I took down my redfish rod today, and started getting ready for my next trip. I cleaned and oiled my Shimano Calais reel, and spooled on some fresh line. I'm torn between bringing my Quantum 7:1 bait-cast reel, my old Ambassador bait-cast, or my Shimano spin-cast. They all have their pluses and minuses.

The Quantum is really geared too fast for this type of fishing. Although I can cast a mile with it. If I hook a big redfish, its going to be tough to reel it in. And, I only have one true redfish rod -- my only other bait-cast rod that might work is my Carolina rigging rod, but its really too heavy. I think I will leave my Quantum behind, because its going to wear me out one way or another.

I used to think of the Shakespeare Ambassador as a decent reel. Although, since I bought my Shimano Calais its spent most of its time on the shelf. It holds a lot of line, but the bulky roundness of the reel wears my hands out by the end of the day. Also, the reel handle is a little small for my taste, and it certainly isn't a smoothly geared real, at least by Calais standards. And, once again my rod choice is somewhat limited.

Lastly, I could bring my Shimano spin-cast reel. I much prefer a bait-cast over a spin cast, but I do have a nice Fenwick 7' medium weight rod, that has a similar action to my redfish rod. Its not quite as long, but it is as long as my other bait cast rods, and not so heavy. Its got plenty of 'give' in the tip, which keeps me from jerking the bait out of the fishes mouth when I revert to bass fishing tactics (as I always do), and try to set the hook. I think I have made up my mind. I will bring the spin-cast combo. I'll clean it, oil it, and spool on some fresh line tonight.

I have a couple of packages of salt-water assassins, and some jig hooks to bring. I'm going to go through my tackle box, to see if there is anything else I might try out, too. I think I will keep it as simple as possible; there's no use fumbling around with too much tackle when you have 4 people on board. I'll bring some shorts with lots of pockets, so I can keep most of my gear on my person, for easy access.

I'll be leaving on Wednesday right after work, or right after lunch -- whatever I can get away with. I'll drive down to Houston, and stay at my brother's house. We will leave in the morning on Thursday, and make it to Hackberry by Thursday mid-afternoon. This will put us there early enough to claim the best bunks.

I checked my video camera today, and made sure my batteries were charged, and I had plenty of blank cassettes. I'm going to try to capture as much as possible on film, so that I can have some good footage for my blog.

My next post should be a great story, so stay tuned.