21farms

trigger, thanks for the correction...i learned something new today as i wasn't previously aware of the changes to the legend tournament series

trigger, the st. croix rods that utilize the same 3M matrix resin as the platinum ZX rods (the legend extremes) range from $370-$410. the st. croix rods have a lifetime warranty whereas the platinum ZX's are only two years. however, given the price differential and the fact that the platinum ZX's feature the fuji K-frame guides, and considering that they'd undoubtedly go on sale sometime, i think the platinum ZXs are very compelling. i mean, 4.06 ounces for the 7'0" medium-heavy/fast...wow.

i had two of the older accurists and the newer catalyst PT. the accurists were okay...just kinda heavy and not particularly smooth so i got rid of them. on the newer quantums, the bugaboo to me is the ergonomics. all of them have a hump on their palm sideplates were the ACS dial is that just feels awful in my hands...bugs me to no end as i like to palm my reels while fishing. the other thing that bugs me is how low the spool release button sits when depressed...it is the lowest of any reel i've ever fished with (which is a lot) and forces me to "thumb" the spool with only the tip of my thumb instead of the pad of my thumb like with other reels which gives me better feel and control.

any reel with duralumin gears needs a little bit of break-in time to mesh before it feels smoother. brass is soft but one of the reasons that it is so popular for reel gears is it has very low-friction and feels smoother. duralumin is harder than brass and not as naturally friction-free; proper lubrication is more more critical with duralumin too.

i'd guess that, since these reels have one-piece frames where the feet are cast together as part of the frame, having a bridge or not having one makes no difference for the types of freshwater duties these reels are designed for. here are some pics of other reels with split feet: pre-JM carbonlite shimano E-series lew's tournament pro speed spools

most of the low-profile freshwater reels don't have a non-split foot nowadays...no biggie. here's my daiwa zillion:

the lew's TPSS are the same weight as the premiers and are very close in fishability and feel. the lew's longer carbon handle is the biggest difference (85mm vs. the premier's 80mm) and, of course, lew's signature paddle grips. that's probably the best choice for you since you stated you like all your reels to feel the same, assuming you're keeping the premiers. i have two and they're very nice. for me, if i had to, i'd go all chronarchs. i love those big fat grippy septon knobs and the ultra low profile fits my hands the best.

ha-ha, i guess i missed that thread. however, to be fair, even though i've bought a ton of new rods over the past few years, this is the only review i've ever written. if i wrote about them all, people would see that i have issues with every rod company i've bought from, including: g.loomis, lamiglas, dobyns, abu-garcia, daiwa, powell, shimano, cabelas, BPS, lews, and quantum. in fact, i've found that crooked guides, sloppy epoxy work, not-so-straight blanks, etc. are more common than not regardless of price. so, while it may seem like i'm overly picky about the villain, i'm not...it's just that i've never said anything about the others. plus, i just happen to be extremely anal about my fishing gear.

johnny, i'd say a 10-percent difference is significant, especially nowadays when every tackle manufacturer is working hard to shave off every possible fraction of an ounce they can. i agree with you that 0.5 ounce isn't much...in and of itself. but, i was fishing it alongside my similarly-rated-but-whole-ounce-lighter cumara and going back-and-forth like that, i did notice the difference. i also think that i was squeezing the handle really hard because it is so skinny which only added to my impression. my powell swim jig rod (7'2" MH/EF) is 5.4 ounces and i have absolutely no complaints regarding its weight. honestly, if abu-garcia didn't tout how the low resin content and carbon wraps reduce weight, i wouldn't be saying much about the weight of this rod. as to the zillion (which i had too and which someone here bought from me), yes, its handle is on the skinnier side too but the 7'0" zillion MH/F is only 4.3 ounces so i didn't notice as much. plus, the zillion's handle is longer and the reel seat has these "riblets" on the side that seem to help with my grip. i will probably end up putting some rod wraps on my villain handles to bulk them up a little bit. but, as far as rod ratings go, i'd say that abu-garcia and the zillions are similar in that they fish more powerfully than you'd normally expect for their rating compared to other rod companies. i should've added another section to my review on appearance. the villian is even better-looking in person. in the sun, you can see these squiggly ribbons against the graphite spirals that don't show up in photos. they're lookers for sure, especially against the relatively plain-jane appearance of the cumara. hatrix, i have three of the team lew's rods: 6'8" M/XF casting, 4.5 ounces 7'0" M/F casting, 4.6 ounces 7'2" M/F spinning, 4.7 ounces i only got them because i got a good deal on them but, as it turns out, they're very nice rods. craftsmanship on them and the quality of the cork is outstanding. two i haven't even fished with yet and the third i only used for a few minutes so far so i can't much about how they fish yet. some people like the fuji ACS reel seats they use and some don't. i happen to love the overall shape of the reel seat for the way it fits my hands but that little hole in the trigger i can feel occasionally with the tip of my finger is just a tad disconcerting and something i've never been able to get used to. oakleypitbull, the 6'9" ML/MF is a nice rod...that one definitely feels light and it fishes nicely too. i was hoping it was going to fish like a dobyns 704cb or a loomis crb-843 but it is definitely faster than either of those two and am glad for it. i was zinging 1/4 ounce tubes for smallies and 1/4 ounce kastmasters for trout and kokes. it is rated as moderately fast and i initially thought it was much closer to fast until i had a little salmon on the line and i could see the more-progressive taper of the blank in action. new2BC4bass, congrats on the purchase...actually, i think you'll love the rod.

