CDMTJager

Would yo be so kind as to explain why you feel the Shimano SLX MGL is a superior reel to the Daiwa?

Great thanks for the suggestions thus far. I have a question. What importance does the number of ball bearings play in the over all performance and durability of a baitcasting reels within the same price point? In other words does a a baitcasting reel with 7 or 8 bearings have any district or significant advantage over a reel with only 4-5 bearings? I would think to a point, the more bearings a reel has the longer it should last and the smoother it should operate given there are a significantly larger number of bearings for the wear, friction and stress forces to be distributed among.

Looking to buy two new RIGHT hand retrieve baitcasting reels and would like to go up in over all quality VS what I have now. My absolutely can not go over budget is $130 per reel. My research has lead me to one of the two: Abu Garcia Revo X Gen4 at $120 Daiwa Tatula CT 100H at $130 Would appreciate recommendations on which to buy and why you prefer one over the other. I currently own more than just a few Abu Garcia's (four older 4500's and two Max Pro's) and have zero complaints but I was quite impressed with the large number of sterling reviews the Daiwa Tatula CT reels I found. But I also read the Gen4 Revo X is also a great reel, many reviews claiming it is on par with the Tatula. The price difference is not a factor. I am asking mostly because I have never owned a Daiwa reel before casting or spinning so I have no 1st hand experience with Daiwa reels. My sons and I fish from the bank about 90% of the time and these reels would be for bass and walleye fishing.

For hooks Polymer everything else Trilene knot.

My exact experience. I bought a 600yrd spool last year of 12# YZH thinking it was 15lb. When I discovered my mistake I was spooling up two baitcasters and for my sons to use night before we were to leave on a vacation that had them spending two days at Cedar Point AP while I fished and four days of us fishing together. Was absolutely satisfied with the 12# YZH in every way possible. Was going to try some higher end fluorocarbon this year but I have been so absolutely satisfied with YZH I am sticking with it for all of my non-braided fishing line uses. Stuff is amazingly strong and abrasion resistant and cast very very well and it is VERY affordable and in my opinion Yo-Zuri hybrid is THE BEST bargain in fishing line there is. A 600yrd spool of 8-15lb line is $10. Been using 8 and 10lb YZH for all my spinning applications for over four years and 15lb for my baitcasters for four years and now 12# and I can not say a single bad word about Yo-Zuri hybrid it is my new favorite go to non braided line.

No joke I'm ordering the components you listed from TWHS as I type this. The link to your jig didn't work but the link to your WS did. Thank you will order a couple grass jigs and give them a try. I have a huge number of bass lakes within 1.5hrs of my home, ALL of them end up with HUGE areas of grass and pads by late May early June.

AJ, great thanks for your help and for the time and effort to share it with me. I saved this on my puter and printed it out. That set up REALLY intrigues me and I will absolutely give it a try 100% Thank you.

Thanks a great deal to all who replied. I need at several more baitcasting setups for my sons to use and these rods seamed to be a good choice at thier current price, and a better rod for this price range than what's available OTC at my local Cabela's. Again thanks for all the replies.

Thank you for the reply. I'm not really that picky when it comes to fishing rods. As long as it's the right action and tip and it is well made and I feel I got my $$$'s worth I am happy. I have very highly reviewed baitcasting and spinning rods that originally cost $200 I bought on sale for $120-$150 and $150 dollar rods I bought on sale for well under $100 that IMO the cheaper rod felt more sensitive to me when fishing soft plastics.

