Todd Copeland wrote:
"duty-honor-country" wrote in message
ups.com...

Carlos wrote:
Accuracy and the ability to control the entry of a bait into the water.

Sometime watch, really watch guys on tv casting. Or even better, go to
a wintertime fishing show where a big name angler is tossing a jig into
a cup 50-80 feet away and never missing. Doing it while not making a
lot of noise. Just laying it in there.

Baitcasters are far more useful, and accurate than you give them credit
for. They take practice. Anything worthwhile does.

I've been fishing for 37 years now, and to say a baitcaster is more
accurate, is very misleading- and downright incorrect. I can put 6
pound test on an open face and cast 200 feet with ease. And I can put
10 pound test on it and haul in huge bass. And I've fished small
streams and creeks with open faced spinning reels, that require far
more precision than any baitcaster can give- and would leave a
baitcasting reel in a birdsnest tangle.

Caros mentioned that baitcasters were more _accurate", not that they could
throw a lure further as you keep mentioning. Spinning reels _are_ good for
distance and for using light lures. But baitcaster win hands down for
accuracy.

There are very few times (really none) that anyone should want to throw a
lure 100-200 feet (by the way, the over-hand throw on a 200 foot cast has
_got_ to be scary!)

You mentioned backlashes on a baitcaster and that you've been fishing for 37
years. If you're getting backlashes then you've not fished long enough with
a baitcast to appreciate how well it does. I've been fishing, steady, for
about 10 years and use baitcasters 80% of the time. Out of the past
thousands of casts I'd say I've only had backlash once... and it only took 5
seconds to clear. The only way to control the line on a spinning reel is to
apply slight pressure against the line with your finger once each time the
line wraps around the spool. As you mentioned, on a baitcaster you just need
to drag your thumb across the spool as the line is going out.

From your posts it really seems like you are no open to accept the fact that
baitcasters _are_ more accurate then spinning reels. If they were not, why
do all professional bass fisherman use them 80%-90% of the time? I guess
they _all_ could be wrong about the subject.

Something you don't mention is what _kind_ of bass fishing you do. If you
just need to throw a shiner out into the middle of the lake, then a spinning
reel would work best for your needs. But if you want to throw that plastic
worm or spinning lure right into that 6"x6" hole of lily pads four or five
times, then you might want to consider practicing with a baitcaster.


You bring up valid points- but to repeat what a previous poster gleaned
from my posts- why use 20 pound test and a heavy lure, to catch an 8
pound fish ? And the added headaches of a baitcaster added to it. It
seems that same lure could be presented with a stout open faced reel
and rod, and horsed in just as easily.

They use open faced reels for deep sea fishing too- so obviously the
new ones have the gusto to horse a big fish in as well. Correct ?

Keep in mind professional bass fishermen get a lot of sponsor money.

I've yet to try to make a cast that I could not make with a spinning
reel. Where's the accuracy problem ? I've fished streams where the
target area is 2 feet square- and anywhere else is a snag and lost
hook/bait. If that's not an accuracy challenge, what is ?

I agree that for pulling a lure through lilly pads and stumps, a
baitcaster has the leverage advantage. But what average guy would fish
that area, every time ? Sooner or later, one tires of the obstacles
and snags. You may not break the line, but you may have to go up and
unsnag it often.

If there was a place where all of the fish caught were over 10 pounds,
sure I'd use a bait caster. But the baitcaster aura is reminding me of
a street car with a 6-71 supercharger sticking through the hood, that
can't get out of it's own way.