received my two villains this week and logged 11-hours fishing with them yesterday. here are my first impressions of the 6'9" medium-light/moderate-fast and 7'1" medium-heavy/fast casting rods: 1) weight. the 7'1" is far heavier than i expected. according to a previous abu-garcia villain webpage, it was supposed to weigh 4.7 ounces. however, mine comes in at 5.2 ounces, a full half-ounce heavier. even though i know my scale has always been very accurate, i weighed it and some other rods several times to make sure. my 7'2" MH/F cumara weighs 4.2 ounces (with fuji hooker attached), a full ounce lighter. can i tell? most definitely. i had lews tournament pro speed spools on both rods and the differences between them are immediately apparent...in fact, the skinny handle on the villain probably magnifies it. did abu-garcia change the construction of some of their blanks and is that why they kept pushing the release date back and why they removed the weight information from their webpage? the 6'9" villain comes in at 4.2 ounces, within 0.1 ounce of what abu-garcia claimed, so that could just be differences between their scale and mine. 2) ergonomics. as mentioned above, the handles on the villains are skinny. worse, they taper dramatically at the end. the cumara i fished back-and-forth with the 7'1" villain was more comfortable and i could hold it easier as the handle is meatier, the reel sits lower on the blank and the front locking nut is much smaller in profile. 3) craftsmanship. when i hold the 7'1" villain up to my eye, i cannot see through all the guides. the guides are not perfectly straight and the blank has a slight dogleg curve to the left at the tip. i can mostly see through all the guides on my 6'9" villian but they are straighter but the blank has a slight bend downward at the tip. by contrast, i can see the tip perfectly through the guides on my cumara and speed sticks. otherwise, the villains and the cumara have epoxy that spilled in the bottom of the last 4 guides closest to the tip. i have three of the team lew's speed sticks and have found their guide alignment, blank straightness, thread wrapping and epoxy work to be consistently excellent. 4) sensitivity. although both are rated as medium-heavy with fast tapers, the villain is stouter and faster than the cumara. fishing heavy football jigs, i could not discern a difference between them sensitivity-wise. 5) miscellaneous. what is it with abu-garcia and their buttcaps? i have veritas and verdicts and they have unprotected aluminum buttcaps that are easily scratched and, just as bad, are slippery so that when you try to stand the rods on end on a hard/smooth floor, the rods slide out from under themselves if you're not careful. the buttcaps on the villains look like they're rubber (similar to the cumara and lew's speed sticks) but they're not; they're hard plastic and even slippier than the metal caps. sure enough, i stood the 6'9" villain on its buttcap on my wood floor yesterday as i was hurriedly unpacking from the trip and it slid out from under itself and almost crashed on the floor. i like the hook keeper on the villain. located on top in front of the reel, it is convenient and works well. the hidden keeper hole on the cumara is fine for single-hook rigs but is useless with anything with treble hooks unless you enjoy grabbing a handful of hooks everytime you reach for your rod. my line got caught on the bottom-mounted hook keep of the lew's rod several times yesterday.

hey nathan, i still have lightning rods i bought in the early 80's that i was very fond of so, yes, i think they will hold up. actually, what you find is that the higher-end rods are more sensitive but less durable...that's the trade-off with higher modulus graphite: lighter and transmits vibrations better but at the cost of brittleness. i use mostly $200-$300 rods nowadays but i'd have no problem fishing if all i had was a 7' MH lightning rod. i say, keep it and go fishin'. i used to tear 'em up with lightning rods at lake patagonia and pena blanca lake back in the day (i'm originally from tucson).

i had two of the first-generation SXs and was totally perplexed by the jekyll and hyde nature of these reels...i'd get beautifully long casts one minute and the world's worst birdsnests the next. i was further baffled by how others (like me) were ultra-frustrated with their SXs while others absolutely loved them. it took me awhile but i finally figured it out: fishermen who are always deliberate and methodical in casting smoothly do great with the SX. others who are not as careful, snapping one cast and lobbing the next, etc., are the ones who find the reel finicky. once i started concentrating on every cast, i was rewarded with outstanding distances and smooth retrieves. unfortunately, if shad started boiling around me or i saw a follower, i'd get excited and inevitably rushed the next cast and backlashed badly and so i just had to abandon them. i demo'd the current-generation SX and it was slightly better but still not very forgiving of sloppy technique. my advice: set the cast control (tension) knob tighter than the instruction manual says to and, most of all, cast with a smooth, fluid motion and you'll be fine. i'd also highly recommend the "masking tape trick" (make the longest cast you can, pull out another 10-15 feet of line and put a piece of masking tape around half the spool to limit the extent of your birdnesting).

