Thread: Good combo for panfish

The discussion Wademaster linked to is very similar to ones I participated in on two other forums recently, in which several anglers weighed in both times with experiences mirroring mine and Wademaster's. My grandfather used spincast reels all his life; about thirty years ago, when I built him a custom bluegill rod on an 8' Fenwick Feralite fiberglass fly rod blank, I bought a Daiwa Goldcast reel to go on it, and the reel worked great for him for the rest of his life, and as recently as about five years ago brought in a ten-pound channel cat on six-pound-test. My mother used spincast all her life until about a year ago when I got tired of recently-manufactured reels malfunctioning while she was trying to fish and taught her how to use spinning reels. I built her a rod on an 8' Lamiglas blank about a year and a half ago, and bought a Goldcast to go on it; the reel's drag was non-functional right out of the box, and the reel had to be sent back. The replacement reel they sent me had a drag that would slip whenever a fish was brought in, even a small one, so that it was difficult to bring in any fish and the line was constantly twisting.

And, the spincast reel I bought for her before that one was a Pflueger Cetina, their best spincast reel. I bought it as part of a combo; it literally fell apart into several pieces the second time she used it - she made a cast and the pushbutton separated from the spool cover and handle.

I realize some people look at bluegill fishing as an infrequent endeavor they don't take seriously; I am not one of those people. I don't enjoy losing fishing time due to poor-quality gear malfunctioning, so I use quality gear, which these days means avoiding spincast reels. And, I think enough of novice anglers or anglers who have never fished, who go fishing with me, to not compromise their experience with bad gear. If I were taking someone hunting for the first time, I wouldn't give them a gun that had a magazine that was prone to jamming, or that had a habit of misfiring. I just like to make people aware of how far the quality has fallen on even the best spincast reels, and beyond that how drastic of a gap in quality there has always been even between the best spincast reels and most of the low-end spinning reels by reputable manufacturers.

I bought a Gander Mtn GSX a while back, light action, it comes with a matching reel, excellent combo this far along, I think it had been 79.99 and they had it marked down to like 40 something, i got the 5'6" rod combo. Not too whiplike, but plenty light actioned for my taste.