My 2c FWIW I have 50+ years fishing experience. Started out with Stren, for the 1980's moved to Trilene XL and XT in the mid 1990's. Tried braid first time in 1995 or 96 used Berkeley fire line because I didn't want to spend WAY over $100 on a rod with titanium nitride eye guides so I could use Spider Line because I was fishing for smallmouth at warm water discharges on lake michigan and every surface was covered in zebra mussels and I got tired of losing 4lb+ small mouth and $6 cranks and tube jig setups to line getting cut by zebra mussels. About four years ago gave Yo-Zuri copolymer a try on the recommendation of the best steelhead and salmon small stream fisherman I have ever seen or known (he spends at least 60 days a year chasing steelhead and salmon in the creeks of our state, Michigan and Wisconsin and many out in the big lake as well) as the best all around line he ever used based on a combination of cost, invisibility to fish, ability to cast both light (3/16-1/4oz) spinning lures and drift fish tied eggs and skein, much greater knot strength and abrasion resistance than straight mono (Trilene XT was our goto line for salmon/steelhead creek fishing). I did as he advised and was are now a huge fan of Yo-Zuri copolymer and it has replaced all of my mono applications. I now use 6, 8 or10 lb Yo-Zuri copolymer for all my spinning needs on 9 or 10 spincasting set ups from my sons and I and are extremely happy with it. I use either a Polymer or trilene knot. After four years of use I feel comfortable strongly recommending it to others. Bare in mind I now must outfit my two sons with both spinning and casting setups. I have 10lb Power Pro HI-Vis on two spinning setups for Wacky worm fishing with a 10lb Yo-Zuri Copoly leader And one spinning set up with 15lb Power pro for casting poppers because I use a 7'3" MH/M rod and are astonished how far I can cast a 3/8oz Rebel PopR with it, For my 8 baitcasting setups for 2023 I used: Four have 15lb Yo-Zuri Copoly Two have 20lb Trilene Big Game One has Power Pro 30lb One has Power Pro 50lb I plan on taking one of the set ups with Trilene Big Game and filling it with 16lb SPRO Essential Series Gouken Fluorocarbon to be my dedicated Jig rod to learn how to fish jigs in 2024 and to give fluorocarbon a try. Of all the lines you listed as using, if you're on a budget, I can recommend Trilene Big Game as the most affordable great all around baitcasting line it never let me down and is likely THE best buy in a tough abrasion resistant baitcasting line that also (at least in my experience) casted quite well, but I never casted any luer lighter than 3/8oz with it and never used any test other than 20lb. I used it as my dedicated spinner bait, chatter bait and buzzbait setup and crank bait baits from 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz. I can not speak to if it will work if used for fishing jigs or soft plastics because I only use Yo-Zuri copoly and spinning gear for soft plastics. The other line you listed was Yo-Zuri copolymer, which is now go to non braided line is now Yo-Zuri copolymer and can not recommend it strongly enough for spinning setups fishing soft plastics, crankbaits and jerkbaits 3/8oz and lighter. Yo-Zuri copoly is also my goto line for when fishing any live bait or drift fishing skein or tied eggs for salmon/steelhead, or fishing ultra light for panfish. For baitcasting line I have had excellent results using 15lb Yo-Zuri copoly, Trilene BG and my Power Pro Spectra Braid, and let me tell you I literally can cast close to 60 yards with a 1/2oz crank bait and 50lb Power Pro. I can not get over how much farther I can cast with Power Pro braid VS anything else. For fishing heavy soft plastics I do not see how you can go wrong with giving Yo-Zuri copolymer a try. I have used it to fish Texas rigged worms 7, 8, and 10" long, 4.25, 4, 3.25 and 3" beaver baits and 6" creature baits with every bit as much success as I did using