Giving up on Daiwa spincasters..

On a long cast these reels would suddenly decide that it went far enough and the rotor pin pops out and stops the line either breaking off your lure or sending it back at you like a missle. Contacted Daiwa, no help there...They suggested new line...It WAS new line! I cant respool on every 5th cast. On some of these the line would get hung in the gap between the spool and rotor requireing some time to fix it. All reels were brand new with original line on them. The 80GC has an oscillating spool to keep the line from winding wrong and it gave me no trouble..but still has the same design as the others that did give me trouble(big gap between rotor and spool catching line).

Now I am leaning towards the new Zebco Omega all metal model with interchangable oscilating spool reel with 6 bearings in it.

I really can't tell you about the Omega, but I own several cheap Zebco 33s.

I can even pitch a crank bait this way and drop it between the floats under a dock from 60 or 70 feet. Of course baits that bounce like a light spoon or a plastic tube may be better and get farther under the dock. I could use a little more practice, but pitching can be a really effective short to medium rang presentation. On flipping tackle I can often make a long range pitch and swing the rod from one side to the other to make a bait curve around an obstackle. That is really handy for making a bait cut under the corner of a dock.

I even found myself pitching a topwater the other day becasue the guy I was fishing with was keeping the boat a little close for me to cast comfortably. It worked great.

I had a 33 for over 10 years casted great then the gears stripped. I tried the $50 Goldcast80 and Omega. Didnt like either. Why?- use of #8 Stren SuperBraid, well lack of use, the line wouldnt work in them. I tried the GC80 for 3 days trying to get it to not bind up on the spool rewind after rewind after rewind. I switched to Trilene XL #8 still didnt seem to well. Not as good as the 33 it replaced. Returned it bought the Omega well I had about the same results with the SuperBraid /Omega as the GC80. I reutrned that one too. I bought the $15 Zebco33 spooled it up with the SupeBraid and it casts great. Im set for another 10+ years as far as my spincaster reel goes. Now the Zebo33 I believe has a new design that resembles Omega so cant comment on the "new" one but you can still get the "Classic" 33.

Why are you trying to fish bass lures on bluegill & crappie reels? The only decent reel you have listed so far is the Daiwa Procaster 80, which is a really light duty reel. You are going to have to use serious reels with serious gears & guts if you want to do any serious bass fishing, and the cheap toys you are using so far don't have near the innards needed to do the job.

Try these spincast reels, which are actually made for bass and larger fish: ~ Daiwa Procaster 120 (beautifully built). ~ Abu-Garcia #1076 (my personal favorite for bass). ~ Zebco 808, 888 or Z03 (workhorses!).

Good luck!

All of that being said, I have fished a couple times with Dave Greaves who fishes spincasters for almost everything. He is an excellent angler and has finished well in all of the local club and semi /pro tournaments he has fished. I have seen him throw heavy buzz baits with no problem. He flips heavy cover with 20lb Steren big game on a spincaster as well. Its pretty amazing.

There are guys who are amazed at how well I can toss a bait underneath heavy overhangs with a side armed cast on a spinning rod. If I try to pitch I can do that too, but since I learned to pitch with a baitcaster I seem to do that better with a 7'+ flippin stick. Weird huh?