Pepperoni wrote:

If you ever do try light line, your drag setting will be your first and most
important concern. The big bluegills and crappies will make it sing, but
they won't run far. They may spin your boat around a few times, but once you
get a short line on them, you can slide them across the surface on their
sides, right into the net.

You continue to miss what I am saying. I'm not saying you don't have
nor do you occasional catch large Bluegills. Nor am I saying you should
not use light line. I do both of these things all the time as I live
right on a lake that has plenty of Bluegills and and Crappie and I fish
for them at least two days of the week all year as well as for Blue and
channel catfish. No I do not fish in shallow water from shore as I use
either my pontoon boat or Jonboat. Now, even a 20 pound Blue cat does
not spin my boat around much less a Bluegill on light line. I catch
plenty of slab size crappie and bluegills and I use 4-6 pound line for
all of them with the drag on my reels properly set. So when you try to
convince me that the Bluegills in Michigan are so large that they are
spinning the boat around of old men with cane poles, you're spinning a
fish story. Nice story but nevertheless a fish story. BTW, having
lived in Florida a couple years I'm well aware what a shellcracker is.
Most of these fish are caught on the beds in shallow water during
spawning season.

Jerry