Darren.

I'll second the Sedona, and personally, I've no problems shopping on ebay, providing the listers have at least a 99.7% rating... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=shimano+sedona&_sacat=0&_from=R40 That said, Pflueger makes a fine, well-respected reel. Daiwa as well. If you upped your limit, I'd say jump on a Lexa 2000SH. I love mine. Extremely smooth. I really like mine, even compared to my two Shimano Stradics. Great reels.

Absolutely love my 50e, bought it this summer. Use it for almost everything I use spinning for, except skipping under docks, trees, etc. So that means, for me, plastics all the way down to weightless 4" Zoom Finesse worms, TX rigs, split shotting, etc. I have 20 lb yellow Power Pro spooled on it and attach various leaders from 10-15lb test. Although I should note that I've been practicing skipping with it on a 6' MF rod. Sometimes it works great, other times, nests - but I've never had to cut one out yet.

Welcome aboard, Phil!

Agree with Jeff 100%! Don't let it get you down. I've lost two in the past few weeks that could have been beasts, I'll never know, but I can tell you they pulled like recent 6 pounders I've caught. Both broke my line after a good struggle, drag was set correctly, I played them right, no snags, no objects in the way, they just won those battles just before breaking the surface. Sad, but now the hunt is on!

Welcome aboard, Joe!

Well done, Zach!

Jay, you've asked a highly polarizing question! You'll get a lot of opinions, but to find what fits you and your style, you may have to drop a few bucks on several spools of different lines to try them out. With that in mind, I'd suggest you do just that! Here's my suggestion(s): 1) Braid: Power Pro in 10, 15, 20 pound tests (I use 10 on spinning, 20 on baitcasting) 2) Leader material: (I always use braid for mainline and tie on a leader)... --- Fluorocarbon: I like XPS FC, but others feel Seaguar, others are better. I'm not an expert by any means here. --- Copolymer: Personally, P-Line Floroclear is my favorite, Yo Zuri Hybrid comes in second. I prefer Mist Green color for P-Line... Both of these lines work well, for me, PLFC has worked the best. Both are very strong, some hate P-Line, some hate YZH. I like both, use both. --- Mono: don't use it anymore, but when I did it was Trilene XL, and I'd also try the Sufix varieties. Anyhow, point being, if braid was your mainline, you could swap out leaders to your heart's content. A spool of line, then, will last you a looong time. 2 cents.

Well done, and congrats on a new PB!

Agree with you on the leader knot. I never worry about my leader knot anymore -- unless I tied it in a hurry (rare) and didn't give it a pull test first (a MUST!). If I break off, 99.7% of the time it is somewhere in the leader. LOL, I can't really put a percentage on it, suffice it to say, if it breaks at the knot, it is extremely rare.

Welcome aboard!

Leader length can vary on what you want. Gary Yamamoto uses 15 or 20 foot lengths. I use 1, 2, or 3 arm length stretches (line from hand to hand, arms stretched out), 2 and 3 if I know I'm going to be retying often. Sometimes I'll go all the way down to 12" of a leader, but I usually retie at maybe 18-24" or when I feel kinks and such in the line. Another way to tie a leader length is tie the line-to-leader knot first, then reel it in but leave the knot about 1" in front of the top guide (in other words, don't reel it past the first guide). Next, cut the length down to about where your hook keeper is - or a few inches past because you'll be tying on a hook here. Now your leader won't come through your guides and get "bent" when storing the rod, hook in hook keeper. And that's another reason to use a leader. Braid is phenomenal as a mainline, but expensive to replace if you go through it rather quickly (constantly tying new lures on, etc.) With a leader, you only cut a short section of braid when you need to retie a new leader. Otherwise, you're only cutting your leader... The albright, modified albright/alberto are some of the best. Uni-to-uni is solid, and pretty easy to tie as well, although the Albright is stronger in my experience.

Welcome aboard, John!

Sweet catch!

Excellent! And congrats to your fisher-wife!

Allow me to say: I'm simply impressed you know how many fish you caught on the rod!! I have no clue with mine, LOL.

Welcome aboard!

Congrats on a new PB!

Always feed thru and spool that way. But I know places like BPS will take the spool out and mount it on a machine - at least they do with spinning gear.

I'd help out if I were in my yak and they were shorebound. Sure. What those guys did, as flechero said, will come back to them someway, somehow. And you were smart for controlling yourself and walking away. Never know what kind of crazies are out there, even on the water. I've met them, too, and they're downright rude, mean. I confronted some once, but fortunately nothing escalated, and I caught a 3lb bass right in front of them. So justice was served

Welcome aboard, Branden!

My wife recently shot and killed one. I really liked that monkey.

I've hooked so many sunnies through the eye socket. Probably has something to do with the way they attack the bait then dart away. You did the right thing by gently removing the hook (as best you could). I can't remember ever having one lose an eye as I remove the hook; usually they're hooked in the socket, not the eye specifically. But that's not gonna be the case every time. But anyhow, water birds, bigger bass, toothy fish (pickerel, pike, etc.), turtles, catfish, will all be potential eaters. Nothing goes to waste.

Do you have otters in your neck of the woods? We've got river otters here in our reservoirs. Scared the daylights out of me one day when it surfaced and splashed, showed it's big 'ol head only 15 feet from my kayak. I immediately grabbed my iPhone, called the reservoir folks and confirmed they did have otters around.

Much better! Nice size bass there off the bottom left of the gator.

Do you have a bigger pic, Lou? I can barely make it out...