04Taco

I think I'm going to give baitcasting reels another shot... I believe I'm either going with an abu garcia black max or silver max, not totally sure yet. I'm a huge fan of abu garcia, as my dad has a very old cardinal and it is a butter smooth reel so I'm sticking with what I know is going to be a quality product. Thanks for all the advice guys.

Hello everyone, I've become a much more avid bass fisherman than I used to be. I'm using an original 6'6" ugly stik in medium action and what was likely one of the cheapest spinning reels I could find at Walmart 4 or 5 years ago. It's a Mitchell avoacet 2. It feels like the reel is pretty close to blowing apart when I have a big one on the line. I've caught hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of yellow perch with this setup but it's not cutting it for the smallmouth I'm catching now, so I'm looking to upgrade. I throw mainly crank baits, weightless Texas rigged senkos and buzz baits right now and it's doing a good job. I'm perfectly happy with how my spinning tackle operates and it's second nature for me to use. Is it really worth it to "upgrade" to a baitcaster? I've tried them before and it's not been a good experience, I can't cast far and I've made quite a few birds nests. I personally can't see how anyone likes these things but if that's what everyone uses there's got to be an advantage right? So which should I buy? And why are baitcasters so superior?