Poolshark

You can throw them on that rod. You CAN throw them on many different rods. But personally my landing ratio is MUCH better with a glass or mod action graphite rod. Nothing pains me more than to hook into a big bass on a square bill and watch it shake the trebles off. I've seen it too many times and it is exactly why I acquired a setup more suited to throw them.

The fact that it started casting farther with the proper amount of line does not surprise me. 3 brakes shouldn't make a problem. My guess would be that something didn't alight right when you put it back together. It's probably not aligned right.

Something is out of whack when you put it together. It is not a broken reel. Just redo it until it is right. Takes patience and practice. Btw. The 6500 sized way more reel than needed for bass fishing unless you are throwing a rigs or swimbaits. Not an ideal size for casting smaller lures. 4600 is closer to what you would want. Take it back and upgrade it. If you really like the ambasaduer line... Go with a c3

A couple of things I noticed... And a couple of pointers. 1) 125 yards of 20 pound braid? Sounds like it is severely under spooled. I would buy 30 or even 40 pound braid and spool it to 1/16 inch from the top of the spool. Use a few yards of mono to back it. Otherwise it may slip. 2)the brake pins. 3 pins on 3 pins off. Every other pin. The centrifugal breaks should be applied evenly around the spool. One on one and one off all the way around. 3) Reduce the tension on the spool tension knob ( the knob on the sames side as your star drag) so that the bait falls slowly when the spool is disengaged. The less tension means the more possibility of a backlash but it will cast farther. Hold the rod out and press the thumb bar in so that the spool is free.. Adjust the knob until the bait starts to slowly fall. 4) The 4600 sized ambasaduers that I own ( c3s) will throw a 3/8 lure very far. As far as any reel I own. 5) The medium action rod that you are using should be fine.

I broke my legend tournament and swore I could buy another for the price. I bought a couple of mojo series and have been every bit as happy. Breaking the LT was my fault so I didn't pursue the warranty though I'm sure they would have done something. Did you register the rod with at st croix? Chances are they might just replace it for you or allow you to upgrade at a discount. I doubt that they will allow you to downgrade... But I guess it's worth a shot

I am most comfortable using a left handed reel but I use righties sometimes to help with fatigue on long trips. The righties I own end up on spinnerbait, crankbait and swimbait rods. The techniques that require more Coordinated hand motions like plastics, jigs, top waters and frogs get the lefty reels. That way my dominant hand can work them a bit easier and gets a break when chucking and winding

Veritas Winch series. They are decent rods

They are both good reels. Go with your gut and you will be happy. I'm partial to the Curado I which was on sale for 150 not too long ago ( might still be). Same as citica but with some upgraded bearings. Another reel I happen to like is the lews tournament mb. Smaller profile, lighter, great caster. Not sure how it will do in the long term durability dept. but a nice reel non the less. No problems yet with mine. There are other great reels out there as well that others I'm sure will chime in on

It really depends on where you fish. Most lakes near me are shallow and filled with vegetation. So I use a high speed reel and a mh powered glass rod. My rod has soft enough tip to use braid but more often than not I just use 12 to 17 mono. If I was fishing them deep than I might use a 6 to 1 gear ratio.

If you are buying them for yourself than its up to you. I personally think there are better reels out there. Namely th 70 I series. But if I could talk them down in price... Then yes. Back when the b series was discoed I came across a few leftovers that the shop owner sold me 90 bucks each. Two years ago I came acrossed a couple of g series piled up in an eBay pile at another local shop. I offers them 80 each cash and they said yes. Try, you never know. But personally I'm not paying full price for them

It's possible that you making your reel worse. Send it to shimano, dvt or take it to an authorized repair shop. That's what I would do. I wouldn't fish a reel without all of its parts in place. It is not engineered to be used that way and you can easily create more of a problem than you began with. Now, with that said I haven't had any "problems" that haven't been remedied by normal maintenance. Not in any of my curados. They get yearly cleanings, occasional oil and they are like new.

Start with lures that weigh 3/8 or more, cast gently and smoothly don't cast hard, and lastly set your brakes to a higher setting, maybe tighten down your cast control knob a bit so that the lure falls slowly or even barely at all to start with. You should be a able to gently cast a lure with little to no thumbing of the spool. As you practice and get better, you can back off the brakes and spool tension a bit as you learn to thumb the spool.

