BPS Megacast Baitcaster Combo

[BoatDawg4120]

I recently picked up a Bass Pro Shops MegaCast BaitCaster combo and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them. Good or Bad I would like to hear it all. So far I am very impressed with it. I didnt pick up a baitcaster until Last April. They day of my wedding actually lol. My first one was a Shakespeare combo. 1 bearing, Nothing impressive but it worked well for me to learn on. I then picked up a Pinnacle Ultra Balance Combo a few months after. 2 bearing setup. Again nothing fancy but the one extra bearing felt completely different. The reel just felt so much smoother. This past weekend I was at Bass Pro in Orlando because they were having a sale on all Zoom lures and that is my soft plastic manufacturer of choice behind Culprit which i get for free cuz they are based out of where i live and i know a few people who work there. Anyways. While browsing thru the lures I decided to look at a new pole for my Pinnacle reel because the one it came with the reel seat nut is stripped at the bottom and the reel will just pop out at any given time. Well having used two different baitcasters i really dont like a pole that doesnt have the split balanced grip at the base of the shaft. Looking at the poles I couldnt find one for less than $70 that felt right. $70 !!!???!!! i got both the shakespeare and pinnacle combos for less than that combined so I just couldnt justify spending that much on just the pole. Then i happened accross the MegaCast Combo. 49.99. its a 4 bearing setup and i picked the black/gold model over the orange/silver model mainly because of the pole on the black/gold had the split handle and the orange/silver model had a solid handle. I did however like the wiffle spool on the orange one better but compromised for the better feeling pole. Ive only use the new setup twice now for about 30 mins each time and it feels amazing compared to what ive had. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wingsnhammers]

I always try check out online reviews for a product before I buy it. I haven't done that always though. I bought my first baitcast combo last July on the recommendation of a friend. I told him that I wanted a good all around setup that would be okay to learn on, but last me a while...I didn't want to pay over 125 for the rod and reel combined. I ended up with a Lew's Wally Marshall signature reel (3 bearing oversized crappie reel) and a Lew's Laser Medium 7' rod. I had it spooled with 15lb Trilene and walked out the door only $115 lighter. I didn't know that the pole was worth $100 or that the reel was a oversized crappie reel. With the help of my friend, I am pretty good with it. A month later, I used it to haul in the biggest bass I have ever seen (or caught) in person! It was so big that it broke our dinky, rusted up hand scale. The needle actually jammed to a stop at 10lbs on a 40lb scale.

I'm not sure where I was going with that...I guess what I meant to say is that you don't have to spend big bucks to catch awesome fish.

$115 rod/reel and $5 buzzbait. Fishing an enclosed canal beside of Lake Okeechobee. I caught this fish out of a 12 ft alumacraft Jon. It's likely the biggest bass I will ever catch especially on topwater. I released it. The only thing I have left of it is a few pictures and an awesome story. BTW, i'm 6'2" and 250lbs in the pic.

 

[BoatDawg4120]

Yea i caught my biggest bass off a cheap 19.99 combo spinning bps real and 6' pole. 9lbs 6 oz. I will upload a pic using my phone in a few minutes. It was the only pole I even owned up until last April when i bought the cheap shakespeare baitcaster combo. I used to live in these apartments that always had shady maintenance people and did shoddy repair work. Well the apartments are so old they are wired with aluminum and they have had 2 entire buildings with 12-16 units per building go up in flames in the past. But according to state code any type of electrical done in the apartments requires that they rewire with copper. So to bypass that they have their maintenance men do the work. Well a friend and I were renting a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment and the A/C had been rewired sometime before we moved in. They had left the connections hanging out of the junction box and used duct tape to wrap it. No I am not kidding. And my friend and I were working as apprentice electricians at the time so we knew it was wrong and reported it multiple times and they never fixed it. So christmas eve morning we get rushed out of the apartment by his little brother who stayed the night because the fire alarm went off and the entire apartment was full of smoke. Turns out the wire finally shorted from rubbing on the corner of the air handler and caught fire. Hole A/C closet went up in smoke. Now heres why i am telling this story. My entire fishing tackle collection was in the storage area of that closet. Thousands of dollars in reels, poles, lures, nets and tackle. I mean EVERYTHING I owned for fishing was in there. I was 22 When that happened and had been building that collection since i was 8 years old when my grandpa first took me on my first fishing trip with him on his 17' Lund. There was 10 poles in there over $100 bucks a piece cuz when i turned 16 i pretty much wouldnt buy anything except name brand graphite rods. All my reels were spinning reels except for my first reel i ever owned i still had. (Old Zebco 303 or something like that lol.) But all the reels were Shimano or Abu Reels. I lost everything and then the apartment complex refused to reimburse me for ANYTHING. Now I have a family and more bills to pay so all my stuff has been cheaper budget items. I asked about the BPS Megacast on here because there was only 1 review on BPS website for it.

 

[BoatDawg4120]

This hefty bucket mouth was caught on the $20 bass pro spinning combo. It's was a really cheesy combo. The reel has blue and white LEDS that light up while you reel.

 

[BoatDawg4120]

I was 6' 240lbs in that pic btw lol.

 

[wingsnhammers]

That's a hawg! That sucks about your fishing stuff. I never had much to begin with. Before this Lew's setup, I don't think I ever paid more than $40 for a rod and reel and most were in the $20 range! Alright, almost every one was a Shakespeare combo that I bought at Wally World. :mrgreen: I have a Shakespeare ultralight rod that is every bit of 5' long and has a tiny little spinning reel on it. It is so old that the rod has a permanent bow to it. It still catches bluegill and crappie like crazy though!

I really wish I could help you out with the original topic/question. Apparently, all I can do is yabber on about stuff that has almost nothing to do with the original topic.

 

[BoatDawg4120]

Well i found a bunch of reviews on the older Megacast models and you cant really tell by the reviews. Lot of people like them a lot of people dont. lol. Ive taken it out twice fishing now and so far i like it. Just not sure if i like the medium heavy rod. Used to light - medium rods.

 

[Bean Counter]

I bought one a couple of years ago. I liked it enough to buy another. Worked real well for about a year and a half and they both broke. Good fishing reels, but they are mostly plastic and won't last with heavy use.