[therieldeal]

So last night I was talking to my grandfather about fishing, and I mentioned getting a baitcasting reel. He went into his garage and pulled out a 5 GALLON BUCKET full of assorted used reels! Apparently he collects them from the re-use shed at the dump… he must have had about 25 rod/reel combos stashed in the back corner of his garage as well. I guess I should have been shopping for tackle at his place all along!

Anyway in the bucket we found an old (80’s maybe?) Shimano Bantam Mag Plus 250 SG. It is definitely well used and feels a little “loose”, but as far as I can tell it still functions properly. I put some new line on it last night, I’ll give it a try this evening. Is anyone familiar with this reel/does anyone know if it is halfway decent? It has a magnetic drag knob with settings 1-10, a “preset” drag knob, and a star drag knob below the handle. From looking at brand new baitcasters, the controls seem pretty much identical. I’ve ever used one before, but I read online about how to use it… hopefully I don’t end up with too many birdnests!

[cobrabait]

its decent for an old reel. they are like the old daiwas of the time with the mag force. clean n lube it and fish it! as long as its smooth and cranks who cares. parts would be the hard part but the price is right. i have some older reels from the 80's and break them out from time to time. some cast really well and are smooth for older cheap models.

[Pikerman6]

I have an old shimano baitcaster as well. It's definitely from the 80's, you can tell just by the colors. Does it have a plastic spool? Make sure you put some either fluorocarbon or mono backing on it, if you decide to use braid. I made that mistake once. Won't do it again.

[therieldeal]

It has a metal spool of some sort (I think?), it is polished brass in color but it might be plated aluminum or something as the spool seemed pretty light. The reel itself is black. I figured I would try it out first before I spent a bunch of time taking it all apart, cleaning, oiling etc. I can’t get a very long cast out of it (even with a 1 oz sinker...) and it makes a “whirring” sound occasionally when casting? I may be running the preset drag a little too tight… I’ll try loosening it up a bit. Right now I adjust it so that my bait falls slowly to the ground with the rod held horizontal. If I come across someone who knows how to cast one of these, I’ll ask them to try it out so I can see what I might be doing wrong! Luckily the carp I fish for are usually near shore so short casts aren’t a problem there… but I would like to try using this to fish for pike with cutbait as well.

I’m running 15 lb Stren High Impact mono on it right now, since it is cheap and effective. If I bird-nest the heck out of it and throw half the spool away I wont feel bad haha. Surprisingly this hasn’t happened yet – but I have had a few minor overruns that I was able to un-tangle. Anyway, I caught my first carp on this reel Wednesday evening – 10.5 pounds! I wasn’t sure I would like the silent drag, but since I can just thumb the spool with my left hand I don’t miss the clicking drag at all.

[Pikerman6]

Nice! What were you using for the carp? I've hooked them on worms before, but never successfully landed one.

[therieldeal]

I've had the most success with $1 wal mart white bread actually, but i've heard worms work well too. I like the white bread because not many other fish go for it, other than medium-large creek chub.

anyway i peel the crust off a couple slices and break it up for chum, then i break up the middles and roll up ~1/2" balls as tight as i can. thread them on a hair-rig with a ~12" leader, with either a sinker or a bobber and i'm good to go. usually i only use a bobber if i see them feeding on the surface (maybe 25% of the time, if that?).

hair rigs are easy to tie if you can snell a hook.... its the same thing. just tie an overhand loop in the end before you start and leave the looped end about 1/2-3/4" past the bend in the hook. for a baiting needle i just straightened out an old worm hook. for bait stops i use tooth picks. i think that covers everything? usually i have this rig in a rod holder, and i fish for bass with texas rigged plastics at the same time. so far i haven't had two fish on at once... fingers crossed lol