Pike Reel.

Looking for a reasonably priced round baitcaster for throwing bucktails (small musky baits) and will also double as a trolling rod for big husky jerks. I don’t want or need anything super nice, just something with a little more power and line capacity than my LP reels.

Suggestions?

Garcia 5500 or 6500. Won’t break the bank, reliable and enough backbone for small and medium bucktails.

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Garcia 5500 or 6500. Won’t break the bank, reliable and enough backbone for small and medium bucktails.

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I was just looking at the 5500c3 earlier! Pretty nice looking reel for sure.

A 200 series shimano currado for a bass/pike reel or a 300 series for pike/muskie. I use currado 300EJ’s for muskie fishing small bucktails, spinner baits, and top water. There smooth and will out last an abu.

I second the Shimano Curado, I really like my Curado 300 EJ

Very smooth casting

You can even drop down to the 4500 series Garcia’s. I use mine for trolling, casting near everything. I will step up the 6500 if I’m trolling or throwing LARGE Muskie baits but for most Pike baits the 4500 are enough for me.

Wife caught a 28# musky on a ultra light rig once so I suppose anything would work, but I tend to use either the 6500 series or the Cardiff or my favorite the Calcutta B series.
I used a 5500 one season and it stripped out about 3 months into the season, it just wasn’t strong enough to take the heavier tackle I was using.

Different strokes for different folks though

Al