Saint Croix legend tournament 71 or 73 mhf. I like the Curado 70 I. But there are a lot of other great choices as well.

Those reels are tanks

The 70 hg in the 7 gear ratio has a retrieve rate of 28 inches per turn, the 200 in the 6 gear ratio is 26 inches per turn. You are talking 2 or less per turn on a long cast because of the difference in spool size. the big difference between the two is the 70s ability to cast lighter lures farther and with less effort, it palms nicer and to me is much more desirable reel as an all around starter reel.

Get the mojo bass....

If there is anything wrong with the job that was done, it will show within a year of using it. I had a legend tournament that i banged up against a dock and it damaged the blank pretty bad. Needless to say I didn't even bother with the lifetime warranty because I knew it wasn't st Croix fault. I also have an avid that is now over 15 years old and if it breaks... Than its probably on me. If an insert pops out, than I'll just repair it. I'm not sendin it in. I think it's smart to buy a rod at a fraction of its cost, so long as it has a warranty of at least a year. If the rod is already damaged and it is likely to fail, it will happen within that time frame.

You've got great advice above and I hate spending people's money for them but as an owner of the equipment you are interested I feel I should chime in and give my experience. If you can do it, spend 330 and get a 7'1 mhf mojo with a Curado 70 hg. That would be a phenomenal and useful first casting combo. You will be able use that setup to throw everything from light plastics to horny toads no problem. It will handle 1/4 ounce moving baits and senkos extremely well. It will be light and not to stiff or too flimsy to cast a wide variety of stuff. If you get the Curado 200 the combo will run you 50 dollars less. But as an avid curado user, I'd tell you I wish all but my cranking combos were the 70 sized. Smaller lighter and cast your light baits extremely well. All around an improvement over the 200.

On all of mine you need to loosen the tension knob a little to flip the switch to close easily and securely. Also, I always readjust the tension knob after closing the side plate. On all of my Curado 200 I series reels the spool tension will sometimes loosen up after closing. I figured that's how it was designed.......being that all 4 of my I series reels are like this. I never thought anything of it. Not once The 70 I on the other hand has a different mechanism to close the side plate. No spool tension adjustment needed.

I'm personally using a 71 mhf for lighter ones in shallower water and a 73 med heavy/fast and a 76 heavy/fast powered for the heavier rigs in deep water. No issues hooking up or casting. For me a long rod helps me when fishing deep water making a long cast and with sweep setting the hook from a distance. i also prefer a fast tip not an extra fast tip.

I own the Jim signature and the Jm carbonlites and find that they are exceptional values for the money. The platinum series especially is the by far the lightest rod I own. That includes some rods that are far more expensive. I will say this, The hook keepers on them are complete design fail. The ones that own catch line in the wind and have a tendency to loosen up over time. Otherwise, they are great rods and I have never had any problem with bass pro branded stuff.

That rod will work well for almost any app that involves heavy cover. Pads, fallen trees, docks, etc...I'd be using it to throw small swimbaits like big EZ, frogs, pitch my heavier jigs and my favorite technique, fishing big, oversized worms. That is a useful rod.

Yes. They are for braid. I find those comfortable lines for my rods and reels. I've been using a 15 pound power pro on my spinning reels with a leader most of the time and 40 pound in my casting reels with a 12 to 15 pound leader depending on where I'm I am fishing. I'll use 50 pound straight braid when I'm fishing very heavy cover. I've had good success this way. I don't look at much at the rods line guidelines as so much as I look at my reels. Less than 30 on a casting reel tends to dig on me. More than 15 to 20 on a 3000 sized spinning reel and ......you can use less if you'd like. But I don't and do just fine. be careful to use your drag and never stress your rods beyond their capabilities and you'll be fine.

Texas rigged worms, jigs, stickbaits, spinnerbaits, small frogs, flukes, chatterbaits, swim jigs, small finesse swimbaits, etc etc etc. Essentially any lure heavy enough to load the rod and cast. I prefer a mh rod for lures that have a single hook on them where a decent hookset is valuable.

Are you using a spinning rod? With spinning I use anywhere from 15 to 20 pound. With casting the lightest I go is 30. Btw. Welcome to the forum. You'll get a lot of answers to your questions here.