With a total of about 24 casts in the park and 3 sessions on the water, I'm really liking the conventional. My new 12' Penn Battalion with Penn Fathom 40 Star Drag using a 6oz weight and bait will easily cast as far as the 4oz weight and bait I was throwing with my 15' Ugly Stik and Coronado spinner. I'm guessing I'm getting 40 to 50 yards pretty consistently. And I think there's a lot left in the new rig.
I'm using straight 4 strand 80lb KastKing braid tied to a 10' 100lb mono rub leader with a FG knot. No problems with backlashes or snapped lines from birdnests. Yes, the reel will double over a little when the bait hits the water at night because I don't know exactly when to thumb it, but nothing that doesn't take care of itself in a couple of steps walking the pole back to the pole holder.
I will switch to 8 strand 80lb KastKing braid as soon as it get here. I'll be interested to see if the roundness of the 8 strand affects the performance. I suspect that using the thicker 80lb braid helps over smaller diameter lower pound test braid, but what do I know.
I've been using the reel straight out of the box, which means that there should be 3 of the centrifugal brakes activated. I'm going to open it up to confirm this and turn one of the brakes off to see if I can get a little more distance without backlashes. If that turns out ok, and there's no innocent bystanders in the park, I'll start trying some off the ground casts. One thing is for sure, the longer casting techniques are going to be a lot easier on my casting finger with the conventional
