Finesse baitcaster

carolina-rig-01 · 09-04-11, 11:27 AM

Well I missed the boat on the Prolite reels at Bass Pro because I decided too late that I would like a couple and now they are gone. I was wondering what other good finesse baitcasters are out there without spending an arm and a leg because I don't throw really light baits all that often but when I do I would kill for a baitcaster that handled them better than my Revos.

C DUDE · 09-04-11, 11:43 AM

Have you seen the new Curado e50? It's pretty nasty and on sale at Tackle Warehouse for 139.88!

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Shima...page-SCE5.html

Jrob78 · 09-04-11, 03:12 PM

I would have to agree with C DUDE, the Curado 50E is going to be the best thing going for finesse on a budget. I have a Sol that I really like but they are harder to find and more expensive. Tony and I had a small casting contest between my Sol and his 50, both with Orange Seal spool bearings and they were pretty equal. The thing we found was that you really had to have the right rod to properly cast light baits.

I bought a ProLite and used it a time or 2 and ended up returning it. I would pick up a couple of 50 E's and not look back.

Tavery5 · 09-04-11, 04:42 PM

Kory, the Sol, or 50E will not break the bank and they both cast very nice.

pro reel · 09-04-11, 06:37 PM

The 50 E is nice. There have been some crazy sale prices on them in the last 2 months. I bet that the stock is getting low at many places, but there will probably be a few more deep discounts pop up before it's gone. They will go fast though. $140 is a good price for it, but I bet it will be cheaper at some more places. Most bas pro shops still have the pro lites, they are just back up to the $59 price. I have heard from many people that you can talk to them and get $10 off that to match the price they were during the classic. I have found that mine casts light baits even a little better than my E50. The reason is that the dual brakes prevent backlash just a bit better than the E50 centrifugal only system. There are a few tricks that need to be done the the pro lite to maximize it. One is you need to customize it's centifugal system. It;s an always on 4 pin system, I pull 2 of the tabs out and cut them off. With only 2 active tabs, and the mag dial, it's sweet. The other is flush the bearings and use a thin oil, thats easy to do also.

boloson · 09-04-11, 06:43 PM

Pixy is nice. Currently looking for a ml rod to reap the full benefits of casting light stuff. It's expensive but worth it imo

carolina-rig-01 · 09-04-11, 08:07 PM

Well we called Bass Pro today and they said that the higher ups that call the shots pulled the Prolites off their shelves the same day that they went on sale and they didn't have any in stock. Their website showed that they were out of stock as well. We went to Springfield today to take Lake to the zoo and while we were in town I swung by Bass Pro to double check. They didn't have any Prolites in the main store but they had some next door in the catalog store for $40 so I picked up two of them. I will need to fish them as is for a little while because I have a few tournaments coming up but as soon as I can and things calm down for Kevin I will send them to him so he can work his magic on them.

pro reel · 09-04-11, 09:01 PM

Kory, pull the side cover off, push the bass pro button and push the nose down at the front to rotate it and remove it. Slide the spool out. Now look at the brakes, you will see the tips of the 4 horseshoe shaped tabs. Hook 2 opposite tabs with a bent stick pin or pic, anything that will hook it. Pull it all the way out and then snip the sides with a scizzors. Let it pop back in without the front section anymore and it will be a 2 pin which is just absolutly perfect for any decent user. The whole thing takes just a minute or two. Now, toset that up for lite baits, you want the total spool wieght to be as light as possible. Line is a considerable amount of wieght and that spool holds quite a bit. Braid is the lightest of the 4 types of line, FC lines are the heaviest, mono and co poly are about the same, but mono is the lightest. Fill the bottom 2/3rds of the spool with any old braid. Tie your pick of the other lines to the braid with a braid to mono blood knot or other good joining knot. Then fill the rest of the spool with that line, make sure you have enough that the knot will always be on the spool. The weight reduction is several grams and makes a big difference in start up enertia. You coukd just use all braid for the lightest, but braid has way more friction so it's not a good choice for the usable section of the line. Do both of these things and it will cast very well until we get a chance to flush the bearings for you. Now, I could easily talk you through flushing the bearings and I'm sure you could do that yourself also if you want to.

