Hey y'all! Can someone help me out a bit? I've spent my whole life bass fishing with spinning reels, but made the switch to bait casters last fall. Needless to say....it's been a learning experience. Lots of bird nests, frustration and curse words. I have two rods that I'd like to set up for bass fishing. One rod I'd like to have set up for heavier top water baits. The other rod I'd like to have set up for lighter jigs, plastic worms, swim baits, etc.

Can somebody recommend what rod/reel I should pair up and pound test I should be using on each?

I have the following:

rod 1 = abu garcia 7' medium heavy fast
rod 2 = abu garcia 7' medium fast

reel 1 = abu garcia revo4 x-hs 7.3:1
reel 2 = daiwa ca80hl 6.8:1

Thanks so much!!

Here is what I would do:
Top water setup: Medium rod with the 6 gear ratio reel, 15 lb monofilament
Worms/jigs: Medium heavy rod with the 7 gear ratio reel, 15-17 lb fluorocarbon

Good luck with the new setups. Baitcasters can be a little frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of them, you’ll love them. I hardly ever using a spinning reel now.

Excellent! Thanks a bunch. I’ll certainly give that combo a try.

I use 15# big game on about 1/2 my rods and 15# Pline copolymer on the rest.

reels vary from lews to revo premiers and rods are med/fast to xh/med.

learn to use your drag and 15# is all you should ever need.

As someone who made the same switch a few years ago, I’ll say stick with it and soon you’ll love the baitcaster.

I actually don’t even have a spinning reel setup right now.