DanTheFireman

I have the '18 Antares DC MD and love it, if you have the extra coin I would say just do it. Mine was about 520 shipped two years ago. The smoothest reel I have is a '16 Antares non DC, the shiny one but this one is almost as smooth. I have a Curado DC and an Exsence DC for salt water and they are excellent also, my buddy loves his SLX DCs so you can't go wrong with any of them.

I've had two Ks (201 XG) since they first came out, both spooled with 50# Maxcuatro and have used them on two Amazon trips for throwing 1 1/2 to 2 ounce woodchoppers which is pretty rough on reels. Both have done fine and are a great bang for the buck, also have a TranX 400, Curado dc, three Metanium HGs (two with brass gear swap), Antares HG etc. I was also considering the TranX 200, wondering about casting distance vs. the K.

It sounds like you guys got good ones, there are definitely some lemons in the first batch. My 151 XG DC is in for repair now. Setting 1 is absolutely useless, big blowups even with tight tension knob and zero 1/2 oz. lure drop. Setting 2 is fine, as designed. Setting 3 casts further than 2 with thumbing, it's between 1 and 2 which is not as it's supposed to be. Setting 4 is fine, no thumb required but greatly reduced distance as designed. I know the HG Shimanos fairly well, have Antares, Metaniums, Curado I and Ks etc.

Agreed, an Ugly Stick is hard to beat as far as the abuse it can take. The number one thing to avoid with the high end rods other than banging around is high sticking, lifting the rod tip up above your head under load.

I started fishing as a kid in Key West over 60 years ago and besides limited conventional reel use in the ocean have always used spinning equipment. Four years ago I got my first bait caster, a Daiwa Lexa and had a fairly steep learning curve, later found I hated that reel. I now have over twenty bait casters and use them more than 90% of the time; one Daiwa Zillion, a few Lews, an Abu and the rest Shimano - Curados from I to K to DC, TranX, Antares HG with Yumeya spool, three Metanium HGs etc. IMO for less than $150 online the Curado K is hard to beat and would be my choice bang for the buck. I would strongly recommend trying a lefty reel if you cast right handed, natural for me but a lot of friends have made the switch.

After reading thru, I've really got to try an NRX. The He3 LMH is one of my favorite rods so far and have three M Exprides and one ML which IMO are great, the NRX must be something special. Also, the Metanium HG came up several times, I switched two to the brass gears and Carbontex drag and left one stock, an easy swap and it really does make the reel even better.

The Kistler He3 LMH is probably my overall favorite rod, have two Magnesium 2s also which are excellent and sold a Light Mag2 which was a great rod, replaced with a Jackson Super Trickster L which I love paired with an Abu MGXtreme reel at 4.5 ounces. The Antares HG on a MB Super Orochi is a great combo. For travel the Bone rods break down to 22-23 inches and feel a lot like my Exprides. On a recent trip at the insistence of a buddy I used cheap $25 rods and junk reels and it was miserable, you really do get spoiled (luckily I did sneak in one Bone Voyage rod and a Metanium). However, nowadays you can get some d**n nice rods and reels in the $100 or so range.

You must have a smaller cat, I had to use the TranX to get any distance with my little fatty.

Thanks A-Jay! I'm in Palm Beach right near Mike at Hawgtech, have a few of his handles. My TranX 400 would occasionally kick into gear on a hard cast with the power handle if not paying attention to handle position, the Hawg handle cured that.

Those reels are awesome looking, guess I've got to get out more as I don't know what they are but will start looking. As for travel rods, I've ditched most of the others in favor of five Bone Voyages and one Combat Beast, the 6'3" BFS will complete the collection. It will be hard to cut the cord from dragging around a seven foot plus rod tube but so much easier.

I played with the 151 XG for four days in my back yard lake, am retired so that's a lot of casts. It's spooled with 40# Maxcuatro and used two rods, a 6'6" M Expride and a 7' LMH Kistler He3, 1/2 ounce or so jerk baits and a frog, tried spool tension from just barely no wiggle all the way to no lure drop. My take; Setting 1 is useless, lots of backlash without some serious thumbing. Setting 2 is great, works as designed. Setting 3 is between 1 and 2... my reel is dyslexic. Setting 4 works as designed. There are plenty of vids up showing the reel doing what it's supposed to so I took mine to the local Shimano repair guy yesterday.

I'll catch anything but these guys (technically a cichlid) just float my boat. My biggest largemouth (8.69# on the digital) fought like a four pound Florida pea, or a three pound Amazon pea.

Thank you Big Swimmer, my bad - the package says Glide Swimmer. I picked up a few S-wavers but will give the Shine Glide a go, new to glide baits but they sure do get bit whatever I'm fishing for.

Shine Glide first fish 3 lbs (peacock) no problem. Second fish, 13 lbs, Houston we have a problem. I might try again with a beefy front treble and removing the rear hook. I'm just glad it wasn't a big one heading for cover.

Greetings New guy here, just happened by. Making and/or painting your own lures is a lot of fun. You can go simple or very complex and nitpicky. I do dabble with an airbrush but have gotten some really decent results with rattle cans. You can search out all types including opaque, fluorescent, flakes etc. Here are a wood blanks that were done with just rattle cans and painting tape masks cut out with an Xacto knife, nylon netting for scale patterns and some hand detailing with a small brush on some. These are various off the shelf lures that I got the itch to modify, I do a lot of peacock bass fishing locally in South Florida and Brazil a few trips a year.