Bill16

I think the issue might be due to being slightly over greased, and if so a cleaning might just solve it. Or I guess it's possible it might have a weak return spring, but I doubt it since it's so new.

Cool! They look really good.

I never owned a lews but it sounds a little like the spool hadn't completely ingaged. The shaking it and wiggling the handle to stop the issue, really sounds like the spool release button is sticking a little, but not enough to keep it from ingaging at least mostly. Maybe someone else will be able to help more than I can.

Hey thanks, I appreciate the welcome! I'm glad to be here!

Hey everybody, my name is Bill and I've been fishing on an off for about 39 years. I just moved to North Carolina a year and a half ago. I'm here mostly to learn from you more experienced members. I taught myself how to cast bait casters through trial and error during a ruff part of my life about six or seven years ago, when all I had was a small creek to practice casting in. Now I live close to a lake here in Stanley county and I'll soon be able to start putting all that practice to good use. I bought some pretty good reels and rods and even added to them lately. I even got lucky and bought a small reasonably priced boat for my first boat. Now I'll have to start learning about the various baits and how to use them. Thanks to the flea market here I was able to purchace a few Swim baits and some shallow water crank baits. I hope to learn alot from all of you, and am very glad to be a member here.

I'll admit I'm not as experienced as a lot of members here, and spent most of my life fishing for whatever was biting in the local ponds where I use to live. So my baitcaster reels haven't been put through the true test of a monster bass. But here are the reels I own and like the best. Chronarch older gold color version Calais series A brand new Pflueger trion Calcutta TE 401 Calcutta TE 201 DC brand new I haven't yet found the spinning reel, that I can afford, that I could say I loved. Lol

I just checked, and you can get the stradic suited for 8-10 pound test if you need it. I hope that helps.

I'm not an expert, but the pflueger patriarch is the one I'll be buying and it's in the $200.00 range you mentioned. The review I read about it seemed very impressive for such a reasonable price. Before choosing this reel for myself, I looked through several brands including Shimano since I'm a big Shimano fan. I hope this helps.