PTasker15

I haven't seen many reviews about this combo around so i figured I'd start and update a thread to put another review out there. The Lew's Reactor Speed Stick and both spinning and baitcasting reels of the same name are (as far as I'm aware) the most expensive Lew's Wal-Mart in-store rods and reels. You can buy baitcasting and spinning combos as well as spinning and baitcasting rods, but only the baitcasting reel is available for sale. The spinning combo rod comes in a 7 foot, medium power (1/8oz to 1/2 oz) fast action. The rod also comes in 1 piece, and is rated for 4-12lb test line. The rod is a split grip but the distance between the two grips is only about 2 inches. The butt grip is very long comapred to other rods of this style. The reel is a 3000 size reel. I'm not sure how powerful the drag is but it seems to be somewhere around 15lbs. It's a 6.2:1 gear ratio and can hold 210 yards of 6lb test (presumably mono), 175 yards of 8lb test, and 145 yards of 10lb test. Probably based on lew's brand Strike King and their line. 1 Day (5/13/23) I'll just start with what I don't like; the reel is noisy. Whether its a defect, needs to be broken in, or needs oil I don't know yet but it sounds the same as a reel that has had braid on it for a while. Despite that it doesn't affect combo performance. The reel otherwise is nice. Pretty fast and the drag system is powerful and decently smooth. Drag is very quiet compared to every other spinning reel I've used. Personally, I like my dopamine producing drag sounds but it's still a good drag. Lots of people dislike the oversized wind grip knobs but I think they're pretty neat Rod is quite stiff. Great for wacky, texas, drop shot, small jigs, ned, etc. The rod, being IM8 graphite, is insanely sensitive. The only other rod I've had that can come close to comparison is the Fenwick Eagle. I am able to feel bites from 60 feet away on slack lines mono. I can only imagine how great this will be when I braid it up. Lastly, this combo handles softball turtles great. Don't know why they wanted a wacky worm today but ok I guess.

Thanks. I'll give it a shot, and Ill buy 300yds of 8lb mono for leader so ill use it as backing anyways.

On a good day our visibility is 3 foot

How can I measure so I can get the right amount of backing without wasting braid? My reel doesnt say the capacity for 10lb braid or 8lb test mono

I'll give her a shot then. Texas can be nasty but again when it does get nasty, I have heavier rigs.

That it is. What works for you may not work for me. What works for me may not work for you. I think I''ll try a cheap mono backing and then spool the rest with something between 10-14lb braid. No leaders and we'll see how she goes. I don't mind losing a fish, sometimes I find it humbling. I just dont want to break off and leave a hook in a fish. I can always buy leaders later if I decide I need them.

I might see if I can find 12lb braid. I dont think I would need a leader because of how dirty my water (1-3 ft visibility) is. My need for a leader would be because of abrasion, for the odd chance theres a stick poking out or a rock at just the right place. Is braid without a leader actually that prone to breaking? Never tried it.

I wish I had thought of a cool name like y'all. "Darth-Baiter" Again I just like 10lb for casting distance, power isn't really what I care about. Again I have a few 20lb braid setups I can use when I need. I used to throw wacky on 4lb test mono. So light I could see taps on my slack line and also feel them, but it was too underpowered. 8lb mono only shows me when the line moves. Have reeled in a few that I didnt even know were on. My casting distance is amazing but I would like more. Plus I couldn't take advantage of that casting distance on the 8lb mono because of how much slack was in the line at a distance of 70 feet. But 8lb mono was powerful enough to still fight fish away from places like weeds, so I figure 10lb braid to a short 8lb leader would give me a little more power while gaining some better sensitivity and easier to see and watch slack line compared to the nightmare mono can be to see on a cloudy day. 3000 series. I've used 10lb braid briefly in the past and dealt with poor casting distance and line memory (fireline, which some people told me gets it sometimes). Again I really just want a good fight and I feel like 15lb much be a bit much? I know 10lb is enough for what I plan for it but I also want it to work. Again I plan to get a spool of 150 yds and spool it on after a 30-40yd mono backing. I like 4x braid, so might that courseness help with issues reels may have with such light braid?

I prefer lighter line and a good fight. Again I'm fishing wacky, texas, shakey. When I run into cover, I have rigs with 20lb braid and 15lh leaders which will handle that fine, but I don't find too bad of cover often. I don't really use ned or dropshot. The issue with no backing and such a small line is that I would have to put nearly 300yds on a 3000 size reel, and it might be a little hard locally to find 300yds of 10lb test Chartruse or Orange braided line. Can barely find 10lb anyways.

I do not care about visibility when the color white will always disappear after about 3 foot deep. But, we do have some nasty rocks and wood in some places I do fish, and I know from experience braid cuts extremely easily under tension when it runs against something sharp. How much backing should I add? 3000 size reel so it could probably take 250yds of 10lb braid which would not be very cheap for me.

Two things i forgot to ask, I want to use a 8lb braided mainline with a 8lb mono leader. This should work? Also, what color? There's yellow, neon green, and orange. All should be fine but I wonder what may work best?

Thanks. Lastly what brands do you recommend? I've been using PowerPro 4x and I like it but the "paint" that gives the line it's colors wears off extremely fast. Otherwise it works great. But I want to try Daiwa J Braid 4x or Yozuri as I've heard good things.

