Heartland X & close faced reel

[Fishaholic]

Hi guys & gals, a little experience to share.....

I was down at my local tackle shop on Sat hanging around and chatting with the boys, one thing led to another and next thing you know we're in the parking lot with a bunch of rod & reel combos and casting plugs (just a typical saturday, really :D )

Anyhow, I spent a bit of time with a heartland-X with a pistol grip butt and an Okuma closed face reel spooled with el-cheapo 4 pound mono and a 10 gram plug. Now, I've never cast a close face reel before so it was a bit of an eye opener. I was hitting a one foot diameter target at about 40 feet, and with a bit of practice I reckon I could hit a 6" target at that distance almost every cast, easily. I don't know why I was casting it so accurately, they thought I was telling porkys about never having cast one before (I can't cast that accurately with a threadline :( ) I'm in love with that combo! :D

There was lots of things I didn't like about the reel design, like how the line rubs over the edge of the hole it comes out of, and I couldn't get anywhere near the distance I can with a little threadline, but I don't know if my concerns are valid as I have zero experience with these things. I do know that the lever that you control your cast with (under your thumb) felt perfect to me, It felt like I had precise control over the line from the very first cast!

I interested to hear what you guys think of these things. Do any of you guys use a close face reel? what do you think of it? and how would it cast the very light jigheads, say 1/16 or 1/32 oz?

Cheers,
Gab.

P.S. The Heartland-X rods are awesome!

[pw-bream]

A closed face spinning reel designed to be fished in the overhead position like a baitcaster is not a bad way to learn the basics of lure casting with light tackle, it is similar to fishing with a small baitcaster with less to go wrong when learning to cast.
They aren't any good if the fish are going to run though, they have very low line capacities, poor drags and that terrible friction point where the line goes over the spool lip and out the small hole. They generally tend to fairly cheaply made too.