OldGuyAl

I've been helping a friend with the same question. Bass Pro Shops is currently running their Bionic Bladss for $50 and their Extremes for $70 - for a good, all-round, low-price rod, I think those are hard to beat. My favorie low-end spinning reel is the Shimano Spirex but there are dozens of good reels and I've heard some good things about the "store brands" from both BPS and Cabellos. There's also eBay where you can sometines get a good deal but you need to be careful. I've bought about 4 reels off eBay and only 1 of them truned out to be worn out but, I didn't pay that much for it so.... For bass fishing - stay in the Shimano 2500 (older ones are the 2000) series. From Spirex up to Stradic, those are hard to beat. I like Daiwa a lot, too. Others have good experience with Pfluger and Okuma. One thing I've found, lots of guys are always buying the newest, latest, coolest stuff and then they will sell off well-maintained reels that are less than 2 years old for about half of what they cost new. Check this forum and Tackle Tour and some others. I've had no bad experiences buying from forums but you still have to be careful. Eventually, you're going to want a baitcaster and that's where cheap reels can really ruin your day on the lake. Think of it this way, you've bought a boat, you're going to spend time and money just getting on the water so, why take a chance on having problems with your rods and reels? Cheap baitcasting reels are the reason so many people have been turned off from using baitcasters. The best values that I've seen are good used Shimano Citicas. There are tons of them for sale in the $60 - $70 range. They can be easily rebuilt (by a professional) for around $25 when they start to give trouble. A MH Bionic Blade and a good used Citica will get you a "start up" baitcaster for around $110 and that is a deal and a half! Spool on some Trilene XL at 12 or 14lbs. and you can fish almost any kind of lures with reasonable success. JMHO

I can't remember if it's "official" from Abu-G or not but, lots of folks are using STX's for inshore and other salty water fishing - I plan to use mine that way. And, the STX has a super-sweet magnetic system! I'm like you - I hate centrifugals! I'm fishing a Citica right now that has 2 of the brake puck thingies missing because I popped them off while trying to adjust the reel in a fast moving boat. I'm one of those guys who will always find a way to loose itty-bitty pieces. ;-) It would be great to see some of those STX features trickle down the price range. I have a Revo S, also. I love it but the STX was well worth price difference and I have never been bothered by the weight. Al

I just put some Suffix Elite 8lbs on my Stradic 2500 and it works great! It was actually pretty reasonalble considering how big the spool is - I think it was almost 300 yards so, I'll be using it all season. It was recommended to me by guys who are much better fisherman than I am. ;-) Al

hahaha! I found this thread because I'm in the process of stripping the Vanish off all my reels and I was going to see what folks were saying about different brands of braided lines - I'm going to put braid on one of reels that I use mostly for Carolina rigged soft baits. Vanish, for me, has been hideous! It breaks very easily. You need to re-tie about every 5th cast if you're fishing for anything bigger than bream. It abrades very quickly and easily. It really does backlash worse than any line I've ever fished and the memory - OMG! This Vanish was purchased about 2 months ago and spooled on. When I was pulling it off a reel just now, it looked like line that had been on for about 2 years! It was the curliest junk I'd ever seen. Now, I'm not a Berkley hater by any means - I just re-spooled one reel with Trilene XL. Trilene may not be the very best out there but it's very reliable, tests out to what it says on the box for strength, and fishes just plain good. I'm also using Suffix Elite - I really like it a lot so far. Just my $0.02 Al

spearing a fish makes it kinda hard to practice catch and release. I have no problem with people taking a fish or 2 to eat. No matter how they take it, if they're going to use it in some way then, I'm OK with it. It sounds like these guys you're describing are just killing fish for the pure sport of killing them. I'm like some others, it bothers me a lot more when they do it to bass. I wouldn't be too unhappy with having someone culling a lot the gar around here because we're way overpopulated and gar don't seem to have any other predators to control them.