???? rod and reel combo's

[DoniphanRedneck]

I'm thinking about byeing the shakspear(sp) catfish rod and reel combo at wally world for around 20-30 $$... What do you guys think about it?? I aint got the money to spend on a high cash combo or anything so this is basicaly top of the line for me as of right now.
Thanks

DoniphanRedneck

[cook]

If thats what you can afford then buy it,but I would buy a quality line to replace what it comes spooled with.Take good care of the drag system and it should be ok for 99% of the cats you catch,but when you lose that 1%,you'll find a way to upgrade.I was able to land a 43# flathead from the bank w/a zebco 33 combo,but it took 1/2 hour and about a year off my life!(is it too late to enter it in the contest )

[BornBad]

I took my bro out fishing stripers below bagnel once, I let him use one of them wally world combos I had restrung with 40lb braid, ...drag was broke ........ he hooked into 10-15lb'er ...... Oh heck, I was His eyes were as wide as paper plates as he cursed me the whole time he was playing that beast



The real held though...

[fishnxs]

DR I've got a Shakespear Supra XT 2000 on a 7 1/2' Tourney Special that I bought from BP when they were running some pro-mo's for around $30 I think it was.
Works fine other than it needs to be cleaned a little more often than the others. The way the face plates are put on seems to get dirty a little easier than the Abu's.
Casts good, drag works fine as far as I can tell, the biggest cat I've had on it has only been around 5#'s.

I'm like the rest, fish with what you can, it beats not fishing at all.

[DoniphanRedneck]

Sounds like it will be a good combo for me then. Right now I have a zebco 7 foot rod with a Johnson CENTURY reel using about 10pound test mono line. The setup has cout it's far sare of fish bigger then the line should have held, but I want something I do'nt have to worry to much about braking incase I get that fish of a life time on it.

DoniphanRedneck

[Wolfman]

The rods are usualy pretty decent. Best bet is replace the reel soon as possible with a tidewater 30L, 30La, catmaxx or an ambassador 6000 or better. Better drags and beefier gears.
What ever you use, use a good line though.

[JBMan]

hey better yet, buy that single piece abugarcia medium heavy spinning rod, about 6'6 in length, then buy that mitchell 300x. it will hold a lot of line and is big enough for almost any cat, I have caught numerous 10 - 12 lb cats on this combo. it does really well.

[safetybass]

That Mitchell 300 spinning reel is a pretty decent reel for the money. 30 years ago that's about all I used. Mine have landed 20 - 30 spoonies by accident below Truman dam. That has been on 10 -14 # test, so the drag works pretty well. Biggest cat I ever caught on one of those, however, was about 10 #. I'm thinking a 30 - 40 # blue would probably have that thing ' a little. If your after some bigger fish, I'd listen to Wolfman's advice.

[DoniphanRedneck]

sounds like some sounds addvice from ya'll.. thank you and I have some really great idea's about what I need now.. Thank all of you again .

DoniphanRedneck

[Hellbender]

The Abu Garcia 6000 will cast a mile, well a half mile. They are hard to beat for your use.

[Wolfman]

Bass Pro has some deals on cat maxx combos. Excellent rods and far as i can tell good reels. My only drawback to the cat maxx reels is they don't hold enough line to suit me for big cats. It's not hard for one to spool you with less then 200 yards of line on it. For smaller cats in rivers and ponds it should be excellent though.

[DoniphanRedneck]

I was just coming over here to ask about the catmaxx's they seemed to be good... I was thinking about the shakespear ugly sticks also though.

DoniphanRedneck

[JBMan]

shakespear ugly sticks were meant for the unorganized, uncoordinated clutz, what you might be thinking of is a bait caster. have a look at this combo . The very last one would be a good canidate

[DoniphanRedneck]

looks really nice and wouldn't mind to have it but I kinda have a problem with it, I can't use a baitcaster reel. Never did get the hang of them. I really like the spinner reels though. I've got one spinner and 3 spinnercast reels and I like the spinner more.

The baitcasters are really nice and durable reels but just never got the hang of them sadly.

DoniphanRedneck

[Kutter]

DR, it wasn't all that many years ago, that I was in that exact same situation. I can only pass on to you what was told by many, to me. "Baitcasters can only be mastered with time, but once mastered, you will never go back." Didn't believe it then, do now. It took a long time to learn. I never dreamed a baitcaster would ever be as accurate or as far casting as the spincast and spinners I was used to. I was wrong. Go ahead, try the baitcasters, you won't regret it in the long run.