Brought up this old thread with a new datapoint, four good extended coast trips since the last post, and new tackle (also graphite warning).
First, I fished my Lew's BB-25SW on 8'2" (heavy side of) medium Lamiglas Classic Glass, all week on Laguna Madre at the beginning of November, and it was Perfect for fishing the flats from a drifting boat.
Perfect both with weighted paddle-tails (Cocahoe minnow) and neutral-density swimbait (TSL grasswalker)
It would have done the popping cork just as well, but I was imitating baitfish.
The combo was an edge for out-fishing everyone else on the boat (not a goal, but a fact).
Other than a little spool fuzz and thumb touch during long casts, backlash was never an issue.
The first graphite warning, last year, I added a 9' Lamiglas G1325 medium-light spinning rod, 6-12-lb line, 1/8-1/2-oz lures.
The reel is a Tica Libra 3000SX, capacity for 200-yds 12-lb fluoro and long spool designed for distance casting.
Tica USA sells on Amazon - very inexpensive for its quality - and good support when I ordered a spare spool.
The logic of this rig is casting a long way sitting in a kayak, high rod tip for depth control with weighted lures, and the ability to cast lighter lures. It works. It's also really sensitive for light bites.
The combo has served me well (with the limits of line control) both on the flats, and dock-fishing for schoolie specs in the Arroyo Colorado barge channel.
Early in the year, added a 7' medium-light baitcaster, TFO-made Cabelas Salt Striker with a new Lew's Super Duty.
The 3-pc travel rod was a close-out steal ($50 v. $200 for the same TFO-brand still in production), and perfect to stash in a kayak hold next to my 3-pc Sage RPLX7.
It's a joy for kayak fishing both weighted and neutral-density lures. Line control is instantaneous, and big capacity for a new low-profile reel. A long weekend kayak-drifting Estes flats, it became my go-to rod. All the distance I needed drifting the kayak, and a better choice for sight-fishing than the longer rods.
This is the only photo I have.
ok, found this, the first rat red of the trip
They have really come a long way in cast control on these new bait reels - the first mag-control that actually does something. Where BB-1 was a paradigm step over Abu for peeling line from spools, 35 years later, cast control (anti-backlash) has caught up. Counting clicks on both the friction drag brake and fine-tune clicks on the mag is really something - virtually no thumbs.
If your spool's getting fuzzy mid-cast, instead of adding thumb to the spool, add a click of mag before your next cast.
Spinning an empty spool, you can actually see the mag control work, which I never saw on the old mag controls.
Dock fishing the Arroyo, the 9' medium-light spinning combo took all honors (ok, except breaking off my lifetime snook when I was using the 10-lb spool). I could cast 1/4-3/8-oz halfway across the Arroyo, and feeling the light fish bites was everything else. I fished my XUL some with light lures, definitely caught fish, but where it shines is a light bait rig, we had no bait, and all wrong for the heavier lures that caught the most fish. The 7' baitcaster just wouldn't do the trick for ambushing far-away schoolies sneaking into our light.
(I have a couple of more 8-1/2' medium-heavy rods, both bait and spinning, that stayed in their socks that trip).
The heavy-side-of-medium 8'2" Lami Glass with very collectible Lew's BB-25SW would cast all the same distance, but didn't have the feel needed for subtle fish bites. So with only one rod doing what I needed, I had to cut and re-tie any time I wanted to change lures, and change-up was everything for these fish.
So I came home deciding I needed to add another long medium-light combo, so I could fish two rigged rods, and decided to go baitcaster (plus the only med-light spinning rod Lami makes now is 9'6").
Lami calls this medium, but for my inshore purpose, it's medium-light, and it does have a soft thin tip.
The 7' Salt Striker has the exact same line and lure rating, but for you guys who know your ballistics, 20% greater length and lure velocity means double the distance.
No deals on this rod, only a few in stock around the country, and a 3-month wait to get from Lamiglas.
Good ebay deal on the Lew's Inshore. The spool is not as deep, and 2mm narrower than my almost new Super Duty, and its capacity is listed as 40-yards less (rated for 12-lb mono, 0.014" dia). I'm not a guy to fish braid, but here's my place for it.
I used 100 yds 15-lb (0.008") Yo-Zuri braid for backing. The Yo-Zuri is not as fine or expensive as 8-strand braids, but it also has an added coating.
and I was able to get 145 yds 12-lb Seaguar Red fluoro (0.011") over that, actually improving the total line length over the Super Duty.
Just got this rigged today, and took the combo to the back-acre for a casting trial this afternoon.
Found it to be the smoothest distance-casting reel I've ever chunked. 150' casts with 1/4-oz were slow lobs. No question the new combo will out-cast the 9' G1325/Tica spinner (and all my other rods).
I don't think backlash will ever be an issue unless I get carried away.