# Baistcasters... conventional gear neglect



## BassFlats (Nov 26, 2018)

I always,unless it's windy, take a bait caster with me. It is an accurate and quite presentation when plugging the mangroves.


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## karstopo (Nov 28, 2019)

It’s all fun. Glad I learned to use a fly rod, same with the baitcasting rig. I just feel free to pick up which ever rig I want. Maybe one outing it’s all about the baitcasting plugs and plastics and the next one nothing but feathers and fluff. None of them take up that much space, why not bring both along? Make some decent presentations in the presence of predators, get some eats.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Much of my early light tackle learning was with a competitive fishing club (the Tropical Anglers Club -TAC). If you wanted to compete you 
had to master plug, fly, spin gear as well as both lures and bait...

Each kind of gear does a few things really well (and others, not so well...). It forced you to flexible, but also had a few other benefits that I only appreciated years later...

One of them is that in a long days fishing, each type of gear used different muscles... very handy as you get older.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

If I am not tossing a fly (creeping closer to fly only) I am usually fishing with a baitcaster on a 6’4” medium power extra fast action rod and I can sight cast, wade and everything in between with lures from 1/32oz jigheads to 6” Super Spook topwaters and big 1 1/2 oz swim baits. I’ll break out my spinning gear about 1% of the time.


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## scrapiron (Jun 13, 2020)

Whoa- that’s quite a range of weights! Tell me more about this mythical Excalibur rod....


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

scrapiron said:


> Whoa- that’s quite a range of weights! Tell me more about this mythical Excalibur rod....


It’s one of my custom builds. Northfork Composites SJ804 (96”)cut down to 6”4” (I cut everything off the butt of the blank to keep tip action) with a 7 1/2” rear cork split grip, Fuji split skeleton seat and spiral wrapped ReCoil guides. Anyone on the forum that has fished with me has seen me using this rod. It has a Lew’s ProTi spooled with 20# Sufix 832 braid and I use a 4-6’ 20# Trilene Big Game clear mono leader. I like to sight cast super shallow fish with a 1/32oz Black Magic jighead and small soft plastic 2-3” in a natural color.


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## scrapiron (Jun 13, 2020)

Sounds awesome!
All my conventional rods are NFC (Kistler) blanks. Never did like the Fuji skeleton - had it on some St.Croix rods. Definitely intrigued by the spiral wrapped RECoils. 

I’ve got a 7’3” MedMod Fast that has a crack in the blank (my fault) that I put some clear epoxy over. Thought about cutting it down (got a great deal on that length, and would prefer 7’. Pretty sure that tip/action wouldn’t handle Super Spook though.

Sufix 832- man that line is great.


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