In open water, I no longer use or want to even touch a spinning rod. Even for say a Ned rig. The baitcaster is simply easier to manage the line and over the course of a day, it adds up. For trout fishing in rivers and creeks. I have to stick with spinning. The main reason here is casting. The spinni...

I have the 8.5 and it fishes awesome. I did tie a spinner bait on...all I had, and the reel was bogged down. If you throw low resistance baits and need the pickup, it is great. I'm only fishing it with #15 and light drag, so the gears should hold up.

Jnkoepp wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:51 am

Spro is the master at knocking off JDM baits.

Berkeley is KING!

The 300 is the bee's knees!

That said, make sure you need the capacity and power. It is an 11oz reel and you feel every bit of it.

For me, bass fishing with it was overkill.

Barramundi look like a blast and could put up a fight worthy of the reel though.

I am Carbon/composite over Glass here all day. The rod will be lighter, respond faster when ripping on the bait, and be more sensitive. I do not see missed or lost fish on a chatterbait. I throw the Jackhammer and Steez jigs and can honestly say I can't remember a fish throwing one. If they hit it I...

The Laviathan and Whip Snake are gems in the lineup. The Perfect Pitch is 146ish grams and feels so heavy. Dobyns 735 is 135ish grams and feels light as a feather. My buddy bought a dozen Dobyns rods this winter and I am honestly blown away. While they aren't the lightest, they FEEL the lighter than...

Yikes! That thing is hideous.

So many from my club have St Croix. Never held one that I would want to fish. Ironically, the more expensive models seem worse, more tip heavy, and poor ergonomics.

The paint job on the Steez Limited looks rough with lots of orange peel.

I'm Daiwa through and through but why can't they get decent paint? The SV103 is pretty tough to be fair.

The Shimano E series paint is incredibly durable.

Can you sand down the srag.star? I had to do this on a Millionare 203 mod.

Anyone have experience with the 611h-sb? How does it handle the upper weight spectrum 3.5 to 4oz? I have the Air EDGE version with the same ratings. One thing I'd point out is that the short length makes it tough to cast past 2.5oz. It's a great rod for skipping 6-7" swimbaits around tight cover. B...

I would love Daiwa if they made a low profile 200/250 sized, 8-9oz, free floating, #25/100yrd capacity spool. It would be cool if they gave it an HLC spring and the some way of moving the magnets away or closer to the spool too. Wait, they did that: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwaz200z2020.ht...

I thought I was man enough for the Tat300 but it's massiveness was simply more than I could handle. For me it was beautiful, overbuilt, incredibly smooth, but just too heavy and really overkill. I felt like I was preparing to chase yellowtail with it. I would love Daiwa if they made a low profile 20...

JLS is as good as it gets. Purchased several reels from them. I had to send a JDM reel in for service and they facilitated the whole thing and even ate some of the cost.

Highly recommend

Dad was a trout and fly man. Always gave me the business for such heavy line. I took him on the boat one day. Came up to a dock with old tires used as a breaker. I called my shot with a spinnerbait in between the dock and the tires. Hooked into a 5pounder and had to rip him up and over the tires and...

Legit and good to work with.