Getting Ready For The Coming Season (2024 Part 2)

I have a job running on two CNC mills right now cutting a top secret swimbait mold for a customer, so I didn’t want to leave the shop and go hunt down some fluorocarbon line.  The mold cavities are secret, but I am working on a new-ish layout that I may apply to multiple swimbait molds in the future to make two color laminates easier and cleaner.

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about.  I didn’t want to leave jobs running while I went to the store (they would probably be fine, but…), so I decided to rig some of my other rods.  The medium light extra fast spinning rod I use for flinging 4 inch Club-Os was next.  It catches fish year around.

I still use a cheap 3/0 L730 jig hook from Eagle Claw with a copper Hitchhiker from Daichi.

I was torn between spooling it with 20lb Max Cuatro or 20lb Beyond 8.  I still have several spools of the MaxCuatro so I went with that.  The Club-O with the heavy salt formula doesn’t really need the extra thin line, but the stuff lasts pretty well.  With the reel over filled it might last all season before I need to respool it.

I can get away with spooling right up to the rim with braid.  It doesn’t jump off the spool like mono or fluoro, and I get a little more casting distance if I need it with the spool over filled.

Now to see if 15lb Beyond8 is smaller than 20lb MaxCuatro.  I might be pushing my luck, but I am thinking if it is I might get a little more distance out of the Curly Buzz Frog Mini on the medium light fast spinning rod I use for that.  I’ve been doing fine with 20 lb MaxCuatro, but if the 15lb Beyond8 is smaller diameter its that much less wind resistance.  Beyond8 is a reduced diameter to lb test braid also, but its not quite as reduced as MaxCuatro.  Its also nowhere near as expensive.  The Curly Buzz Frog Mini gets bit earlier, and seems to keep getting bit later in the year than you might expect.  While I might not use it in January I do want it ready to go.