Bassboss · 09-04-11, 09:08 PM

Sounds good Kory, hope ya like em. I like kevins idea about the braid and such, seems like it would definitely help with casting light baits!

Jrob78 · 09-04-11, 09:18 PM

If you plan to throw truly light baits, pick your rods carefully. I think a good light powered rod is almost as important as the reel itself.

C DUDE · 09-04-11, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jrob78

If you plan to throw truly light baits, pick your rods carefully. I think a good light powered rod is almost as important as the reel itself.

I completely agree

carolina-rig-01 · 09-04-11, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pro reel

Kory, pull the side cover off, push the bass pro button and push the nose down at the front to rotate it and remove it. Slide the spool out. Now look at the brakes, you will see the tips of the 4 horseshoe shaped tabs. Hook 2 opposite tabs with a bent stick pin or pic, anything that will hook it. Pull it all the way out and then snip the sides with a scizzors. Let it pop back in without the front section anymore and it will be a 2 pin which is just absolutly perfect for any decent user. The whole thing takes just a minute or two. Now, toset that up for lite baits, you want the total spool wieght to be as light as possible. Line is a considerable amount of wieght and that spool holds quite a bit. Braid is the lightest of the 4 types of line, FC lines are the heaviest, mono and co poly are about the same, but mono is the lightest. Fill the bottom 2/3rds of the spool with any old braid. Tie your pick of the other lines to the braid with a braid to mono blood knot or other good joining knot. Then fill the rest of the spool with that line, make sure you have enough that the knot will always be on the spool. The weight reduction is several grams and makes a big difference in start up enertia. You coukd just use all braid for the lightest, but braid has way more friction so it's not a good choice for the usable section of the line. Do both of these things and it will cast very well until we get a chance to flush the bearings for you. Now, I could easily talk you through flushing the bearings and I'm sure you could do that yourself also if you want to.

Thanks for the help Kevin. As soon as Lake goes to bed I will have a looksy at the brakes and see if I can screw anything up lol. I will also do the braid trick too and add copoly to the spool. I will probably just send them to you to do the bearing work if you don't mind rather than take a chance on screwing something up myself, after things settle down for you guys of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jrob78

If you plan to throw truly light baits, pick your rods carefully. I think a good light powered rod is almost as important as the reel itself.

I agree that rod selection is a huge part of throwing light baits. I have a few medium power Falcon rods that are just too light for me to use anything other than light baits on and they have been collecting dust since I don't have a reel that I don't fight with when throwing light baits so I think these will be perfect for the new reels.

pro reel · 09-04-11, 11:11 PM

No problem Kory, I will be happy to juice it up for you.

09-04-11, 11:27 AM	#1
carolina-rig-01 BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Webb City, MO Posts: 6,387	Finesse baitcaster Well I missed the boat on the Prolite reels at Bass Pro because I decided too late that I would like a couple and now they are gone. I was wondering what other good finesse baitcasters are out there without spending an arm and a leg because I don't throw really light baits all that often but when I do I would kill for a baitcaster that handled them better than my Revos.

09-04-11, 11:43 AM	#2
C DUDE BassFishin.Com Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Conway, SC Posts: 52	Have you seen the new Curado e50? It's pretty nasty and on sale at Tackle Warehouse for 139.88! http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Shima...page-SCE5.html __________________ Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths.

09-04-11, 03:12 PM	#3
Jrob78 BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 4,671	I would have to agree with C DUDE, the Curado 50E is going to be the best thing going for finesse on a budget. I have a Sol that I really like but they are harder to find and more expensive. Tony and I had a small casting contest between my Sol and his 50, both with Orange Seal spool bearings and they were pretty equal. The thing we found was that you really had to have the right rod to properly cast light baits. I bought a ProLite and used it a time or 2 and ended up returning it. I would pick up a couple of 50 E's and not look back. __________________ There are 3 kinds of people in the world…those who can count and those who can’t. HRN4L

09-04-11, 04:42 PM	#4
Tavery5 BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 2,427	Kory, the Sol, or 50E will not break the bank and they both cast very nice. __________________ They call me Ishmael

09-04-11, 09:08 PM	#9
Bassboss BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Shawano, WI Posts: 7,761	Sounds good Kory, hope ya like em. I like kevins idea about the braid and such, seems like it would definitely help with casting light baits! __________________ If you can't fix it with heavy squats or fish oil, you're probably going to die.

