Home Forums Fishing Freshwater time to replace rods and reels....ideas?

for river fishing we have been using mainly rods and reels ive had since high school, and since i was more interested in buying beer for the weekend in high school my rod and reel assortment was mainly what i found are garage sales been mainly using a buddy's poles for walleye tournaments and the reservoir.....

need about 4 good rod/reel combos, 2 for trolling bottom bouncers for walleye on a big reservoir, 2 for shore fishing for walleye but in the Missouri in 2 bites i can hook up a 3 pound sauger and a 3 foot sturgeon.....sensitive is nice for watching for those lil love bites from a picky walleye on the river but its gotta hold up to battling the occasional 20 pound carp or other trash fish that move through your walleye hole from time to time.....

dont have a ton of money to spend, maybe $500-$600........

My advice would be to pick up two low-profile baitcasting reels for bottom-bouncing duty, and two round baitcasting reels for the river shore fishing. The low-profile reels fit well in the hand when holding them while trolling, and the round reels usually hold more line and are as strong as a winch if you need to crank in a big carp in heavy current while shore fishing.

Shimano reels like the Curado are good, and it's tough to beat the Abu Garcia round baitcasters, although some of the new cheaper versions sold at places like WalMart do not have the quality of the older reels. Quality baitcasters tend to be pricey, but I would have no problem buying a used, made in Sweden, Abu Garcia Ambassadeur and using it for the rest of my life.

I'm not too brand-loyal when it comes to most fishing rods. I usually buy what I can find the best deals on. For example, you can often pick up Cabela's brand Fish Eagle II (usually $80 for $40) or XML rods ($140 for $70) at half price in their bargain cave at certain times of the year (maybe now). I'm sure that there are better rods, but most high-end rods don't get blown out every year at half price like the Cabela's rods do. Your rods will need to be able to handle several ounces of weight, and so something in a 7' medium-heavy casting rod should do the trick.

6'6" med hvy St Croix with your choice of any low profile Shimano and 10X Triline XT for my river rods.

Get about 6 of them and get after it!!

check out ffo-tackle.com for some deals on gear, I prefer my bouncer reels to have a flippin switch for easy line out when runnin contours and a 7ft 6 inch rod with a fast tip. Not sure what style reel you prefer for bank fishing, but I would grab a couple Ugly Stick lite salmon rods 8ft6inch med. action and call it good, I use so much Fireline and braids now I dont have use for a large reel cept for leadcore or saltwater. When we fish Hell's creek area on Peck we mainly troll cranks with line counters, not much on bouncers cause of the variety we catch on deep cranks. lottsa gear out there but you dont need to get to spendy for what you want to do, now a jiggin or riggen outfits can get real spendy.

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewpfluegerpresident.html

http://falconrods.com/index.php/rods-reels/rods/lowrider/lowrider-casting.html

I have both these pieces of tackle. The Lowrider is an excellent "best buy" type rod. There are better ones, but not by a lot. Made in the USA. You'll have to pick out the one you want as most of my fishing is for bass or panfish and although your type of fishing seems to equate to my bass fishing, I don't know the exact weight rod you prefer, especially for trolling. You could probably get one that would be good for both applications, but you could also get two of this same brand and model in different weights.

The Pfluger will do you for both applications, IME. It has been eclipsed in their lineup by the "Patriarch" but I don't have the latter and don't know if it is any better. Again, there are definitely better reels out there, but this one is proven to me and again, is a "price-point" or best buy type. I don't know that there is really any need for anything better for any type of fishing or if a "better" reel would even win a fishing tournament over this reel.

The Ardent company is an American company that makes their reels here, however they just don't seem to be able to compete on quite the same level as some of the other makes. They are also more expensive than my recommendation. I would buy one anyway, were I in the market for a reel, but I've got them coming out of my ears. I noted they are on sale in Cabela's bargain cave for $40 off. I can't recommend them though as I've no experience with one. The review of them in Tackle Tour is lukewarm. The President and the Low Rider both come with excellent reviews, one in Tackle Tour and the other from Cabela's site.

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewardentxs1000.html

Any good baitcaster reel will work. The Garcia 5500, 6500, and 7000 reels seem to be the iron horses. If the reel has a flippin' switch, one can release or engage the spool with one hand.

When in AK a few years back, I found a new appreciation for the Ugly Stick rods. Very sensitive for as tough as they were. Another option for long rods (1 pc 7-8'), are the saltwater inshore rods. I have a couple of Fenwick's that are outstanding. CastAway and Falcon are are a great tough line of rods. GLoomis is my top of the line rod recommendation, but they are very pricey. I have never seen a rod break a big fish faster than a Loomis.

Can't speak about the bottom bouncer rig but for the sensitive one go with a 9 foot 6 weight TFO (temple fork outfittters) fly rod. If you went this way and got it working you'd not use your spinning rigs near as much...grin

Dober

unless i come into a used fly rod really cheap i doubt your gonna see me wielding one.......might be fun on some of the clear back bays on Fort Peck after snot rockets but dont see how they would be very useful for most my walleye fishing

walleye from a river last spring, once you go fly rod you won't go back...you can even jig with them in a lake if you wish.

Dober

water wolf, albeit it a small one but still a blast on a fly rod

Dober

that aint a river, thats a creek

as i said wouldnt necessarily mind trying one for the snot rockets....Hell Creek bay was pretty clear last time i fished it and some of the lil bays just west of the dam are pretty clear and hold the slimy bastards......

summer comes and we catch most our walleyes trolling at 15-35 feet.....

Now this is where you'll toss your spinning gear in the crick..

46" Musky, 9' 9 wt fly rod

best to ya

Dober

dats a nice one.....first summer after we got my GSP we took him out on the boat and were catching 1-2 pound walleyes one after another and tossing them in the livewell to eat.....the pup caught on to the rules of the game pretty quick and was trying to help until i got a 8 pound 'eye into the boat.....he had no clue just what the hell to do with the bastard and started backing up into the front of the boat and wouldnt go near the livewell anymore.....

lil while later my wife hooked a snot rocket a lil smaller than that one but we were rigged for walleyes not those toothy bastards and it cut through the line just before getting netted......would have loved to have seen the look on Jakes face had we got that one in the boat, he might have said [bleep] it and decided to try and swim for shore

yeah hounds and the boat always make for some great mem's don't they!

Hope all is well your way, sorry I couldn't help you with the rod stuff. Grew up in northern Minne and used to know this stuff well, but things have changed so much so I make it easy and just use my fly rod when I get back.

Dober

no worries.....gonna have to make down your way one of these days so you can show me the error of my ways and try and convert me to fly fishing

come on down in July/Aug/Sept and you'll have more fun than you ever believe. I'd love to come your way and get together with you and Scenar and rock some water wolves during the spring spawn..

And, maybe this year I'll get your way, need to plan a November trip for deer with the wife and our G-son who can hunt big game for the first time this fall. Want the young fella to have a rocking fun time.

How tough or easy it is for him to draw a cow tag your way? And, if he drew could he find one...?

Sorry to jack your thread..

Dobro

When its time to replace rods..I don't...

I just borrow them from a freind.....

Dude...U gotta try the one out in the pic, it's my newest big rod (hope that came out right..grin). 9' 10 wt TFO, talk about a rock star of a rod!!

Absolutely now it puts that old Sage of mine to shame.

Dober

Just so happens we are cooking up a family pike trip in 2012....