Fishwhittler

So…that Sea Lion swallowed a 26-pound fish without stopping to chew. Yikes. Hate to think what one of those could do to a person if it got angry. Very nice photography.

Only two bearings are necessary. The bearing under the spool-tension knob only comes into play when the spool is under heavy load; it has nothing to do with casting. The two bearings to replace are the bearing in the palm-side plate and the bearing mounted on the spool shaft next to the spool. You'll need some sort of tool to remove this pin for cleaning or replacing bearings. You don't want to try doing it without the right tools—you run the risk of damaging the spool. Spool-pin pliers will run you around $35 from Tackle Trap. They're not cheap, but they'll save you the cost of potentially replacing your spool.

How's this?

There is. Here.

They'll still be rare…at $700 it's gonna be rare. Nice looking rod. Heard they fish even better than they look. Unfortunately it's a tad out of my price range, so I won't be getting one.

Looks identical to the old Mettle, so whatever they did couldn't have been big. Although, 0.4 ounces difference is fairly significant. Still a heck of a value at $60.

Cardinals one game away from a World Series berth. Lynn was a bit shaky at times, but at least the damage was minimal. Hope Kelly can shut down the Dodgers in game 5. Boston's pitchers hurled a gem tonight, and so did Verlander though he got the loss. Lots of great pitching duels this postseason.

I've got one of the first-generation Vendetta's. They're nice rods, nothing fancy. I dislike the reel seat locking nut; it's machined aluminum and looks great, but there's no graphite insert to pad the reel foot. The metal nut grinds off paint on reel feet even faster than reel seats with inserts. Otherwise, the Vendetta is fine. Mine is a 7' M/F, and it's currently set up with an Ambassadeur 5501C3 and 12# mono. Use it for bigger cranks. If you'd be willing to try another brand of rod, I'd suggest you take a good hard look at the Team Daiwa T rods. They're slightly less expensive than the Vendetta and seem to be built a little better. The TDT also has a padded reel seat locking nut, which is nice. I've got two, a 6'6" M/XF and a 7' MH/XF. I'd definitely go with the TDT over the Vendetta if given a choice. I also like the Daiwa Aird and Ballistic rods. The Aird is definitely a $50 rod and has some rough edges, but I still like it better than the Vendetta. The Ballistic is on closeout at TW for $65. I got the 7'11" cranker for chunking lipless cranks, and it does that really well. Also have the 7'2" spinning rod, but I don't use spinning gear much so that rod doesn't see a lot of use. Both are built a bit nicer than my TDT's and Vendetta. For the plastics setups you mentioned, other than drop shot, a 7' MH/F or MH/XF should cover your bases if you're only getting one rod. If you're getting multiple rods, I'd recommend a 7'MH/XF for C-rigs, the same for jigs, and a 7'M/XF for senkos and general plastics.

Only way to find out if your reels are any good is to fish them. If you're happy with how they're performing now, keep using them.

I'd like to see a Cards/Tigers series with the Cardinals on top in seven. Wainwright VS Verlander, Wacha VS Scherzer, and Miller VS Sanchez would be something to watch. If only Allen Craig is available by then…

Unless you're curious. And yes, the gears really are similar in size if not identical. The drag washers from a Citica 200D will swap directly into a Citica E, and the 200D is the same size as the Curado 300E.

The 300 gears aren't much if any larger than the 200 gears. I've never tried swapping them, but it might be possible. Try swapping the gears between your reels; the worst that can happen is they don't fit.

Alarm clocks flashing is from a power blip. The TV turning on is probably from the same thing; there's a touch lamp in our house that will turn on when something else is turned on or off. If the power goes off and then comes back on, the lamp will turn on. Nothing ghostly about it.

There is a market for both. The problem, like Comfortably Numb stated, is that foreign companies will steal designs and there's no way to do anything about it.

The issue suggests taut-line applications such as crankbaits and spinnerbaits would be best for these reels.

The Johnny Morris Carbonlite is not built by the same company as the Pro Qualifier, and I'm almost positive the gears are not interchangeable. You'll have to check to be sure, but I really doubt the PQ gears will work in your reel.

If there's a "trigger" on the reel seat, it's a casting rod. If there's no trigger, odds are it's a spinning rod, though there are a very few casting rods with no trigger. Those are mainly boat rods and saltwater rods, so it's extremely unlikely your rod is a casting rod if it lacks a trigger. To get your reel dialed in, what I'd try is the following: First, make sure the knob on the handle-side of the reel is just barely tight enough to keep the spool from knocking from side to side. Now open up the reel and check the brake shoes mounted on the spool. For now you want three in the "out" position. Now close the side plate and set the outer brake dial on 3 or 4. A 14-gram lure should be just about perfect for your rod's rating, so that's what I'd use for test-casting. You should easily get at least 32 meters.

