Schilling’s main fishing reels are old-fashioned Abu Garcia 5500 Ambassadeur bait casters. They are used whenever he fishes with worms, frogs or flukes.
“They are indestructible,” he said firmly, “but heavy and tiring. I’ve had some of them 18 years. You can’t kill them.”
He uses a variety of rod brands. For fishing worms, he likes 7-foot, medium/heavy-action rods. For flukes, he favors 7-foot, medium-action sticks. For fishing frogs, he likes a 7 1/2-foot, medium-action rod.
“The extra 6 inches adds a lot,” he added.
His choice of lines is all over the place. The frog rod’s reel is spooled with 50-pound braided line. The reel on the flipping rod (for crawfish) holds 80-pound braid.
Stren monofilament line is used for the other reels: 20-pound test on the worm rod, 17-pound test on the fluke rod and 14-pound test on the spinnerbait/ChatterBait rig.