The Last Coco

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Lots of private ponds have popped up in south LA throughout the years charging for use by the hour/half day. There was one north of BR charging $125/half day I think. But that was just paying for the access, no guiding.

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AlxTgr

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I grabbed some crickets at that Exxon on 165 and a few scouts caught some bream.

My son caught this hammer of a bluegill and couldn't have been happier.

Thank you sir!

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They will be extinct soom at the rate they have been targeted the last ten years and currently.

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Is that statement based on actual data?

I know the south Atlantic population is considered overfished but the north Atlantic (including GoA) populations are healthy and growing. If anything, the North Atlantic population is considered a conservation success story.

People target them more effectively now for sure but its still a niche activity even amongst offshore fisherman and the recreational catch pales in comparison to the commercial harvest.

If you have links to studies/surveys supporting their impending demise, I would be very interested.

I have a shimano curado dc 150 and i just cant make myself like it.

Its big and bulky in the hand. It casts fine but not any better than my other reels in that price range (daiwa mangetsu, shimano bantam, even curado mgl 70 or 150). I never want to fish with it. Sometimes I use it because it is a low gear ratio and I like that for chatterbaits, but I dont like it.

I should probably sell it or give it away to a kid getting into fishing.

Love the Alphas. Thats a nice little reel. The Tatula 70 and 103 SV TW I have are fine but agreed the similarly priced curados generally outperform them. An uodated Curado 70 would be nice.

I picked up the Daiwa Alphas BF TW right before Thanksgiving and it blows my Daiwa Tatula BF70 out of the water. Much much much better reel.

Even with the crazy tariff situation, JDM Daiwa and Shimano offerings are the better buy in my experience.

Need a budget.

At any price point, a Daiwa or Shimano option is going to be a safe bet but at specific price points, one my outshine the other.

Abu Garcia has some decent reels too as does Lews. They both are likely using the same overseas manufacturer on their low profile reels.

Typically (except at the lower price points) Daiwa and Shimano reels are unique to them.

Bottom line - if youre only fishing freshwater and paying over $100, any baitcaster by a name you recognize is probably going to be fine.

Abu Garcia, Lews, Daiwa, Shimano, Sevin (st croix sister company), Bates and several more companies all make decent stuff.

Heres a some specific recomendations:

Shimano SLX (any variant) - lots of options in this lineup and theyre all good. Pick a price and go

Shimano Curado 150M - great overall workhorse reel with better cast control and distance than the SLX

Daiwa Tatula 80 - excellent smaller frame reel especially if you arent worried about line capacity

Shimano Bantam MGL - great reel for power fishing. Heavier but solid - if youre throwing cranks, chatterbait, or powering frog fish out of slop this is great

Daiwa Mangetsu - larger framed reel for chucking small swimbaits, a-rigs, etc..

Shimano Metanium and Aldebaran - met for power fishing, alde for finesse

If youre hitting up broken bow, look into fishing Lower Mountain Fork River, Glover River or (a little bit of a haul from BB but not too bad) jump over to the Blue River.

I lived in OKC for 5 years and caught a lot of fish in the Blue. Gorgeous river. Feels like something out of Colorado. Plenty of spots, a few largemouth and even a good population of Smallies.

If youre there anytime Nov-May you will probably run into some stocker rainbows too in the Blue. We used to catch a couple on accident every trip while bass fishing.

Falcon 11 would be great if youre not huge guy. The 325lb weight limit is on the low side but would be more than sufficient for me.

65lb and 11ft long so it should be maneuverable and easy to get on top of your car. Natives are good boats all around.

If lightweight is your goal, the native ultimate 12 is really hard to beat. They come in at 49lbs.

Even the ultimate 14.5 is only 59lbs. On our rivers, the 14.5 is manageable. I have an ultimate 14.5t (tandem model) that i use with me and my 7 and 4 year old. We took it down the bogue chitto last fall and it did fine even with me just paddling from the rear seat position and over loaded with gear.

Looking for an original coosa, coosa hd, coosa fd or coosa x?

What're you looking to do with it? The original coosa was a river fishing kayak specifically designed for moving water. The later iterations were more general purpose.

If you want a river/moving water paddle kayak, also look at the Crescent Shoalie, Crescent Smallie or the Bonafide RVR119. A used Old Town Predator MX (what I currently use in the rivers) is another great option.