Brett's_daddy

Okay, these both seem like really good quality reels...soo, which one is better suited for a beginner to bait casting?

I doubt I'll be doing much deep cranking, I mostly pond/lake fish and right now my favorite pond is at about 30 feet deep in it's deepest part. Now that may change down the road and I may go to deeper lakes and ponds. Above all I want the reel i get to be user friendly for a beginner and be good quality. Both of these reels cost the same money so I was just trying to get a sense of their pros/cons compared to each other.

Is there any quality difference?

Well, I am a beginner to bait cast reels so whichever of these two reels (which is what's available to me at this point in time) is more user friendly is what I'm looking for.

I'm looking at these two reels and I'm wondering if anybody who has these particular reels would care to chime in? I would be getting a left-hand version of whichever reel.

My dad suggested that I try using live minnows for bait and that he thinks I'd catch a lot of bass with them over lures. He said bass are used to seeing and eating minnows so they know they are food unlike a lure where sometimes they have to think about if it's edible or not before striking. He said take a small hook like maybe #6 and stick it under the dorsal fin of a 4" minnow/shiner and use a bobber and cast out. He said the minnow will swim all around but not for long before a bass takes it. This makes sense to me but my wife is against it saying that it's "old school" and the new lures they have out now are proven just as effective if not more than live bait...so, which is it in your opinion?

Yeah, definitely won't be doing any ocean fishing with this boat...strictly pond fishing. That being said, my favorite pond is about 30ft. deep in the middle. I spoke to my Dad last night and he said they used to take a 1 pound metal coffee can, fill it full of cement and put an eye hook in the top before the cement set. tie a line around that and use it for an anchor.

Okay, so I bought an Abu Garcia Promax bait cast combo over the weekend, got it used (just twice) for $50 so the thing is practically new. My dilemma is that even though I am right handed I cast and hold my rod with my right hand and reel with my left, the Promax reel is a RH only reel...it's very nice with 8 bearings and a 7.1:1 ratio...should I try and learn to reel right handed and keep this reel or should I try to find someone in a similar situation only reverse and swap for a comparable LH reel?

I have an Intex Mariner 3 rubber boat, it's a little over 9ft. long and probably 5 - 6ft. wide...it's a pretty solid little boat. I was wondering what size of an anchor would you use for this boat? The wife and I tried it out this past weekend and it performed well but one thing I did get tired of doing was always rowing back to where we wanted to be after the boat drifted (it was at night which made it even more of a pain in the butt). If I could get an anchor that would keep us in a specified vicinity that would be a good thing!

What pound test of mono would you use to anchor the braided line with?

Honestly, I'll most likely buy my line at Dick's and have them wind it on my reel. Should I tell them to do anything particular?

Is the regular Power Pro a mono or braided line?

I know this is probably opening up a can of worms but is one brand of line better than the other as far as for a beginner? I was thinking something cheap to start off with like maybe the Suffix or Stren braided?

Hey guys, check this out... https://www.facebook.com/streetfx/videos/10155339844820112/?fref=nf I don't know if it's real but it looks cool .

Okay, so I may be getting an Abu Garcia Promax bait cast combo and since this is my very first bait cast pole/reel ever I have no idea what line i should spool onto the reel? Braided? Mono? Flouro? What pound test? I've heard some people say since I'm new to bait casting i should use mono because it's cheaper and I won't be out as much if I cause bird nest's and have to cut some out but then again some people say that braided is easier and more forgiving...I don't know. I'm thinking of picking up a casting plug and practice with it in my backyard. I just went deep sea fishing and they have bait cast reels there, at first i got a few birds nests but by the end of the trip i think i was doing okay with much fewer tangles so if it's anything like that i think I should pick it up reasonably well or at least well enough so that I won't feel like chucking the rod and reel into the pond .

Question, do any of you ever use swivels for crank/swim bait? I'm just thinking it would be much easier to have a swivel on there that you could just quickly snap out the current bait and snap in the new bait instead of always cutting the line and tying on a new bait (of course some of you can tie on a bait so fast it doesn't really matter but alas that is not me...lol). Do you use leaders or just snap the bait directly onto the swivel? What size/type swivels do you use?

I stopped in at my local bait/tackle shop over the weekend as they were having a buy 1 get 2 free sale on select soft baits. This was my haul... ...would have gotten a few more but the wife was getting a little ornery...now if it had been shoes on the other hand...lol.

How long can you store these baits in the original packaging?

I found a new Fishing & Hunting shop about a 30 minutes drive from me. The store is small but he has a TON of stuff in there and a great fishing tackle/bait selection. The prices aren't bad either...just about on par with Dick's and Wally World. Here's my little score from this past weekend...

My local fish & tackle shop has a buy 1 get 2 free sale going on with select soft baits. Most are Yum or Berkley Havoc in various lizard/craw styles with a few Gary Yamamoto Flappin' Hogs and a Zoom Horny Toad (Grey Ghost color) or two. I know the GY baits are good and the Zoom Horny Toads are good too but what about the others...anybody have them and what kind of luck do you have? Also the GY's aren't senko's but Flappin Hogs, are they any good?

How about the Academy Sports H2O Xpress Motive... http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/h2o-xpress-motive-carbon-spinning-reel-convertible?repChildCatid=1006258 I don't have personal experience with them but people on here all say good things about the H2O reels.

1.5 KVD's in my limited experience. The Sexy Shad has worked best with the Black Back Chartreuse coming in 2nd.

I think it varies with the color scheme a lot too...especially where the KVD crank baits are concerned. I have a lot of those all different colors: Yellow Perch, Chartreuse Sexy Shad, Black Back Chartreuse, Tomato Craw, Tennessee Shad, Green Gizzard Shad, Sexy Shad. Of all of them the regular Sexy Shad has worked by far the best for me...I've probably caught about 15 bass with it this year and next up would be the Black Back Chartreuse which I've probably caught about 5 fish on but the rest of them i haven't had any luck with. I use all 1.5's.

Oh we've lost a few of our crank baits that cost $6.22 each at Wal-Mart/Dick's...the KVD one's. We fish 99% from shore so I've been able to wade in and save a few but most of the time it's lost for good . It doesn't stop us from using them though...don't know if that's smart or not...lol.

I didn't mean to generalize the economical baits as "Wal-Mart", that's just where I've bought a lot but I also have bought those brands at Dick's (I find the actual bait and tackle shops to be higher priced on the same item than Wal-Mart and Dick's are otherwise I'd buy local but nowadays you have to buy where the best deals are...at least for my economic bracket .