Bass Plugging

[ColinW]

Hiya , im abit of an avid lure fisherman with several outfits for perch,chubb,pike seatrout/salmon etc etc which i class them all as balanced outfits ie placing finger above spool and balancing the rod on me finger without it being tip or butt heavy , i have a grx 15 to 60 gr 10ft spin rod coupled with a 5000 shimano baitrunner for my bass plugging and find it tip heavy , to compensate this ive wrapped a slither of lead around the butt of rod to allow my outfit to be balanced securing it with tape , but find its rather heavy now , snatcher when u say balanced, is this what you mean as im sure your plugging outfit would be rather tip heavy , does everyone suffer the same problem as me with using a 10ft rod, i have just got me self a sustain 4000 spinning reel to and was trying to locate a rod suitable for plugging yet achieving a balanced out fit , anyone any ideas... ive been plugging for 2 seasoins around here and still havent managed a bass on the plug yet ,plenty on bait but plug nmo no no , any tips ,im in ne england

cheers

 

"Balanced" tackle has nothing to do with literally balancing the rod, it just means that the rod, reel, line and lure size all match. Quite often in this country I think we fish way too heavy with lure gear, just watch a few videos on YouTube and look what the Yanks catch on gear most UK anglers would think you'd struggle land a mackerel on! (Try searching for stripers, red drum and bluefish)

[dav]

"Balanced" tackle has nothing to do with literally balancing the rod, it just means that the rod, reel, line and lure size all match. Quite often in this country I think we fish way too heavy with lure gear, just watch a few videos on YouTube and look what the Yanks catch on gear most UK anglers would think you'd struggle land a mackerel on! (Try searching for stripers, red drum and bluefish)

 

I was always under the impression a balanced out fit is like you say when the rod ,reel line and lure are matched together , but actually balanced is when the rod isnt tip or butt heavy when the rod is held , i have a loomis 7ft rod rated at 1 to 10 gr and know what you mean when u say american style , but again a small rod wouldnt be any good for plugging for bass in a strong tide , thats were the length helps , but increassing klenght sacrifices the balanced side of it , doesnt it ?

[ColinW]

I was always under the impression a balanced out fit is like you say when the rod ,reel line and lure are matched together , but actually balanced is when the rod isnt tip or butt heavy when the rod is held , i have a loomis 7ft rod rated at 1 to 10 gr and know what you mean when u say american style , but again a small rod wouldnt be any good for plugging for bass in a strong tide , thats were the length helps , but increassing klenght sacrifices the balanced side of it , doesnt it ?

 

I can see that for a "spinning" outfit what I call a balanced outfit would tend to be literally balanced as well, as a heavier rod would be slightly counterbalanced by the bigger reel (although a lot of fixed spool reels are very "weight forward" these days). I think the only tackle I have that is literally balanced is fly tackle, where the weight of the reel is behind your hand. No rod with a multiplier on it is ever going to balance the way you want it to. I'll stick to the old definition!

[chesters1]

The new Abu Cardinal range is my choice of reel!!

 

Which beach are you near, I grew up in Honiton, East Devon and cut my teeth along the whole South Devon coast plugging for BASS

i have a cardinal 45 i use for spinning and a 178 for lead chucking ,the first is an utter bit of crap and probably will wear out prematurely (and only deserves to be used as a "throwaway" reel),the latter is a fine looking reel but once strapped to a rod its faults shine out due to its old fashioned design ,the spool in particular isn't very long and casts 25% distance than a cheapo reel i have.

unfortunately they still think their once great reputation and a bit of shiney plastic here and there will see them through unfortunately with the mass of far better and cheaper reels out there they will come unstuck unless they actually design a better reel!

my next one will be a cheapy.

i dont own any but i suspect their multiplyers have also gone tits up! the old versions seem to be in demand more than the new ones.

for spinning the rod is an old metal ferruled abu atlantic 483 its almost indistructable and doesent mind being abused

Edited March 24, 2007 by chesters1