"Charles B. Summers" wrote in message
. ..
Apparently you haven't used a baitcaster in a LONG time...


"duty-honor-country" wrote in message
ups.com...
I've been fishing for 37 years now,

Calling that 1800's technology a "baitcaster" is somewhat of an
oxymoron- it's a winch designed to haul up heavy fish- and a winch gets
tangled when it spins backwards fast. The makers of those reals need
to improve them a bit, to eliminate backlash. They don't cast bait for
crap ! The fisherman would be better off attaching the heavy lure or
bait, and throwing it with his pitching arm where he wants it, then
using the reel to retrieve the fish. And I say that only half kidding,
because he'd have no backlash tangles then.


I'm a long time spinning reel advocate. In fact I think if a person were
restricted to one rod for all kinds of fishing I'ld have to go with the with
a medium power fast action spinning rod, but don't soft sell the baitcasters
of today. With internal breaking controls, spool tension adjustment and
high quality bearings a highly skilled angler can cast pretty far with
incredible accuracy. In fact to such a point that they will malign the
accuracy of spinning tackle. Those of us who grew up casting light lures
while skulking through brush choked banks to get to our fishing holes know
that you can just as accurately with spinning tackle,

Where a baitcaster really shines though is in short and medium range
accuracy. The thumb on the spool allows an angler a great deal of speed and
distance control when pitching. I'm not talking about fdropping it over the
side of the boat, but pitching to targets from 20 to maybe a 80 feet away
from the boat. With a little practice you can even control travel to make a
bait go around a target like to drop behind a stump.

On the flip side, if you are comparing a Daiwa Tournament 1600 spinning reel
to a Penn Jig master you are looking at the wrong thing. I actually can
pitch with a Penn Jig Master, but with only a spool tension control it is
not. Try comparing instead to a properly adjust Quantum Accurist, Browning
Citori, or Shimano Curado.

And don't get all on about cheap spinning reels either. I have probably
owned more than 100 of them over the years, and a cheap spinning reel has
just as many problems as a cheap any other kind of reel. They aren't the
same problems, but they are problems just the same.

Quality products usually start at a little more money. Cheap spinning reels
simple don't hold up as well as more expensive ones. I happen to really
like the Daiwa 1600 Tournament reels, and the Shimano Symetre is in about
the same class. The cheaper Mitchel 300X and 308X fishes very well, but it
has a handle design problem that causes it to loosen up if not checked
constantly. To be fair, the one cheap baitcaster I bought didn't hold up
any better.

Anyway, to say baitcasters are junk or can't cast is an gross overstatement.
To say spinning reels are easier to use with less experience is probably
more accurate. To say one or the other is more accurate is just plain
silly. I do believe that at short and medium range a skilled angler can use
a bait caster with slightly better accuracy, but a spinning reel in the
hands of a skilled angler would not be far behind.

To say one can cast further than the other isn't necessarily true either. I
fished once with a guy named Simon Apodaka who was able to casta 3/4 oz
rattle trap on his baitcasting tackle further than I could cast a 3/4
Kastmaster spoon. The fact that Simon is a custom rod builder who has a
special purpose rod for every lure in his bag might have had some bearing on
the end results, but the fact is that both of our baits traveled so far that
we could only see them from the sun glinting off the shiny sides.

I have to admit that with very light baits like small spinners, tiny spoons,
and some weightless worms a spinning rod seems to cast slightly further. I
also think that fishing in windy conditions a spinning rig will cast
slightly better into the wind with most baits, but there are guys who can do
it well with baitcasters. Hammer (Kwame Kuanda) and I fished a November
tournament where we were slinging spinner baits into the teeth of a 25-35
mph blow. He was casting a 1/2 oz bait and I was throwing a 3/8 oz SWL
spinner bait. Yes he had to pick out a backlash or two, but I had to deal
with more looping line sailing up and away from the rod and reel before I
could make contact with the bait on the retrieve. Was one better than the
other? I don't think so. I caught the bigger fish, and a few more of them,
but we both caught good fish and we took second that day. The amazing thing
though was that he was consistantly casting about 25 to 30 feet further than
I was. That's about the same as if we were casting the different size baits
on identical tackle. No I doubt I could do that with baitcasting tackle. I
certainly couldn't back then, but it demonstrates the point that baitcasting
tackle can get very close to the same distance casting in adverse conditions
in the hands of a skilled angler. Just like spinning tackle can be quite
accurate in the hands of somebody who knows how to use it.


--
Bob La Londe
Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River
Fishing Forums & Contests
http://www.YumaBassMan.com



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