The Mystic uses the same frame as the Menace does, and I can tell you that the Menace is pretty darn small. Use of aluminum gears & drive shaft would save quite a bit of weight, and the carbon-fiber handle with EVA knobs has got to be a lot lighter than the Menace's aluminum handle with rubber knobs. I'd also hazard a guess that the drag key washer might be thick aluminum rather than steel.

Noticed on your website that two of the color selections are "Black/silver accents" and "Silver/silver accents". Do you offer both silver and black carbon-fiber handles?

I like a fast action better than a medium, though I also like a moderate-fast for some lures. For me, a faster tip has a crisper feel and gives more precise casting.

If you've been using the knob on the handle-side of the reel as a brake, loosening that knob is what's causing the spool knock. The spool tension knob is not a brake and should never be used as one. It's an auxiliary to the braking system that is used to adjust for varying lure weights, but it's not a true braking system. Using it as one can warp the spool shims and cause them to wear out prematurely. The Johnny Morris Carbonlite has two braking systems plus the spool tension knob. I personally would use mostly centrifugal brakes and adjust for wind with the mags, but to each his own. I know there are a lot of guys who prefer magnetic brakes. Anyway, the spool tension knob, at tightest, should be set so the lure just barely falls to the ground. This method requires you to readjust the knob for different lures. I prefer to set the tension knob just barely tight enough to keep the spool from knocking back and forth, and then adjust for lure weight and wind conditions with the brakes.

Whatever, but you're more likely to win your point by exercising a little more tact. Back on topic, another thing I'll add is that a reel gets cheaper the more you use it. If you use a $50 reel for a year and it breaks down, you've payed $50 per year. If you get two years out of it, you're down to $25 per year. Same with more expensive reels. On the other hand, if that $50 reel breaks down after half a fishing season of use, the reel's price per year of use is effectively doubled. A properly maintained metal-frame baitcaster can last for five years or longer with only minor repairs, but very few graphite baitcasters will go that long. Over the long haul, a $120 reel will be cheaper than a $50 graphite baitcaster.

That's a harsh way of stating your opinion. The point made was, low-dollar baitcasters typically don't last as long as more expensive ones, and so a spinning reel in that price range is a safer bet. If you have to replace a $50 reel six months after buying it, you're not saving any money by not buying a $100 reel in the first place. To me, any reel that doesn't last at least one year is a disposable reel and not worth the money, and I'd be disappointed with any reel that didn't last at least two years. I've had one graphite baitcaster, a Daiwa Megaforce, and that was enough. The clutch wore out in less than a single fishing season due to flexing problems with the graphite frame. Now, I'm not disputing that some guys $50 graphite baitcasters last for a really long time. Graphite baitcasters today are probably considerably better than the ones from four or five years ago, so there's that going for them. However, the likelihood of the reel wearing out quickly is still much, much higher than that of a decent metal-frame reel. At the $50 price point, I would recommend the H2O Xpress Mettle, which is unfortunately being discontinued by Academy. It's on clearance for $40, and it's a fine reel for the price and the only one in its class with a metal frame. It's not the smoothest reel out there, but it's a sturdy little machine that can cast like a rocket. Or, look around and find a good used reel with a metal frame. You can find incredible deals if you look hard enough. No experience with any of the reels named by the OP, but of those options I'd go with either the Caenan or the Pro Max. Both are the best graphite reels from their respective manufacturers, and Quantum has an iffy reputation in their lower-end baitcasters. Combo reels are particularly suspect.

I would steer clear of US Reels. The design is interesting and the concept is a good one, but the execution is a bit lacking. Quite a number of problems with the level-wind not working have been reported, and after taking a look inside a Hibdon 801SX I found out why: The Wave Bar is cast in a poor-quality mold, and some of them have warped shafts where they connect to the reel gearing. This leads to misaligned and slipping gears under load, so when you're fighting a fish you basically don't have a level-wind. Plus your reel buzzes from the slipping gear teeth. The bar can be replaced, but in my experience US Reel is very slow to ship parts. I had a terrible time getting a replacement Wave Bar for the reel I worked on—it took upwards of a month. The reel worked well enough after I got it put back together, but I wouldn't buy one.

If there is a new Mettle, I hope they do four things: Keep the metal frame, switch to the profile used on the Menace and Mystic, improve the drag, and offer it in multiple gear ratios. If they have to lower the bearing count to keep the reel priced at $50 while incorporating the other things, that's fine; I'd be fine with a lower bearing count and a better drag.