What leader? I've used both mono and fluoro as leaders and the only difference I've noticed is a slight decrease in sensitivity while using mono. As a budget angler, if I can get away with spending ~$20 for my braid mainline, backing, and leader over nearly $40 for just about the same thing, id rather that?

I'll give the Lew's combo a try, since I can't find either of those rods or reels or anything similar locally. If I don't like the Lew's reel, I can sell it for a small penny later and get a Daiwa or Shimano reel that is available.

I'm looking at a new finesse setup (wacky, texas, shakey) and looking at braid. I plan to use 8/10lb test to a 8lb fluoro/mono leader. I wondered if I could get away with a high vis braid like orange or green since I'll have a leader? I like letting my wacky worms and Texas Rigs sink on slack line and figure the line could make small bites easier to see. I live in the south where the water can sometimes look like chocolate milk if that matters.

It's a spinning rod and reel combo, rod and reel is based on the Laser TXS, Xfinity, Carbon Fire, etc. So I couldn't gt the Lew's LFS since its a casting reel. I'll see how the reel hods up.

The combo is a mix between a $60 rod and $~40 reel. Granted when these combos are mixed, you can expect a little lower quality than buying the rod and reel separately. I would still think of it as a slightly improved lew's Xfinity.

Looking at getting a new rod and reel for wacky rigging so went around academy and Wal-Mart today. Looked through many combos but settled between a few combo, like Lew's Hack Attack, Lew's Xfinity, Lew's Laser Txs, and one I haven't seen before; Lew's Reactor. The reactor so far seems to beat all the others. IM8 compared to IM7 amd IM6. A 7' rod compared to a 6'6, a metal reel seat lock compared to plastic on the rest. Reel seems smooth too (for $80), and has a good drag. Anyone used this before? Can't find many reviews on it compared to the others. Also I'm not really looking for other reccomendations, as.I need a fast action rod that's rated for atleast 1/8 -1/2 or 5/8oz. Shimano, Daiwa, Abu, were all rated for 1/4-3/4. On a budget so need to buy a rod and reel together preferably.

I'll pick up a 7' Medium XF/F that's rated around 1/8-1/2. Hopefully you are right. Lastly do you recommend 8lb or 10lb braid?

Im on a good budget so around $60-120 is my range. If thats not a good range for my techniques, Daiwa AIRD's weight range for their 7' ML rod is (1/8-1/2) oz, and then I can get either a 2000 or 3000 Lew's Laser Speed Spool, or any reel you would suggest in the $35-$45 range. I recently used weightless 5" senko (both wacky and texas) on ultralight 5' and 4lb test and got good results, it had just enough power to set the hook and keep them there. Actually recently caught my PB with this. Only downside was the second they ran into any cover they were lost (luckily they got off and spit the hook instead of breaking off). I would think that a 7' or 6'6 ML with 10lb braid could do a little better. I also fish my weightless senkos with mostly slack line, . I'm great at watching my line and wait for 1) ripples to form along the slack line (taps) or 2) line to start moving. I reel slightly (or let them pick up the rest of my slack if i only have about a yard or two of slack) and slam the hook. I've gotten lots of bites and fish this way, and it has worked great. Although when fishing creature like lizards and lsowly hopping them through over, thats when I remove as much slack as I can, but I rarely fish weightless creatures except for spawn which is over here.

Yes a 5" Senko. 20lb braid, 15lb Fluorocarbon Leader, 6'10 Medium heavy rod. I'll check again soon but I recall not being able to throw very far. Also I enjoy a fight, so hence my preference for 10lb over 15. Though I understand if my fish runs into a bunch of weeds I may not get them out.

Thanks. This should all go together good with 10lb braid/ 8lb mono right?

I'm looking at the Lew's Laser SG. 2000 size weighs 8.5 oz and 3000 weighs 8.7 oz. Lew's Laser SG1 6'6ML would weigh 5.5oz. My other option is the Daiwa AIRD 7' ML, it doesn't have a weight but should weigh around the same as the Lew's Laser SG1. It was originally my first pick but its lure weight range (1/8-1/2oz) I was told is not as suited to my techniques as the Lew's SG1's range (1/16-3/8oz).

I meant 2000 but yeah. I mean ones that are Texas Rigged, #2/0 EWG or #1/0 Offset Worm Hook. My Ultralight on 4lb test has just enough power to hook a fish with this, but not enough to hook it well enough to keep them hooked during a jump or hard fight. So i figured a little heavier line and rod could handle this. I have a Medium-Heavy bait caster running 20lb braid but the casting distance is poor (about 20 feet) compared to my 5 foot ultralight with only 70yds of 4lb test which can chuck a weightless senko or wacky worm 50 or 60 foot easily, so i figured a 6'6 Medium-Light rod on 150yds of 10lb braid could get better distance that MH but have enough power to hook a good bass better than UL.

I want to invest more into techniques like wacky, ned, small jigs, and weightless senkos after recent success. I've picked out a 6'6 Medium-Light Spinning rod with a 3000 size reel and 10lb braid as my candidate to perform these. I fish bank with little cover. One lake I fish has heavy rocks but I seldom use these techniques there. I want to know if this combination of gear I have picked will handle the techniques I want.