How do you choose a spinning reel? Some of the things I like are looks, number of bearings, how smooth it feels when you turn the handle and of course, price. For my needs, I don't think I need to spend more than $100.
Take a look at the this new reel. The company is Piscifun. The model is Honor 2000.
Honor Spinning Reel and Saex Elite casting reel
Piscifun Honor 2000 Matches Kistler Zbone Rod
and the reel comes with a nice cover
Here are the specs:
Graphite body
10 + 1 Stainless Steel Ball Bearings and Roller Bearing
One-way clutch
Sealed carbon drag
Patented spool design
Machined stainless steel gear shaft
S-shape slider so lines lays smoothly
Direct handle into main gear
Gear ratio 5.1:1
7lb. mono capacity—160 yards
Weight: 8.5 oz.
24.2 in. line take up per turn
First impressions:
This reel looks really sharp! It matches my Kistler Zbone Rod really well. The reel turns so smoothly. I put a small drop of oil on the shaft. Put it on a Kistler Spinning Rod and took it fishing. I wish I could say I caught a lot of fish on it, but only caught a couple on a tough day of fishing.
I loaded it with 14-pound Nanofil. I used an eighth-ounce Charlie Brewer Slider head and a 4-inch Berkley Powerbait Worm. I was was surprised how far I could cast with the reel/rod and line combo.
One of the things I dislike about using crankbaits
is how to manage all of those hooks.
It seems I spent more time untangling baits, than fishing.
Until now.
I've tried so many crankbait boxes.
The dedicated crankbait boxes work OK
for separating some of the baits,
but even then the hooks go under the slats
and so it's hard to just grab one and go.
I've tried boxes where you put one bait per slot.
No good. It takes too much space
in the boat to carry so many boxes.
Individual baits stored in a plastic box are easy to get to,
but then you have to carry so many plastic storage boxes.
Big crankbaits are a real pain to deal with.
It gets even worse for big cranks.
This box takes up so much space.
So it was back to trying
to use the dedicated crankbait boxes.
I bought a bunch of hook bonnets,
but they too had disappointing results.
Another method I tried was using hook bonnets.
As you can see below, they solve part of the problem,
but not the space issue.
And baits with hook bonnets
need more space than without.
Previously, I bought quite a few specialty
crankbait boxes. That helped,
but I still had to carry
way more boxes than I wanted.
Some of you may remember these crankbait storage boxes.
The idea never really took off.
Then I saw a video online about
how someone had put a bunch
of small cranks in a little round container.
I didn't care for the container,
but the elastic band was a brilliant idea.
So, I borrowed the idea and made my own modifications.
Wrapping the hooks
made the baits much more compact.
As you can see,
when you wrap an elastic band
around the hooks, they won't tangle.
Adding elastic bands around the hook
and securing to the bait body
made the crankbaits easier to get out
of the storage box.
But they still take up too much space.
Then it hit me —
the elastic bands do a great job
of keeping the hooks from tangling —
so I don't need all those slots.
I took the dividers out of the
special crankbait boxes.
Rather than go buy more boxes that don't have dividers,
I removed the slats from all of the crankbait boxes I had.
It was easy to remove the slotted base
of the crankbait box.
I went to the local supermarket and
bought large bags of sturdy elastics.
I wrapped all of my unpackaged crankbaits in very little time.
I was amazed at how many baits fit in a box,
once the hooks are wrapped up.
I sort the baits by size and diving depth per box.
I mix some of the brands because I can see exactly what
I need with out any effort.
You can sort the baits by brand or size. I sort by size mostly.
Here are some of the boxes full of crankbaits.
It works for stick baits as well as top water and lipless baits.
Here are some of the boxes stacked up on my work table.
Now, I buy single-tray boxes only for all of my hard baits.
Crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwater poppers, floating Rapalas, etc.
are all stored this way. I can carry a lot of baits in not much space in the boat.
Thank you for reading.
If you are looking for good deals on some of these products and more,
you can follow the links below to eBay,
Amazon and one of my favorite tackle outlets, Monster Tackle.
