SirSnookalot

Sharks come in all kinds of sizes and shapes, they can be awesome. Sharks are very powerful and some species can go acrobatic, gaining in popularity is lighter tackle or fly rods. Spinner sharks are way cool.

Problem?.............sell it buy want you want.

That reel is fairly average in weight for what is and Battles do get some good marks down here. The reel is fine, the question is what are you going to put it on. If it were me I'd be looking at 8-10' rod, want lighter, get a 7 or 7'6 rod and 4000 reel. I don't recommend except to say check a saltwater board in your area, they would be able to shed better light.

@jitterbugger, I'm willing to bet using a soft fluke on a jig head will produce very well, that's a bait that will catch about anything. The fish seem to be pretty hot up there now, I personally would probably not be using hard baits when I think I could catch as many at a fraction of the price. I use nothing but DOA 5 1/2" jerk shads on a DOA jig head, but I'm a fool spending as $ as I do when I have friends using Zoom flukes and Walmart jig heads and catch just as many. My own personal take would be my preference on using a single hook rather than trebles, don't ever forget a bucktail, nothing catches more fish.

I don't know what a "my pillow" is, but my wife will not sleep without her "binky", which always travels with her, in some areas I gotta say she is whacko.

I use braid with jerkbaits (use braid with everything) because I don't like stretch. Never felt sensitivity was an issue using any kind of lure with exposed an hook or hooks. Maybe fish in certain parts of the country hit a jerkbait and stop dead in their tracks, in Florida they hit it and run, lol. How is possible to not know a strike regardless of the line being used?

Maybe some, but certainly not all predators strike at the eyes. I fish live bait quite a bit, and have caught small fish that a predator goes after, very common here. Fish like kingfish, barracuda, shark and many others cut the fish in half at the middle, then come back and clean up the rest, a good reason why 2-3-4 trailer hooks are used, helps in getting them on the first strike. Predatory fish that inhale bait such as bass, stripers, snook and tarpon to name a few quite often inhale from the head. However so many of these fish are caught on fly, soft jerkbait on a plain leadhead jig, bucktail jigs that are just painted with no eyes, this is a fact, I catch them daily that way. As already stated so many fish are caught after the eyes have been knocked off hard baits. IMO the eyes are put on for the consumer to make the lure look more lifelike, and make it more attractive for sale. Fish other than baitfish also have eye spots on the tail, 2 of the more popular fish are peacocks and redfish, but there others too.

@ Bassn........I caught it at the Weaver canal at Military Trail, that's the canal running east and west just south of Gateway, I was hoping to nail a peacock, I've caught many there before the freeze. As often as I fish these canals, it made my day catching something that I never did before.

Not quite sure what this is, never caught one before. I understand there are sunshine bass in FLA, never seen one.

The only reason I have a second lure in my pocket is in case I lose the first one. If I'm going to pick that one lure to have with me, there is only 1 choice and that's a bucktail jig, extremely versatile and nothing catches a wider variety of fish, and I can fish that jig in a number of different ways. I can catch bluegill, bass, tarpon, snook and about everything else in between with the same one. I do use other lures but that's only for my own change of pace.

I have more than 20 spinning reels with braid. The line on most of my reels is changed often due to what and where I'm catching, but 1 reel in particular has the same 20#PP that was originally spooled on it. My 4000 spheros is maybe 6 years old and the last year or so it's been my snakehead reel, as faded and ratty as this line looks it's still rock solid.

The only eyes that are important are my own.

Forget how much fun these little guys are. Yesterday the 2 of us boated 28 sharks about 36" apiece, I believe black fin reef sharks but I'm not an expert on shark species. After I caught a few I went to an inshore outfit, amazing fighters as they were bending this 25 lb class rod in half, and they weren't big fish. Great fun.

