fishballer06

My honest opinion? If a bass is going to eat a duck, or something the size of a duck, he probably could care less what color it is. He's probably hungry/angry and just wants to attack the animal/bait.

I'm a Worden's guy, myself.

I added this part into the initial post of this thread as well for future search purposes. Actual Testing on the Water Before I begin, let me explain what I dealt with on Saturday here in western PA whenever I tested these reels. It was 55* and raining first thing in the morning, by noon whenever the rain stopped, it was 39* and the wind was blowing 20+ mph constantly. I spooled both reels up in the morning and headed out after lunch once the rain stopped. I fished a local pond about 5 acres in size from the bank. The water was the color of chocolate milk and was probably in the low 40's in temperature. 151HG: I spooled this reel up with the new P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon in 15lb. test and I mounted it onto a St. Croix LTB 7'1" Med. - fast action rod. I tied on a 1/4oz. finesse jig with a matching craw trailer. I pitched and casted this bait and had no issues at all. I didn't adjust any of the internal brakes and I turned my external brake dial to 3. I didn't catch any fish on this setup. 151: I spooled this reel up with Sunline Defier mono is 13lb test and I mounted it onto a St. Croix Avid 7' Med - fast action rod. I threw a mix of a Mann's baby 1- (1/4oz), #08 Rapala Husky Jerk (1/4oz), a 1/4oz. Rat-L-Trap, and a 3.8" Keitech SIF with a 1/4oz jig head. So overall, some pretty light stuff. Again, I didn't adjust any of the internal brakes and I turned my external brake dial to around 3-3.5. This setup casted all of these lures perfectly fine other than the #08 Husky Jerk. The Husky Jerk was too light and caught too much of the gusting winds and I had some backlash problems whenever casting into the wind, or across the wind. Had it not been so cold and windy, I probably would have opened the reel up and adjusted the internal brakes to accommodate this lure, but instead I just changed baits. I ended up catching two fish on this setup, both around 12-13". One on the baby 1- and the other on the Keitech swimbait. Granted these fish weren't huge, but the reel remained smooth under load and I had no problems getting both of them in. Overview: Overall I was impressed with these reels, as I am with most of Shimano's higher end offerings. Pitching and casting was effortless. Distance was great. Handling was great. The new 90mm handles are much appreciated and comfortable. The overall size is comfortable to palm and the weight on these rods made for a nice, light setup that was well balanced. My only complaint that I have is in regards to the external brake dial. On both of my MGL's the dial is very tight and difficult to turn. The dials on my Curado's, Metaniums, and old ci4's were very easy to turn with just the touch of the finger. These new one's seem to need me to dig in a fingernail to adjust them or to press much firmer with my finger to turn them. I don't know if these will just need some break in time, or if Shimano changed these up because people were complaining of adjusting them accidentally??? This isn't a huge deal breaker for me because I usually find my Shimano's need a range of 2-4 on this dial anyways, so I'm never really changing them too much.

I'll say this about mine... I threw a 1/4oz jig and trailer on my 151HG (15# Pline Tactical FC), and I threw a mix of a Baby 1-, Husky Jerk 08, 1/4oz. rat-l-trap, and a 1/4oz. Keitech 3.8" SIF on my 151 (13# Sunline Defier mono). I did not adjust the internal brakes at all from stock, and I only adjusted the external dial. The wind was blowing 20+mph the entire time, and the only bait I had any backlash issues on was the #08 Husky Jerk whenever I didn't throw it with the wind. Could it have handled the #08 HJ if I had messed with the internal brakes? Hard to say, but most likely yes. I don't generally throw 1/4oz jerkbaits in a 20mph wind in chocolate milk colored water whenever it's 38* outside, but I wanted to test out the reel so that's the results I got.

Hey Marks, I do not own this reel, but I can tell you that it only holds 50 yds of 8lb test and it only has 8 pounds of drag. I'm not sure if you were aware of this or not. Either way, you can tell that this reel is built for very lightweight applications at close distances. So it's safe to says it's not a jack of all trades reel, but rather a master of one (finesse).

I was just going to refer this thread. Thanks for doing this. I used both my new MGL's on Saturday afternoon. I'm going to post an update later today or tomorrow whenever I get around to it.

25, 7, 62, 29, 82. All over the place with my picks this event, still ended in the 80th percentile. Currently sitting 9th in the group and exactly 200 points behind the leader. 9 events left to go on the year guys. Everything is still anyone's game at this point.

I've got a spool of the 15lb. I plan on putting it on one my new Chronarch MGL and giving it a whirl.

I've been using two of the Berkley station's for 3 years no. No problems at all.

Siebert is still cheaper

Ish and Skeet are my two guys not in the top 20. I was surprised by this as well, but it's fishing and tough days happen. But like mentioned earlier, it's not that hard to go out and bring in a 25-30lb. bag and skyrocket back into the hunt of things.

Generally 14-16lb Sniper FC, or 40lb Suffix 832 with a FC leader in the aforementioned ratings.

5 12 18 60 63 Not a bad first day. I'm in the 88th percentile.

It's a neat design, but it seems very big and bulky compared to a standard Plano box. With me being a co-angler, I need compactness.

I've always liked Ott. He seems like a really good guy.

Doesn't look like a bad load out. I'd throw in a chatterbait and a baby 1- crankbait if I were beating the banks.

I use fluoro probably 90% of the time for crank baits. As far as being too sensitive and pulling the bait from a fish too early? That's non-sense in my opinion. You're talking about a moving bait that's probably moving 24-30" every crank and you're bringing it in on a steady retrieve. That fish either has that crankbait in his mouth or he doesn't. We're not talking about a plastic craw where the fish might only pick it up by the pinchers, or a fluke where the fish might only grab it by the tail. You're overcomplicating things.

Good to know. In that case, all 5 of my guys are in the top 49 with 3 of them being in the top 15.

If you want a good suit that will last you for years, be ready to drop $3-400. If you try going cheap and and only spending $50-100, you'll likely be buying a new suit every year.

Wheeler with 4 fish for only 3-8.... Tough day for him. Edit. 7 guys showing with 0 fish? Including names like: Lefebre, Tharp, Morganthaler, and Martens. That can't be right.

I snapped a few more pictures and cleaned them up.

Tharp B. Lane Monroe Ehler Reese

Tell Jimbo he needs a haircut. Age hasn't done that style well...

I will not vote until there's a senko option

The night before, the morning of at the ramp, and as needed during the day. During the hot summer days, it could be every hour or two.