I prefer the small baitcasters as well. I used the cheap $7 crappie reels for a year and hated them. Found a couple wholesale lots of remanufactured baitcasters on the bay and never looked back. I got 4 Shakespeare Axioms for $75 shipped and 2 Pfluegers and 2 Pinnacles in another lot for $115 shipped. I only use 6 rods max so I kept the 2 nice Pfluegers for bass reels. I use Hi Viz 12# for main lines and a 2 jig capps/coleman set up with 8# for the rigging.