JustJames

You know what, you might be right about that. I’ve been using my spinning for a months (Daiwa OG Tatula medium pair with Ballistic FW) caught a bunch of bass from 1-5lb. The last two 4-5lb bass caught on chatterbait and jig with MH rod pair with bantam MGL and it was half the fun. I felt over power the fish and the landing was too quick lol.

Just to put it out there. I’m also not very good with skipping and I don’t see the need. All the docks in my lake is floating docks with boat lift. I maybe skip once a year or less. I have Alphas SV but don’t see the need to use that reel for skipping, it feel so fragile I wouldn’t even use it for Senko or fat Ika let alone 3/8 jig.

What do you plan to use it for? Gamatkatsu EWG #2 is my go to for dropshot 4-6” worm. Turner’s outdoor also carry some good small ewg hook, Gamakatsu #2, OWNERS. If this is for worm rigging I recommend Roboworm Rebarb #1. Very sharp and very small profile, fish wouldn’t even know they are hooked. Lol

Lol, soon enough.

I think the easiest would be up size your bullet weight to 1/4 or 3/8oz first to start with. You said you adjust spool tension just enough to keep the bird nest away, how tight is that? Try adjust until no side to side play. You didn’t say about your experience with baitcaster, or if you have any other reel or rod to try. Dont change anything yet and definitely not 15-20lb braid. Try with other heavier lure and compare the distance. BTW what is your rod lure weight?

Over an ounce I believe. I’ll check for ya. No you shouldn’t use M rod especially jerkbait rod. If wrong snap cast your 1pc rod would become 2 pieces. Added**** I think @jimmyjoeis right. I thought he was talking about Fluke. The magnum fluke weight about 19 grams with hook 22 grams (.67-.77oz) P.S. I weighted old fluke that has been fish.

St Croix 7’ M/M 1/4-5/8 casting 1/16oz roadrunner (total weight should be almost 3/16oz) with the help of everything else make the cast possible over 30 yds. I didnt even think I can do it myself. The moderate action help loading the lure plus 7’ can help with more distance, 10lb braid can fly off reel super fast with light lure and light weight shallow spool, all help this cast possible.

A lot of things in your setup are not favor for your choice of lure. First of, curado DC is good reel, but the spool is quite heavy which light lure gonna have a hard time pulling the line out. Secondly, 12lb mono, I’m not sure which brand but to me it is too big for light Texas rig. You won’t get good distance with large diameter line when casting light lure. Third, you rod MH. I don’t have experience with. All my MH rod got lure rated of 1/4-1oz, I can cast 1/8oz bullet weight no problem but again it is not get optimally result compare to M or other softer tip rod. You lure combine should weight almost 3/8 which work well enough for MH rod but the shape of craw will not cast as far as let’s say worm. You combine all these factors and result is what you see.

None. I don’t see no reason to switch between braid and mono. Once the line is low, just simple add backing material or re-spool. From what I see from a lot of you posts, you like to complicate things over. You should stop thinking and go enjoy fishing if that what you are after. One word for you young man “ KISS “ Keep it (stupid) simple.

I would go with 2000 size, have 4 myself but on opposite platform. The drag is way enough for bass especially Finesse Technique. The weight save is a lot more important than drag capacity.

2000 would be my choice too, the drag is plenty for bass, line capacity is not matter when using braid, the long stroke spool should cast as good as old 2500. Im thinking of 500 to replace my Sahara 750 since I have 4 of 2000 size Daiwa already.

Look good and congrats for new combo. I might get one myself.

Congrat for you PB. Yeah it is harder to judge fish weight from picture. There are many “long hand” fish floating around make the fish look humongous and abnormal.

Seem like you have everything that you need at hands. All the rods you mentioned should work just fine. Even chatterbait use heavy wire jig hook but no weed guard to interfere so MH is enough to dive the hook in. In fact I just hooked one a couple night ago from 35-40 yds using 6’10 MH Daiwa Tatula. For all the rod you have, i would pick Zodiac 6’10 and 7’2 MH/F. BTW pair whatever rod with your Bantam MGL and you are into a joy ride.

You compare orange to apple here regarding rod type and reel. As @WRBor @Cattmention reels are there just to hold line. I do agree 100% but only on spinning side not baitcaster. Most of the bass fishing is done by rod not reel, so each technique require different type of action and power rod but not the reel. US market don’t have option for shallow spool because a lot of angler here still using mono/FC for main line. And US anglers use bigger diameter line compare to those in Japan. Most US anglers also believe in power fishing more than finesses type. I guess. To answer your question if deep and shallow spool option widely available here at the same price point, I would get shallow spool anytime. But if I have to go xtra mile or pay xtra premium then deep or standard spool is fine with me. On the other hand I’ll go couple extra miles more for gear ration and spool size and some other feature mostly to save weight. I see some benefit of shallow spool for those that use thin super line. Easier to re-spool, no backing need and don’t have to worry about connection knot. That knot can interfere with your cast way before you reach 50yds given that you only spool 75yds mainline with thin braid. The shallow spool also come with slot that you can hide arbor knot inside with out worry about the knot catching mainline (at least mine come with it) I bought Daiwa Ballistic FW, not because it has shallow spool but I want Zaion Rotor, none Mag seal and lower gear ration than those offered in Tatula. And yes I have 3 of 2000 size Tatula, Kage, Ballistic, similar spool size, similar weight, similar features fishing different techniques. If you are in market and you want shallow spool, I say go ahead. You know what you want and fit you bill the best. Nobody can judge you.

