My wife got me a very nice G-Loomis rod for Christmas, now I need to outfit it with a reel.

It is a 12-20# 1/4-1oz 7' rod.

I intend to use it for near shore fishing in San Diego (SD and Mission bay as well as occasional trips to the kelp for Calicos). Bay bass, spotties, corbina, halibut, cuda in the 2-10lb range would probably be the most common catches. Mostly plastics and spinners, but will fly-line the occasional live baits.

I will probably spool it with 14-20#.

All that said, I have a smaller righ with 10# test that throws 1/8-3/4, but it starts to feel a little over classed with 3/8oz plastics. So, I want a little larger rig.

If money were no option, then I would probably go Curado for sure. List on the Curado is ~250, the Calcutta is ~215 and the Cardiff is ~100. I like the form factor of the Curado.

The Cardiff is also small, but price and line capacity are nice features of it.

Any input from the community is appreciated. Any other suggestion would also be nice, but they might confuse me even more ;-).

One thought is to go with the Cardiff now, the Curado later and use the Cardiff for a "friend" rig when guests come along.


Thanks in advance,
Steve