jason41987

no idea, still playing around with the concept.. just started toying with it as for finesse, i love my baitcaster.. lures are thrown out more accurately, i can stop the spool and immediately stop the lure in the air allowing it to fall exactly where i want it to (i was pinpointed small open patches right between the weeds and lily pads).. so i say that was more "finesse" than anything i was ever able to do on a spinning reel late last season i tried going back to spinning and hated it.. i hate the way they cast, i hate having to flip the bail open, hated the balance, and didnt miss getting my knuckles hit now, as you want to cast the weightless stuff, you could probably weight your line like im trying out.. but if not its not like you really need all that much distance im guessing, and i doubt youre catching any monsters on nearly weightless lures so i would personally just get a good spincast reel.. i know most people just think of them as cheap starter reels but if im not mistaken wasnt the spincast actually invented to give users of baitcasting reels the option of casting lighter, weightless lures on their current collection of casting rods?

seriously.. i just learned i could weight my line with inline sinkers and bring up the casting weight of lighter lures to something that is actually castable with my baitcaster.. im never going back to a spinning reel again and if i need to cast anything really light without a weighted line i think id rather just get a decent quality spincast for that minor role

my abu garcia ambassadeur 5600C4 is my all purpose reel, add some inline weights onto the leaders and smaller stuff can be casted.. i use a medium heavy rod now but to be honest i would drop it down a power or to as 99% of what i catch doesnt require a medium heavy

i practically buy five of diamond spoons at walmart in bulk because i keep losing the d**n things.. sometimes to snags, once to a freak incident where my reel backlashed, then tightened down on itself and actually sliced my line.. sending my spoon flying, and once the metal of a swivel actually broke... i catch tons of pike with them but i just keep losing them

ive had problem going from mono to braid as well, also had problem going to heavier braid.. my reel seems to work better with 12lb mono, or the equivalent diameter braid (50lb test braid).. dunno, seems like i have more or less issues depending on the diameter of the fishing line?

ill add my $0.02.. last year i made the jump from spinning reels to baitcasters, i casted right, reeled left with the spinning reels.. on the casting reels i went with a right hand retrieve.. what i found is that i actually prefer the right hand retrieve.. why?.. well i dont want the hand i hold the reel with to be so far down on the grip, i like to have a better balance, with a spinning reel your hand is right over the reel, so its balanced that way.. but on a casting reel its not, not when you cast, so ive found i prefer to grab the reel with my left hand if i had a left side retrieve reel, id have to cast right, then grab it with the left hand while i grab it again with the right hand around the reel to change the grip.. by having a right hand retrieve it goes from taking two actions to one, and it also allows me to quickly slide my left hand off the reel and onto the fore grip in front of the casting reel for added leverage when fighting a big fish so for me, the better feel and better balance was more important to me than which hand i reeled in with also, i use an abu garcia ambassadeur 5600C4 which is a round baitcaster, not even designed to fit in the palm as well as the low profile baitcasters and i still find it much more comfortable to hold it in the same fashion.. that said i cant even bring myself to go back to spinning rods and reels because i prefer the setup i have now far too much

well, my OP and title also says im looking for lure suggestions.. though marabous and small jig heads with white curly tail grubs seem to be what most people use some more information about my current setup.. my rod is 6'6 medium heavy, but more information is its a fast action and rated for weights of 1/4oz to 1oz also the environment in which i fish is mostly from the shoreline of a variety of lakes, so vertical lures and jigs wouldnt really work.. ive never actually used this 5'6 light action rod yet, it was given to me by someone but my rod/reel setup ive found works best with 3/8 to 1/2oz weights.. may just put a 1/4 oz or 3/8oz weight on it as thats also what seems to work best for this lake.. doesnt sink too slow or too fast and seems to stay fairly well suspended at average retrieve speeds keeping the lure under water yet out of the sand and let me make this admission.. prior to last year, ive only bait fished.. thats how i was taught when i grew up, i made the decision to get some good gear and get into lure fishing last year.. i seem to hit quite a groove with bass and pike where i can seemingly target and catch whichever one i want.. but im looking to expand, looking to expand my abilities into catchnig more panfish and more trout and ill check out the link in the PM

