Poolshark

I am a fan of the lews reels as well and will tell you that the bb1 I own is an excellent caster. I wouldn't hesitate to buy either. Tackletour has some good reviews on all of them if it helps you narrow your decision. You'll be pleased either way you choose to go.

I have it set with two and adjust the dial as I go. I like the braking system very much.

throws 1/4 ounce baits just fine.

Yes and no. I have my breaks set on the the curado I and never touch them. There is a dial at the bottom of the reel that can be adjusted.

I own the bb1 and many of the curados . I like them both the same performance wise. I've never needed to deal with either companies customer service, so I couldn't help you there. Though I will say I can vouch for the shimanos durability. The lews are newer but I feel like they will be fine in the long run. A lot of people say the diawa is nice as well.

Everything except flipping heavy cover and lures under 1/4 ounce.

As long as you don't nick the blank by mishandling, you should be good to go. The rods that have been with me the longest are my avids and bps extremes. I hear of some rods having more breaking issues than others, but I haven't experienced it with these. I'm pretty sure a composite rod would be the most durable if you are tough on your equipment, but they are usually heavier and less sensitive.

I own a 76 heavy extreme and like it for flipping cover. I think it is a solid choice.

I would buy it and refurbish any neccessary parts without hesitation. I still fish my originals with with my new curados. When they discontinued them years ago I bought some spare parts and have yet to need them.

The bass pro extreme was on sale for 79 online last I checked. I think they are a pretty fair rod for the price.

The only high end rod I've ever bought off of a retailers shelf ended up breaking soon after I bought it. It was a st croix ltb.I originally thought it was a fluke because I have never had a rod break as I was fishing, ever. But as I processed it I could see people toying around with a high end rod in the store. Pressing the tip on the ground to test it's action, damaging it before it's ever fished with. I would assume just order one from the manufacture if I wanted a nice rod. As to why you probably don't see a lot of them I the shelves, I would think that the nicest rods 250 + probably don't sell very well anyways for most casual fisherman.

Something that I missed on the new curado the first few trips out is that there is another dial at the bottom of the reel to tweak for casting distance. Once I found mine, I was able to cast a little easier. You might have caught that, but I didn't at first.

To me the curado isn't a line of reels that I ever found to the absolute Best performance wise. There are much more expensive reels for that. They have always been very good though and they last a long time. For that reason, I consider them to be one the best value reel for the balance of price, reliability and decent performance. The new I series doesn't WOW me, but it should give me what I would expect from it.

Ignore gear ratio and focus on inches per turn. Lipless cranks are usually fished faster than others. The abus with a 5:1 have an inches per turn rate of I think 26". Some reels with a 6:1 are the same. My curados are 23" with a 5:1 and 27" with a 6:1. I think the abu is a good all around crankbait reel. Giving you the choice to burn it, slow it down but still give you the power you want when fishing deeper diving cranks. I personally use a calcutta. But like the abu as well.

This time of year the water levels in the glades drop and fish congregate in the canals. I've fished the trail before for largemouth on the east side and did well with a gold/shiner willow leaf spinnerbait, June bug or redshad 8 " t/rigged worm, shad or chrome rattle trap and a junebug colored wacky rigged senko type bait. I had my best luck looking for cover, fishing the canal points and also casting along the bank letting the bait run along any vegetation. It has been years since I've been there there but I remember driving and stopping wherever I could and catching a good number of smaller bass and few decent ones. The bigger ones were almost all caught on the 8" worm. Hope that helps. I used to fish there when I lived closer.

I've torn down every one of my curados and see little in the way of difference in parts quality between them internally. The hardware is another story. But I see all of the same plastic parts on the bantams. I think they are a solid reel and if you like em, fish them. I will!

I love my curado g series reels. I currently own two bs, a bsf, two i's, chronarch e two g's. I feel like dispute all the negativity for shimano downgrading the gs hard wear, it performs as well any of the the other curados I own. It looks and feels more sturdy than the b series, which I have some that have lasted over a decade and fish like new. I prefer the palmability of the g and e series, so they sit on my worm setups. I personally feel that the g series reel is a fantastic reel that takes me back to the bantams in looks. If I could find more heavily discounted g series, I will not hesitate to pick them up. They are good reels.

I do a lot fishing from a boat where distance isn't something I think about often. But fishing from banks which I do often as well l... I tend to favor my longer rods. There is always spots I'd like to reach but can't with shorter rods. I am considering purchasing a longer rod for that reason. It wouldn't be an issue fishing crankbaits and spinnerbaits, but I can see how it would be fatiguing for bottom contact lures.

How are you liking them? How are they holding up?

Not sure if you are looking for casting or spinning combos.. Or your budget. I have a three peice bps extreme travel casting rod and I love it. It comes with a tube, stores compactly andisba fair performing rod. I purchased it over a year ago and threw one of my old curados on it. Stays in my truck with me in between trips. It runs around 100 dollars but might be cheaper with the extremes on sale in the store. They are 80 bucks where I live.(spring classic) Bps also sells a spinning rod, I think it is a browning. Never used it, but it looks like a good travel rod with a nice tube for transport.

The st croix mojo med/fast model might be better suited for all around bass fishing. It's a little stiffer than a traditional medium, it's a good all around rod. They label it the plastics model.

I think at that price point they are all nice. I don't think you can go wrong with lews, shimano, diawa, abu etc. It depends on what you prefer and how you plan I using it.

I think that the carbonlites are worth the money. As are all bass pro rods, they seem to be an excellent performing value for the price. Haven't owned mine long enough to comment on durability. If u do a search on this forum there should be quite few threads about these rods. I started one a while back and people seemed to really like them.

I love st croix, so don't get me wrong. They are definetley a much better built rod. You can tell immediately when comparing the two. I still love mine. But As I've gotten more and more into the seven foot rods, I find that the medium heavy versions of the both avids and ltbs can be a little tip heavy when compared to the carbonlites. Time will tell on the build quality, I've owned the carbonlites for a few months. for now, I'm using avids for my spinning and medium action combos. I've switched over to carbonlites for my worm jig combos and tend to favor them quite a bit. Just an opinion.

I don't own the rods you mentioned so I can't give a fair comparison, but I've been using nothing but st croix avids and ltbs for a long while. I lost a few a while back and didn't want to spend a ton of money replacing them. I switched all but two of my combos to carbonlite micros and I feel like, performance wise, the carbonlites are just as good if not better in sensitivity. They are definetley less tip heavy and I find myself preffering them to my avids and ltbs. Hope that helps.