I've only had Tilapia one time when it was any good. The other 3 times I tried it the flesh tasted muddy. I refuse to try it anymore. I just call them "mud fish".

Yep, black is a great color for senkos in any color of water. Green with black flake is good too.

Nice reels. I just bought a Curado K and a DC. I haven't had an opportunity to use the DC yet, but the K is my favorite bait caster for now.

For everyone saying skill is more important than the tools you use - they are wrong. An inexpensive reel is going to have inexpensive bearings and fewer of them. That will affect your casting distance. The brakes will not be as good and more difficult to adjust. You will probably get more backlashes, line twist and wind knots. Cheaper reels often weigh more and are often less durable. The drags on cheaper reels are not as good as more expensive reels and are more likely to fail.

Cheaper reels won't cast light lures as well or as far. If you are good at casting with a cheap reel, you will be even better and more accurate with a more expensive reel.

If you fish salt water, your cheaper reels are probably made of zinc which will corrode, and they probably have molded plastic gears and maybe one molded zinc gear. More expensive reels will have machined stainless steel or brass gears with aluminum or brass bodies and thicker plating (if they are plated). If the body is machined it is much more costly to produce than a molded body. Also, the bearings will be far superior to cheaper reels in their materials, polishing and the quality of their raceways, cages and shielding.

Plenty of people think fishing gear is overpriced, but the truth is you get what you pay for in fishing equipment the same way you do with any other equipment. And there is a huge difference between the cheaper fishing gear (under $120) and the more expensive ($175 & up). You just need to know what you are willing to spend.

As you go up in price you get a reel that is made with higher quality materials and much better bearings. My best baitcaster was a Quantum Tour PT. They don't make it anymore, but it was around $300 regular and when they put them on closeout I got one for under $200. It casts very well and is nice and light. Easy to adjust, etc.

I just bought a Curado K and it outcasts my Quantum. It is an amazing reel. I like it so much I just ordered a Curado DC. The "DC" stands for "digital circuitry". It has a microprocessor in it to control the braking to reduce backlashes. People who have them swear they can empty the spool on a single cast and no batteries are required. It generates electricity from the spinning spool. I'm selling all my other baitcasters. I'm sure the even more expensive reels are even better, but I am unwilling to pay that much for a reel.

If you are looking for a great baitcaster, a Curado K is around $175 and casts like a dream. It took me a couple of hours to get it zeroed in so I almost never get a backlash, but that may be true of almost any reel - especially if they have excellent bearings or a clever system to help prevent it.

For spinning gear, I prefer Shimano Stradics and I usually have two, but I lost one rig overboard. Stradics vary in price depending on the model. My replacement reel is on the way from China. I saved about $50 ordering it that way on Ebay. I've ordered other reels new in the box on Ebay and have never had a problem.

You can spend a lot of money on fishing gear and you should know your limits. But just as with wood working the quality of your tools makes a big difference in the quality of your work and how much easier they make it to do a good job.

Hi ALan,

I've seen some people get good distance off a spincast reel, but I never have. I bought the most expensive Zebco spincast reel available a dozen years back and put it on a nice rod, but couldn't get the distance and it kept having problems with the pickup pin and wouldn't reel in the line.

Openface spinning reels will throw the lightest lure I have and I use them for all my freshwater fishing. I have an ultralight rig that is a lot of fun for panfish, but my favorites for bass are my Shimano Stradics. Go into a Bass Pro store or similar and the Shimanos are the only reels that keep spinning long after all the others have stopped. (Makes me wonder what Speed Bearings might do for my Johnny Morris reels.)

McGill & Wright make a nice worm casting rod. I have one with a Johnny Morris baitcaster on it. I love the rod, but not the reel, and I have two fo them. so I am going to replace them with a Shimano Curado.

Spincast rods are made to have the reel hanging below your hand, not on top of the rod like a baitcasting rig. Spincast rods have larger eyes at the reel end because the line comes off the reel in loops and the bigger eyes offer less friction. Your closed face spinning reel delivers its line through a small diameter hole in the reel cover. It can use a rod with smaller eyelets. It is also designed to sit on top of a baitcasting reel with good balance and thumb position.

If you want a spincast reel that is designed to sit below the handle you want to get a lever type spincast reel that you operate with your index finger. Those are more common for ultralite rigs, but I have seen some larger ones.

If you want superior casting distance you need to go to an open-face spinning reel and a good quality reel.

I would stay away from St. Croix rods. I no longer buy them because of their warranty policy. I had to get warranty repair (replacement) for two St. Croix rods and they require you to send them the entire rod. All their competitors only require that you send them the handle. Finding a shipping tube and the cost of shipping makes St. Croix too much trouble and too expensive to bother with.

My first fishing boat was a fiberglass 17' canoe. I added a clamp-on transom so I could put a trolling motor on it. I had a lot of fun with that little boat. Were I to do it again I would get a Royalex canoe with a transom back. Any fiberglass boat requires regular maintenance to keep the fiberglass gel coat in good condition.

For a single person rig, I would buy a Native fishing kayak with the peddle drive. I wouldn't bother with the Hobies because they cannot go in reverse.