Fishing Forum

Which fishing reel would be best to buy? I don't know much about reels, but am trying to choose between these:

*Pflueger® Trion® GX-7 Spinning Reel
*Mitchell® Avocet™ II Gold Spinning Reels
*Abu Garcia® Cardinal® 100i Spinning Reels
*Bass Pro Shops® Mega Tournament Spinning Reels
*Bass Pro Shops® Micro Lite™ Elite Spinning Reels

I have a 6' light rod and will mostly be sunfish fishing.

Any advice?
[signature]

for gill and perch fishing, any one of those will make you happy, they are equal in all fasits. from those selections it is just a matter of style, What catches your eye best. and all are available at Bass Pro.
[signature]

the 6/130 tells me that the reel it self is some what smaller than the 8/140.

if all you are fishing for is gills, that dosnt mean a thing to you.

summer time for gills, I use 4lb and winter time I use 2lb.

you should be able to get spare spools for any bass pro reel at bass pro shop. unless it is a coule three years old. many reels when you buy them in a box comes with one spare reel, if you buy the combo rod and reel you wont get a spare spool.

if not try ebay, or post the modle and a photo of the reel here and if anyone here has one they may be willing to part with it.

I my self use a shimano with quick fire II and rear drag system. it is rated for 4lb to 8lb. I have two of them because I like them so much, and I have spare spools for each, so I always have a spool filled with 4lb, 6lb and 8lb line. for bass 6lb and bigger fish 8lb.

I use my reels both summer and winter. I just switch out the 5.6 foot rod for a 3 foot rod come ice season.

for gills you will be happy with any of those reels, but if you are like me and like to target a number of different fish, then you may want to select a reel that will allow you to go from the 4lb line to 8lb line.
[signature]

yes, I may be targeting different kinds of fish, like bullhead catfish. I think I'll be getting 8/140. It should come with an extra reel, but it is supposed to be plastic and I wanted aluminum.

The only reason I don't get the lighter one is because of carp. Just this week I was fishing in a small lake for bluegills and a carp came along and grabbed the spoon I was fishing with and broke the line and swam off with it [mad]
[signature]

I'd go with the Pflueger, only because a buddy of mine has a few he really likes. I use Penn aluminum body reels for my light work.
[signature]

I thought about it but there are too many bad Reviews.[url "http://reviews.basspro.com/2010category/104138/writereview.htm?format=embedded&campaignid=BV_REVIEW_DISPLAY&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.basspro.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2Fproduct_12543_10151_-1_10051_104138&innerreturn=http%3A%2F%2Freviews.basspro.com%2F2010category%2F104138%2Freviews.htm%3Fformat%3Dembedded&user=__USERID__&submissionparams=__BVSUBMISSIONPARAMETERS__&submissionurl=__BVSUBMISSIONURL__"][/url]
[signature]

all the reel bodies of the ones selected have graphite bodies.

as for spools, the best is the titainium rim spool, but realy that extreem is not nessesary unless you are the type of person who thows your equipment on the boat deck when you loose a fish or throw your equipment in the back of the trunk of the car un protected.

other than that, even a plastic spool will hold up for as long as you wish to take care of it. I have had mine now for 20+ years.

If landing carp is an issue for you, reed on....

it is because I run in to carp all the time that I have a rear drag system on my reels. it makes it so much easier to reajust the drag from the back than from the front when you have a battle going on.

the one thing when looking for reels is that if a reel is rated for one line wight and not several, that tells me that the drag system is ok for that line but not guarenteed to work proficently with other weight classes.

[indent]what this means is that a reel designed for 8 lb may be sticky or jerky when set for lighter drags. wich is ok if you are using the heavy line but if you spool it with lighter line the sticky or jerks can snap a line. And because carp are freight trains when they run, you need something with a smooth drag at every setting.

[/indent]
[url "javascript:;"][/url]

Drag systems are so important to me, I go to the store to pick up my reels in person and test the drag at different settings to make shure it is smooth.

I have seen more carp lost because of sticky drags than anything else. Drags that tighten or loosen when playing a fish are also problematic.

all the drag systems on the reels you have selected are external nut or dial drags on the front spool, and if not properly cleened often and transported with some care they are prone to get dust and dirt lodged in your drag causing it to tighten or loosen when doing battle.

with this rig above I have landed more carp than I can remeber with 8lb test line in the 12 to 15 lb weight class, 20-30 inches.

the reason I am going though all of this with you is that when you are fishing and carp are in the area, you need a reel that can handle them. you have to let the carp run reel them in and let them run a gain, and you repeat this process over and over again untill you tire out the carp. I have had carp make as many as 15 runs befor I could land them.

note on the above reel, there is a dial on the back and a leaver just in front of it. the dial you can set to your desired max drag. the lever goes from free drag to the max drag that you have dialed in.

there are a lot of fish where the drag is not all that important, carp is not one of those fish.

[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/6675/cat/500/ppuser/89"][/url] 42 lb carp
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/1347/cat/500/ppuser/89"][/url] 18 lb carp
[signature]

I like your setup. I once had a telescoping rod but I had trouble with pieces of it sticking together. Do you have any such problems like that?

I couldn't find any reels with rear drag systems that have the specs I was looking for.

How do you set the drag properly?
[signature]

that particular rod is 30+ years old, I bought it in 1977 for a wopping $2.35 at sears hardwear store.

this is my number one go to rod for every thing under carp size, but I am not afraid of hooking in to one.

after the first years use, I went back to get another one just like it. well you know how that goes, they change them every year. I ended up getting two silver ones.

this rod has only given me one problem, it out lived the first reel I put on it.[:p]

the first reel was a shakespear, it was aluminum body. after 10 years it oxidized causing it to fail. that was when I found this reel for $35. ya, that was a lot of money for one back then, but I have been happy with it ever since, it has yet to give me a problem.

the reason I chose the teloscopic in the first place was it was I broke my zebco rod batteling the kings of all largemouth. so my next rod needed to be small enough to strap on to my bycicle as I did not have any wheels at the time. Then when I got wheels, this fit in to the glove box. so I could always have a rod in the car and jump out on the water without a moments notice.

my reasoning now is that it fits in my tackle box, so all I have to do is grab the box and go.[:p]

if you like, I could sugest a couple for you, but the price will be 60-80. ya, on the good stuff the price when up.

---

once you get a feel for it, you can do it while fighting your fish.

your rod need to meet or exceed the line weight you are using.

first take a peice of line if you are not fimilar with it, tie two big loops big enough to put your hands in the loops wearing leather gloves, then see what it takes to break the line.

there are a number of good ways to set the drag. by hand feel works as good as anything else if you have a good feel for it, but till then you can use a small fish scale, always set the drag for less than the line weight. by at least a pound.
[signature]

I'd be happy for any suggestions, although I wouldn't be able to buy the $60-80 reel until next Christmas. I think I'll buy the Bass Pro Shops® Mega Tournament Spinning Reels if only to last the rest of the season.

Thanks for all of your help. I'll let you know how the reel is when I get it(if I get it).
[signature]

$20 Rod and reel combo avialable at bass pro

---

---

---

---

[signature]