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I don't have one of those rods, but one of my sons does. he uses it for launching Big Carolina rigs with big 10-12" worms into the deep water looking for big summertime bass in Texas. He says the same thing. He says it is surprisingly sensitive considering the price and the power of that rod.

I know right? One of my sons is the same way though. He tried Daiwa...too big he says, tried Lews and it felt just right but not up to par otherwise. Finally he went to the Shimano Scorpion 70 and the Curado 70 and he is happy with those....so far.

Pretty much any of the mechanical line counter, including the ones built into line counter reels are set up for a specific diameter. From my experience usually the equivalent to either 14 or 15lb mono.

I think I would keep all the rods too because they are all pretty good rods. THIS! Send the reels to a pro and they will tear them completely down and clean them in a sonic cleaner, inspect for worn parts etc. If they are just dirty and not broken too badly, you should be able to get all 4 done for maybe $200. The thing is that you probably couldn't buy a new reel of the same quality for that price. The Daiwa TD-X was just under the top of the line up to about 2005 or so. Great reels. Magnesium frame and side plates. That is why it looks like yellowed plastic where the paint is gone. It might be ugly, but cleaned up it will fish like a champ. The new Morrum 3600 is about $400. The old one is a little dated but still a really nice reel.A keeper for sure The Curado Bantam is a classic and built like a tank. Lots of guys love them. I wouldn't sell any of that stuff if it were me. It's all high quality gear.

It IS apples to apples. In all cases we are talking about things that are bought because we like them. They are discretionary purchases. Unless you make your living riding a motorcycle, hunting big game, or bass fishing, these things are all "hobby" type of purchases. If you NEED a rifle on the cheap, you can get a Savage or CZ for well under $1000 that will do everything you need it to do, or a plastic service pistol for under $500. But some of us choose to buy fine old Mausers and finely tuned Les Baer pistols instead. It is all about where we, as individuals choose to spend our money. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that among the folks on this forum who argue that buying the best reels are a waste of money, there are a good many that don't have a problem with buying expensive trucks, or spending a fortune on a McMansion or even thousands on landscaping that mostly benefits the neighbors. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with any of these things. I just wish that people would see that it is simply choices we make instead of thinking that the things they do are perfectly sensible and the things others might choose instead are a waste of money.

I have rifles that are worth 5 brand new Steez reels each. A great pistol will cost more than 5 Conquest rods. And then there are the folks crabbing about spending over $100 on a reel. I get it, for some it is a matter of budget. For the others. I don't know, I guess they value money above all else.

I don't see much ego in it. Who would notice? The guy in the boat 100 yrds. away? For me it is simpler than that. I have somewhere around 40 different combos right now, ranging from a Daiwa Laguna reel on a Laguna MF rod, a $80 rig to Steez, TD-z, and Px68R on Megabass and Daiwa Black Label rods. The Lagunas aren't terrible, they catch fish if I do my part and they don't feel like rattle trap junk. I have a couple of Tatulas, CT-R and SV-TW, that I bought new and put them on St Croix rods. They are decent too. But yet, somehow when I am picking 5 or 6 to take out on the boat, the combos that 9 times out of 10 get the call are the Megabass rods with 10 and 15 year old Steez, TD-Z, and PX68R. It has nothing to do with ego, it's simply that those combos just feel better and I enjoy them the most. Since the whole point of fishing is my enjoyment, that matters big. I'm choosing to use 15 year old top of the line reels rather than brand new $200 reels, so I'd have to say yeah, there's something to it.

I think it's a catch 22 thing here. Given the braking on the KK reel you are much more likely to not have a happy experience with bait caster than you would be if you bought the Shimano or Diawa, so the money is more likely to be wasted. Not a good beginner reel in my opinion. On the other hand, if you spend a little more you would have a much better chance of figuring out how to throw the bait casters and so have a happy experience and so would not have wasted the money. Hey..it's your money and your happy experience. All we can do is off advice. Probably doesn't hurt that you know how to throw on a bait-caster either. Which is an advantage that the OP doesn't have. Darn it. Sucked in again by an old zombie thread...

I tried to like the St Croix rods. I bought 2 LTB rods and really don't care much for them. They are built well, finished nice and use good materials and all that but they just don't feel good to me. They seem kind of lifeless, thick and stiff, and tip heavy. I think they are quality rods, but not at all my style. Maybe the the Legends ARE great rods, but I've already spent almost $600 on St.Croix and am not too keen on spending $600 on another one on the chance that they are somehow a different style of rod. Not when I can spend that on a Steez rod or a Megabass and know that I'm going to like it...or half that on a Cara.

