Chris at Tech

This right here

For you guys who have a lot of experience with St Croix offerings, especially up to the SCV models... If you take a given model, say 6'10" ML XF spinning rod, and follow that model from the Avid line to the Legend Tourney line up to the Legend Elite line, how would you describe the changes you feel with each step up? Obviously I expect sensitivity to change, but how about action and power?

Me too -- a white, a black, a green

I think my wife and I are a bit ahead of the curve here. Two 401k maxed out yearly since we started our careers at 22/23, max contributions to Roth IRA each year, an investment fund and three 529 funds getting good chunks each month. I’d had wanted to sit down with a financial planner since I was around 30 but just never did it til 35. I wish I did it sooner, and I would recommend this for younger folks. Don’t be fooled into thinking you need a huge portfolio to do this. Bring the data on your current financial situation, talk about your financial goals and work together to assemble a plan to get there.

That’s entirely too good a week for your fishing and sports teams. I hope Tom Brady comes down with a season-ending case of jock itch ?

Kistler H3 7'1" MH/XF

Comment was directed at the OP’s Curado

By the looks of the facebook pics, A-jay and the boys seem to be faring just fine

If it’s me, I’m looking for something with more line capacity.

The annual family vacation to Panama City Beach just wrapped up, and it was another great time with the family. And yes, of course I fished. A lot. Got out with guide extraordinaire and star of "Chasin' the Sun" tv show Justin Leake, and Justin did what Justin does -- put us on fish. The amberjack cooperated all day, and we wrestled with a pair of true reef donkies on entirely too light tackle to end the day. The mahi and snapper were playing hard to get, but we picked up a few here and there. Even a "slow" day in this place is 20+ fish. Leading into the trip, I started hearing reports of red tide all the way up into PCB, including St Andrews Park which is my wading sweet spot. Things seemed to clear up so I waded there for 2 afternoons but only ended up with a trout and 5 reds to show for it. While there was bait and other life, it just wasn't at the volume I'm used to seeing. There was certainly no lack of pinfish, who gladly nipped the tails off about 30 baits for me! My buddy Justin offered up a "plan B" site and yeah, it was friggin' LOADED. The first afternoon there took a little effort to find them, but I ended up with about a dozen, including a stud 20 inch trout. The magic happened when I ran out of soft plastics from more pinfish annihilation, and the mirrodine came out. To say they liked it was an understatement! And the bonus was not having to rebait every 5 casts from toothy critters. I couldn't leave PCB without getting another shot at that spot and when I returned the next afternoon, there was another gentleman already fishing from the bank. No problem, plenty of water I can wade into. As I got waist deep, he looked at me and said the spot was loaded with reds. Yup, I already knew, but I was into fish by my 2nd cast and the action remained steady all afternoon. It slowed a bit when I went to look for the fish in the exact spots I caught them on the day before, but I waded back into action later. The reds had the pilchards all rounded up on a few occasions so I got to see a few nice feeding frenzies. DOA jerkbaits and CALs, mirrodine, and Zman Pogyz all produced nicely (and I'm now a Zman advocate since they even stand up to pinfish) And the bonus was that I got to break in both my new GoPro and my new inshore combo properly with ~30 wading fish. Till next year, PCB!

No HHI pics?

I'd venture to say that 90% of the general fishing population would not notice a difference between a new out of the box reel and a supertuned/upgraded version of the same reel. With that said, there are upgrades which are purely cosmetic (screws, bumpers...), performance upgrades that are somewhat helpful (supertuning, bearing upgrades, spool upgrades) and some that really do add value/performance (a deep cleaning, carbontex drags...) The first thing I'd recommend when you look to do reel upgrades is to find yourself a trustworthy reel tech who will give you honest advice on which upgrades are worth it and which are not. DVT and the Tackle Trap are two I've dealt with that I'd recommend.

Stradic 2500 FK on a Kistler KLX 6'9" Medium power fast action.

Me too...

Yes, and I would agree in full-spool situations but I tend to think that fluoro's sink advantage is greatly diminished if not totally negligible when you're only talking about ~3-6 foot sections of leader. And as a general rule, I don't go more than 2 trips without retying a leader. Yessir!

Once you've resigned yourself to using braid with a leader, at that point is there any benefit to selecting fluoro as the leader material over mono? I've been silently debating myself lately Braid mainline takes the fluoro visibility advantage off the table. In full spool situations, I will readily admit that I find fluoro to be much more sensitive than mono, but once braid is your main line, I can't imagine a 10 ft section of fluoro will provide a noticeable difference in sensitivity over mono. I've overcome the fluoro learning curve by now, but regardless mono is more forgiving in the knot-tying department. In my experience, I've not seen a significant difference between the two in the abrasion dept. Mono has fluoro beat on cost. Am I forgetting any important factors here?

Go to a local store with the rod and find the reels in your price range from the well-known brands -- Daiwa, Shimano, Abu, Lews. Try the reels on the rod to see how they palm, how the whole rig balances. It's good to get advice like above, but you don't fish with just a reel. You fish with the rod and the reel together, so find a pair that feel good together. As far as I'm concerned, the written specs on bearings, braking, etc are meaningless to those who are new to baitcasters. When you make your choice, spool it up with line. Then pull 40-50 yards of line off and put a small piece of electrical tape on the spool, and crank the line back on. As you learn the reel, the tape will help to keep backlashes to a minimum, and make any you get easy to pick out.

To me, the moderate action takes "feel" or single hook techniques off the table. I think this rod would be well suited for spybaits, rapala minnow baits, small topwaters and cranks, etc.

If part of the discomfort is due to your reel handle being on the wrong side, why try a reel with a handle on the other side? EDIT: let me ask it another way. Which is your dominant hand? I think the general consensus is to have the rod in your dominant hand and crank the reel with the other hand. Based on you using different hands for spinning and baitcasting, one of them is the "wrong hand"

Watch for Bass Pro Crankin Sticks to go on sale. Should put them at ~$50.

Not exactly an A-rig but like this? https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-LONGASBTS.html?from=basres

Do this first. Now that you have a measure in place to help mitigate the worst-case backlashes, do what others are saying to dial in the cast controls better.

You can still be fishing a finesse technique while using 1/2 oz of lead so as DVT says above it's not so cut and dried. How much weight are you using? What bait are you putting on the end? Generally, a M-power spinning rod should be absolutely fine

What I find most interesting about a rig like this is the conversation happening a few threads over about how line shy fish are. And here we are looking at a rig with all that hardware... So which is it -- they're line shy or they don't care?