Delaware Valley Tackle

Kevin's a good guy. I just ordered some blanks from there myself.

I think he means because they're different price points ad features vary. I'd tend to agree they aren't apples to apples feature wise, but as far as quality and durability it's hard to go wrong once you exceed $125 msrp.

I see cringe worthy stuff on the web all the time. Take it all with a grain of salt. You can absolutely safely ad effectively run one brake on in a Shimano reel. If you choose 2 or more, why not space them out around the hub? Even if you didn't, the results would not be catastrophic. Keep in mind too, the rod plays a much bigger role in casting than the reel does.

I receive and send hundreds of packages in a year's time and have had very few issues with Priority Mail. Only one damage claim in past 5 yrs. Granted, some of the boxes are pretty beat up when they arrive though. Hope I didn't just jinx myself. lol

You are safe to use braided line on your rod. Stainless steel and guides in general come in range of quality. I've built a number of bass and trout rods with good SS ring guides. They are light, budget friendly and plenty durable including with braid use. It's actually the contaminants on braid that can cause problems. If you fish in silt, sand or slop conditions rinsing your line when you're done isn't a bad idea.

I don't like the term "Micro" guide because it describes a range of guide sizes from 5.5 down, then you have differing ring materials and thicknesses. For MH bass rods, I've more or less settled on 4.5 running guides for up to 50# braid w/leader. A well tied Albright knot will pass them with no problem. Can you feel the knot on a sensitive build? Sometimes yes, but I don't find it to hinder casting at all. You really can't rule out a guide all together based on one rod because there are other factors that affect the total build and performance. Being a builder I've had the opportunity to wrap the exact same blank different ways, with different guides and am convinced of the advantages of spiral wrapping the smallest, lightest guides that will do the job.

This wouldn't be good either. It will chew up the bottom of the pinion eventually. The AR clutch should slip right out of the side plate easily. A soak in Perfect Solution or Simple Green and a little hot water, agitate, rinse, repeat. Let dry and reinstall with a light coat of oil swabbed onto the sleeve and you should be back in business. Make sure the roller clutch goes back in right side up or it will spin the wrong direction.

If you use the spindle method, come off the top of the filler spool for casters and off the bottom for spinners and you should be ok

In addition to the previous good suggestions, make sure the line guide roller is operating freely and consider some KVD Line & Lure Conditioner. Use swivels where appropriate. A little line twist is inevitable with spinning tackle. It's really about managing it the best you can.

I don't understand the casting piece. A dirty AR may slip intermittently but locking up on a cast is unusual. If you're uncomfortable with opening the reel or don't want to mess with it feel free to send it in. If you DIY and have any questions you can get me here or call.

When I posted I was thinking going forward instead of just throwing away the pliers. Once the pins are rolled over they're nearly impossible to remove. You have nothing to loose at this point. If you're really careful you might be able to file the pin flat enough to let it be pushed through. I'd be more concerned about the pin hole being damaged and leading to a crooked pin that wears the pinion and/or doesn't engage properly. Just go slow and see what you can do with it. For others following the thread, leaving the spool shaft bearing in place and blasting it out with carb cleaner etc. is a viable option to risking a removal mishap.

The Pflueger President is arguable the best bang for the buck, but the Trion is close and even cheaper.

it's rare but I've had 1 or 2 that just would not budge. If I were you I'd consider filing the broken pin flat and try pressing the pins flush, then pushing it thru with another tool. It's an extra hoop to jump thru but vs a spool maybe worth a shot.

For you guys with defective Daiwas, what are you experiencing? I haven't seen any major influx in the shop. I'm curious.

On my worst day going through $$$$ worth of baits, biggest chunk being a 5 hook A-rig on what I think was a sunken bridge beam or something. It was all down hill from there. lol

Don't get hung up on retrieve ratios especially just starting out. 6.x:1 is "standard" if there is such a thing. Start there and you can fine tune as you develop your own style & preferences.

Ya it's almost like the guys that trailer cars to the car shows. I'm a bit of a tackle junky but only in as far it enhances my fishing experience. I just worked on a big batch of Core 50's & 100's that made me want to replace my whole arsenal.

From what I can see just on the bench the I is different, but not leaps and bounds better than the E. Shimano got away from the Curado's traditional workhorse reel reputation with the E series. Their first attempt at returning balance to the Universe with a G was a debacle because they had spoiled people to some degree with the E. The I's X ship is a nice improvement but nothing innovative really. Daiwa has been using dual pinion bearings for a while. A nice simple centrifugal brake is hard to beat IMO. There was no need to mess with that except for giving the perception of innovation.

I don't see anything that sets them apart from similarly priced rods. The *** has better guides for one. The only way to tell for sure is to fish one and see what you think, but not everyone has a budget for a lot of experimenting.

Unless the whole guide train is poorly executed line slap is really a non issue, especially on a casting rod. The bigger concern is stress distribution as the rod is loaded. The faster the action, the closer together the tip guides need to be. To test, load the rod and see how the line flows if it dips below the blank in that spot it's more of a likely failure at some point. If it just rubs it's not ideal but not as urgent. It's an easy fix and should run you $10 +/-.

None of the pin removal tools is perfect but I've had good luck with a Boca plier as well as a prototype pair I got from who I suspect sold them the design. Unless you use an actual press I haven't seen anything else push as squarely. The old drilled out flat nose pliers bent more than one of those pins. Another thing I notice is that the tolerance of the fit on the pins varies quite a bit. Some slide right out and other make me wince. My only beef with the hedgehog tool is it seems a little fragile. Time will tell though. What exactly broke on the Boca pliers?

A couple different color schemes for a rod flashed thru my head when I saw this.

Any reel used in salt water should be rinsed and dried immediately after use. A full teardown shouldn't be necessary unless the sand is an issue. Be careful how you handle a reel in a beach atmosphere.

I've used u40 but never Cason's, but my gut tells me they're both good products. To be safe I'd do a quick test wrap on a pencil or dowel and see how they each do.

"Micro" guides come in a range of sizes and have definite advantages in an appropriate application but are not a cure all