I don't think that you have to know specifically what Falcon's options are or were. They are about the same as just about everyone else's that are trying to make rods in the US. I say that because unless you are St. Croix, or TFC, you really don't have many options aside from an inconsistent supply of various spec blanks from several companies. St.Croix stopped selling their blanks wholesale. TFC keeps taking orders but reportedly aren't actually delivering the rods in any predictable way. There are a few other smaller companies making blanks in the US but they are focused on selling small retail to builders. How would a small outfit like Falcon acquire a rod rolling company to begin with unless they buy one in Viet Nam or China. That is do-able for Shimano or Diawa but not for a tiny American company. That is the point...there is hardly anyone making rods here in the USA and most of what few there were are either gone or failing. Boycotting small American companies that have no choice or say in the matter won't fix the problem. If you want to boycott, maybe you should be boycotting the huge multi-corporations that are behind the global economy. They like it because it benefits them and they don't give a rat's rear end whether guys like us buy Falcon rods or not. Maybe you should be boycotting Apple, Chevrolet, Amazon, Pet, Nestles, GE, Con-Agra and etc. Maybe, and it's a big maybe, some of this could be turned around if people voted for politicians who are for American manufacturing, but that is a long-shot at best. Nations have become pretty much powerless against the global corporations. Which of course, is one the things that multinationals like best about the global economy.

IIRC they used to make their rods in the US using ARK blanks also made in the US. Now, I believe they are making them in the US from Chinese blanks as ARK no longer sells blanks. The problem is that there are very few companies making good blanks in the USA and even fewer who sell those blanks in any kind of quantity. In fact, at this point, I can't think of any that do. So, I'll ask all those who are so against the foreign suppliers, where would you suggest that smaller companies like Falcon buy blanks? Or, is it just tough luck for small American companies like them?

I agree with much of what you say here and would only point out that what you (or me) might consider "handicapping themselves" only applies to us and not the other guy who is choosing what they like to do. In other words the guy who only fly fishes isn't handicapping himself unless he, like you say, has set his priority to catch more and bigger fish. The guy who only fly fishes hasn't the same priorities as you have. If he enjoys fly fishing more than anything else, he would likely think that it is you who handicapped yourself by wasting time with your choice of gear. I know guys who really only fish for giant catfish. I wouldn't limit myself to that, but they do and wouldn't have it any other way. They catch 30-50lb fish every year. I also know guys who go down to Mississippi and fish for Crappie using 8-pole spider rigs. These guys will might catch 100 or more Crappie a day. I know a few guys who mainly troll for white bass who catch well over 100 a day. Are these big enough fish or enough fish? They might say you are limiting yourself by not throwing a half pound of liver doused in stink juice, or not having 50 hooks in the water at once. In fact, you do not fish by your own rules. You handicap yourself by not trolling multiple Umbrella rigs or using nets to fish with, both of which are better tools if catching more fish is the only aim. I'm with you 100% until the part where you, (in a very nice way) claim that YOUR way of doing it is superior to those that have chosen another way to get their enjoyment because you are more practical. Myself, I like seeing what I can do with lighter gear, I really don't care to cast frogs and big spin-baits for the most part even though I know that doing so is a better way to catch the bigger fish often times. I just don't care about that. Does that make me wrong? Am I impractical? No, I am just doing what I like doing the same as you are.

Love the Steez gear but hate the name. "Steez" is an "urban" (read Hip-hop) appellation meaning "Style with Ease". Yeah, whatever right?

I didn't see any real hostility, maybe a just a touch of tempers and some "witty repartee" here and there. Trust me, it was a good thread. This thread has over 2,200 views. You have to go back quite a ways to find a thread that had more views than this one, so somebody found it interesting I'd say.

The first fishing rig I ever had was a Tru-Temper brand telescopic steel rod and reel. The reel was pretty much as you described yours. Back then if you wanted to cast much you used a spinning set-up or a spin-caster. The bait-casters were pretty much used for bait fishing where we'd put heavy chunk of lead a few feet up the (braided cotton) line, and then put a chunk of bait on the hook and launch it over the side. You'd peel off line as the current took you away from the spot. We would anchor some distance away and then sit, eat sandwiches, and talk while we waited for something to happen.

I have been using Rapala braid scissors for the last 5 or 6 years. They work great on all line types. I am on my 2nd set, but only because my son dropped my 1st set into the lake a couple of years ago.

