Hover/ Mid Strolling 101: Reels

Video Transcript

What's up everybody this is Polish Pete. I'm back in our studio in Golden Valley, Minnesota to discuss forward-facing sonar reels, the mid-strolling, hover-strolling technique, and these are the reels that we think right now kind of have the shine as far as being ideal reels for the technique. It's not just our opinion. This is based off sales and things we talk to people about. We're going to get into rods later but we've already shown you some stuff about baits that are really shining for this technique and these are the reels so far that have been real popular and volume for us and we'll tell you why now. Wouldn't be talking about spinning in general if you're not talking about Shimano spinning reels right? Shimano spinning reels maintain their places you know some of the most if not the most popular spinning reels are our period and none more popular than this one right here. This is the Shimano Stratic. They also have the van ford which did confuse people for a while out there because this was basically the replacement for the Stradic CI4 which was a carbon version of the Stratic. This is now its own family being the Vanford and there are some subtle differences there. Big difference you'd see with Shimano over the Daiwas is even though they have a fast gear ratio the Shimano's I think it's 6.2 to 1 if I'm not mistaken. The spool diameters are a little smaller because Shimano fans tend to run with that 2500 size spool but even the 3000s are just deeper spools and still maintain that same kind of diameter of the spool itself so you're really not gaining that spool arbor size. So that's not what you're going for with Shimano. Being that it is a smaller diameter spool the 6.2 to 1 is not overbaringly fast . You hear that a little bit with some of the larger sized die wear reels that tends to be an advantage in a lot of situations but some situations like particularly this one with this hover-st rolling technique the speed is kind of you want it dampened a little bit at least that's what we 're hearing so far from the pros. So these Shimano's will make it a little easier for you to keep cleaning up that slackline and not moving so much line that you're moving the bait to the water column a little faster than you intend to doing the hover-strolling technique trying to roll that middle over the fish's head. The difference between these two is going to be weight right if you're into really lightweight tackle and this is what you're getting a lot of your sensitivity out of because you're spending high buck on really lightweight tackle that's what you're going to get out of this vanford but the difference here I have taken the drag caps off to verify for myself because our customers have reported back to us that they think the drags are a little smoother with lightline stuff with the uh stratic versus the vanford the vanford does have a carbon fiber drag, the washer and its carbon fiber which that tends to shine for in-shore applications or like power fishing applications if long pulls a dragger going out there the carbon fiber doesn't heat up and warp or at all or anything it race cars rotors brake rotors are made out of carbon fiber for that reason it dissipates heat really fast that's like sort of power fishing application where this one here when I took the cap off and took the spring out you could see it was an oil felt washer so those tend to be a little bit more intricate and smooth in the low drag settings so that light line application this might be the perfect reel for that application uh because of that light drag and you don't have an over-sleeve over-lilage arbor in this reel or spool diameter so you're not picking up line super fast so right now the uh good reason why this one's been so popular this one for the weight factor of course next up is a new one for the party and this may be selling so well because it's a brand new reel but we've turned him a couple times already this is Lews custom light spinning reel this is the shallow spool version it comes with a braid ready spool it's a shallow spool so you don't have to worry about putting a ton of line on there, backing which is what i'm used to doing because i run larger spinning reels and i put a ton of backing on my reels every year. this one luckily you don't have to do that that much i have heard nothing but rave reviews about the drags in these i have not fished with the shallow spool version i do have a few of the regular custom lights and the drags have been great, the reason why i think this one's been talked about so much as we've seen success from the Strike King and Lews anglers out there. with this reel already in finesse applications typically this argument i'm going to be just blunt with you is a Shimano/ Daiwa argument but this reel is getting in that argument there's a lot of success being had with your finesse anglers with this reel in particular uh and it's only available in a 200 size we'll call it a 2000 from the other two right so you're once again your spool diameter isn't very big so you're not going to get a lot of speed out of this reel once again making it ideal for this particular application of rolling your min now shaking a minnow pinging a minnow or a fish's head suspended without having to move your bait super fast through the water column uh with your reel lastly we have the ballistic now i will say i got to point this out your vanford your custom light shallow spool and the ballistic are all going to be lightweight reels but the ballistic lastly that's where this reel is really special for a lot of people is i can get my larger spool diameter that i want out of a three or four thousand but the gear ratio is down in that five six to one so i'm actually slowing down a little bit even though i had that larger arbor this is the mq ballistic so it features that oversized main gears you can see from the body here it's all one piece body with a big oversized main gear in it um so you got lots of power in this reel which isn't really what you're looking for in this application but you are looking for that finessy feel which you get out of lightweight of this the awesome drags that the ballistics have in them it's very similar to the other drags of bearing supported spool here with so the drags liquid smooth on here um and it has have a lower gear ratio so that to me is a big factor that i could have a larger spool arbor and still have a slower reel um but as you can see all three i should say four uh members here of the the the forward facing sonar slash mid strolling hovers strolling reel selection here have their reasons for being in this category definitely look at this Shimano uh i've i've heard the statement that this is the toyota camera you have spinning reels out there it's just bullet proof doesn't have problems super smooth drag gonna work great for you uh vanford obviously if you're looking for that lighter weight um i i have heard that this one's drag is a little smoother but like i said if weights more key to you go with that vanford you got the brand new one on the block here the one that shouldn't be playing with the shimanos in the die was the lose but they kick the door open so hearing great things about this one i'd like to hear more feedback from you guys on it and then you got the ball istics uh all four are great options give us any feedback if there's any missing that we didn't hit but these are the most popular ones for hover and mid strolling right now