A question about the setups for muskies on the rivers like upper shenango and french creek.
What are your preferences spinning or casting? I am thinking about a spinning outfit but not sure about what a good spinning reel for muskies would be. Thanks for your thoughts
 

This answer goes with just about every place a person would musky fish. If your planning on throwing baits all day you will be very unhappy with a spinning set up.
 
Casting reels are in almost every situation the best way to go. With todays reels the excuse of "to many backlashes" is no longer valid, it is now almost seen as lazy to use that excuse. The advantages of casting so far outweigh spinning, I encourage when buying new gear to look at only casting if buying strickly for musky fishing with artifical baits. 
 
If your fishing with live bait, then a spinning setup will do just fine. Be sure to have good strong braided line 30lb absolute min. 50+lb line is better IMO, a good quality leader and quick strike rig to reduce deeply hooked fish that have a low rate of suvivoral.
 
A big challange for people to enter the sport of musky fishing is the cost of good quality gear, for a good casting set up on a budget your looking at about $250. Yes you can fish with lesser priced equiptment but at sometime when fishing you will find that it would have been ahead of the game to buy quality once than lesser quality twice
 
 

Baitcast reels for musky lures, 50lbs + line. We all had to go through our backlashes while learning. 

I'm not new to fishing muskies, I was just thinking that maybe a heavier spinning setup would work for the the smaller rivers up north.

Not really sure what your looking for here. A musky is a musky, weather its in LOTW or in a tiny stream. I personally wouldnt down size my musky gear just because I am fishing smaller water.
 
But sure a heavy spinning rod would work in smaller rivers, also it will work the same if you were in georgian bay.
 
Am i missing somthing from the question? (im serious when i ask that)

The only plus I see for spinning reels is below freezing air temps with heavy mono because you are less likely to soak your hands.

Lure retriever!! Most important piece of equipment you can own while fishing in "loggy" waters. A $40 lure lost can ruin an entire trip. We made our own and it works great. Has easily saved us over $500.

i concur.
Baitcaster all the way. Pepper that downed wood all day with big flashy baits.

My thoughts were that a heavier spin outfit would work because you might not have much casting room in some tight spots, be able to stop that 40 buck plug from ending up in a tree much quicker, and make better pin point casts...thats all...I'm a baitcaster all the way...just thought some might use heavier spin outfits in the rivers from shore.

baitcasters win in every scenario you brought up though man.
have you ever tried to throw a jerkbait with a spinning setup let alone make it function correctly?
if your just using small mepps bucktails,jigs, rattle traps,ect... lures under two ounces then spinning gear would probably work just fine.