I prefer bait casters for most of the catfishing I do,but you can catch a whale on spinning gear too.Its all up to you to decide what your most comfortable with.If you want to use 50# mono with a baitcaster I would bump up to a 7000 sized reel. The 6000's seem to do best with 17-20# line and I dont go over 30# with those b/c they seem to backlash (professional over run LOL) alot and the line capacity is greatly reduced. But since you will be using it,youll have the fun task of deciding what set-up you feel most confident using.

And thats really the most important thing.
