BrackishBassin

It's a 6' 9" Mh. The med I'm looking at comes in 6' 7" and 7' 1". I think the Mh is just too stiff to cast the plastics, especially with the 50 lb braid I spooled it with. Probably should have gone a little lighter, but I have a pond full of lily pads that I wanted to try punching.

Ok, thanks!

Weightless plastics get them every time. If I'm having trouble, I just start throwing plastics.

Yeah, but they definitely have areas where they excel. I'm just wondering if there's someone out there that has had success fishing baitcasters in the conditions I'm describing.

You can make one yourself for next to nothing. Just need a dowel. Cut it down until it matches the weight you want, screw in a hook eye with some epoxy, and you're good to go. If you really want to get fancy, you can sand the edges down so it's all smooth.

So, I spend 99% of my time fishing from the bank. The lake I fish is heavily wooded, and it has a soft bottom with lots of grass. Yesterday, I went out with the intention of fishing my newly respooled baitcaster. I figured a Carolina Rig would be just the ticket for dealing with all the grass. After about 15 minutes, I went back to my spinning set up and hardly touched my baitcaster the rest of the day. I'd tag a tree limb or cattail on the cast and end up picking out a tangle. Thankfully, I'd just respooled it with braid so they were easy to untangle. I have been kicking around the idea of getting a new baitcasting set up (med rod instead of med heavy with a decent reel), but after yesterday I'm doubting whether or not I'd ever use it. A spinning set up just seems superior when you're dealing with casting from the bank, in a wooded area, and fishing soft bottom so you throw lots of weightless plastics and very light lures. Everything I tried that had any weight to it just drug in a pound of grass with every cast. Am I correct in my thinking, or is this just a case of me not having enough practice with the baitcaster yet to be effective in those conditions? Any and all insight would be appreciated.

You can, yes. It's funny. Since guys have gone over to using these heavy braids with freshwater gear, you tend to see the rod being the weak part in the equation. If you're using 50 lb braid and have a decent reel, the rod is probably going to give before anything else does. I couldn't believe it when I heard about people using lines that heavy, but having gotten a little more experience with flipping in heavier cover, it makes some sense. Still a bit of culture shock coming from saltwater though. I've seen guys land 40" red drum on 15 lb test with no issues and in freshwater we're yanking a 3 lb bass out of the water with 50 lb test.

If you haven't tried baitcasters before, find a way to try one before you drop that kind of money. Seems a little ridiculous to me. It'd be like someone who had never raced buying a Formula 1 car and hitting the track. The guys and gals on here give great advice, but that doesn't mean it'll work for you. When I started with my baitcaster, I heard over and over to spool with mono because it was easy to learn on. After dealing with a bunch of backlashes, I said screw it and spooled the baitcaster with braid. Haven't had any issues since. I probably struggled with mono because I'm a saltwater guy that fishes exclusively with braid. So, for me, mono sucked. It could be the same situation for you with a particular rod or reel, or combination of the two. So, before you spend an arm and a leg, find a way to figure out what works for you. Not necessarily what works for everyone else.

If you want something cheap that works, try a Daiwa spinning combo. Got mine for $25. Had it a year so far and I've caught bass, crappie, blue gill, pickerel, red drum, and perch with it. Still works great, and if it breaks I'm not out much. If you catch it at the right time, Dick's puts them on sale buy one get one.

Won't be able to look it over. It's from FFO, online. And it looks like they sold out of the size I wanted. They have the Aetos too, $88.

Saw FFO has Fenwick HMX casting rods for $45. Anyone have any experience with these rods, good or bad?

Will do! Have to be a long length between the weight and the hook for me. The grass is crazy deep in the pond I fish. That's why I usually fish weightless plastics. They tend to float over the top of it pretty well.

I cut couple of dowels down until they weighed 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 ounce. Screwed in some hook eyes with a little epoxy on them and that's what I use to practice casting. Works well and doesn't get hung up on anything on the retrieve. Also easy to get out of trees, which has been an issue for me lately. Been trying to practice casting parallel to/inside of the tree line since 99% of my fishing is from wooded shoreline.

Were you drop shotting from shore? I feel like every time I try that, the bait is just laying on the bottom like a weightless senko would be due to the angle.

Not a problem. I haven't had issues with hook sets, especially with the crankbaits. That being said, if you were going to use it exclusively with weightless plastics (bigger wire hooks) then I would suggest going for the med version instead of med light.

Yep. Great rod for what I need it to do. Even going to try some real little crankbaits on it for crappie.

It's pretty whippy, but I like that. Lets me cast weightless plastics without an issue. Caught my PB on it as well. The rod had no problems handling a 4.5 lb bass.

Line twist is also much less of an issue with braided lines when compared to mono/fluoro.

I've switched over to using my spinning set up to throw light and weightless plastics until I can get myself a decent med baitcasting set up. No matter what I've tried with my MH set up (granted, it's a cheap combo) will allow me to cast them any sort of distance without a blow up. But it sounds like you've got the cash to get exactly what you want. I'd be interested to hear what you end up with and how it works out for you.

Aluminum is just a metal, so it stands to reason that just because a reel says it has an aluminum frame doesn't mean it's comparable to another reel with the same claim. I'm sure there are about a million little things that could be different that may impact the reel's performance. Is the aluminum pure? Is it an alloy? What type of aluminum is it? Etc. I'd say that reels from brand names that carry a decent warranty are made of a higher quality aluminum than reels made by brand names with little to no warranty and/or knockoffs.

Super simple, no frills, and/or opinions version - Braid - very, very little stretch, smaller line diameter than other line types of the same lb test, floats Good for baits that are fished deep/far away from you, in heavy cover, or on top of the water. Mono (covers many 'types' of lines) - stretches, floats Good for moving baits where you want some give when you set the hook (e.g. crankbaits and jerkbaits). Fluorocarbon - less stretch than mono, but more stretch than braid, will sink slowly I don't use fluoro, so I'm not going to attempt to cover what it's good at. As to why I don't use it but neglect to mention why, please see below. I didn't get into any of the controversial topics (e.g. visibility) on purpose. If you really want to get crazy into it, just Google braid vs mono and spend the next two years reading.

If I could only have one rod, I'd probably go with a 7' Med Ugly Stik GX2 with a Penn Battle 2 in the 3000 size. But I fish salt and fresh, and that combo would cover both with no problems.

I use an Ugly Stik Elite with a Penn Fierce 2 for both salt and freshwater. Performs great in both, and it would come in under your price point if you shop around. I will say that the MH Ugly Stik may be a little stiff for the freshwater stuff, depending on what he's going to use it for. For example, he'll have a tough time tossing weightless senkos with it. But, it'll do everything your average MH baitcaster will do. My Ugly Stik Elite is a med/light. I bought it for tossing lighter lures ( crankbaits, beetle spins, weightless senkos, etc.).

I second the Black Max, except I only paid $30 for mine. Was on sale at Dick's for $50, and it had a $20 mail in rebate.

I went and bought a Daiwa Samurai combo from Dick's because I was going crappie fishing with a buddy of mine and didn't have anything other than my med heavy and heavy saltwater stuff. It cost me a whopping $25, and it works like a charm. When I bought it, I expected to use it a couple of times and toss it, but it has held up great. I used it a bunch this summer for perch (saltwater), rinsed after each use, and it's the same as the day I bought it. Definitely not a high end set up, but it works.