garroyo130

Agreed. What stinks is getting sucked into the vortex of youtube, facebook, amazon reviews to the point you start to believe that something is an incredible product only to buy it and be very disappointed. A lot of these smaller companies do an excellent job marketing their inferior products.

Fuego CT - about $20 more that KastKing Spartacus on amazon

Im sure the difference when done by a professional is night and day also

So I discovered 1 issue already. With the owner mosquito hooks, the eye is almost inline with the shank. Because of this, looping the tag end back through results in a hook that follows the line as opposed to sticking out of it. The finesse wide gap hook has a bent eye which when the tag is looped back around makes it stick out perpendicular as it is supposed to. ... progress ... lets see if the fish notice it

Lesson learned. I also learned I actually prefer the hollow "skateboard" feel you get when oiling all bearings instead of greasing them or using gear oil.

Thanks to all for your responses. I actually had some Gamakatsu finesse wide gap laying around so ill give those a shot along with your advice on hookset. I'll try to report back after Monday morning's fishing!

Sorry about the million questions here but do you guys mostly use straight fluoro? braid w/leader?

Not sure if it makes a difference but i am usually casting the rig. For those of you with excellent hookup ratios, do you find vertical vs casting makes a difference?

Are yall hooksetting up, across the body, sweeping?

I might downsize bait. If nothing else that will rule out bluegills nipping at the tail.

Rod is medium light fast. Power should be enough since I use it for weightless trick worms on a 2/0 hook with no problems. Line is 6lb yo zuri hybrid. Same line I use for weightless trick worms. I am seeing your hook gap is considerably larger than mine.

Do you drop the rod tip to get a better hookset like you would on say a texas rig or do you just hookset from wherever the rod is at?

Just got back home from what should have been a great fishing trip. I was throwing a drop shot on an owner mosquito hook size #1 and getting lots of bites but I only managed to land 1 fish out of about 10 strikes. This is worse than how I was doing previously (not that I was doing great), but I partly blame it on following the advice of looping the tag end back through the hook eye after cinching up the palomar knot. Anyhow any advice on dropshot hooksets would be appreciated.

$25 ... last I checked they were in the clearance cage Not sure how cheap were trying to go but for a low end light crank rod, the Lightning rod (not shock) in medium-moderate is excellent!

I was under there impression there were differences that made the JDM version cast better and be smoother?

I think it may be better stated as "spinning gear isn't able to present a lure GENTLY as accurately as casting gear". I myself wondered what people meant by spinning not being as accurate. The big difference lies in being able to stop a lure at a certain distance from you. With casting gear you are able to thumb the spool and very accurately control your presentation after the casting motion is complete. With spinning gear you get one chance at a perfect cast unless you want to abruptly stop the line and present the lure with a big splash. Now I'm sure some very skilled people can stop it gently but for me personally its not worth the effort of trying to learn.

Considering I haven't bought it yet, that's not a concern. Performance-wise does anyone have experience with both?

If both can be bought for the same price, what do you take and why?

Not directly related to this post, but how does dual support (like x-ship) benefit casting reels? The benefit on spinning reels is clear but I'm confused as to how it works on casting reels. The inner diameter of the pinion is typically larger than the inner diameter of the handle sideplate bearing. I always thought the spool shaft rode on that bearing and did not make contact with the pinion beyond the inner frame.

You mentioned MSRP of $99 but what is your true budget? What are you trying to stay around?

Cast retrieve, some pitching. Preferred length 7' MH or M depending on rod. $150 and under.

Hoping to find someone who owns both Ethos HD rods and Dobyns Fury casting rods. If anyone out there has experience with both of these rods, what are some differences and how have they held up? Based on limited in-store fondling I'd say the Ethos rod feels better but I'd like to hear about how they perform against actual fish. ***Edit*** I'm specifically looking for a jig/worm rod. Other suggestions are welcome.

Id actually argue the opposite. After having owned both cheap graphite and cheap aluminum framed reels, I find that graphite actually hides gear noise and vibrations better. For a test pick up one of those collegiate series Ardent Evercast reels ... thats what a poorly done aluminum framed reel feels like.

The problem isn't breaking, its flexing and its not something that happens overnight. I remember reading the countless posts about graphite frames flexing and didn't really believe it until I experienced it first hand. Now granted this was on a Pinnacle reel but it took about 10 years of fairly solid use for it to happen. I hooked into a solid bass one day and when reeling in ... nothing. Got home and took it apart and everything looked good. Drag worked properly and everything was fine. Went out fishing again and same thing. I may be wrong but I concluded that the frame was flexing to the point that the gears were not making contact under heavy load. The reel could still handle smaller fish perfectly when it was retired.

*Update* I tried gear oil and idk if I used the wrong kind but all i can tell you is that Super Lube Gear Oil ISO460 is a pain to clean! Its supposed to be the equivalent of 85w-140. Anyhow I discovered two things 1. I do not like gear oil on bearings and when used on spinning reel pinion gear support bearings it will likely get into the anti-reverse causing you all kinds of issues (trust me) 2. Although the most recommended cleaner on this forum seems to be lighter fluid, when trying to clean out that gear oil from the bearings it did not work. I also attempted to use carb cleaner ... that didn't work. As a last resort I reached for a can of MAF cleaner that I had lying around and WOW ... that stuff freed the bearings right up.