LgMouthGambler

Yeah, I went to that route. I sold 5 reels and bought a Chronarch 200E to go with my other Shimano reels. Next is the Chronarch 50E to complete the Shimano E lineup. That will be a total of 5 Shimano reels and rods to complete my arsenol. Stick with quality!

And where is this Gander?

20# YoZuri for jigs in open cover. 65# Spiderwire for heavy cover.

I shore fish, and dont have a small selection. Go look for the Spiderwire backpack. You wouldnt believe how much stuff I have in this thing from a folding net, to bags and bags of soft plastics, crank baits, top waters, spinners, scale, scissors, pliers, sunblock, handwipes, hooks, sinkers, reel cleaning kit, line conditioner, should I keep going? The point is, I dont run out of bait.

Carbonlite is garbage. Better off with the ProQual if going the BPS route. I would recommend Shimano, unless you find a good Curado or Citica E, its not worth it, Chronarch is out of your budget.

Go into heavy grass cover with a jig. Also, deep grass.

Abu Veritas rods are awesome!

The trailer helps to give some life and action to the jig. Its a very important piece of the puzzle.

One day, Firefighter Tourney.

Lake Toho is the spot on July 11, any suggestions?

Steelslinger: that would suck! Capt Bob: I agree that Shimano is dropping the ball on what they should be, I stated that in the OP.

BPS Extra Wide Gap Magna

Ultra Vibe Speed worms are what I use. T-Rig them with a 3/0 EWG, and use a 1/32 oz bullet weight, and 12# YoZuri. Just keep the rod tip high enough so the tail flaps out of the water, and watch the fish come and get it.

My only sources are BPS, Dicks, TW, or Wallyworld if Im already there and need something to save the drive to BPS or Dicks.

For spinning its got to be Ultrasoft.

Cool. I seen those yesterday when I was roaming around Dicks. Let us know how it is after using it for a while. They look pretty good for the $.

Check the brakes, only have 2 or 3 engaged at a time. Check the spool tension knob setting. As well as the above mentioned, a good flush of the spool bearings is always a good first mod.

Its a good thing we have Snakeheads down here.

Thats d**n funny right there! You scared the crap out of it! I wonder if its the same as the say about birds? Good luck? Haha

Wow, I guess its a touchy subject? Oops, lol.

This is in no way a full review. If you read it properly you would know that it is simply things I had noticed about it in detail. Just my personal opinion on what I noticed, and how this debate will go on in years to come. I would not buy this to give it a proper reveiw based on just what I noticed in store.

I dont use them that much, but they do produce fish. Cant wait to get my Chronarch 50E to put 30# braid on it to use as a spinner bait rig.

I had a Curado CU200B that I just recently sold to a member here. Was $120 new about 17 years ago, and still performed great till the day I sold it.

OK, so the whole Shimano vs. Lews thing is going to go on for years Im sure. Today while I was in the area of the Dicks in West Palm Beach on Southern Blvd, I decided to stop in and check it out. Really cool store, 2 stories, better than the one that is in Plantation. As I was strolling around and looking at what they had in stock, I noticed they had an assortment of Lews reels. So I was trying to figure out what about these reels everyone is going nuts over. Specifically I was looking at the Tourney Pro Speed Spool. Im sorry, I just dont see it. Im sure most of you are going to respond that "you cant just look at it, and play with it in the store". Honestly, I can tell alot about a reel just by tinkering with it on the display. Here are my opinions. As I took off the sideplate and looked at the magnetic braking system, and the centrifigal brakes. I just dont see a need for both, and all I kept thinking was "its a Pro Qualifier", especially the way the sideplate comes off. As I further examined the reel, I took out the spool. So there is an extra bearing that is mounted on the spool shaft, for what? Why would you need more than 2? All this means is extra friction to slow the spool down. I put the reel back together for further examine it. The way that this reel is painted just looks cheap, flat black? Lets get back to this whole bearing thing again, just because I noticed the "11 Bearing System" thing on the handle cone. Are they just trying to get in this whole bearing war that everyone seems to be paying too much attention to? Lets just say that you don't need a bunch of bearings to cast a lure to make a reel smooth and functional. As I thought to myself, there are 3 on the spool, maybe 2 in each knob (which I will get to later), one AR for the handle shaft, maybe 2 for the worm gear and 1 other that maybe behind the handle shaft gear. Really? do you need all those bearings? I gonna go with no, and they went for the "bearing war" with the BPS Johnny Morris reels, and Abu Garcia. My 50E has 7 stock, and with my custom handle I have an extra bearing in each knob, so it now has 9. As for the knobs, why are they plastic? They feel like the plastic knobs that are on Shimanos $80 reels. The handle itself looks like it should be carbon fiber, but it looks like its a piece of plastic that was designed to look like carbon fiber. My 50E, real carbon fiber handle, which by the way is the greatest thing since sliced bread, thanks Mike for this product. Even the stock one looks better, if you want to compare stock vs stock too. Clicking spool tension knob was cool, but I dont need a "click" to know how to adjust this, and if its for helping it from moving, Ive never had that problem. The drag star is the same as the one thats on my cheap BPS ProLight, it doesnt even look like they tried to make it different and stylish. Thumb bar, generic looking, similar to the SX one. So with this reels cheap looking exterior, common designed features of other reels out there, and its attempt to make it a "bearing king", it didnt win me over for looks, thats for sure. Many of you were talking about how light this reel is, and how low it sits. Again, for me, it wasnt all that comfortable to hold. It is small and while reeling it, very smooth, but it just doesnt sit in my hands the way my 50E does. I know the 50E is a smaller reel compared to the Lews TPSS, the argument of the line capacity doesnt pursuade me. I dont need more than 80yds of 12# line on my reel at a time, and even for my need of heavier line and more capacity, my Curado 200E and Chronarch 200E still feel better, regardless of the minute weight difference. Does it cast good? Well, Im not going to pay $200 for this reel to find out, but how much different could it be? If anything, I would think the extra spool bearing, combined with more braking assist than you need, it would not cast longer, but I could be wrong. Then again, sometimes its the person using the reel that can make the difference, especially if they are used to a certain kind of braking system. My SX, gone because the mag brakes were not par. My BPS Pro Qualifier (which I believe is almost the same as the Lews), gone due to too much braking stuff than I need. Dont get me wrong, they were great reels, but just lacked that "something". Here is what I will say about the Shimano vs Lews war. Shimano has dropped the ball with the G series reels. I will give the Lews the upper hand for being better than the new CuradoG, but that ChronarchE is still there to hold Shimano to its roots. I would rather pay the $200 for the Chronarch than $200 for the Lews. Yes I do agree that the Chronarch is just about the same thing as the CuradoE with minor upgrades. You can still pick up a new in box CuradoE, and do a hell of a bearing and drag upgrade, and still be at or below $200. Im not crazy about the white Chronarch, but the Lews isnt pretty either. Satisfied with the Lews most may be, but I will keep my Shimano. I still want to see how well the Lews holds up in the next 5-20 years. Im sure people will go back and forth with these companies and reels like Billy Madison and "Shampoo vs Conditioner", but hey, isnt that the fun about this sport? Fish on!

Good for beginners on a low budget, but dont see longevity.