thehooligan

Best reel in that price range is the stradic fj. A little heavy but its a workhorse. The ci4 and ci4+ are also amazing reels. I've witnessed my buddy who's very hard on his gear completely try to destroy his ci4 3000 and he can't kill it. It regularly gets dunked in the water dropped in the sand and mud, and the reel is still super smooth. I'd recommend any of those 3 reels, you want light weight go with one of the ci4's, you want super smooth and bulletproof, get the FJ.

I've always used fishing and riding motorcycles as my stress relievers. I got canned recently for taking off a week from a bad case of the flu. Got better, got out fishing a few times while I have some downtime, and landed a better job. Usually it all works out...

Last few years all my rods had 10-30lb braid, flouroclear leaders for the finesse spinning rod and thats it. This year ive spooled up both my crankin reels, one with 12lb sufix seige, and the other with 10lb flouroclear. Ive liked it so much that ill never buy another flouro product again. I dont know if its just me and darren, but braid with flouroclear leaders fishes amazing.

Cavitron

Knobs look great booty.

I love my first gen cumaras and cumulus rods. Awesome rods for the money. I did buy a second gen cumara spinning rod, loved the blank, just wasnt crazy about the micro guides.

10lb braid with 6lb flouro leader is my go to finesse line setup.

sweet combo !!

Im constantly trying to keep my gear down to 5-6 combos but i keep selling reels, then finding deals on rods, its madness right now, lol.

Haha, same here...

I agree completely with this. I think the lip of the shimano rotor really helps the line management and casting distance. My experience with daiwas is the fuego. I had 2 fuego 1000s, and its a great reel. My favorite thing about it is the bail/bail spring. Same with pflueger, i think they do there bail and strong bail spring right. Thats my only qualm with shimano, seems like there bail springs wear out. But, ive had every shimano from the sedona to the stella and i love the reels so much id never go to another brand. For the money, i dont think you can beat the original ci4, ci4+, or stradic fj. As darren said, im also a braid only user with flouro leaders so ive never had line management problems.

Gonna agree with this. Go with the okuma rod, look the forums over for used calcuttas, if you cant find one the cardiff 300/301 will suit your needs. Use the rest of your cash and buy a spool of pline cxx line....

Get your hands on an fj, you'll sell that fh in a heartbeat...

Ive owned and used all the shimano spinning reels from the sedona to the stella. My favorites have been the the two you listed. When it comes down to performance in general the FJ is so smooth and strong. I really like the ci4+ for the light weight though. I ended up selling everything and just keeping my 1000 ci4+ for my one finesse setup. Im pretty sure im going to pickup another fj 1000 for a backup reel and also something for a buddy to use...

I think its called Reeds, i got mine for $95 if i remember correctly.

Depends the weight of the topwater baits your throwing, for my regular topwater baits i rotate a 6'10 mh fast cumulus, and 6'5 m fast cumulus. Im typically throwing 1/4oz poppers, 3/8-1/2oz buzzbaits, and 1/2oz sammy's. If im stepping up to the 3/4-1oz range ill use my 7 ft mh crucial crankbait rod.

Good choices here, id also recommend fenwick smallie rods, crucial rep sample rods at the tackle trap right now. Buy 4 of any these rods and you should have enough left to pick up a daiwa ballistic on sale at TW for $110 !!

Ive barely got out fishing this year, between work, i had the flu, etc. Hoping to get out this weekend and start chasing some bass. Im dedicating this year to swimbaits so it should be interesting....

Its sammy time in a few weeks for me

Remember to tighten your drag down before you rinse the reel.

Exactly what Darren said.

Ive used all three, cant really go wrong with any of them. Id probally lean more towards the endurance or avid.

Another vote for the 51e

Ebay

That was my first dobyns rod I ever bought, nice one too.