actually.. i have no particular lures in mind.. ive tried some lures, mostly inline spinners in a fruitless effort to try to catch some crappie, ive never caught crappie so thats why im determined to catch some now.. so im not even sure what the best lures i should be looking into using for them... when i know what my options are as to lures then i can decide on a rod/reel, but it seems i could EASILY put a series of lead shot weights into the leader above a lighter lure and cast it just fine with my ambassadeur the way i have my setup now is i have a swivel on my main line.. on this i tie monofilament leaders, on these leaders i have lures pre-set on it, like the texas rigged worms i seem to catch tons of bass on.. so im thinking i will make up a leader, put on a series of lead-shot weights up the line, and put a swivel or something on the end.. weight the line so i can attach lures of a certain weight to bring it up to 1/4oz to 3/8oz.. this should allow me to use the ambassadeur reel i already have.. i would just need to put it on a lighter rod so i can actually feel the fish when they bite.. as i said earlier, i do have a 5'6'' single handed casting rod i could swap my ambassadeur to for crappie i think though that if i am going to go for a dedicated panfish setup i will probably skip the mini baitcasters like the mr crappie, and probably just go with a cheap spincast, as you guys have said theres no need to go high end for crappie i also have a medium-light 6' rod with a spinning reel, however.. using baitcasters for so long ive come to really prefer the balance of them and now find spinning setups to feel rather akward to me ___ so my question now is as below best lures for crappie?.. i like to keep it simple, nothing too fancy as i use simple soft lures for bass, spoons for pike, whats a good, simple, reliable type of lure for crappie? what weights tend to work best for the lures suggested in the first question? would my ambassadeur reel on a lighter rod with a weighted line be sufficient for casting the lures? and if i do get a dedicated panfish setup.. its either one of those small crappie specific little round baitcasters or a spincast as im not looking to spend more than $25 on a reel and already have a suitable light action rod i can use

but you see, my idea is to add some weight to the line so youre casting more than just the 1/16 oz lure

do people often add floats to panfish lures to increase the casting weight? and i have a spare 5'6 pistol grip light action casting rod.. i wonder if i put my 5600C4 onto that, added one of the heavier foam floats if id be able to get a good cast with a small marabou jig or inline spinner for crappie?

which sort of lures do you catch the trout and bass with? my most used bass lure is a texas rigged tube worm, my most used pike lures are spoons and spinnerbaits.. but it seems like my general purpose ambassadeur with a 6'6 MH rod would be good for the trout, it works great for the bass, i just need to find something for the crappie and panfish then.. i have some inline spinners and some small marabou jigs, i just need to find lighter gear to cast them with.. or add weight by means of a large float i wonder if i could get a rather large float, add a couple large sinkers onto the float, so the float still floats, but allows me to get a lot more casting weight to send those small lures flying on my larger gear... problem is would i even notice a crappie bite on a medium heavy rod?

well, what type of lures and what styles and weights of lures are we talking for say.. crappie, perch, brown trout, and lake trout?.. now if im not mistaken some of these trout get to be pretty d**n big and my medium-heavy rod would be necessary, but what size lures do brown and lake trout usually go for?.. and what do crappie generally prefer?.. if i knew the size of lures i needed it would help to understand what kind of gear i would need

what about reels like this? http://www.basspro.com/Uncle-Buck&39;s-Deluxe-Round-Crappie-Reel/product/16504/

you mean like those tiny crappie baitcasters. are these any good? do they work?.. i've thought about getting one of these or perhaps a spincast if not every spincast ive ever used turned out to be junk.. thought it would be useful to be able to use the casting rods i already have.. but then i think this rod/reel setup will likely never go on any of my other rods as all my rods are too big for that gear... so in an absolute worst case scenario i could get a spinning setup just for that.. but id prefer not to

