Blackfish Jigging

[Inoffshoremikey]

Originally Posted by Chrisper4694

I've been thinking of using a low profile bait caster on a bass flipping rod. basically what i'd use to punch thick weeds and winch bass through lbs of weeds....it'd be sensitive (not as much as a light spinner, but i could easily hold the line with my finger and let out line with one hand) it'd have more backbone than a light spinner and the reel would have a lot more cranking power than a spinner.

Anyone ever tried this? I just need to make sure one of my good baitcasters can handle saltwater well and i'm going to give it a try this year.

Hey I have tried it extensively with many different reels and rods setups. The power to weight ratio on the bc's vs spinners is debateble of course, but I do use both. My bc's setups are stronger and lighter than my spinning setups oz for oz. The spinners are super comfortable for me to fish also. I have used Quantum exo's and tour mgs, Daiwa's lexas, Abu Revo Toro hs 61 and nacl51 (lefty) successfully. Problems with other bait casters were drag power and gear ratios. I found (imho) that the ones rated below 14lbs of drag had trouble with getting larger tog out of structure. In not so sticky spots, yes I can use lighter drag bc's. I had Abu's, Lew's, Shimano's, Daiwa's and other nice freshwater bc's for punching mats fail on big tog in sticky spots. I now buy only bc's rated above 18lbs max drag and have not had any trouble on larger fish, say 8lbs+.

Also, you have to watch out for bc's gear ratios. Any burner types of 7.1:1 or higher are not good either imo because on larger fish, I have experienced failure due to not enough cranking power (torque) in structure that is sticky. I have moved away from anything over 6.5:1 and prefer 5.** :1 as my favorite gear ratio to have enough power to get the larger fish out of their holes. I have fished the Abu Revo Toro hs61 since 2008 and that has 6.3:1 I believe. I have caught fish up to 11lbs without problems with the hs61 but it is way heavier than an exo300 which is ultra light, around 8 Oz's spooled with 22lbs max drag.

Grab a nice long throw power handle off eBay for the bc of your choice and your all set. Those little paddle handles for largemouth are not the best for tog imo. Good luck because it becomes very tog-dicting.