Baitcaster Suggestion

[AWH]

I can't believe I'm going to ask this. I'm a hardcore musky guy, having a hard time fishing for anything else for more than 5 minutes during musky season. But with my early season success (or lack thereof) the last number of years, I'm thinking I should committ to fishing bass until July hits. I haven't been able to buy a musky in June the last few years. Maybe it's a sign!

My only non-musky setups that I own anymore are a couple of spinning combos that I'll use for bass/walleyes/pike before musky season. So I get about 4 days of use on them every year. Fishing muskies, I use baitcasters all the time. But when it comes to a bass baitcaster, I'm clueless. I've never used one.

I know what kind of rod I want to use the reel for. I'll be looking at a medium heavy rod around 7 feet, give or take a few inches. I want this rod for fishing heavier cover, slop, jigging, docks, maybe some tubes out on Mille Lacs for smallies when my muskies have me baffled. I'll rig the reel up with 20 or 30 pound Power Pro.

Now being that I'm only going to be using this reel for what amounts to about a month out of the year, I don't want a high end reel. I'm just looking for an average baitcaster that will suit the needs that I mentioned.

Can I get a decent baitcaster for $40 or $50? Like I said, I'm clueless when it comes to this for bass. I mainly use Abu Garcia 6500C3 reels for muskies. And I'm sure they would probably work for bass as well. But I'd like to have a reel strictly for bass in a lesser price range than the 6500.

What's out there? What's good? What should I stay away from? Should I just stick to my muskies and continue to ask myself why I torture myself early in the season?

Thanks,

Aaron

[redrocketangler]

Check the rest of this forum someone just asked the same question and there are alot of replys and suggestions there The Thread is by lunker651 just down the page a few. I personally recommended the flueger purist its $80 but well worth the money also check hsolist.

[vern]

Since you are already using the 6500 for muskies, you can't go wrong buying a 5500 to cover your bass fishing needs. Very solid for about $60 & should work well matched with a 7' med-heavy rod. I'm a Garcia & Shimano guy myself. Like a lot of others here, I love the Shimano Curados but they would be a little out of your price range. If you're only going to get one baitcaster for bassin' I guess you'll have to think about what types of baits you throw most often. Sounds like you want something a little heavier to pull fish out of the slop. For solid & affordable reels it's hard to beat the Ambassadeur's. But if you go back to the main Bass forum & type "baitcaster" in the search box at the bottom of the page you'll find a lot of good info from previous discussions.- Vern

[senkoskipper]

Since you want a designated bass rod you might as well get something nice the first time if you know what i mean. You should get a 6'6 MH rod with a shimano currodo baitcaster. Make sure you buy a rod that has lifetime warranty if your gonna be spending the big bucks.