Big Rick -
I have both reels so hopefully I can offer some useful advise. You need to make some decisions. The fishing you are talking about are completley different and I actually have different setups for these situations. What you want to do really depends on how much chunking and clam fishing you are going to do.
The 400 is a super smooth casting reel - You can use it for bellying but that certainly is not using the reel to it's potential. I would set the reel up on a rod that you can cast plugs in the bays and jig outside as well as belly - a 7ft 12-25 graphite rod will do nicley. This would be a versitle setup. You can use 25# braid line if you are good at controlling the spool when casting. I back my reel with braided line and put on 100 yards of a mono topshot - added line capacity and mono casting forgiveness. I would not recommend the bait handle if you are going to use the rod this way.
Chunking and eeling is a different story. If you are not going to do it often then the 400 will be fine. I personally do not like having "to find the handle" in order to engage the reel and set the hook which is the reason I do not use the 400 for this type of fishing. I use a baitfish setup on my Newell 229 (and 235's) for this fishing. I use braided line with a 6' topshot of mono. You need the braid for line capacity. I have this on a 6.5' bait rod.
I do quite a bit of bass fishing and get use out of all of my setups. If you are not going to fish a particular way all that often then you can certainly improvise another setup for that situation.
Just my .02 but I hope it helps!
Capt. Doug
I have both reels so hopefully I can offer some useful advise. You need to make some decisions. The fishing you are talking about are completley different and I actually have different setups for these situations. What you want to do really depends on how much chunking and clam fishing you are going to do.
The 400 is a super smooth casting reel - You can use it for bellying but that certainly is not using the reel to it's potential. I would set the reel up on a rod that you can cast plugs in the bays and jig outside as well as belly - a 7ft 12-25 graphite rod will do nicley. This would be a versitle setup. You can use 25# braid line if you are good at controlling the spool when casting. I back my reel with braided line and put on 100 yards of a mono topshot - added line capacity and mono casting forgiveness. I would not recommend the bait handle if you are going to use the rod this way.
Chunking and eeling is a different story. If you are not going to do it often then the 400 will be fine. I personally do not like having "to find the handle" in order to engage the reel and set the hook which is the reason I do not use the 400 for this type of fishing. I use a baitfish setup on my Newell 229 (and 235's) for this fishing. I use braided line with a 6' topshot of mono. You need the braid for line capacity. I have this on a 6.5' bait rod.
I do quite a bit of bass fishing and get use out of all of my setups. If you are not going to fish a particular way all that often then you can certainly improvise another setup for that situation.
Just my .02 but I hope it helps!
Capt. Doug
