new to baitcasters, opinions wanted.

[hasnoboat1]

New member here looking for some experienced members thoughts/experience and recommendations please.

A little background first. I grew up fishing with spinning tackle on budget rods for the last 30 years...until this year. saltwater and freshwater background. Fishing only freshwater now in Michigan. This year I learned the value in better equipment and upgraded everything. I believe tackle tour is where i belong now. lol I fished more than 100 days this year and caught hundreds of fish all on spinning gear. Mostly I fish for largemouth bass but also do smallmouth, pike, catfish and carp.

So I Picked up my first baitcaster this summer (Diawa zillion tws 100h on sale at TW), put it on cabelas Arachnid 6'9" MF rod for kvd 1.5 crankbait and spooled it up 15lb pp braid. I learned a lot about birdsnests that week. lol. Now spooled with 45lb Jbraid and brakes adjusted properly .

The water is all frozen here now so... like some of you I like tackle so I had a chance to pick up some more bc reels with all the sales going on recently and I ended up with
lews tourney light lg1h 6.4;1
lews tourney light lg1hs 7.1;1
Diawa SS SV 103sh 7.1:1
Diawa zillion tws 100h 6.3:1

I might have ended up with some more rods to put them on also... 7 and 7'6" JDM Zillions and 7'3" 13 black envys ( am I on the right forum lol)

I believe all but the SS SV 103 are pretty universal work horses. I believe the SS SV 103 is for lighter baits.

My 1st question is how would You set these up and what would you throw?
My 2nd question is tell me what you know about this SS SV 103 and the Zillion tws 100h. I read about Diawa reels but I don't quite understand what people are talking about when they say Zillion TWS is not OG Zillion and then they talk about platforms (zillion,alpha, pixies etc)

Basically what do I have and what to do with it?

Thank you for any help or experience you may offer.

[JigginOG]

I run 14-20lb flouro throwing 1/4-1/2 jigs and t-rigs just fine in a SV103 spool. It isn't necessarily for lighter baits, but it can do it well. The SV105 spool is where the lighter duty comes to play. Depending on low light you wanna go.

10-20lb braid for finesse on a spinning reel and 50-80lb braid for baitcaster. I haven't ventured into the mid area for braid.

Some of the advantages of a baitcaster is you can match the reel speed with your application. It all really comes down to what you prefer and how you prefer to fish.
5:1= moving baits like a crankbait.
6:1= faster moving baits like a spinnerbait and cranks
7:1 and higher= Bottom contact like a jig where you can make a cast or pitch and reel it back fast to make another cast or pitch.

These are just my opinion and how i like to run things. Others may differ and some may mix it up. Like high speed reel for cranks.
There are TONS of videos and article about rod, reel, and line combos on the web. Check out Flukemaster and Wired2Fish on Youtube.

[DavidSA]

and spooled it up 15lb pp braid. I learned a lot about birdsnests that week. lol. Now spooled with 45lb Jbraid and brakes adjusted properly .

I don't own any of the reels you do but this statement brought back memories. In the early 2000's I made my move from mostly spinning reels to baitcasters and I too tried thin braid (either 20 or 30#) on a Daiwa Alpha and Fuego baitcasting reels. At that time, I struggled with wind knots and backlashes. Eventually I went with heavier braid and issues reduced. Overall though, the way I cast I found the Shimano braking system was better for my casting style.

Regardless, if I was fishing the clear Michigan bodies of water I'd be using lots of 10 and 12# FC line for bottom bouncing. I would be using a hybrid line like Yozuri or MeanGreen for spinnerbaits, cranks and topwaters. The only thing I'd but heavy braid on is a frog rod or a punching rig if you have any heavy vegetation.

The birds nest thing you just need to experiment with. Keep in mind the braking applied, spool pressure applied, wind/drag of the bait, and line are all factors. It just takes some experience to see what a reel is capable of. You may find the Lews style you lock onto but not another brands, or visaversa. When this happened to me, I just moved to the brand that worked for me.