21farms

i ordered my scorpion from japantackle for $199 + $20 EMS shipping...got it in 5 days. the scorp and 50E both have brass gears with each main gear weighing an identical 12 grams, i believe the 0.4 ounce difference is due to the scorp not having an anti-reverse pawl and substantially bigger knobs on the 50E. the only other differences are the scorp has 5 more AR bearings in place of the SS bearings in the 50E and the knobs on the scorp are ugradeable from 2 bearings to 4 whereas you're stuck with 2 on the 50E.

i have the chronarch 50E and the scorpion 1001XT. i'm hard-pressed to notice much difference between them although the scorpion seems perhaps a tad smoother. the chronarch comes with the larger "power" septon knobs. here's a pic of mine side-by-side (i replaced the scorp's spool here with a yumeya shallow spool, which also fits the chrony):

nope, they're different. in addition to a different frame, the 13metanium has some magnesium in it's construction and aluminum micro-module gears; the CI4+ has no magnesium and standard brass gears that max out at 7.6:1 versus the 8.5:1 on the 13metanium. bantam1 says that even the SVS infinity brakes are different with a 6-pin system in the JDM reel and 4 on the new chronarch...interestingly, bantam1 says that he's gotten much better casting performance from the CI4+.

i had read that somewhere too but bantam1 shot it down. so, no 50-size CI4+ coming but bantam1 did say that shimano didn't shoot its entire wad at icast2013 and that they will be introducing several more new reels over the next few months.

i don't think anyone could say that the G-series is better than the E-series. when introduced, bantam1 (the shimano rep) basically said shimano worked out an amazing deal on the production costs which allowed them to sell the reel for $179 instead of $199. the G is not a better reel but, at the same time, it is less expensive at $160. excellent summary. first number is the frame size (50, 100, 150, 200 and 300), the letter is the series (A, B, C, D, E, G, etc.). the last number is the gear ratio. buzzfrog, go for the chronarch E-series. solid aluminum frame and graphite sideplates. it does not have an aluminum drag star like the curado E-series (part of the reason some people are mad; the price went up but the components used went down) but the reel rocks.

my friend bought a used SX with the reel grips on them. he took them off immediately but the indentations stayed. two years later, you can still see them although not as pronounced.

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-magnetinc/item/mg1826/ view in Google Chrome for English translation

www.tackletrap.com

fluoro's higher density allows it to sink instead of float. in addition to the faster rate of fall that bluebasser86 pointed out, that results in less bowing of the line with fluoro...the more direct connection to your bait gives you greater sensitivity. fluoro's added density also transmits vibrations better. i remember reading an interesting study decades ago wherein a scuba diver was watching lures being worked underwater. the diver reported seeing many more pickups from bass than the anglers felt. you may very well have been getting bit on mono without even knowing it.

i really dislike spinning so when i first got into dropshot fishing, i bought a dedicated casting setup for it: a shimano crucial CRC-D66M http://tackletour.com/reviewshimanocrucial.html and a daiwa sol. the rod is really nice and buttery smooth but the problem was not having freespool fast enough as the dropshot rig is falling toward the bottom. plus, when working the lure (whether jiggling or dragging the rig back), it felt like i was always fighting the weight of the reel on top of the rod wanting to torque itself down with gravity. when i finally tried dropshotting with a spinning rod/reel, it was like heaven. flip/pitch/cast your rig out and it falls straight to the bottom quickly. then, the reel hangs down below the reel and the balance is natural. i have not used that casting dropshot rod now in years.

okay, you have several things going on here. as i understand your question, you want to put a swept carbon fiber handle onto your shimano core reel and are considering the lew's and zillion handles. first of all, shimano has a unique crankshaft size which is smaller in diameter than everyone else's. to get a lew's/revo/daiwa/BPS/pflueger handle to fit onto a shimano crankshaft, you need an adapter called the "barrier breaker" sold by semper-fi tackle. secondly, you don't want to put a swept/bent/offset handle on a shimano reel that was not designed for it as the handle will not clear the drag star. my advice: if you want a shimano with an offset handle, buy the new JDM metanium or the new shimano chronarch Ci4+. if all you want is a carbon fiber handle for your core, buy a straight one from semper-fi.

sufix makes performance braid in 'fluorescent neon fire' (orange) and bass pro shops carries in 50#. i had a big spool of it in 65# and cannot recommend it. i bought it thinking that it would glow at night under black light but it doesn't. just as bad, the orange color is in a waxy coating and it comes off very, very easily and gets on everything. after just one morning of fishing topwater lures with it, much of the orange color was already gone.

at one time, i had the lamiglas SR765R (the 7'6" version of the skeet reese SR705R). i bought it expecting to be able to totally launch lipless cranks and swimbaits but was totally surprised i couldn't cast it any farther than the 7'0" version...i have absolutely no idea why because my powell 765cb was absolutely killer on distance compared to my 7'0" cranking rods.

