Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys, could use the input from some of you who have alot of experience at fishing. First off, know I'm from the big city of St. Louis, and even though I have now lived in Louisiana for nearly 30 years, I only started fishing ( and falling in love with it ) last year when we bought our toon. When we first started out with the boat, we had some really old zebco 33's in the garage and that's been what we've been using, but now I'd like to get something alittle nicer. I want to stay with a closed face reel as I'm not too savy using open faced reels, get a lot of backlash. anyway I have read a lot of reviews and one of the more popular closed face models is the zebco Z3 omega or the zebco omega pro. I think the first runs around 55 bucks, the pro around 75 or so. I was also looking at the Diawa Goldcast III and a garcia abumatic... I stopped at bass pro shops today and without telling the salesman what models I was interested in asked his opinion and he said without question he really preferred the zebco omega line. But I would like to hear from people that actually do alot of fishing and know what they're talking about. also, what about rods... several people have recommended the shakespear ugly stick... and since we fish from the toon up in the trees, just about everyone has said I should stay with a 6 foot rod or less..... would love to hear your opinions on the above gear and your recommendations... thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

Keep the old Zebco 33's. They are a lot better than the new ones. Better yet. How many 33's do you have and do you want to sell them. If so much?

Chuck

Hi Roland, A few years ago, I rediscovered fishing and started buying gear that hopefully would be a good value and not break the bank.

I have not used the omega, but have not heard anything bad about them. At one time, the Diawa was the top rated spin-cast.

I like Garcia's, have used the same 170 for over 30 yrs., used with Berkley 'Trilene' 10-14 lb test, I have excellent castability.

Some time ago Catfish Connection had a clearance on Garcia Abumatitics and I got several for like $18 each. For bream to channel cats, I really like 'em.

Another 'value' reel is Zebco 808. I got the salt water versions, again from Catfish Connection.

Rods-For live bait fishing the $30 Shakespeare Ugly-stick 'catfish' version at Walmart is hard to beat. I like the 7' one-piece. I orginally bought one for catfishing only, but I like them for bluegills and shellcrakers also. This 'all-around' rod has an excellent tip for tossing live bait and can handle the bigger fish also. I just swap out reels as conditions warrant.

For casting, Wal-mart has another rod I really like. It is made for walmart exclusivily by Garcia, I can't recall exactly, something like 'Colonon'. Any way for $40 or so, They are a hell of a rod.

If I'm out on a boat with friends and space is tight, I bring 1 ugly stick and 1 MH 'Colonon' with 3 or 4 reels and I have all bases covered.

My next reels will be light duty salt water reels, seems like salt water models may be the better deal. Okuma has my attention.

Last thing. Bass Pro and Cabela's are great, but thier prices can usually be beat by on-line tackle companies.

Fred

I dunno much about zebbs but if I had to recomend rigs, I prefer pflueger casters, shimmano and shakespere rods

my favorite is a 7' shimmano. that sob will fling it! had a 7.1 lb large mouth a few weeks ago with that stick

Need to move on to an open faced spinning reel. If a 9 year old can use em so can you. Should be able to pick it up an be fairly good in an hour or so. Most of the problem come from getting the line twisted when putting new line on the reel. A good way to straighten it out is hook a medium diving plug on an feed the line out behind the boat, it puts a little tension on it plus being wet seems to help. Once you mastered the spinner pick up a bait caster. Once you get accustom to it, you won't even think of flipping the bale. Sort of like driving a 4 speed after a while you just do it with out thinking. Fishing is a lot of fun, bet late than never.
doc

My probs with the zebbiecos are the line twist after using a while--they eventually all seem to lock up.

10-4 on the spinning reel--Academy sells a Shimano for around 10-12 bucks. Wallmart used to but my store doesnt have them. I have started using a light braid that doesnt twist and with a crappie hook you can pull loose if you hang up.