trilene XL for over 25 years. But if you are confident you're not missing any bass due to them seeing the braided line, then stick with it. But I would at least recommend you try a leader of fluorocarbon or Yo-Zuri a good solid multi outing try to see if braid is costing you any fish because the see it. In my experience with Yo-Zuri copoly you can go one breaking strength under what you're use to using as it's diameter runs a bit big for its advertised breaking strength. My experience with Power Pro Spectra braid has been excellent and it is the only braid I use. I use 50lb and 30lb for frog fishing, and 10lb HI-VIS line with a Yo-Zuri leader to help with fishing Wacky worms. I started using 15lb for poppers so I could cast farther from shore. Although rather pricey initially, I'm on my third season of using it on the same spinning and casting setups and it's still performing like new so it is somewhat cost efficient for long term use. Because I fish lakes that have a minimum 3-5' visibility under normal conditions and rivers that have more than 5' visibility I do not use braid for soft plastics and as I am giving jigs a try this year I will not use braid for them either so I have no experience using braid with soft plastics or jigs I can offer you. I can tell you braid has worked excellent with frogs, and 15lb braid worked excellent with surface poppers. Although I have used it to fish lighter cranks, spinner baits and chatter baits all under 3/8oz so I could get significantly longer casts from shore VS non-braided lines, I have watched more than a few pro's caution against using braid for cranks, spinner baits and chatter baits as the zero stretch of braid in their opinions/experience tends to make fish miss lures they only make half hearted grabs at, they would have likely have gotten hooked if you were using non-braided line. I have no idea if true as I've only been using braid for hard sided baits for a few years not enough time to see if that is true or not. I would advise you use the lines you have on hand that match up with the ones most highly recommend by those who responded to your post and combined with your own experiences make a well informed decision. FWIW if tomorrow I could only use ONE fishing line the rest of my fishing years I would choose Yo-Zuri copolymer. Why? Because in June of last year while my boys were spending my money at Cedar Point AP I went fishing at a huge public access marina with three boat lunches and over 50 slips in pursuit of legendary lake Erie smallmouth. I started fishing at 9:30 using live soft-shell crayfish. I did within 10 minutes catch two back to back 3lb+ smallies, then from about 9:45am till 7:30pm I got 45 sheepshead on and 37 in. Best guess is they averaged over 4lbs, many over 6lbs with two that I measured over 28" and I was using 8lb Yo-Zuri copolymer and never had my line or knot brake a single time. I forgot to add I can offer no RECENT first hand experience using 100% fluorocarbon line as this year I will be giving it a second try this time using 14lb SPRO Essential Series Gouken Fluorocarbon for use with fishing jigs for the first time ever this year. I did give P-Lines 100% fluorocarbon (10 or 12lb test) a try about 6-7 years ago and on spinning gear creek fishing for steelhead/salmon as EVERYONE was saying fluorocarbon was the most abrasion resistant non-braided line there was, but it gave me way to many problems with rats nests and I abandoned it and returned to my old stand by Trilene XT. I am very interested to see how well my above fluorocarbon of choice perfromes fishing jigs VS my current standby of Yo-Zuri copolymer as I am setting up two baitcasters for jig fishing, one with fluorocarbon one with YZ copoly to see which I like better as I have enjoyed much success using YZ copoly for all my soft plastics. My only real fishing goal fro for 2024 is to become confident in fishing jigs and then teach my sons what I have learned.