traveler, back in the day, i had an ultra mag XL and the ultra mag II. they had been relegated to catfishing duties.i accidentally left them behind on the marina one night years ago and didn't discover they were missing until a couple of weeks later. believe me, i was NOT upset about it! modern low-pro reels, even cheap ones, are IMHO so far superior.

i had the same problem with my new 3G STX-SHS. i put a little silver dot on the bottom of the reel foot to see if they'd fix mine or send me a new one since other people reported receiving new ones as replacements. mine with the little silver dot came back with a note that said they "adjusted the clutch plate". believe it or not, i wanted them to fix my reel and send that one back to me instead of getting a new one so that i could be sure the problem was addressed. based on what happened to the OP with his replacement reel, i'm even more glad!

lamiglas has said that the BMB-841 S-glass blanks used in the SR705R and XCF705R (same rod just different colors) are no longer made because they cannot source the S-glass anymore. i've read that the E-glass versions of the blank are still very nice. that length/power/taper is very popular for lamiglas and lami does a good job at duplicating the power and taper across their 705R factory rods (including the excel XL-705R) although they use different materials. the pro-X 705R is composite, not purely fiberlgass. btw, i've seen the ones on ebay and they look great...in fact, i would actually prefer them to my SR705R and XCF705R because the factory rods don't have that exposed blank in front of the trigger.

carbonlite rods are fine. the johnny morris carbonlite reels, however, i would HIGHLY recommend you only buy one in person after handling it and making sure you get a good one. i have owned three and have personally gone through dozens of NIB JM CLs looking for a smooth one and have yet to find one. on the other hand, the first-generation carbonlites (the gold ones) were awesome for the price and so are the pro qualifiers.

shallow spools hold less line which can be heavy. this overall weight allows the spool to start up faster and with lighter lures. DVT, i think you mean a heavier spool will spin longer because it has more momentum, not inertia. jrob78, i have yumeya spool on my chronarch 50E...it will improve your lightweight casting regardless of the rod. i also find it helps a LOT with pitching.

the tournament MG has a metal tension knob with clickies, carbon composite drag with 14lbs of drag versus rulon drag with 10lbs of drag, a metal drag star instead of plastic and 95mm handle vs. 85mm. there's also a 0.3 ounce weight difference. see: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/lewslineup.jpg/

i tie a knot for two reasons: 1) if your rod/reel fall overboard, you can grab the line and pull it up, even if the clutch is disengaged. one time, i fell overboard while casting (embarrassing story) and let go of my rod/reel but some line was hung up on the corner of the boat...i pulled all the line off the spool but saved the rod and reel. 2) i was bass fishing on the delta and hooked into a huge striper and it literally spooled me...if i was using tape, the fish AND all my line would've been gone.

the stock handles on the revos are a curiously short 80mm whereas they're a more useful 85mm on most of the lew's. i had an issue with the thumb bar on my new 3G STX-SHS sticking in the disengaged position and, if you do a search, you'll see that some others have had a similar issue.

by the way, if you want a sub-6 ounce reel, may i recommend the lew's team pro speed spool? i have one and it rocks...very smooth and casts great.

actually, i think having abu fix the reel is a better option than a new reel. given the number of other people who have had this problem, a new reel might not be any better but, if they fix it, you are assured that they corrected the problem. just my two cents.

i reported that same issue here with my 3G STX and so have a few others (do a search here for "the new revos hate me"-thread or you can search at TT for a thread called "revo G3 issues"). i sent mine back to abu-garcia and they sent it back to me with a note that said the fix was "adjusted clutch plate".

too bad the archives only go back a year here as there was a lot of discussion on these when they first started shipping in early 2012. here's my condensed story on the JM carbonlite. i ordered a 7:1 JMCL online and received it in february 2012. straight out of the box, i was absolutely amazed at how light it was. however, spinning the handle, i was equally shocked at how rough and grindy it felt. it was absolutely terrible. the next month, i drove an hour to my closest BPS to exchange it. they only had about ten in stock and i went through every single one of them and they all felt grindy but i was determined to own a sub-6 ounce reel so i picked the best of the bunch (a 5:1 version) and drove home. after a few weeks and fishing with it couple of times, i decided i could not live with it and drove back to BPS again. this time, they had gotten a bunch more in stock. i went through a dozen and a half before the salesman started to get really impatient with me so i picked out the smoothest of the bunch and went home. i only fished it once or twice and, despite the fact that it was still grindy, it casted even light balsa lures very well. i put it away and didn't take it of the box again unitl last month when i decided to thin out my collection a little. i listed it for sale here with the price all the way down to $80 and still had no takers (probably because my description said it wasn't what i would consider a smooth reel!) so i took it back to BPS. i sampled some from their latest stock and they were all grindy...fortunately, the salesman was very understanding and let me exchange it for something else. my advice: stay away! i am shocked by the user reviews that state that they love how smooth the reel is. i've sampled literally 30 of these and they were ALL grindy. to me, the ONLY reason to even consider this reel is for the featherly lightness. otherwise, the grindiness is just too distracting while you're trying to concentrate on detecting bites. even $50 reels i felt were smoother.