i have five of the abu-garcia v-rods: two verdicts, two veritas and one villain. it's hard to compare across the different lines since they're different in power and action ratings. my 6'9" ML/MF villian is 4.2 ounces while my 7'0" M/MF veritas is 4.1 ounces so in this case the veritas is lighter even though it is 3 inches longer and one power higher. on the other hand, the 7'3" MH/F veritas i had was 5.4 ounces whereas the 7'1" MH/F villain is supposed to be 4.7 ounces and the 7'3" H/F villian is supposed to be 4.9 ounces. even more confusing, my 7'0" MH/XF spinning verdict is 4.8 ounces. i'd have to say that there's no clear-cut answer to which are lightest.

i thought my 50e was great...but then i dropped in a set of boca bearings and that baby is flat out amazing now.

actually, i take back what i said about the toros. the toro 50 is comparable in size to the curado 300e, which is fine for large swimbaits. however, the toro 60 is huge and probably way too unwieldy for a long day of chucking swimbaits...your shoulders will be screaming for mercy by noon. even with the toro 50, i bought one new last year and have used it all of once...i find my normal baitcasters are totally sufficient for my needs. 4 oz. isn't really that heavy whereas if you were throwing 6-8 ounce hudds or wood punkers, that'd be different. as for your main cranking reel, i've had both the winch and the CC. i personally preferred the CC and sold the winch. i could cast further with the CC and just love the handling and feel of it. it's one of those rare reels that, every time i fish it, i'm more and more impressed.

the line recovery of the 5.4:1 winch is 20.6 inches per turn of the handle whereas the 4.9:1 crazy cranker's is 22.0 IPT. don't just look at the gear ratio...IPT is what really matters. the toros are gargantuan, especially the 60.

i hit the south sacramento and the west sacramento stores and i'm seeing the kvd tour rods, the skeet reese sticks and the falcon bucoos. however, the prices are full retail and no cheaper than anywhere else so i don't see the point [scratches head].

the braking force applied by centrifugal brakes varies depending on the speed of the spool: higher at the startup when it is most needed and tapering off at the end of the cast as the spool slows...simple and effective. simple magnetic brakes apply the same amount of braking force throughout the cast. most simple mag brakes are adjusted by manipulating the distance between the magnets and spool. abu-garcia's "linear magnetic brakes" used on some of their revos leave the magnets in place but utilize a shield to cover/expose the magnets (which is perplexing to me since this changes the shape of the magnetic field in a nonlinear fashion). the truly sophisticated braking systems such as daiwa's magforce V or Z or pflueger's ITB (inertia transfer braking) utilize the spinning spool's centrifugal force to move a plate on the spool closer to the magnets in the sideplate, effectively applying variable braking force the more it is needed. the hot trend right now is to combine both centrifugal brakes and magnets together in one reel with the rationale that centrifugal brakes apply their braking force at the beginning at the cast when centrifugal forces are greatest with the mag brakes kicking in at the end of the cast when there is almost no centrifugal force. i have examples of all the above systems and they all work.

that's the closest BPS to me too. i was purchasing a reel one day and the older gentleman who was ringing me up couldn't even work the register well and wasn't very familiar with BPS reels but, boy, did he know fishing. we got to talking and, after about 5 minutes, it suddenly dawned on me who he was. i won't say his name but he was well-known on the tournament circuit and has had quite a few wins and a very impressive fishing resume.

6'9" is a great all-around length for spinnerbaits. warning: if you're thinking about the g.loomis SBR812C, get the 813C instead. the 812C fishes closer to a medium-light than medium.

i've owned all three iterations of the prolite finesse (the original, the B, and the C), two PQs, two carbonlites and two extremes. i still have the prolite finesse C, one PQ and one carbonlite...i like 'em a lot.

oops, my mistake...thanks for the correction.

here's a cached copy of the page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:e3CVYPEiS_4J:www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops%C2%AE-Johnny-Morris%C2%AE-CarbonLite%E2%84%A2-Baitcast-Reels/product/1110020501438/274205+morris+carbonlite&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (thanks, snyder_rods)

the knot in that youtube video is labeled as an albright knot but it looks like an alberto knot to me because midway through the loops, he reverses the direction of the loops...in an albright, the loops only go in one direction. am i wrong here? anyway, i used to use the uni-to-uni but had too many failures. after getting the alberto down pat, i've not had a single lost fish or lure because of the connection knot.

it's one year. basically, you have to spend about $20 to ship it back to them and include another $10 to cover return shipping of a replacement rod back to you.