13 Fishing Blackout casting rod is on sale at TWHS for decent price with shipping. Anyone use one and have an opinion of them? I need a couple of affordable casting rods for my sons. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-13FISHRODS.html?from=basres

I have two VG small shore access only bass lakes by my house that on both one side has year round 80% access, the other side in early spring about 80% of the shore is accessible but by June/July the weeds and tics are so thick it's down to about 50%. I complained LIKE ALL **** to the DNR that manage the two lakes because there was for YEARS past a well groomed trail (including a foot bridge over a small creek that empties into the lake that gets completely swallowed by weeds) that went around both the now inaccessible shore lines and they literally told me as far as shore weed elimination goes what gets cut we don't see getting cut we don't care about, especially at night. So I have a killer killer BA gas powered STIHL weed wacker I go there on week nights have my son drop me off at about 2am tell him I'll call once done to come pick me up. Thankfully though they are now allowing kayaks or canoes at both so Ill be using a kayak I bought over winter. It will be a LOOOOONG az haul of over 350-400 yards with a kayak from the parking lot to either lake.

I fish about 90% from the bank. You will be at a HUGE disadvantage VS boat fisherman as you do not have the advantage of fish locating electronics. So you will have to use what ever information you can learn or get in advance to give you as much help as such info can. If you can, formulate at least a basic plan of where on the shore you plan on fishing and what your going to fish with in respect to what luers. To do this you need before hand to have at least some idea of what the bass in that lake are likely to be doing given the time of year it is, and if you know what structure if any and or vegetation if any you can access from shore how the bass might be relating to it and how both the water temp and atmospheric conditions will impact the bass. Any lake I fish from shore I look for any changes in the shore line no matter how settle and concentrate my fishing at these. If such shore line has quite a few changes like points, humps or coves, I start with ones I either can see have structure or vegetation that will attract and hold bass or from previous experience know they do but can not be seen. I also key in on areas of shore that have no changes in geography but have isolated patches of vegetation on a stretch of shore that is otherwise free of visible vegetation If at all possible invest in a topo map of the lake, and if you have a home printer, seperate the map into smaller parts by scanning and photocopying it, keep it with you and make notes on it or on a small pad of paper what structure you encountered or vegetation and fished where you caught fish and didn't and you will start to see patterns appear of where the bass are as it relates to the time of year, weather conditions structure and vegetation. Often times if its is a lake managed by the state DNR you can download a topo map free online at the DNR WS. If you can not obtain a topo map see if you can obtain any type of planimetric map of the lake keep it with you along with a pen and note on it what type of vegetation you encountered and where you caught fish. One of my favorite lakes is a little less than 600 acres in size and save for a few points on them has long stretches of more or straight featureless shore line but A LOT of isolated patches of vegetation or pads only about half of which hold bass at any time of the year. BIG time saver to know which ones in the past didn't and which did, and they are a big deal because the few points on this long shore line get beat to death but I don't see to many guy hitting the weed patches close to shore so I am often fishing for lowered pressured fish when I fish these isolated weed patches and by far they are where I enjoy my most success. Also pay very close attention to all atmospheric conditions and what time of year it is and where exactly on the lake you're fishing when you get skunked but absolutely when you have a killer good day. And if need be take notes as the weakest ink lasts longer than the strongest memory. I discovered two medium long but very predominate points that run dead east from shore in one of my favorite lakes that have very heavy shore vegetation that goes into the water with decent but not huge sections of Lilly pads that parallels the the shore line. It is a frog fisherman's paradise and it took several bouts of fishing them to figure out yes they hold a bass or two 90% of the time but my best time to fish them is on a more sunny than cloudy day but NOT until AFTER the sun dips below the tree tops (it's literally like flipping on a light switch the bass turn on so fast after the sun goes down behind the tree tops) AND a mild wind is coming out of the south/SW/SE blowing into the lilly pads. On such days I can expect to catch from 4-8 largemouth from EACH spot (no more than 200yrds long and 75 yards wide) fishing a frog over the pads and a popper along the edges of the pads. I tried both these same areas at first light and during all times of the day. Yes first light both areas were also good but never as good as during the conditions I described above. And the average size bass I catch from this spot are over 2x larger than what is the average sized bass is for this lake. Last year in September I lost an absolute dinosaur of a bass that hit my frog and I was using 50lb Power Pro and zero drag and this Loch Ness of a bass went airborne got some slack got in the pads and the hooks on my frog bent and she got off. Also do not be afraid to stay mobile. I cover a a lot of shore and give no area more than a 15 minute of solid high quality try before I move. I also bring a minimum of three rods with rigged with with luers I feel best fit the conditions and lake areas I am going to fish. It can be tough but try to limit the amount of gear you bring as to much gear will hinder your willingness and ability to move a lot and be mobile. Also if you know you will encounter areas of shore landing a big bass will be difficult invest in an compact collapsible landing net BEFORE you loose a PB bass because you didn't. Lastly you will learn the most by fishing the lakes near you as often as you can.

This spring will be my third fourth I have been using YoZuri Hybrid on four spinning reels, two 4000 size (12lb) two 3000 size (10lb) and two Kast King baitcasting reels one with 17lb one with 20lb and I will say it had moderately more memory than the Trilene XL I used but it wasn't enough to be bothersome or a deal breaker, so I can not say it has no memory, but certainly nothing in my experience I would classify it as even approaching severe let alone horrible. I was at first concerned about using it as my sons don't always keep as close an eye on their spinning reel spools and pay attention not to reel in completely slack sections of twisted line as the should as I do, but as I said it proved to be very manageable I found it to have excellent abrasion resistance fishing around rocks and zebra muscle's (wat better then Trilene XL and equal to or better than Trilene XT) and I will not say I have never had a knot break, I will say it was very very rare. I have tried co-polymers from P-Line and Berkley and absolutely the Yo-Zuri was the best. And at $12 for 600yrds it is an excellent value. It has worked excellently on my baitcasters as well as Trilene Big Game. Only possible drawback is it tends to float and that will depend on how you use it if its a + or -. At $8 for 275 yards you're not risking much to give it a try IMO. Yo-Zuri has become my absolute favorite all around all purpose fishing line.

Thanks for the tips and advice. One of meny I am printing out for both my sons and I to study and try out. Than you am printing out all great tips like this.

Thank you Scott, will buy as you advise. Bankc, Thank you for sharing your experience with me.

Thank you for your reply. Will stick with straight FC or Co-poly. I have a LOT of Yo-Zuri 15lb Co-Poly

Thank you Scott will order a half dozen, Any suggestions on what colors and sizes worked best for you before I order?