09-04-11, 06:37 PM	#5
pro reel BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Wichita Kansas Posts: 761	The 50 E is nice. There have been some crazy sale prices on them in the last 2 months. I bet that the stock is getting low at many places, but there will probably be a few more deep discounts pop up before it's gone. They will go fast though. $140 is a good price for it, but I bet it will be cheaper at some more places. Most bas pro shops still have the pro lites, they are just back up to the $59 price. I have heard from many people that you can talk to them and get $10 off that to match the price they were during the classic. I have found that mine casts light baits even a little better than my E50. The reason is that the dual brakes prevent backlash just a bit better than the E50 centrifugal only system. There are a few tricks that need to be done the the pro lite to maximize it. One is you need to customize it's centifugal system. It;s an always on 4 pin system, I pull 2 of the tabs out and cut them off. With only 2 active tabs, and the mag dial, it's sweet. The other is flush the bearings and use a thin oil, thats easy to do also.

09-04-11, 06:43 PM	#6
boloson BassFishin.Com Active Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 303	Pixy is nice. Currently looking for a ml rod to reap the full benefits of casting light stuff. It's expensive but worth it imo

09-04-11, 08:07 PM	#7
carolina-rig-01 BassFishin.Com Premier Elite Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Webb City, MO Posts: 6,387	Well we called Bass Pro today and they said that the higher ups that call the shots pulled the Prolites off their shelves the same day that they went on sale and they didn't have any in stock. Their website showed that they were out of stock as well. We went to Springfield today to take Lake to the zoo and while we were in town I swung by Bass Pro to double check. They didn't have any Prolites in the main store but they had some next door in the catalog store for $40 so I picked up two of them. I will need to fish them as is for a little while because I have a few tournaments coming up but as soon as I can and things calm down for Kevin I will send them to him so he can work his magic on them.

09-04-11, 09:01 PM	#8
pro reel BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Wichita Kansas Posts: 761	Kory, pull the side cover off, push the bass pro button and push the nose down at the front to rotate it and remove it. Slide the spool out. Now look at the brakes, you will see the tips of the 4 horseshoe shaped tabs. Hook 2 opposite tabs with a bent stick pin or pic, anything that will hook it. Pull it all the way out and then snip the sides with a scizzors. Let it pop back in without the front section anymore and it will be a 2 pin which is just absolutly perfect for any decent user. The whole thing takes just a minute or two. Now, toset that up for lite baits, you want the total spool wieght to be as light as possible. Line is a considerable amount of wieght and that spool holds quite a bit. Braid is the lightest of the 4 types of line, FC lines are the heaviest, mono and co poly are about the same, but mono is the lightest. Fill the bottom 2/3rds of the spool with any old braid. Tie your pick of the other lines to the braid with a braid to mono blood knot or other good joining knot. Then fill the rest of the spool with that line, make sure you have enough that the knot will always be on the spool. The weight reduction is several grams and makes a big difference in start up enertia. You coukd just use all braid for the lightest, but braid has way more friction so it's not a good choice for the usable section of the line. Do both of these things and it will cast very well until we get a chance to flush the bearings for you. Now, I could easily talk you through flushing the bearings and I'm sure you could do that yourself also if you want to.

09-04-11, 09:18 PM	#10
Jrob78 BassFishin.Com Super Veteran Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 4,671	If you plan to throw truly light baits, pick your rods carefully. I think a good light powered rod is almost as important as the reel itself. __________________ There are 3 kinds of people in the world…those who can count and those who can’t. HRN4L

09-04-11, 11:11 PM	#13
pro reel BassFishin.Com Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Wichita Kansas Posts: 761	No problem Kory, I will be happy to juice it up for you.

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