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Anyone know if this is a new design, or another Doyo reel, or what?

Well, they could, depending on what their profit margins are on the G series Curado. They could dip into that if there is room.

If you are willing to spend that much, I would go higher than the president. Don't get me wrong, it is a great reel for the money, but even moving up to the $100 price point with a Shimano Symetre was a noticeable upgrade for me. As Tony L. said, with that much budget, you could get two very nice setups.

I just went through this myself. I pretty much had all BPS rods and I wanted to break out and try new thing. I was looking for three new rods for specific techniques, so I did a lot of searching online for recommendations for those techniques. I went to stores and felt the weights of the different rods, examined the grips and how they felt in my hand. I wish I would have tried my reel on the rods before I bought, because I ended up taking one back because it was way too tip heavy. In the end, if you can't actually use the rod before you buy it, and you dont know anyone with the rod, you have to put some trust in anonymous reviews I guess.

So are the designs created by Doyo and sold to these other companies? I was very surprised when I found a post with pictures of a Lews tournament pro being taken apart, and the design was identical to the pro qualifier, but you could see some parts were different material(like the drag washers). Is it just a licensed design built to specification?

My wife uses spinning gear. I've tried introducing her to baitcsters with two different reels, first righty, then a lefty by request, but she always went right back to her spinning gear. Oh well, now I have another baitcaster in my lineup.

I really like the Shimano Symetre, I use one for my drop shot rod. I have a Pfluegar President that I used to use on that rod, like the Symetre much, much better than the president.

I have the last model of Symetre and love it. The Symetre also pulls in 5 extra inches of line per turn (35 for Symetre vs 30 for Pfluegar).

If your cap is $60, a 6930 Pfluegar President is hard to beat.

Well that stinks. I'll try to clean it out in the faceplate. Thanks for the answer!

Does anyone know how to get the roller bearing out of the handle side plate of the Pro Qualifier baitcaster? Ever since I dunked this reel it has been grinding, upon disassembly its this bearing that is making the noise, but I can't seem to be able to get it out of the side plate. I've tried pushing it from the outside with a 10mm socket but its not budging. Thank

The stuff I've had fail lasts me about a season of fairly heavy use. It will start braking off in weird places without much pressure. Then I know its time to change.

When I got my first baitcaster a few years ago, one of my first trips out with it(while still learning) the rod slipped out of my hand during a cast and I literally threw the rod and reel into the lake. I waded out and found it and brought it back in. I didn't clean it after, just kept using it. Now it makes a bit of a grinding sound when retrieving, sounds like a bearing has some dirt in it or something. Still works good, casts great. I guess my point is you should probably clean it.

My motto is baitcaster when you can,spinning when you must. I'm not a big fan of spinning gear, so I only use it when I have too, which is usually lighter, finesse presentations, or skipping docks. Whichever you prefer, both are necessary in different situations. Road warriors 3 setups above are a great way to start.

If you can find a school of fish, try dropping a jigging spoon into it. Otherwise, I tend to stick with Lipless Cranks, Suspending Jerkbaits, and Silver Buddy's when the water is that cold.

Yeah, maybe try giving it a little more pop. I was having the exact same issue you describe when I was first learning dropshotting, and I believe two things helped a lot. First, as I described, giving it a little harder hook set. Don't give it a full texas rig or jig style hook set, but a good flick of the wrist to give the hook a good pop. I found the lift method just didn't get as solid of a hookup as I wanted. The other issue I found was reel speed. When I first started, I was using a 6X35 sized Pflueger President. This reel takes in about 25" per turn, and has a fairly long handle. I found a lot of times, when I would get a bite in deeper water(For me, deeper is 10'-15'), the fish would often immediately charge to the surface for a jump. At those depths, I had some trouble occasionally reeling fast enough to keep up with the charging fish. This would leave some slack in the line and the hook was prone to fall out. I switched to a 2500 sized Shimano Symetre, which has a shorter handle and pulls in 35" per turn, and pretty much eliminated that problem.

How are you setting the hook? I know a lot of people recommend just lifting the rod and reeling with the circle hooks, but I found with that technique I lost a lot of fish as you describe. I get great hookups with a short, quick, sharp hookset. Almost like a little pop on the line.

They are fairly heavy. I have a 7'6" heavy for flipping. Its good enough for that, but its like a broom stick.

BPS has a Carbonlite rod that is for Cranking. It is a 7' Medium with a Moderate action. I don't do a lot of cranking personally, but it has worked pretty well for me when I do throw Rattle traps in the spring/fall and occasionally square bills. If you can pick it up when it is on sale for $79 its a pretty sweet deal.