I've been trying to get my head around the concept of fairly light power baitcasting, and I've been going twenty different directions at once. I know, that's not a good idea. A few days ago I saw a Daiwa Spinmatic-D Kokanee trolling rod for sale. It was 40 bucks. Idly, I flexed it. It seemed the same as the 7' ultralight Spinmatic spinning rod, with which I was already familiar. The blurb from Daiwa said the action was " fast". Take that with a grain of salt. I have no idea what possessed me, but at 40 bucks, I figured I could re-sell it and not lose much. So I bought it, put my new Curado 70 on it with 8 lb. Trilene XL that I had laying around, and took it out to the middle of the park to see what it would do.  Long story short, it's FANTASTIC! The rod is rated 1/16 to 1/4 oz., and I definitely will stay at 1/4 max. I cast a 1/4 oz. Thomas Buoyant and a 1/6 oz. Cyclone. The 1/4 cast as far as my 7' ultralight spinning. The 1/6th cast aaaaalmost as far as the spinning. Then in a mood to see how far I could take this, I put a 1/8th oz. Teeny Wee-R Rebel crank on, and let go. Sonofagun, if that thing didn't go about as far as the spinning gear would throw it. I still have to set up measuring devices to get the real straight skinny on this, but I'm as happy as a cat in a fish market! I never would have considered a rod this light for my new Curado 70, but temporary insanity overrode that, and I'm glad it did. Now I can get the advantage of 8 lb. line where I used 4 lb. before. More authority, despite the whippy rod. With whippy rods, I don't fight the fish with the rod anyway; I use the reel for 90% of the pressure, and lift the rod about 10-15 degrees (only) just to take up some slack. It's not the same technique that I use with a M/F or MH/MF rod.

    Now don't take my initial enthusiasm as the final word. It's the middle of winter, and things can change a lot when ice-out finally gets here. But for right now, I'd say that my quest to see how light I could go with a baitcasting reel has been satisfied.  :))    jj

I'll take 1/4 oz of what you've been doing...

 

I'll take 1/4 oz of what you've been doing...

not for $40