Gus Heinze

Congrats on the new gear, you're going to love the reel, I really like mine. Good luck!

My regular CT came a few weeks ago in the mail (bought on amazon) I noticed my local academy has sense put them on sale, can't speak for the type-R edition but the regular CT casts like butter, super smooth and FAR. I'm comparing this to my Bass Pro Pro Qualifier and Lew's Super Duty SD1H. Regular CT for $79 is a heck of a deal!

New reel and rod work like a dream. I'm no expert but I would compare this to fine hand tools, or quality cordless tools. I was using an older bass pro pro qualifier bait casting reel and rod, it's a nice setup but once I tried this Daiwa it's night and day difference. The Daiwa is SUPER smooth. I am able to cast it right at the spot where I'm aiming. I took it out for about 2 hours Saturday morning, tried another local pond with my boys and in 2 hours of casting only had 1 backlash. Had one bite and didn't set the hook properly, I had it on for a fraction of a second. I think it was getting too hot and we should have started earlier but we had a good time in the outdoors. I'm going to continue to read up on the forums and learn as much as possible. I'll also keep practicing my casting in the front yard, I set out 2 5-gallon buckets and cast a practice plug to them from different distances and angles.

Rod arrived in the mail today, everything is setup for an early Saturday morning trial run.

Congratulations Sir! Glad to hear everyone is doing just fine.

update: everything arrived but the rod. First for me, it was scheduled for delivery today but when I track it via UPS it says it's being held at customs. I was really lost, did some more digging and it states the packing slip was torn off the package and my item is being held at my local UPS office until they can confirm with the shipping company the correct destination of the package. I guess I could always go up there tomorrow to claim my package.

Thank you for the replies and advice. I went out last night with my 9 year old, he was using worms and caught his first catfish. I was throwing a 6" senko pumpkin colored and caught my first bass of 2017 using my bait-casting reel/rod. We had a BLAST!

So I'm pretty new to have a plan when fishing. In the past I've used my fly-rod, haven't had much problem pulling in smaller pan fish and the occasional bass using a wooly-bugger and sometimes a few nice hits on poppers. When I take my kids fishing we use worms, corn, minnows other types of what I'd call live bait and we catch fish. I want to learn how to use jigs, worms, (senko? I think it's called) frogs, etc...I'm trying to learn how to use my baitcasting reel rod (without birds nests) but the thing I'm not knowing how to do is attack the water. Do you have some sort of a system? For example do you start with top water, then go down from there? Do you just keep trying different lures and presentations until you get some bites? It might not help that it's SUPER HOT in Texas so I'm assuming most fish are extremely laid back this time of year I'd just to know how to have a better plan of attack other than what I'm doing now, which is tossing a frog and working on my baitcasting. 2 days, 0 bites. I also wonder about this fishing calendar, I think it works off the phases of the moon, it will say the best time for bites on a particular day are something like 2:06pm-3:42pm, it's close to 100 degrees here at those times, is that just a calendar for the entire world and not taking temperatures in to account? Thanks.

Ordered some good stuff via amazon, should arrive later this week. In the meantime I took my 2 boys out fishing, they are loving it! In the day time I bought some practice plugs and they pitch them towards 5 gallon buckets in the front yard. We went out tonight and my 9 year old caught a small blue-gill and my 6 year old caught a turtle (they were using corn and a bobber). As for my gear that's coming I went with the following: Daiwa Tatula CT 8BB, 7.3:1, Baitcast Fishing Reel, Right Hand - TACT100HS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CUWK29Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Daiwa Tatula Casting Rod 7'1" Medium Heavy X-Fast https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FPQUAFE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 KastKing SuperPower Braided Fishing Line - 65lb https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EFQYLOK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I also bought a few frogs lures, hoping to get some good strikes. Thanks again for all the help, advice, suggestions, and tips. Can't wait on the mail!

Awesome thank you sir!

