanted to get into casting. again , alot of people suggested the shimano citica because its cheap , built good and has a decent resale value. no brand loyalty here. my next reel will probably be a abu cardinal 501/2 just to check it out. i will not go out and buy a reel ive never heard of just because it looks cool. i will go home and look up on what other people have to say about it and if everything checks out , ill snag it up.

good article. ive always been guilty of not cutting or pushing down the barb on the hook and have had a few hooks get down in there to where i couldnt get the hook out. i just cut the line , sent em' on their way and hope for the best. this throws me off - so worst case , you would cut what you can of the hook and push the rest of it back into the fish? they can pass that through their system? and another thing , what about fish with smaller mouths? last time i went out to the local marina , i took the UL out , and was bringing in small snapper. the last two i landed , they just had the eye of the hook hanging out of their mouth and i could not get it out for the life of me. one of them didnt make it. i called it a day after that. :-/ and crestliner , ive heard that same thing before but with mountain dew. never had a can/bottle on hand when i have a bleeding fish though.

ive always used spinning reels. recently bought a citica 201d becuase the thought of switching hands after every cast seemed to be a PITA more than anything. im still very new to the whole BC scene , but it feels much more natural than a right hand retrieve.

im about 5'7. latly ive been using my 5'6" UL rig becuase it is easier to bring with me and it weighs next to nothing. also , the areas i fish have alot of brush/trees , so it is easier to cast with a shorter rod. i do own a 7' M spinning rog that i like and i can cast much further, but when it comes down to it , i grab the 6' or 6'6" rods first. so for me , 5'6 to 6'6 rods is where its at.