Hey guys,

 

So I have decided to start looking into bass tournaments. I enjoy and I am very comfortable with spinning setups so I have decided to use these. The reel I use the most is a Shimano Sahara 4000FD with 10 lb suffix pro mix mono. Will this reel be fine for beginning tournaments or should I upgrade? I couldn't really see why I would need to, but I figured I would ask to see if any of you guys with experience in tournaments(or even the guys who choose to use spinning setups) could help me out. Thanks guys!  

That reel is fine.  I hope it is mounted on a nice 6'6 to 7'3 medium spinning rod. That will fish a ton of baits well.

 

My next rod I would consider adding is a 6'6" to 7'4" MH baitcaster.  Between those two rods you can fish a wide range of lures.

 

Good Luck and enjoy fishing in a club.  You can fish open tournaments or join a bass fishing club and fish their tournaments.  I highly suggest you join a local club.  One of the benefits to fishing tournaments as a member of a club is the other members tend to share info and help you learn.  

^ X 2  Right on the $$,  Good luck!

If that's what you fish with and that's what you're comfortable with you'll be just fine. There's a guy in our club that fishes pretty much exclusively with spinning reels, even frogs. My dad fishes tourneys with me and he's probably a 75-80% spinning.

I would suggest that if at some point in time you want to fish with baitcasters, leave them at home on tournament days until you're pretty confident with them. The reason being, you don't pick the conditions for the tournament, so if the wind kicks up, you don't want to be spending time during the day picking out backlashes.

Use what you are comfortable fishing with will give you confidence so you can focus on catching bass. If your boater is fishing heavy cover, cast out into more open water cover/structure breaks that your tackle is appropriate for.

Tom

The bait monkey has personally told me that fish will only bite on G. Loomis NRX rods with Shimano Stella reels.  Okay, I kid...I kid...

Pflueger President, Okuma ceymar fishes much better than its price tag and it looks bad ass as well. It was ranked best value and performed better than most reels in this years Outdoor life? They always have awesome reviews, if you look back at their picks from years ago, they usually get it right.

 

Any Shimano in the 40 Plus range will work great as well, the Trion is a solid reel but heavier than the president or get lucky and find a summitt or purist which is more like a supreme but priced lower since they are only made for Cabelas. You can find brand new Purist reels on ebay for under $20 and they are sealed, stainless bearings, just check the specs as they have a few versions which have changed over the years.

 

Mitchell 300 Pro is a nice reel as well. Lastly, Kast King Mela for $30...Looks identical to the ardent wire, light, silly amount of drag power, hard to believe they really have high quality bearings and all the features they list, but they do....Its slowly becoming one of the most popular reels I see especially when saltwater fishing. I don't think the drag is sealed but for freshwater it does have what you would want.

All the reels mentioned i dont see them being "upgrades"  i dont think they are superior than the sahara. Id call them additions. 

If you want to uograde get a stradic. If you plan on getting something lower than a stradic then just keep the sahara

Welcome aboard, @Pikeman12!

 

I don't do tournaments, but I wouldn't hesitate to enter

one with my spinning setups. And I use 1000 size Stradics!

 

I also use shorter rods, not so popular today as they used

to be. So I'd start your search at 6'6".

 

Have a read at this article. FLW pro that uses only spinning

gear, he's won tournaments, and Angler of the Year, too.

 

https://www.flwfishing.com/tips/2014-04-22-going-big-with-a-spinning-rod

Kent ware, love his style. Big baits on spinning gear

Ever heard of Gary Yamamoto, he used spinning tackle as a pro bass angler.

Tom

A point I'd like to make that you might not realize, The main reason why tournament fishermen bring 8 rods is because they're fishing 8 baits and they don't want to waste half the tournament time tying knots. While there's no reason that you couldn't fish every one of these baits on the standard 6'6" MH Ugly Stik and Mitchell 300 that everyone has in the basement, each different rod and reel combo has advantages and disadvantages with each bait and each fisherman's personal preference. You'll find that lighter spinning setups are generally preferred for lightweight baits and baitcasters with heavier rods are preferred for heavier baits. There are quite a few threads that go into a lot more detail that you may want to read up on when the tackle monkey bites.

Hey guys,

 

Thanks again for all of the replies! Nowadays people make it seem like you absolutely need baitcasting gear. I am glad the Sahara will work out. It is currently on a 7' okuma celilo(nice rod i might add) after I just had it on a <6' Shimano Fightn Rod for the longest time. As for the other reels, I do own a Pflueger Trion(first reel i got actually), as well as a sustain 2500 fe(on an older st croix premier) and a stradic1000fi(used with my ultralite). Great reels, but just a little small for the comfort level. As far as ugrading the rod for the sahara I was thinking of buying my cousin's GL2, but I am glad to know my current etup wont hinder me really. Thanks again for the advice guys, this is a great forum!

I don't fish tournaments but I choose to trade the extra 10 feet of casting distance for the simplicity of a spincast reel where 99.9% use baitcasters. A $29.99 Daiwa Silvercast 170A will burn a lure across the water pretty darn quick (faster than a Zebco Bullet) and keep up with the big dogs rather well and you'll probably never birdnest it.

I have 3 spinning rods and 3 casting rods. I use the spinning rods 90% of the time. The basically only use the casting rods for 1oz and heavier lures. If lews made a heavy spinning rod id buy it