Not sure if this is the correct section, but when my grandpa passed I inherited his fishing gear. Mainly it's a bunch of tackle, lures, hooks, weights, etc... Since none of the lures are in the original packing is there a way to tell the size? Is it as simple as a 1/2 oz casting spoon, weighs 1/2 oz? Therefor I can just weigh each lure? Next ?, I see a lot of videos online where anglers have multiple rod/reel setups for different applications, is this something I should work on in the future, i.e. If I'm working on finding a quality 7.1:1 reel then later should I for a slower ratio setup for crank baits or can you just learn to fish the quicker reel slower?

Yes thank you for the link, on those listings I'm seeing the 100XS which is 8.1:1 and the 100HSL (left hand) I'd prefer right hand, 100HS 7.3:1. Thank you for the link, I'll keep checking around. Here is what I've found on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Tatula-8BB-7-3-TACT100HS/dp/B01CUWK29Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502150926&sr=8-2&keywords=daiwa+tatula+ct

Bryan, Texas. Bryan/College Station, we're about 90 miles northwest of Houston it's where Texas A&M University is located.

Thank you everyone for your help and responses, I've been telling my wife this is hard or I'm making it harder than it should be. I've been looking for older equipment based on online reviews and keep coming up with "out of stock" "no longer available" this has been going on for 2 days. Now with the handful of posts in just a short time I've got a lot of options and plenty of more reading to do, best thing is I CAN find them to purchase! Thank you very very much! On a side note, I will say eBay isn't what it used to be, either that or other places like Amazon have figured out how to beat them for business. When I search for the Diawa Tatula TACT 100HS Amazon has it for $101.90 + free shipping, Ebay has one used for $120 + $4.29 shipping. Why on earth would I buy something used for $24 more than new?

Thank fishnkamp and Fishin' Fool. I'm not sold on Lew's they just seem to get good reviews. I haven't heard of Daiwa (again I'm new to this stuff) so I'm off to do read up on Daiwa. Thank you gents! I did see some Daiwa rods at my local Academy, atleast I remember seeing the brand.

So I'm relatively new to bait casting, I have a couple of nice fly fishing setups but I enjoy the challenge and control of bait casting over spinning rods. I am a pond fisher so I will be on the banks. This is where it can get difficult with the fly rod when trees and tall weeds are present. I've been reading a lot of reviews online, watching YouTube videos and have a list of my "wants". I'm looking for a good quality 7' Medium Heavy Fast Action rod, was looking for an older Denali Jadewood "Jig Rod" but they seem to be older either "out of stock" or "not available." For the reel I was looking for a Lew's Tournament MG Speed Spool 7.1:1 but they too are older and I'm just not having any luck finding one. If I can find one it's a 6.4:1, it's asking $130 buy it now on eBay and it seems like I can get a NEW MB model for close to that, I can't find an MB in 7.1:1, only a 7.5:1 (any thoughts on the MB vs MG)? Everyone seems to give the Lew's Tournament MG very high grades but they don't make them anymore, what replaced this reel? Same with the Revo SC it has great reviews but is no longer available, why do they not have a "discontinued model, replaced by XYZ" Eventually I'd like to get multiple rods/reels I'm thinking 3 to have a good variety of weapons. Starting out I'd mainly be using jigs, casting spoons, Senko, and some frogs. This is why I was wanting to stick with 7.1:1. I don't fish too many deep ponds that would need crank baits and what I would assume needs a slower 5.6:1. I was looking at the MG b/c it's aluminum, seems like some reviews of the carbon fiber models hint towards less durability, I'm looking for a quality strong reel. I was hoping to spend in the $200-$300 range for the reel & rod. Locally I only have an Academy and Walmart both of which are picked pretty thin, I'm not against driving to Houston to check out BPS if they have something that y'all recommend. I'm also fine with shopping online. Maybe I'm not searching the proper key words but it seems like the majority of reviews I find are from 2015 or prior, when I go looking for that gear they are discontinued or no longer available. Can someone recommend a few options so I can do some more research? Thank you for the help.