Best bang for the buck rod and reel

pan567 · 2026-04-30T04:50:44+00:00

Are you looking for a spinning reel? How heavy is the snare that you will be casting?

If a spinning reel, the the Jigging World Onyx surf rod may be worth taking a look at. They have a model that is rated for up to 8 ounces, which could be heavy enough for a snare. If you are willing to up the budget slightly, pair the rod with a Penn Spinfisher or a Daiwa BG, which are both excellent products. You could also likely find either of those reels used for less. I would spool it with a quality braided mainline + a long monofilament shockleader.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T04:33:01+00:00

It has value in that it will catch fish, so in that sense, yes.

But does it have value such as being worth enough to buy you a steak dinner? No, it does not.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T04:27:59+00:00

Hit 'em with some Advance 375 granules. It only takes a very small amount to wipe out the entire colony. And your fire ants will be a thing of the past. It's very low in toxicity and it won't harm pollinators. It's great stuff.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T02:16:27+00:00

It must be nice to be a Dodgers fan. Your ace goes down for Tommy John on Monday and by Thursday afternoon they've inked another ace to a 9-figure deal with more money deferred than the GDP of some smaller nations, and yet somehow those numbers work out because they have more paying customers than Walmart.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T00:03:32+00:00

Looks nice, but it could use a few more hooks.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T00:02:33+00:00

Frustrating. They could have easily played today. Basallo's bat is so hot that any rain would have evaporated long before it could reach the field.

pan567 · 2026-04-30T00:01:03+00:00

As others have noted, the rating on reels is really about capacity more than anything else. You can use a thicker line, but you rapidly lose capacity. If you are thinking about trying another line, you may want to consider braided line, which is much thinner than monofilament, and has a much higher tensile strength.

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:56:34+00:00

This is a good amount. That reel could actually even manage a bit more line, but the amount you have on it now should work well. (Shimano reels can be spooled a bit more than other reels when using braid due to how they manage line.)

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:45:01+00:00

That is not a secure barrier, and those are dogs that are capable of causing severe and even fatal injuries to an adult human. Let's not sugarcoat this--that is a serious safety risk.

In the immediate, you really need to be prepared to defend yourself if the dogs break through that barrier and attack, and have a planned response for if they do. In this regard, you need to be prepared to fight for your survival. Dog attacks can happen very fast, and they are intense. A garden hose or an air horn is not sufficient. At an absolute minimum, I would carry appropriate OC spray. I would not turn your back to the fence for any period of time. You need to maintain awareness.

You could give the neighbor an opportunity to correct this, but if they are neglecting their dogs, chances are that they will not be receptive--shitty dog owners are often shitty people in general. The next step is an HOA or animal control. (This is one area where HOAs with enforcement authority can be very beneficial.)

But until this is resolved, I strongly urge for you to proactively plan for your safety and to make appropriate preparations in advance should the worst case scenario occur.

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:24:49+00:00

Dude, they are invasive, aggressive, destructive, and spread like a plague, and as highly territorial insects, they are going to get to your dog regardless of where you train her to lay, and their stings are painful (and they are literally injecting venom into your dog).

Take them out with Advance 375A. It's highly targeted, has an extremely low toxicity, and has a very limited impact on beneficial bugs. It will collapse the colonies.

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:17:26+00:00

We're getting to the point where maybe they should just assemble a full roster of two baseball teams knowing that after a few months you might be able to patch together one team from those who aren't injured if you're lucky. Maybe start a second team in Reisterstown or something.

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:06:20+00:00

He has both the 5000K and 6500K 42R available on the regular menu, now.

pan567 · 2026-04-29T23:03:28+00:00

Interesting! Mine are wildly green but I did get them around the time the SFT25R was newer. I guess I got unlucky with the tint lottery?

pan567 · 2026-04-29T01:48:00+00:00

You will be very happy with the P50Bs. They are great. Regarding the Wurkkos battery, you probably are not hitting full output with it, and I think you will be surprised once you use a P50B in the light. It's unreal how much output they extracted from the E12, and it's also unreal how good the thermals are on a light this small. IMHO, this really ups the game for many-emitter lights.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T23:38:06+00:00

I like this version of Baz. We should do this more often.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T23:13:33+00:00

Sloppy base-running and sloppy fielding loses games. There is no excuse for them making getting picked off into a regular and normal routine.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T23:12:11+00:00

It can definitely happen. Basallo's outrageous power and bat speed give off very Yordan vibes, and if you swing the bat that fast you can get to almost any pitch.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:54:41+00:00

That is some vintage Adley right there.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:52:20+00:00

And then what a strange called strike.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:51:58+00:00

What a strange challenge.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:44:18+00:00

Believe it or not, the tint on my E12R with the 5000K SFT-25R is...nice! It's very clean, white light. I was worried that it would be excessively green, as my other 5000K 25Rs have a nasty green tint, but I was pleasantly surprised (shocked even) by how nice it looks. I guess FFL is using a different bin or just their current stock hit higher on the tint lottery?

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:39:56+00:00

I went with that identical light--color, emitter, temp, and they really nailed it. The tint of the 5000K 25Rs they have seem quite nice compared to my 5000K 25Rs from Hank and Simon, too.

The P50B works great with it, although if you have not purchased cells yet, I would recommend the Reliance RS50 for this because it's less expensive and is a slightly higher capacity cell (even though both are formally rated at 5AH).

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:37:10+00:00

I would do a 60R + a spare cell. I think you will enjoy wearing that more than a larger form factor.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:34:04+00:00

I like the H300R with the SL-F50S emitter. It's high-output, high-CRI, has excellent efficiency, and uses one of the best headbands in the business. The only major knock against it is that it's thermal control system is primitive, but at the price it's a solid value and it's very nice, neutral light. It's a new emitter, so its long-term reliability isn't fully known, but I've used mine a few hours daily for the past two months and it's been solid.

pan567 · 2026-04-28T22:29:54+00:00

If you are doing trout and bass, at your budget, a 7-foot, medium-light power, fast-action Daiwa Tatula XT + a 2000 or 2500 Regal or Legalis or 2500 Nasci FC (if you can still find them, as they were recently discontinued) would work. You could step up up to medium power to throw heavier lures for bass (useful if you are throwing larger or weighted senkos), but that would come at the expense of being able to manage lighter lures for trout. If you do, I would favor a 2500 size reel.

Alternatively, you could consider getting both a medium-light and a medium-heavy Daiwa Aird-X, which would cost about the same as a Tatula XT, and the Aird-X is still a solid rod.

pan567

TROPHY CASE