There is nothing wrong with where this thread went. I would feel pretty good if I were you. This has drawn 5 pages of comments, hundreds of views and has contained a lot of real opinion sharing. Threads go where they want to go once they are started. If this thread went somewhere it is because there was a need for the discussion. There is nothing wrong with a little dissension and back and forth. That is how things are moved ahead. You get nowhere by sitting in a circle and nodding heads in Groupthink lockstep. It is not necessary to come to agreement on everything and a compromise does not HAVE to be reached. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the short little advice column threads where, like the old retired plumber working at Home Depot, you are simply answering the same old questions for newbies over and over. In fact these type of threads are a real service. BUT.....you have to leave it open for the people that aren't newbies to argue over the opinions that they've formed over the years. Finally, there is nothing wrong with disagreeing and arguing points in a forum. But you cannot have people resorting to Ad Hominem attacks as a part of their strategy. This thread was successful as it allowed people to argue over something that many felt needed discussed and nobody got too carried away. This forum is pretty well moderated for the most part and if anything, I would expect them to kill a thread like this a little early rather than see it go too far into the mud. Kudos to them for not pulling the plug on a healthy but lively discussion as a preventative measure.

Actually I have been thinking about doing something like that. At this point I'm looking for particular oddball rods and I've been thinking the last 6 months or so, that maybe I ought to get into making my own rods. I would love to have an 8' UL casting rod and I could build that using a spinning blank...

Yep, that's they way I took it too. I'm sort of the same way. I'll go for a while using nothing but casting gear, then I'll get a yearn to use a spinning set-up for some reason and then once I do I'll remember that I like it and be into that for a while. Right now I'm kind of getting to that point. I have my casting gear pretty well set, and I keep thinking about how I haven't used much of my spinning gear (other than L/UL) for a couple of years and I am noticing that my casting gear is much better stuff than my spinning stuff....yep, the bait monkey is starting to chatter about spinning gear...

Yeah, I think they are not equivalent per se, but there is maybe 90% overlap within which a fisherman is going to choose based on a number of things. Sometimes the spinning might be a little better at this or that, but not enough better so that it would out weigh the better accuracy of the caster for example. Sometimes the slight disadvantage of one or the other just isn't big enough to overcome the fact that most people will have a preference for using one more than the other. At the extremes you pretty much ought to use one or the other. I can't imagine throwing little 1/16 fly baits better on a caster, and I wouldn't care to throw a big Alabama rig on spinning reel. In both cases you COULD, but it is a major PITA to do it.

I think I understand the post. I do not believe that he is talking down bait-casters. He is talking down the people that are saying that casting works well for finesse. The parts I disagree with are that in spite of several people who actually fish the finesse techniques with casting gear saying so, the post goes on as if it were a known fact that you have to use spinning gear in some cases. That just isn't true. The point is that you DON"T have to give up a boat load of fish because you prefer to use casting gear for finesse. And the other thing is that those of us saying casting is good for finesse too, are not saying so because "they have that faux macho man mentality" nor is anyone "insist on using casting" because 'your a Masochist then it all makes sense". . Maybe it's true that HE would have to give up on half the fish, if so, most likely because he, preferring to use the spinning gear in these situations, doesn't have bait casting gear that will work very well for finesse. I have no problem with that at all. Everybody does what they like. It's a good thing. I have a PX68R with a 7gm spool and ceramic bearings that I really can't use #10 line on because with no lure on it, if I have more than 3' or so of bare line out on it it will pull line off the spool. I have no trouble whatsoever using it for finesse techniques. There are a few limitations of course. But none that apply to bass fishing as far as I can see. I almost alway use spinning gear fishing for Crappie, not because I can't use casting gear, but because sometimes you want a 10-12' L rod and those are spinning rods. Other times I just use a spinning rig just because I want to use a spinning rig. I like and use them both, but not because I have to to fish finesse. I haven't noticed that so much on vertical drops, but one place I have noticed something like that is long casting lighter Carolina rigs to the deep water. The light finesse spools don't have enough line, and the casting spools that have enough line are heavy enough so that the weight of the lure, once it hits the water isn't enough to turn the spool fast enough so it seems like the bait gets pulled toward the boat as it falls. Not a good thing if you are trying to drop the bait in a particular spot. I give what I get..

Pretty much what I was thinking..

I guess you missed the point on part of this. The point that some of us are making is that you can do those finesse things as well on casting gear as you can on spinning gear these days if someone prefers to use it. So given that, please explain how not using a spinning rig is going to limit the fish caught, paint yourself in a corner etc.

Yeah, because we all know that a rod can't be a top performer AND look good.

Actually, that rig is designed more as a fast river fishing rig targeting salmon and the like. It's good for throwing 1/2 to 1-3/4 oz baits and is actually kind of a whippy rod. I use it sometimes for throwing across the river trying to catch Walleye in the fast current below reservoir dams in the spring. For lighter stuff there I use an 8' L/F spinning rig. You are right about the surf casters. I've seen a guy haul in a 6' shark on a spinning rig. Should be able to handle a bass I think.