The F7 is not for longest cast, even though it weight 1/8oz but the shape is big and bulky almost 3” long. I don’t think there is any weight transfer system in the lure to help casting distance since it made of balsa wood. BTW 25’ is super short distance, I can get about 50’ easily with my casting gear. Another point is casting with 7’6 rod, I’m not sure how you cast or familiar with this size rod. I also have Shimano Compre 7’6 walleye 1/16-5/8 that can cast 1/16oz jig about 40-50’ but casting same lure with crucial 6’8 ML 1/16-1/4 is a lot easier and even further distance. In this case longer doesn’t always mean better. 20lb braid with this size lure, you are not gonna get any distance, the lure weight and the inconvenient shape don’t have enough energy to pull out such heavy line especially when wet.

I don’t care much about line capacity, shallow or deep spool on my spinning reel. I only use super line on spinning so any reels should have more than enough line capacity. If deep spool, fine I will add backing which I only need once and it is only a few xtra grams. Even on my only shallow spool reel, I still have to add backing to compensate with 8lb nanofil. To me weight of reel and spool dimension is more important.

I also started to use Neko hook for wacky rig as well. I’m in still process of trying. I tried Mustad weedless Neko hook, and VMC Neko hook will try Gamakatsu B10S and other after I’m done with VMC. All 1/0 and #1 size. I like my hook to be a little thinner than Mustad/VMC for better hookset.

For me if goes below 3/16, that push a limit of Curado 70. It still can be done with appropriate rod but distance and accuracy suffer way down. And you are light about measure of focus, either you fixing too many backlash or trying to do perfect cast, the main fishing goal is kind off wash off. Thanks to my left frozen shoulder late last year, I turn myself to use more and more spinning for both Finesse and Ultra light. I’m having fun with it. Don’t worry about perfect cast or how light my baitcaster can cast, focus more on fishing and presentation. I even feel the spinning (the way we hold it) give more natural movements with make better presentation compare to baitcaster. I might be only a few, that get away from BFS to spinning. I’m done with “I can do it” or it look cool. I focus more on fishing and better presentation to get fish to bite.

I use regular 7’ MH inshore graphite rod which is a lot lighter than regular catfish rod but got decent backbone on both spinning and baitcaster set up for catfish. I use 20lb braid on spinning and 15lb mono on baitcaster.

Do you cast 1/10oz with stock curado 70 and the rod mentioned? I think OP ask specifically for this reel. I can say, I cast 1/16oz LC snackys on casting gear, oh and on curado 71, but that not gonna help OP either. To OP, the 1/4oz is in limit of curado 70, especially POP-X which have better weight transfer system than comparable lure weight. As @jimmyjoe mentioned rod and line is also playing a big roles too. I usually use M/F Rod with soft tip and moderate fast to fast(lure weight 1/8-3/8, comparable to ML). Line not bigger than #6-8 Izorline. I checked you rod spec 1/4-5/8oz that seem a little too stiff for 1/4oz lure and with 6’ length gonna be tough to get some distance and accuracy. Even you can cast out but the action of lure would be pulling instead of popping due to stiff rod. Now I never use IMX rod but I have two Shimano crucial both Medium/Fast but one with lure weight 1/8-3/8 CRC-D66M and another with 1/4-1/2 CRC-66M.

Rip rap, shallow and flat with lot of rocks, place where snag happen a lot. I’m not even sure why bass hit the Ned when just slow retrieve. There is no action whatsoever, but it just works. Sometime I got hit when reeling in for next cast. When slow retrieve I try to get it stay close to bottom as much as possible.

I’m not expert by any mean, but I fish every ways possible to catch fish, drag, short hop, lift and drop, jigging like crappie jig or just straight slow retrieve. I use 1/20oz with TRD and 1/16 with 1/2 ZinkerZ. I also use 1/10 head with other stuff like crawZ or baby brush hog.

That also show, the spooling station is no good. It still spool in with twisted line unlike what he claimed. As side note never strip the line off spinning reel without tension. You either walk it off on water/grass or tie one end to station objects. Once the twisted line bundle up, it will be hard to fix.

I don’t see any frayed on your line but I see a couple of loose loop on your spool. It is not fraying just crushing sound when you pull line from tight drag and line try to dig in. There is nothing wrong with your line or spool either I believe.