Well, I found the other conventional reel I have. A Penn Long Beach 68. The whole thing is made out of bakelite. Spooled it up with 20 lb test and made a few casts with it. Man, I'm hooked already. This reel isn't much. It doesn't have a drag system and no anti-reverse. It does have a clicker though. I love the reel. I'm not much on really trying to cast a conventional but even I, with light lobs, was sending a sinker all the way across the lawn. I can't believe I've held off so long!

Just a few questions.

Any surfcasters use conventionals for plugging? What reels do you use?

Here's another question. When I was casting, I noticed some times, my sinker got snagged. When I pulled hard and popped it out of the ground, the sinker came flying towards me. The problem was the line had slack in it. How can I keep a tight line? (I know the sinker in the ground won't happen in the surf but what if a wave pushes your plug in?) Then the line was really loose.

When do you prefer conventional over spinning gear?

Several things:

It doesn't have a drag system and no anti-reverse.
Your reel has a drag or it couldn't function...

Any surfcasters use conventionals for plugging? What reels do you use?
Your plugging reels are the the regular reels in most cases but maybe drop down a size with light plugs...

When I was casting, I noticed some times, my sinker got snagged. When I pulled hard and popped it out of the ground, the sinker came flying towards me. The problem was the line had slack in it.
Your sinker stuck because you burried it in the ground, something about the ballistic arc of a piece of lead. Your line had slack because you didn't "thumb it"

I know the sinker in the ground won't happen in the surf but what if a wave pushes your plug in? The wave wont "push" your plug in unless your plugging bait dunking style which wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. In order for your plug to work you need to work the plug. You're not going to allow so much slack in the line in the first place because you can't control it. Or set up on a fish in the unlikely event it gets whacked when you're just letting it do nothing (it does happen on occasion when a plug is just sitting). The line was really loose because you need to prevent that line over run with your thumb. If you didn't slightly burn the thumb on your soft, unworked, non-callous hands then you weren't doing it right...

When do you prefer conventional over spinning gear? Almost all of the time. Real light stuff might go to a spinner...

It really doesn't have a drag. It's known as a "knucklebuster" When a fish takes line, the handle goes around backwards. The only drag is your thumb.

Patrick---the Long Beach Penn reels should have a drag. Only the cheaper reels, like the Sea Boy, were direct drive knucklebuster totally. I'll bet you that somewhere on that Long Beach, there's a little secondary lever like there is on a Squidder, to shift the anti-reverse off and turn the reel into a direct drive model, where the spool turns backwards. If my old Long Beach 65 has a star drag, I can't believe the bigger 68 size doesn't have one.

BTW---if you use that Long Beach for surfcasting---especially for plugging---this little love affair will be short-lived ;)

I have a Long Beach 60 and a 68. The 68 is actually smaller. I've been over the reel a hundred times, no anti-reverse. I'm just going to use the reel as a practice reel until I can get something better.