Although my wife will kill me if she finds the new reels, the bait monkey is happy. I used my store credit from the Revo SX today, plus some cash :. The Revos have been making my hands "cramp" alot lately due to their small size. I have tested several other low profile reels, with my favorites being the Diawa Exceler and the Quantum Accurist. Well I ended up with the Quantums, I bought 2 Accurist PT's, 2 Accurist CX(on serious sale $30 each) and an Accurist saltwater PT. All of the PTs have rebates available too, I'll get $30 back for each reel. These reels feel good to me and are a little bigger than other low profiles, more like my beloved Abu rounds but lighter. I put them all on rods and went out to the lake this afternoon for about 4 hours, caught several fish and no hand cramps.

Although I have been fishing for most of my life I'm not very good at Baitcasting methods. Why would your hand get cramped due to the size of a fishing reel? Some of you guy's talk about palming the reel and I don't understand that with a baitcaster either. That's a term we always used when fly fishing because we would palm the bottom of the reel for a better feel of the drag when playing a fish.

Sounds like you got some good deals with those reels! Congrats. Mike

Some of you guy's talk about palming the reel and I don't understand that with a baitcaster either. That's a term we always used when fly fishing because we would palm the bottom of the reel for a better feel of the drag when playing a fish.

Palming a baitcaster is when you control the rod while holding the baicster sideplace with your palm. In other words, instead of holding the rod up with strictly the cork handle, you are holding your rod by the baicaster itself. Now one of the benifits of this is for the same reason you palm a fly reel. You can use your thumb more effectively to help control the fish by putting pressure on the spool.

Here is a link to a picture of palming a baitcaster. From TackleTour:

http://www.tackletour.com/images/picpresident7.jpg

Vic

vicdotcom, Thanks and that's a great picture too! That's kind of what I thought you guy's were saying but wasn't sure. Thanks again, Mike

The reason I get hand "cramps" is due to a disorder called focal hand dystonia, better known as "violinist's hand". It is not the normal cramp associated with fatique, and is not painful. I was diagnosed with this when I was 13 and playing classical guitar and piano. The more difficult a passage was, the more likely that my hands would seize up and stop moving. It has to do with motor/sensory problems with repetitious movements. I never thought that it would occur fishing, but it has. It seems to be alleviated by using larger reels and holding a little different(kinda the way Shaw Grigsby and Hank Parker do).