JustJames

I’m not sure where to fish in San Diego but you might drive pass me on the way down. Do you plan to camp, RV? We do have campground here in Canyon Lake with full hookup, right by the lake about 40 bucks per day. Are you staying until next Wednesday?

You might be able to find old style Daiwa knob for cheaper around 20 or use shimano curado K knob by adding one more bearing/bushing 4x7x2.5mm. If you like abu Garcia knob, you can simply swap the whole handle assembly between Daiwa and abu (the knob only not compatible) Abu ALX handle on Daiwa Alphas. shimano knob on Daiwa handle.

I’m Asian 5’7 with small hand. Mostly I use small size reel, shimano 50/70, Daiwa Alphas, Abu ALX used for everything from Ultra Finesse all the way to frog and 1oz top water. The biggest reel I have is curado 200ipg only used for medium swimbait and spinnerbait. I have 2 of 150 but still considered small Bantam and SLX mostly for Jig and topwater.

There are many factors to be success in fishing weightless worm. To me when talking weightless worm, I’m talking regular trick worm or 6-7” roboworm, weight around 3/16oz. You need light line on smaller spool reel (Shimano 50 or 70, Daiwa Alphas SV) to reduce weight, M or ML rod with pretty soft fast to MF tip. I normally use 50yds of 6lb copolymer line with braid backing and only 3/4 full spool or less. thin line to help sink rate, less spool full to help control. Weightless Senko or light Texas rig (5/32oz bullet weight) is not really light, you can pretty much get away with any rod reel or line. I usually use MH and whatever reel I can grab at time.

It is what I call stand up jig. Love using it with Hula grub, baby brush hog and Zman turbo craw on 1/10oz mushroom head.

I agreed on that but most reel either 6.3 or 7.2 can handle that pretty easily. Bass is not a fast runner. But if the high speed reel is your preferred then use what you feel comfortable.

Yes love the Fatika, always catch fish. I mostly rig tentacles first, but latter work too (lift and drop or drag) which I do when the plastic is too damage. I use mostly 4/0 EWG hook.

For bottoms contact plastic, speed is not so important, you move lure with rod not reel. You want high speed reel when you mostly fish for target, meaning cast or pitch to stumps or tree and move a lot.

4.7lb to me is a nice bass any day any part of country.

Search for that “the reel test” guy on you tube. A lot don’t like him here but I believe he is a good caster and may be better than a lot of ppl post here.

I’ve also caught plenty of catfish while fishing for bass or crappies. It is weird that you don’t like the fight from catfish. Catfish give out 3-4x the fight compare to bass. I just don’t like slimy on my line and sometime more difficult to land them(I hate touching catfish). I’ve never hooked catfish in the eyes, caught them on pretty much everything. I feel your pain though, I have hooked a lot of crappie in the eye when I first started fishing for them. Now I improved my timing and use mostly #4 hook and never again hook them in the eye (knock on wood).

Why old and why cheap? How cheap? A lot of the reel mentions here isn’t that cheap. It might be for some but at same price you might be able to get a good new or slightly used reel. A lot of old reels trend to use better material quality, not cheapy plastic, but again you risk of finding parts when needed. Ppl that buy and collect old reel, the last thing they concerned is cheap.

I like trout magnet and 1/32oz 1.5” tube.

^^^^^ this ^^^^^. Shakey head is not really light weight lure, a lot of baitcaster can cast the rigs with ease. I fish shakey head from 1/16oz and can use both baitcaster and spinning. When I use baitcaster I would fish shakey head the same as any standup jig, shake and pop, but to be able to shake and shake in one spot spinning would do it better and more efficiently. Dont afraid to experiments use whatever feel comfortable to you.

Think out of the box. 1/8oz Shakey head, 5” ZinkerZ, Daiwa Tatula 7’1 MH/XF, shimano SLX and 10lb big game. This morning caught.

There is a guy in Australia(I follow him on IG) using Cicada top water lure targeting carp.

From my understanding in panfish world, longer rod is used for trolling spider rig. Another use is for casting fix bobbers rig with long leader or vertical jigging around stumps.

To be able to shake and sit in one spot for a long period of time, spinning is better.

It is really depend on the brake system and how light the lure. For magnetic brake I’ll go with more brake but loose spool tensions for lure down to 1/16oz. Centrifugal brake especially on curado 70 and conquest 50, I will use both since those spool are really hard to stop. I set tension to just when I light tug the line and only get a few loose coil. This is only for lure weight 1/4 down to 1/8oz.

30lb,120yds can it be braid? I think it is not seldom the reel but yourself. When you change to new reel of course you need to get used to with the reel first. Some spool can run faster than other especially with braid line. You cannot really compare with old reel that might have old line coiled up or bearing never been cleaned. Now you switched to the whole new braking system, you would need more time with the reel, beside that I can say that linear mag brake on Abu is also pretty week. Like yourself mentioned after a few hours you got pretty good result. It is not the reel that need broken in but your thumb.

agree this ^^^^^

One of these day man.

There are still plenty of small bluegill. Start this and next couple months, there will be plenty of small bluegill by shallow and a lot of bass boiling on those bluegill (if weed still around, those Alum treatment really kill weed good last year). If you know any good spot for bluegill and crappie, please tell me. I found myself fishing same spot over and over and getting tired.

I hope it is okay to post a link here. https://sdfish.com/forums/c/freshwater-fishing-forums.91/