brophog

I’m the same way, for both rods and reels. Price is a factor, but availability is a far bigger factor. For quite some time I’ve found the domestic market to be very wide but also very shallow.

I don't worry about warranties on that kind of stuff because they've already priced in the warranty so I'd have to break enough rods over time to overcome the extra expense they charged for the privilege. Maybe I've just been lucky, I don't know. I can say most of the rods I've ever broken have come down to user error, and it's generally only the cheaper ones that break for any other reason.

In my opinion, in the overwhelming majority of modern rods these aren't major issues anymore. There is some debate on which styles of joints reduce any potential loss of sensitivity the most, but my feeling is that our rod setups now tend to be so sensitive that we have plenty to spare. My only complaint with 2 piece rods is that they're not more readily available in this country but it's hard for me to put too much blame on producers, distributors and retailers when there is such a strong stigma against 2 piece rods, especially in bass fishing. I think for the most part they are just following market sentiment in this regard. I, too, once was very against 2 piece rods but there was a time when there were very good reasons for that. The technology and construction has changed a lot over time, though, and I think opinions will eventually shift as well.

Many setups are tip heavy these days. It's why I think any discussion of reel weight for a bass size reel is pretty silly. We've taken most of the weight out of the rear handle of the rod, most don't have foregrips, some barely have something you can call a reel seat. Then the standard rod length exceeds 7 feet, which isn't a bad thing but with so little weight in the rear now it's difficult to find a balanced rod with the weight of most modern reels. To top it off, I think in many cases we're trading reel weight for durability. I love Zillions and the versatility of that platform and being able to customize them like we're discussing, but there are times I don't use them in favor of older, heavier, but more durable reels.

They usually don't survive long enough for me to worry about that.

Did you buy the rod?

Those are useful tips. Another one is to tape the clip to a screwdriver when trying to get it back on the shaft when reassembling.

You can replace the ramp. Not the most difficult thing in the world, but getting those little c clips on and off the inductor without that spring shooting everywhere can be a bit tricky. I definitely agree with the idea of getting a new spool to give yourself more options and then you can play find the spring later on. (BTW, I hate those little clips. I used to have a Quantum Iron 300 back in the day where someone decided to mount the plate side bearing on the spool instead and mounted it behind an even more annoying, tinier c clip.)

If you don't want to have any brakes at all it does. Otherwise, probably not. I'll take either reel any day of the week. The deciding factor for me isn't cast ability or braking or anything of that nature, it's the modularity of the 34mm Daiwas.

I don't know, probably just age. When we're young we want every lure in the store, get a bag big enough to carry them all, then all the rods to cast everything. Then we get old, realize we don't want to carry all of that stuff then come to the conclusion we only used 3 lures anyhow and we can probably cast all three on one rod.

While there is always a small amount of braking there, the question becomes how much. The magnetic braking force changes significantly with even small changes in distance between the magnet and inductor. Anybody can take something like an SV reel and put it on 0 and on 20 and see the enormous effect it has even at free spool speeds. For centrifugal brakes it is not like they turn off 4 nanoseconds into a cast. Any brake block you have turned on are always engaged it is just that they're so dependent on spool speed that by the time the spool has slowed down at the end of the cast the braking force is often times negligible to non-existent depending on just how slow the spool got. We have to be careful of making too many generalities between systems, especially with magnetic braking because there are so many divergent braking profiles amongst different reels but it's not as simple as to just suggest centrifugal systems only effect the start of the cast and magnetic systems are more impactful throughout the cast and therefore centrifugal will just cast longer. For some users in some reels in some applications that may be true, but then in other situations it is completely reversed. The peak braking force of a centrifugal tends to be quite large at high speed and that often tends to even out the discrepancy vs a reel that may brake less but for a longer period.

I find even in the same line of rods it varies. I'll use the Feather as an example because it's a very common rod and gets this feedback a lot. The 1/8-3/8 L I find is pretty spot on, certainly not infringing on UL status the way some L rods can. However, that 1/4-2oz H is just no where close to those expectations. I love that rod, but I treat it like a MH+ that tops out at about 1 1/4.

Those 70/80 size reels are great at that weight range whereas that Patriarch, depending on how old it is, is likely at that spool weight where 1/4 is possible but not necessarily desirable.

When you get down that low the line makes a huge difference. Go as thin as you can tolerate and don't fill the spool (you're looking to save weight). The Roro spools are great, but I find many of their models have far more line capacity than necessary for that type of application. That spool has a good capacity for 7-8 grams but if you're looking to cast 1-2 grams the weight of the line itself becomes an enormous percentage of your overall spool weight and has a significant effect on overall performance.

I find that the more rods I own the fewer I want to carry.