thehooligan

TW got the leftys in the other day and i couldnt help myself. Picked up a 151 HG model. Pretty sweet reel. Cant wait to get a nice cf handle for it. Already put bocas in it, spooled up some 12lb mono and ill get out there after work today to test her out. Only had it out in the back yard for 10 minutes in the dark last night and its real smooth. Makes me wonder if i should of just got the metanium. I was worried about warranty/service from shimano so i went with the chronarch instead. Tackle Trap is selling metaniums now so im curious if shimano will service them ? Anyway, i was shocked with how much grease was on the spool bearings, lol. I gotta find a nice 80-85mm swept cf handle, get some zpi aluminum knobs, and spool it up with some braid and call it a day.

If anything, i wish baitcasters came with extra spools, lol. The occasional birdsnest on a windy day sucks, and an extra spool would be great...

I had a 500 sedona that was a great reel. Also have a 40 size president thats also a great reel as well. Cant go wrong with either one. Im a shimano guy, but at this price point id go with the president.

Right now is ideal for lipless cranks, topwater, and the flickshake

Right now im completely shimano for reels, and thats what i prefer. But im always considering throwing in another daiwa or even a megabass reel. When it comes to rods, my collection is 90% shimano, with one fenwick and i just recently picked up a dobyns extreme. In the past ive tried dobyns, st croix, phenix, Abu, kistler, and powell. For now im sticking with Shimano, Dobyns, and i hope to try out a megabass rod in the future... If it came down to it though, i would be more then happy to be 100% Shimano for rods & reels.

Yea, go with the fa model.

With $200 to spend id pick up a shimano compre rod, and a stradic fj.

Went to chase some trout on sunday, missed one on an inline spinner, ended up with two small bass. Brought out my 6'5 cumulus with ci41000+, and 6'3 fenwick Smallie rod with sustain 1000fg. Picked up my first dobyns champion extreme yesterday, got the 702, pretty excited to compare this with my 6'10 cumulus. Then i checked TW and noticed they got the chronarch ci4 lefties in, so i had to pick one of those up as well, lol. Got the 151 7:6 gear ratio. I think the chronarch will be perfect for that 702 extreme.

Luckycraft Sammy 85, Joe Thomas ms aurora shad. Absolute favorite topwater bait. Close second would be a megabass popx in ggbass color. Third would be a Stanley ribbit or black cavitron.

I buy most of my stuff from TW. Ill buy rod/reels and tackle occasionally on the forums and ebay. Locally i have one tackle shop and dicks.

12lb mono is fine. My preference would be 20-30lb braid, add a flouro leader for clear water...

My 6'10 cumulus/core 51 spooled with 20lb braid.

Anybody going to give the new helios air a shot ? Im in the market as well for another baitcaster and pretty sure okuma is the only company i havent tried yet, lol

I throw baby bass, perch, chrome and gold. Fire tiger if water is murky.

Just NJ this year. Probably will pick up pa and de next year....

I use a jansport labtop bag. The labtop slot holds one large plano box perfectly. Front top pocket holds extra line, weights, and hooks. Side pockets hold license, scale, pliers, boca grip, tape measure, thermometer. and nail clippers. The big pocket hold bags of plastics and any extra smaller plano boxes i want to bring. Very comfortable bag with the wide shoulder straps. Love this bag, was $100 at office depot, my bro worked there for a short time and got it on sale and used his discount and got it for $9

Ive been throwing shakeyheads on a 6'8 medium cumara spinning rod. Ive also thrown them on a 6'10 cumulus, 6'8 cumara medium, and x-fast casting rods. I throw 1/16oz on spinning, 1/8oz and heavier on casting rods.

I started a few years back with st croix triumph rods, at the time i thought they were pretty nice. I slowly worked my way up from mojos, to veritas, fenwick elite tech smallmouth rods, powell maxs, dobyns champions, coalitions, cumaras, and finally cumulus rods. Ive also handled glx/nrx rods. The cumara/cumulus was the sweet spot for me. Aboslutely love the blank, guides, and especially the reel seat/eva grips.

Yes it will fit.

Another vote for cumara. I like dropshot rods, but i prefer just a medium action rod with a soft enough tip to cover a few techniques. I use the 6'8 medium action cumara and it works great for dropshot, shakeyhead, and flickshake/wacky rigged senkos....

Nice bass !!

Like swamp said, start with the weather patterns. Also time of the day your fishing and water depths. If its morning or evening im throwing topwater. If its cloudy ill also be throwing topwater. If its sunny ill start topwater just to see if theres any takers. If not, i switch to jerkbaits or cranks. No takers then i go to plastics. Shallow water im throwing a wacky rigged senko. Deep water im throwing a flickshake or shakeyhead.

Dont remember the model, but i was playing with a lews spinning reel at the tackle shop and it felt very cheap and not smooth at all. Im a spinning guy and ive done my homework. Ive checked out almost every brand reel and heres how my list goes. Shimano is by far the best. I would have a stella, but there way to expensive and the stradic fj - sustain fg are awesome. If you have a higher budget definitely get a sustain fg or ci4+. Amazingly light and smooth. On a tighter budget, go stradic fj. A little heavier but the smoothest reel ive ever used. Daiwa fuegos are nice, if you can find one for $150 - 175 on ebay its a solid buy. Very light, well built. Really like the bail on these reels. Pflueger. Awesome reels for the money. I got a used president on here for $20 bucks which i use for carp and catfishing. Ive played with the supreme, supreme xt, and patriarch. If i wasnt such a shimano nut id probally have an xt and patriarch in my lineup... Also love the bail on these reels as well. Hope that helps you a bit...

Nice fish and that sandwich looks delicious

I agree completely. I pre-ordered this reel then canceled after i realized how long the wait is on the lefties. My local tackle shop got some right handers in and got to play with it a bit. As a core owner, i also agree that the build quality is better. I thought the new chronarch felt pretty cheap. But msrp is another $100 more on the core so its understandable. I ended up picking up another chronarch 51e, i just love the 50e series reels.