im trying to look for some options for smaller fish species, panfish, trout, etc.. my abu garcia ambassadeur will not cast lures.. when i try, i get about 2 feet.. so.. this round baitcasting reel i have just wont cut it.. however, i dont want to go back to spinning reels, after going for baitcasters i found ive been spoiled, i love the way they balance and feel, and cast.. and its nice to not have a bail smacking the knuckles on my large hand my current setup is an abu garcia ambassafeur 5600C4 with a 6'6 medium heavy rod, this setup i usually catch northern pike and bass with so what sort of lures work best on small trout species and crappie, and what sort of rod/reel setup would work for it?.. i wouldnt mind getting something smaller, more travel/backpack size if at all possible, i dont think i need much bigger for smaller fish

so is the offset handle something worth keeping or are modern products better? the rod i use with the ambassadeur i purchased new is a 6'6 medium heavy with a straight handle looking at the end of the rod that pops out.. i could easily get a new rod blank and build some custom rods to fit the seat

at an auction.. for about $5 i bought a used rod and reel.. i can get photos later but im trying to seek more information about them.. i mainly bought it because it is an abu garcia reel which is what i prefer to fish with now (i use the ambassadeurs).. anyway, the reel is a abu garcia ambassadeur 6600C.. it has a red spool release button and a sliding bait clicker on the left side.. has a sticker or something that says "high speed".. so i was wondering how old this reel likely is, when it was made, how much it cost when it was made (would love to know how much that price is in todays value of the dollar).. and whether or not i should restore this reel, it could use new bearings, new grease, oil, and there are some scuff marks on the side plate.. ive considered smoothing it out and re-annodizing or electroplating the rod it came with is a st croix brand, but the rod is something i havent used before.. its a baitcasting rod, however the reel seat is offset to bring the line guide of the reel more in line with the guide on the rod and the rod blank itself actually fits into a socket on the front of the reel seat and a collar threads down on top of it to lock it in place.. i actually like the reel seat, its interesting, though the overall length of the grip isnt very long and i prefer a longer two-handed grip.. why arent newer reel seats offset like this?.. i mean, id imagine the junction between the seat and rod would create a potential weak point that wouldnt be too unlikely to fail so i see the merits of modern reel seats

closest hardware store is an hour away.. so ill be ordering online

well i had the real apart.. to get a better look at the gears and theyre in really good shape, it was old grimy grease that made it look bad.. i cleaned it up and re-greased it with some real grease i purchased.. cleaned out the levelwind system completely, oiled that up with some reel oil.. now it works perfectly however.. upon doing so, i had to remove an e-clip from the pin the main gear spins on.. and i noticed how small and potentially easily this clip could be lost, so id like to buy a few spares and i was wondering what size e-clip that actually is?

well, i tried my best to get it out without dunking it first... so i would have to take that apart anyway to fully clean it.. figured id re grease and re oil the reel after cleaning it once its apart

nah, the gritty feel was there before dunking it

i actually havent been backlashing anymore now that i changed my line.. 20lb mono had way too much line memory and 20lb braided was way too thin... the 12lb mono im using now i havent had a backlash yet... question im wondering is if those little crappie baitcasters can throw a 1/16oz lure?.. but, for lures that small id only be catching small fish too and id probably rather get a decent spincast reel.. that should handle crappies and trouts just fine, allow me to use the same rods, etc.. but i still want to upgrade the ambassadeur to get better performance out of it so yeah.. no more backlashes due to that alone

i wasnt done fishing yet, so i wasnt going to drive 20 minutes to go home and clean it and come back..besides, oil doesnt wash away so easily

this brings up another question.. should i use to lube the gears? should i use a thick grease of some sort like my reel was shipped with, or do i use an oil?

cant tear down the reel without a screwdriver and i dont exactly bring a tool box with me when i go fishing.. so that suggestion is kind of pointless