Well, I fish Willow Beach and Lake Mead a lot. My most recent good sized fish with my current tackle was a 12 pound striped bass using the "Light trout" color L.A. Slider. I just ordered a Huddleston and I'm hoping my tackle is good enough.

My pole is a Shimana Saragosa 6'6" Power: Meadium Heavy, Action: fast, Line: 20-50lb

it's a pretty stiff rod mated to a Shakespeare Alpha Graphite Spinning Reel model 2560 spooled with 20 lb Berkely Big Game.

this setup cost me less than 100 since I bought the rod on sale a few monthes back. I didn't notice the rod wasn't for Spinning reels til I went out to the lake and threw it, the first eye is a little small for spinning reels, but I still get enough distance even with the light LA slider.

I have ordered the 8 inch Huddleston swimbait, would my setup be sufficient in launching this bad boy?

On another note some pretty good size striped bass have been pulled out of Lake Mead recently too. since trout stocking has begun again. I'll update with pics if I get any good sizes.

hi Jay,
Welcome to the site :) You know honestly you're probably a bit undergunned for the river. There's some big trees in that river by Willow Beach and a big striper is going to man handle you pretty good on 20lb. Thing you can do to help the situation are:

- Retie regularly when casting
- Make a lob cast with 2-3 feet of line from the tip of the rod to the lure on the start of the cast
- Set your drag carefully. Tight enough to put pressure on the fish but not too tight

With the hudd on 20lb you really need to avoid snap casting the bait or you'll break it off on the cast. Hope that helps some... Fishing 20lb for big stripers is do-able but you just have to know when to pull and know when to give :)

i see, perhaps i should think about getting a bigger line. wouldn't want to throw 35 dollars into the river.

thanks for the suggestions

You might consider sending a private message to Fish Chris. Chris uses spinning gear exclusively and has a lot of experience catching big fish of all species. 25 mono on spinning gear can get kind of unmanageable (coily and twisted) Perhaps a setup with 50 or 65lb braid and a 25 or 30lb florocarbon or mono leader would work better for you. To send a message to anyone on the site, you can go here

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=user_profiles

find their name and click on the "Send private message to user" button

I might consider learning using a baitcasing reel, never used one in my life but theres always a time to learn. I went out to the lake today with the hudd and it wasn't looking too good. I didn't get any birds nests but the spinning gear got absolutely no distance at all. I could throw a big rock farther. This was with 30 lb test on the big shakespeare reel. Oh well next pay check. Probably pick up one of the cheaper recommended reels in the articles section.

However I got a ton of 3-5 lb stripers follow the bait in, about 4-5 bites but I could not set the hook. I think they just went for the tail. I got some teeth marks on my new bait, haha, and the bottom fishers were looking at me weird cause I was making such a ruckus with the big swimbaits.

well, i just purchased myself an abu garcia 6501c3. now i jus gotta learn how to use this thing! lol, tomorrow is trout stocking day.

wow, easy enough to learn.
i guess what people say about baitcasters is true, tune it to the lure correctly and it won't trouble you much. i didn't get any back lash in my backyard casting the hudd and an LA slider about 20 yards but the real test is going to be at the Lake. I can already tell this baitcaster thing is going to be a pleasuring experience for me and hopefully i can cast the hudd a mile out now where the fish love to pop em trouts.
my new setup is:

shimana saragosa 6'6 rod
abu garcia 6501c3 with 30 lb trilene big game

next is to upgrade the rod. maybe next year though, still got a lot of christmas shopping to do for my other loved ones.

glad i found this site.

yeah, find a nice 7'11 foot ish rod and you will be golden, you can grab a nice okuma rod which many of these board members swear by for a great price.

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageRDCOKUMA-OGSBBR.html

Shane