Nomad357

My gear is done well most of it anyway. It takes a beating on the Kayak, plus it is like 4/5 years old and wasnt expensive gear to begin with. I think the highest priced reel I had was $130 and most of it I picked up on clearance and lucked out on academy miss pricing on rods. Yea my local academy use to give great, I do mean great deals via employee errors. Example got a veritas rod for $9.99 for some reason they use to have a problem getting the right number of 9's on the end of the prices. I HATE bait casters never fishin bait casters again. I have pretty much narrowed down the new reels either a Penn battle 3 dx 2500 or the Fin Nor lethal 2500. Looking for a do every thing rod for fresh and saltwater or as close as I can get. My budget is around a $100 I could go more $150 tops. kayaking here is hard on gear lots of small rivers, creeks most fast current so turtling happens ... so you know why spend more. I rarely bank fish. combos i am looking at only 4. 2500 series reel main go to reel for everything. 5000 or 6000 for bigger fish inshore and strippers fresh water on a ugly stick elite 6'6 MH shimano tr100g on a ugly stick catfish rod, combo for catfish only. amazing reel and it is the only reel im keeping from old gear. I know its a casting reel but I dont use it that way. 500/1000 shimano Nasci on a UL rod cabelas fish eagle for the really small stuff I know I will be sacrificing some types of fishing, lures etc... but honestly I probably wont notice. Like I said this is just for fun mainly, except the inshore now I do keep most of those fish to eat. Fresh water is all catch release. Might keep a catfish occasionally. Species well Everything!!! I am not doing a one rod reel for a specific species, time of day, water temp, lures etc.... . I have already tried that and its more trouble/expense then it is worth for me anyway.

Utube is your friend. Lots of vids on reel maintance and have saved my butt a couple of times when I have screwed up and let some tiny part fall out. Go easy on the grease I use the acid brushes from lowes or homedepot. Helps keep the grease even and very lite coats. I oil and i put a very very lite coat of grease on the bearings.

I kayak fish and I have decide to cut my stuff back to just 4 set ups period. Tired of all the different set ups and most dont even get used. Plus all the storage nightmares. I am leaning though to maybe two rods for one reel on at least one or two of those set ups.

I am streamlining my gear going all new and cutting way back on # of combo's. I am not a pro fisherman, heck I aint even a good fisherman. I have terrible luck but it is a lot of fun. I am selling all my gear or giving the crap stuff away. I do some inshore so all my new stuff will be saltwater gear. Probably going to limit it to 4 set ups total. What rod would you guys suggest for normal inshore and fresh water fishing with a 2500 series spinning reel? I kayak fish exclusively so I like my rods short 6'6 and under but not against a 7'. I was thinking about a ugly stick tiger elite in 6'9 medium but that may be just over kill for normal bass &fresh water etc...

I asked this yesterday at cabelas the big sale should be frist week of march. A new reg ad should be starting this coming week. I also talked with a employee and they said this year every thing is being kept quit they have no idea what will be on sale.

Utube!!!! Some really great vids on tieing knots just search for the knot you want to use. That easy.

I just finished buying 7 new spinning reels. My first time at buying reels was in 2014 and I went with these hugh things 4000,5000 and bought one that was so big I had to buy a boat rod to mount it on. Lets just say they weighed my Kayak down and were miserable to fish with. But this time around I went alot smaller. My main go to reel will be a 2500 series, I was wanting a 3000 but guys from here and other forums convinced me that 2500 would be best. I think they are right. On some of the inshore forums guys are using 1000 series for inshore and doing very well with them. Spool size well from my research guys pointed out when do you ever use over 100yds of braid for normal freshwater and most of the inshore fishing. SO most of the 2500's is plenty big enough.

Just a FYI Cabelas stores ONLY are having a employee discount sale for everyone and everything in the store as long as it isnt on sale. I picked up a couple more rods today and some fishing line. I got 25% off of every item.

Thanks everyone! This site has been a Hugh help already.

I picked up a ethos today for $21 dont know how I got it at that thought it would be $27 but the little hottie checking me out said it was $21. I didnt argue. I missed getting the Bucoo rods had three in my hand but they wouldnt give me the deal like others was getting $44.98 and I had to drive to a second academy to get the ethos they didnt have any bucoo's but in the end it was worth the extra 25 minutes driving.The ethos is worth it I have a couple you may have to visit more than one academy to get the best discount.

If I were you id clean it up a little and see what you can get from some warranty work! Worth a shot.

Well some are getting really good deals on other forums depends on the check out girls. Some are getting falcon bucoo rods for $44.98 and ethos rods for $27. My local academy wouldnt take additional 25% off any fishing stuff. SO I drove to the one 45 minutes away and scored a ethos med spinning rod for $21. Had the check out chic take the 25% off manually plus the register was also taking the discount off all the other fishing stuff i bought even though at the other academy it wouldnt. Academy is the first chain store I have come across that can have such hugh differences on sale items. Plus on other forums guys are just scanning rods when ever they go in and are getting great deals on rods sometimes 80 to 90 percent off. I have tried scanning in my local academy but I didnt run across any great deals yet. Think this depends on teh caliber of people they have working in the store. Wish my local academy would hire some dummies to their pricing.

Just found out on another forum if the prices on clearance at academy end in a 8 like $79.98 you can take another 25% off no coupon needed thru the 25th he said. I ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Forgot They also have the abu Garcia veritas 2 for $79. Looking hard at this one myself. Hoping on another $25 reward card soon to make it even better deal.

This was my next question. Very new at this thanks Chris for the thread. I will go with green.