Semi High End Rods and Reels?

Zebco for the win!


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Flouro I agree - have caught gut hooked 700 lb tuna on 130 lb flouro leader, yes you can get chaffed off on anything that's not wire but its an advantage over regular mono. No less important is flouro assimilates to water in light transmission, so its sneaky - all fish are leader shy to some degree, a less noticeable leader never hurts your odds of a bite.

But spectra, ie "braid" - good for fishing 100+ feet deep so you can feel what's going on but you will lose more fish. Lack of stretch sucks for keeping the line tight and keeping the fish from exerting shock on your gear. Hooks pull, things break, and braid is terrible for abrasion resistance - seems strong until you pull it tight and nick it. Mono wins still.

Flouro mainline is worth a try - a little less stretchy, outstanding abrasion resistance, and sneaky as hell. In about 50 lb down they make actual flouro mainline designed for spooling up with. Over that and a few brands make bulk leader spools that can similarly be used but aren't so memory free.
Mono and braid are both very effective if you know what you are using and how to fish it. Being used to mono, you probably have no reason to change. The upside of braid is while you can use a lighter rod or a softer tip and ease up on the hook set with braid to compensate for a lack of stretch, there is no way to make mono as sensitive as braid. Sensitivity is not really an issue while live lining stripers, but if you are dragging a Texas rigged worm in a pond, braid lets you feel the bottom as well as a subtle bite.
 
I never believed the expensive stuff was worth it, well it is. Fished Penn reels forever until the finish failed quickly on a 2-3 year old one and tried a Shimano, we have 4 of them now. Any of the newer rods we have tried are night and day over Ugly Sticks or our other 20-30 year old stuff. Have two Star a Shimano and a Lamiglass and they make bad casters look good and fighting a tough fish easier. Love my Sage fly rod.
 
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Flouro I agree - have caught gut hooked 700 lb tuna on 130 lb flouro leader, yes you can get chaffed off on anything that's not wire but its an advantage over regular mono. No less important is flouro assimilates to water in light transmission, so its sneaky - all fish are leader shy to some degree, a less noticeable leader never hurts your odds of a bite.

But spectra, ie "braid" - good for fishing 100+ feet deep so you can feel what's going on but you will lose more fish. Lack of stretch sucks for keeping the line tight and keeping the fish from exerting shock on your gear. Hooks pull, things break, and braid is terrible for abrasion resistance - seems strong until you pull it tight and nick it. Mono wins still.

Flouro mainline is worth a try - a little less stretchy, outstanding abrasion resistance, and sneaky as hell. In about 50 lb down they make actual flouro mainline designed for spooling up with. Over that and a few brands make bulk leader spools that can similarly be used but aren't so memory free.
I'm trying to gear back up from my Hobie Adventure Island fishing gear, and decide what to add/change having retired and bought a boat. I always lake fished, an now do saltwater bay and near coastal. I'm looking at my old gear's line and new gear for un-spooling and re-spooling. I'm also adding basic electric reels (electramate and fishwinch) due to hand and wrist surgeries.

Has anyone looked into spooling/winding and un-spooling equipment for everything from 4k class spinning to 30+ class reels that can hold a good amount of line and "maybe" need a good amount of tension/drag to pack the line? No chicom crap please.

For non commercial options, I'm looking at the details of the South Chatham Tackle, Busted Fishing, and Spooleduptackle so far. Guiding the line during winding for level winding causes heat which has been mentioned as weakening the line.

South Chatham $1660 with magnetic brake for setting drag, and variable speed right angle gear reduction drive. No unspooling (?)

South Chatham $235 Reel Winder III, for holding just the reel. Drill drive for non electric conventional and spinning reels

Busted Fishing BF-216 ($490) + Bees Knees ($140) + Level Winder/counter ($81) + Stripper ($50)
Review comments on driive drill needing to be run in reverse (loosens chuck) and 2:1 gear reduction gears breaking
Review comments on Spooler not holding drag tension on larger reels

$995 + crank $130
Only the head which provides winding and un-spooling with the large drag disk would be nice
 
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I took my son yesterday to pick out our Christmas gifts, we're getting new spinning reels. We fish mainly small rivers / streams with 4lb test line - so our reels weren't too expensive. We finally decided between Abu Garcia Max Pro, Quantum Strategy, and Lew's Speedshooter. All of these were $35 - $50 and seemed decent. On another rack, we found Pfluegers that were about $100 for the small size that seemed very nice, but I explained that we weren't that high on Santa's list.
I wound up with the Speedshooter, mainly because I've never owned a zombie green fishing reel before. My son picked the Abu Garcia, but he went with a larger size, as he's not as fond of ultralight gear as I am. I think his reel is actually much better than mine, but it wasn't zombie green.
 
I like the stainless steel ones from Van Staal.

That stuff was always crazy money.

I should sell my Avets. I’ll never use them and somebody should enjoy them but the used gear market is garbage.
 
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