Which reel?

[nocturnal23]

OK im not an expert fisher and im only 13, but im going backpacking the summer with my grandpa and he insists on using spincast reel and my old one broke which is best out of  Shakespeare, Daiwa, Zebco, cabelas,  Johnson, or Quantum, i saw these at cabelas and the only fish ive ever fished is trout and i want to try other ones so whats good.

 

[Bishop]

n23,
I don't use spin cast reels anymore, but they are great to learn with, and are simple to use.  A lot of guys from your grandfathers generation started using them because they didn't like the backlash problems that came with bait casting equipment.  Old habits are hard to break, so a lot of grandpa's out there still use them.  A good spin cast reel is both simple to use and reliable.  Both Zebco and Johnson have probably been making the best spin cast reels for decades now.  I would stay away from cheaper reels like the Shakespeare or South Bend because design is critical in a spin cast.  Since the line is enclosed inside the reel, it is prone to get tangles.  I would look for a reel that had a large hole for the line to feed thru and had at least 2 pick up pins to bring in the line.  The cheap reels will ussually have notches that grab the line to retrive it.  These notches will wear line very fast.  As with all reels a smooth drag is very important.  If you stay with the moderate to high end Zebco and Johnson reels you should get a very good spin cast reel.  Diawa and Quantum (owned by Zebco) make excellent spinning and bait cast reels, but I'm not familiar with how good their spin cast reels are.  

 

[nocturnal23]

Thanks i almost got the  Shakespeare because it looked nice, the Johnson Maxxum sounds nice it has dual pick up pin and the Daiwa Spectrumcast sounds nice also but no dual pins but it has a  titanium nitrided coating. Can i fish for anything beside trout with these?

 

[nocturnal23]

I just saw the Abu Garcia reels too are they good, they sound like something from the simpsons,  and does Cabelas have good prices, ive only ordered gun stuff from them before.    

 

[Bishop]

N23,
Yes Cabelas has pretty good prices and quick shipping.  If you know a particular model you can compare prices between them and BassPro Shops and others on the net.
You can fish for just about anything with a spin cast reel.  One of the downsides to the spin cast is you can't switch spools, so your usually stuck with one line weight.  4# will handle trout and panfish.  Could also handle bass and catfish if you play the fish in open water.  I would suggest one reel with 4# and one reel with 8-10#.  It's sort of like guns, you can shoot rabbits with your deer rifle, but it's more efficient to have a 22 or shotgun for the rabbits.  
The quality of Abu Garcia has gone down in recent years, but they may have some more expensive models that are good.  You may want to run over to a Walmart or Turners and look at a few reels before you mail order it.  But, the Johnson and Diawa sound like good reels.

 

[nocturnal23]

Now im really confused, what kind of reel do you think i should get, i want to try the Salton Sea fishing but i hear about these big fish that would break the line.  Maybe i should get a spinning one or something. What do you use?

 

[nocturnal23]

Another thing i just remembered is that last time i went backpacking i used 15lb test that was at least 6 years old and caught fish but my grandpa used 4lb and caught more. My rod is an old bamboo one too, guess i need a new one.

i think ill get the Daiwa Spectrumcast Reel & Combo for 39.98 sound ok in 10lb.



(Edited by nocturnal23 at 5:16 pm on Mar. 21, 2002)

 

[Bishop]

Sounds like a good choice to start with.  You should use a light line like 4# for trout, but if your going to be using the one reel for other larger fish like bass, catfish, corvina, etc, you can probably get away with 8-10# line and use a light 2-4# leader when your trout fishing.  
Wish I could give you some info on fishing Salton Sea, but I've never fished it before.

 

[nocturnal23]

Ive only fished in the sierras but since i just heard of the Salton sea in ca (i thought it was a
egypt or something) and its close to my grandmas house so ill ask her to take me.