Jointed worked best for me, hook onto the front eye to keep it on top and work it back at varying speeds with a few twitches & jerks thrown in. Works well at sunset in shallower water.
Absolutely Bill, every time you don't figure 8 you may be missing nice fish. And FWIW, I used to do a HUGE amount of musky fishing after dark and the majority of my fish came on an 8 right beside the boat.....talk about a rush when you don't even know she's there until she clobbers the bait LOL
It's all just a personal choice and everyone has a different opinion. I always preferred the larger reels but would certainly never tell anyone using a low profile that they were wrong. Sorta like the never ending debate on which hand should you crank with.
Pick whatever feels best to you and if you borrow one of each from a friend to try them out all the better.
Sorry to hear that, it's tough when you lose a close friend like that.
My closest bud and I were like brothers for 40 years and always together. He's the reason we bought this house here in the boonies as they were only a couple miles down the road. It was great for 18 months then he suddenly got sick and died. My wife and his wife are still best friends after 1/2 a century but at least I've still got a head full of memories.
Went down the Peterboro to go into CTC this morning and not only have they set-up for Halloween but they're stocking the shelves with all the Christmas decorations all ready. Even got some artificial trees out on display.
I liked the Calcutta reels and used them for years. The CT's were a good casting reel for bucktails and spinnerbaits but my usual go-to was a TE with a power handle and it was incredible for burning baits fast and working large jerk baits. I also had an Ambassador 5500 with a power handle and while a lot less expensive than a TE it worked quite well for jerkbaits.
For trolling I found the Tekota 600LC was a good as they get.
All just my own opinion though.