Wondering what reels could handle 60-85 lb braid with ease. This will be my first heavy reel. Im going to get the St. Croix mojo rod 7' 9" heavy fast. Will be throwing 6-8" swimbaits and some a-rigs. Thanks

I would reccomend the Shimano Cardiff A 300. It maybe a round reel but it holds alot of line and is cheap at $109. If you want a low profile reel, I would go with a Shimano Curado 300E but thats $249. You need the line capacity to throw big baits a long ways and a standard lowprofile reel just doesn't have what it takes to throw 8"+ baits. NOT saying they won't, just that they're better reels out there to do the same job.

Cardiffs are a very hard to beat reel for the price. Basically it's a poor mans Calcutta. Great reels. Very dependable. Built like a tank.

Get a round Abu Garcia (Made in Sweden), hard to find a stronger reel for under a hundie. If they can handle muskie fishing, they can handle bass swimbaits.

Mike

Can't go wrong with the Cardiff, that's what's on my okuma swim bait rod and it works flawlessly. I also use it for Bass,Pike,Musky and even Salmon.

You know mike's option is great as well. Those round Abu's can take a serious beating.

Could I use the same line for both swimbaits and a-rig? I know the a-rig calls for big braid but are swimbaits the same?

Lots of people fish braid for everything, you should be fine. You can always tie on a fluoro leader if think conditions call for it.

From what little I understand, braid and swimbaits (4+ ozs) do not go well together. Shock absorption, or rather lack thereof, is one of the main factors. I have read too many stories on the swimbait forums about cast off baits due to backlashes. This is probably not a factor if you were using spinning gear like Fish Chris.

The other factors are lack of abrasion resistance (from rocks), visibility of the line, and the braid cutting up soft baits. These can probably be taken care of with a leader.

Matt Allen is one of the few big bait guys who use braid. I believe he throws them on 80 lb Power Pro and 30 lb PLine CXX leader. Matt Peters (of southernswimbait/ STE) is another, You could (and probably should) go to Matt Peter's blog, and read up everything you can on swimbaits and braid. Matt Allen has an article on his blog titled "making the switch to all braid" (or something like that). His site is called *.

Abu C3 I feel is your best bet. Its more reel than most "bass anglers" will admit. Best of all you can upgrade the reel with minimum cost and make it better than nearly all top of the line reels. I catch tarpon with them they can surely handle bass lures. Your right ref mono and swimbaits. Most experts will recommend mono.