Once again greatest of thanks for the replies. I will begin using straight 16lb Fluorocarbon and see what results I get. When I wet my first line of this year I will have began my 5th year of using Yo-Zuri co-poly line for all spinning set ups and 17lb or 20lb Yo-Zuri all but two of my Baitcasting setups. For about 30-35 years prior to that I used only Trilene XL for spinning and Trilene BG for baitcasting. It has only been the last five years I really started using baitcasters again and my two baitcasters from late 1980's till five years ago were two Abu Garcia 4600's. One was rigged for spinnerbaits, one was rigged for all forms of 1/2oz-3/4oz crankbaits. I now have few Abu Garcia Pro Max's and a few Kast Kings. I still use my AG 4600's regularly still for cranks and spinnerbaits spooled with 15lb Trilene BG I really didn't chase largemouth all that much (only in farm ponds during spring turkey season) from the late 1990's till about 2015 because I discovered an absolutely off the charts good smallmouth spots at three easy to access break wall warm water discharges five minutes from my home and the smallmouth fishing was so good I stopped going to the Kankakee entirely for smallmouth and if given a choice between LM and SM I'll case SM any day every day. By good I mean once when conditions were perfect during one outing lasting less than five hours four of us caught over 50 smallmouth and 50 freshwater drum commonly referred to as sheepshead. I had countless days were I caught over a dozen smallmouth in either of these two spots. And yes I literally never kept a single one. If it hadn't been already post spawn I would've sworn the smallies were spawning they were in so thick. This spot was just awesome because of the now ultra clear water (thanks zerbe muscles) and mostly sand bottom you could see 90% of the smallmouth in the area as the water was about 10-12 feet deep. But now the two best smallmouth spots are gone forever. While there is good smallmouth fishing in many shore access areas along lake Michigan, what made my two favorite spots so awesome was they were the only ones I am aware of that were 90% sand and very small rock bottom so I rarely lost a set up as I fished about 80% tube jigs and 10% cranks. The other spots are made up of much larger boulders and tons of all kinds of snags (endless numbers of submerged tree limbs and rebar and pipes jammed into the boulders) and if you fish them from shore with jigs or drop shots you will lose tons of setups. I'm sure if I put forth the effort I could find better shore access smallmouth spots in lake michigan but I just haven't. Again thanks for answering my question.

Was wondering for the members here who have mastered the art of jig fishing, do you use braided line on you baitcasters and use a fluorocarbon or mono leader and if yes why do you do it and if no why don't you do it?

Have a question about trying braid to fluorocarbon for jigs. Was thinking trying hi-vis yellow 15lb or 20lb Power Pro to 16lb Floro might be a good idea as the hi-vis braid would allow me to see my line move and the braid would transmit strikes better than just straight floro. Thoughts?

Well I have jigs, trailers and a new rod that all should be here by friday. Going to use a reel I have and going to start by using 16lb SPRO Essential Series Gouken Fluorocarbon fishing line. 14 day forecast says starting after Feb 7th-14th temps are supposed to get in the low 50's. If so will give the lake walking distance from my home or another lake pretty close by a try I know has good sized bass in it. It's a smaller lake shore access only unless you want to drag a kayak quite a long ways from the P-lot.

Greatest of thanks' on sharing your recommendations. But I had already ordered these as my trailers in colors best matching my jigs I ordered. And a few colors of these in 3" long

I did order jigs in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2oz (although I'm kinda regretting ordering the 1/4oz ones) in all the above colors or colors so close I'm not sweating the difference. Did my absolute best to color match the trailers and trailer length some were 2.75" some are 3" some are 3.25". Some are beaver style baits some were chunk style some were twin curly tail style. So I should be well covered and kept busy from April till October learning the ins outs dos and don'ts of jig fishing. Going to start off simple with 3/8oz jigs and chunk trailers and not really modify anything and just do my best to listen to what the bass tell me they want. The trailer I'm most likely to try first I bought is a 3" NetBait BaitFuel Paca Chunk as they were very attractively priced at TWH. I did order jigs made by 6th sense, Santone, Cumberland Pro and Arkie Platinum. Like I said going to be VERY busy.

You have my sympathies having missed so many yeas of joyful-frustration. I started bass fishing when I was 6, but only started to know how to bass fish after I entered my 40's and started reading some good books on bass fishing and subscribing to The InFisherman back when it was still run by Al and Ron Linder. I caust A LOT of LM/SM, walleye and even northern pike following their advice. One Canada fishing trip in particular back in the late 1980's six of us went on, the walleye fishing was utterly abismal I recalled an article I read, while not recalling it all I do remember the article advising one tough fishing strategy when you do not have the luxury of electronics (we did not) of slowly back trolling past points ever farther out into the lake with 1/4oz lead head jigs tipped with minnows back parallel to shore until you found active feeding walleye then anchor and vertically jig for them. That strategy literally saved out trip.