I used 4000 because I have quite few different brands on the same rod brand, line and lure weight, I would think comparing would be the same if I had used smaller reels and lighter rods. I do use the same lures for all of my fishing using those 4000 reels, exception would be if I'm using a rod with a higher lure rating, in my case that's only 1 of my inshore rods. I have 4 inshore rods that are all the same brand, stradic 4000 on 2 of them, 1 soron stx 40 one one and 1 soron stx 20 on the other, my soron 20 casts about the same as the other 3. If others have different results so be it. There is a difference between a saltwater and a freshwater cast, I do both. Freshwater is more of snap cast that results in better accuracy but I think less distance. A saltwater cast is similar to a golf swing, longer backstroke, more flowing with a follow thru, creating a wider arc and IMO more distance with less effort, but not as accurate. One of the longest casting guys out here, longer than me, uses a 30 year old Penn 704 with 20# cheap mono on 6' 30# ugly stick, his lures are appropriate for his rod, amazing ever time I really chuck one way out there, he sails by me.........lol.

I have different brand reels (apx same size) on the same identical rods (same line wt and lure wt) using the same line (power pro) and my distances are all about the same. I can take any one of those 4000 spinning reels and stick it on a 9' rod, the increase in distance is very noticeable.

I do believe different types of lures and baits are needed for different situations, but I don't feel 1 brand over another produces any more fish in a given specific type. I do tend to buy the same lures over and over because I'm comfortable with them, but when I do try a new one I don't see much difference in the catching.

What is budget to you? If it's under a $100 a Pflueger arbor is an ok reel, but I'm not sold on the wide spool aspect. I do have an arbor (in a larger size for saltwater), bought it to replace my Pflueger medalist, I'm going back to the medalist. Why, it's about line management, the medalist works a lot better for me, my attempt to trim 6 oz off the weight of the reel didn't work as well as expected. I did own a wide spool JM 4000 that lasted me a week before returning it to BPS. Personally I would not invest more than $100 for any spinning reel for targeting bass, my focus is on line management first and foremost. I have no concerns about line capacity, corrosion, drag, or even casting distance, the rod probably has more to with distance than the reel, it's just line coming off a fixed spool. As much as I like my supremes and abu's, I won't buy them again, wind knots are the norm and not the exception. I have never ever had a wind knot on any of my Shimanos or Daiwas, that said every one of my Shimanos and Daiwas have needed some kind of repair, my supremes never have. From a construction standpoint Pflueger wins the day for me, from a performance standpoint I like Shimano.

I'm a little cold on ul and small reels, I like the line management on a slightly larger reel, especially given the fact the weights of these reels are getting petty light.

Thought this one was pretty cool.

Best of luck to your sister on her road back to recovery.

Stay strong Backwater4

Considering the short period of time inroads are being made on getting the hard it areas back to normalcy. Power, little by little is being restored, crews and equipment from as far away as California will be assisting with the aid of military planes. I understand the NJ turnpike is open and limited train and subway service in NYC are starting back up. IMO the leadership, federal, state and local are working together, high marks to all that are involved.

Back in the mid 60's I crewed on a 39' sailboat, a few days before the start of the Port Huron to Mac race, myself and another crew member took the boat up from our marina on the Detroit River. A bad storm came rolling in, we dropped the sails, went to power, which isn't much on that boat, tethered ourselves and hung on. Well we made the 60 miles, get into the Black River and the harbormaster says.................are you guys out of your *(&^$%^$ mind!.

I don't think it was over hype at all, better to be overly warned and take precautions than take things too lightly and maybe pay the consequences. We went thru Wilma in 2008, yeh it was bad, no power and all that for quite a few days. Here lies the big difference, Floridians for the most part are prepared forehand, I arrived back in town about 12 hours before Wilma hit, I already had everything. For me it was a matter of being in a single family home, after the storm I could easily get out even though we still had no power. However many in NYC are not pre-prepared, live in high rises and having to walk up and down until power is restored, very difficult for seniors. They are more dependent on mass transit, subways have never encountered the problems they have now.

Before voting on any amendment I read the synopsis and what a yes or no vote really means, usually posted in your local newspaper, wording sometimes can be misleading. Not saying that this is the case with your amendment, but I would read up on it first anyway. We had 9 or 10 amendments on the ballot in Florida, and the wording on some were a bit confusing. I voted 2 weeks ago absentee, 100's of people in line everywhere I drove by for early voting, nice to see a big turn out.