Alpha Male

All of the winch version are too large. do yourself a favor and get the regular version. there is nothing wrong with the orra, the other guy should have sent his in for warranty. failures like that are not common. I have 5 abu reels and love them.

I have a 7' med-heavy fast spinning and a 6'6" med-heavy fast casting avid. I love them both. But like someone else said they fish a little heavier than they feel. I wouldn't throw anything less than a 1/2 bait on either of mine. If you think your mainly going to throw less than that I would consider the medium power. And the hump on the handle is great. Its not really that big but it adds enough that you can tell your grip is better.

I think the Magnus is enough. Its the size I have. I bought the one without the boxes. I'm not a fan of the 2" thick Plano boxes. I have 1 item that is too thick for the thin 1 3/8th rematch boxes and that's a tri-blade buzzbait. I have 2-3731's (3.25"), 2-3750's (2"), and 4-3701 (1.38"). So I still get 8 boxes but the 2 big ones are for plastics. I have 3 side pockets with 3600 boxes and the last one is for sunscreen and bug spray. Not to mention all the little side pockets and the dedicated tool pouch is very handy.

Honestly IF you're going to get a 2-piece rod I would recommend getting something cheaper. I know you want something nice but I would not "middle of the road" this decision. If you want nice then get nice. If you're worried about portability then just get a 30-50$ 2-piece. I have a 20$ ugly stick and still use it to this day.

Yeah I put in 2-3731's for plastics, 2-3750's for larger items, 2-3771's for customizability, and 2-3701's for hooks and other tackle. I have 3 3600 series in the side pockets, one for spinnerbaits, one for weights, and the other for misc. And i have another side pocket for sunscreen and bugspray. not to mention all the little other pockets.

I have a 1-piece ML-fast 6'6" spinning rod for dropshot and walleye jigging. very nice rod quite sensitive.

I prefer the centrifugal brakes. So found that for the price i can find reels that have both for the same price. Centrifugal brakes = beginning of the cast when the spool is accelerating magnetic brakes = middle of cast when the spool is already at full speed and slowly decelerating. not the best explanation but if you want/need more info on a specific companies brake setup you can google it.

Skip the split shot. they make very light bullet weights. and also try a weightless rig, or try a 1/16 weighted hook or less

It depends on what I want it to do. for worms I like 3/16-1/4 for craws I like 1/4-3/8 for frogs it really depends on how fast i want it to fall but usually 1/4. 1/4 is the all around most common/ best choice.

I saw that one. I chose the Cabelas advanced angler magnum tackle bag. they are on sale for 20% off. I bought the magnum without plano trays. I prefer the 1.38" trays for more room. It holds 8 2" trays and 4 3600 in the side pockets. Very good construction.

if it were me I would spend around 70-90 on the reel and 100-120 on the rod. brand is your choice. Abu garcia, daiwa, shimano, quantum, or lews are all great reels. Just look for the best value for the performance you get.

Im partial to the EVA knobs. they feel the bast to me

I have some of the gamma torque braid and I really like it.

I have heard a lot of you guys using different lengths of leaders. has anyone had it hangup on the guides on casts? I just started using braid last year and never used a leader for that reason.

Lets see. 4 baitcasters, 5 spinning reels, 3 spinning rods, 3 baitcasting rods, cabelas tackle bag and the plano trays, 7 tackle orders from tackle warehouse and some from ebay and others.

and....after another visit to tackle warehouse I now have 125!

wow. I have MAYBE 100... and I thought i was gonna be in the middle of the pack

I bought it for 15$ and like the others say its very soft. I havent actually used it yet but Im at least going to try it for a weightless texas rig.

the heavy power says it handles 1-5oz so I would say yes.

KEEP THE REEL!!!!! and treasure it as your favorite reel. just splurge and get a really nice rod to pair it with like a St croix legend tournament, or a dobyns champion. and if she questions your purchase you can just tell her that she got you such a nice reel that you had to pair it with a rod in the same class.

Its only on certain model. I just added all the sale models to my cart to see the sale price but I couldnt find one for 139$

flipping will be hard but after thinking about it it is doable. with pitching it will be very difficult to be as accurate as you need to be for pitching. again you can try it and practice makes perfect.

I only saw the XS ones for 199$ the t3 ballistic was 150 for me

I have 8lb spiderwire, 15lb gamma torque, and 20lb powerpro on spinning gear and love it. I also dont use a leader. If i was going to it would be 8lb or 12lb invisx because its what I have around.

It has been mentioned before but you will need to find a rod suited to how you fish. some like to set the hook early and use a moderate action rod, I personally prefer a fast action with a lot of backbone. I use a 7'11" Heavy fast daiwa ceilo or a 7' Med-Hvy Fast Stcroix Avid and hold the rod at 45 degrees up and when i see the strike I lower it, reel down, and when i get all the way down if I dont see the frog and feel the weight I pull straight up sharply. I use the weight of the fish to determine how hard and far to pull. Then reel back down to 45 degrees and fight the fish back to the boat. There is no need to count to 2 it only takes a split second to reel down and feel if there is a fish, if you still see the frog on top leave it there and shake it for a second and then stop and try shaking it one more time. If that didnt work reel back in fast and cast it past the strike zone by about 15-20 feet and try again.