barroncooper

I guess it could depend on how tall you are. I'm 6'3" and my favorite f and p rod is my falcon cara amistad. 7'3". I also have a carrot stix 7'9" extra heavy that does well but i don't feel like its any better than the cara. I also pitch in a ton of cypress trees in some places and the extra 6 inches can become cumbersome in those tight quarters. I think anything over 7' will be fine for you.

dude take it back. I've already exchanged twice and it's the same ordeal. I'm not driving 90 miles again to exchange. I've already posted about this. I think that it's how the pinion rides in the yoke. there seems to be a significant amount of play where the spool shaft goes through the pinion gear allowing the pinion gear to ride crooked in the yoke. a simple pinion bearing would fix it. they definitely need to go back to the drawing board on this one. personally I don't think there are any good ones because I opened at least five boxes and it was the same story. Tell me this, is it smooth when there is no spool tension or pull from a lure?

alright gentlemen I've narrowed it down to the pinion, drive and yoke. Unbelievably, I took the drive gear, pinion and yoke out of a cheap bps extreme i won as a door prize and placed them in the jmcl and what do you know the thing is smooth as butter. who ever makes the reel needs to go back to the drawing board on this one. I've always been a firm believer in all brass gears. as I've said before, it doesn't take a mechanical engineer to know that when 2 different metals mesh one is going to wear faster than the other. every reel I've had from that has an aluminum drive gear from revos to the new quantum smoke forms issues after a while. this one is the opposite though. it started with an issue.

alright this reel is now rough as you know what on the retrieve. I think i have it figured out though. it's not the meshing of the gears... I don't think. I think it is how the pinion is riding in the yoke. there seems to be some sloppiness in how the spool shaft goes through the pinion gear not keeping it in alignment. this is allowing the pinion to **** one way or the other and the teeth are grinding against the yoke. especially when you apply a little bit of cast control pressure. a pinion gear bearing would solve this i think. any way I'm taking it back and getting what i know works for cranking... a curado e or g 5.

I would like to add a little about the rough spot on the retrieve thing. If the cast control knob is fully loose, the reel is super smooth. Only when you add some pressure by either the cast control knob or applying some thumb pressure to the spool to simulate some lure drag does the retrieve become substantially rougher. just thought I'd add that in there. Has anyone else noticed this and also does the duralumin take some time to break in? It seems like a much harder metal than brass.

I love a good ending to a story

I picked up my 5.4 jmcl today and the first thing that i noticed was how freaking light it is!!! I turned the handle of the display an few times and the rough spot that some are talking about was there for sure. I wanted to buy the reel so I had the rep open 4 or 5 of the in box reels to rule out the fact that it just might have been the display. To my dismay that wasn't the case, they all had a rough spot when turning the handle. I bought it any way thinking that the duralumin drive gear would take a few trips to break in. The first thing I did when I got home was begin to disassemble and prepare for a proper cleaning and re-lube. what I first noticed is that the reel takes a little more attention when disassembling than others do. First of all it is true that a couple of the side plate screws do in fact screw into plastic instead of a brass grommet...WTH were they thinking with that? Also the palm side spool bearing requires you to remove 3 screws that hold a bearing retainer in place instead of a typical bearing retainer clip. Also this retainer is backed by a couple of really fine springs that could fly out if you aren't careful. the handle side bearing is a little different too. Instead of the bearing retainer clip being on top of the bearing, it is underneath it and the bearing comes out from the back as well. When inspecting the bearings I did notice that there is a ton of assembly lube inside this reel. the cast control cap was slap full of it. The bearing that is on the spool shaft would not free spin at all it was so gummed up with grease. After I soaked all of the spool bearings, I let them dry and lightly oiled them with some ardent reel supreme micro lubricant. One thing to note when reassembling this reel is to not over tighten the orange palm side bearing retainer, I accidentally did and one of the holes got a minute crack in it. fast forward all is reassembled and I give the handle a turn. It us much much more effortless to turn but the rough spot is still there but a little fainter. I guess like I said before that after a couple of trips cranking of dd22's it will break in. Over all I'm satisfied with the quality of the reel except for the fact that the side plate screws screw into plastic instead of a grommet. I hope they weren't leaving them out for weight. If so the should've added the grommets and left out 2 handle knob bearings. I don't personally see the need for 4 knob bearings. I'm ready to take the thing fishing and pull some big colorado blade spinner baits. Once that happens I'll report again on how it fishes if anyone cares to know.

I thought the jmc had a carbon handle or does it actually in the pic? I have all curados but this reel looks sick!!! i heard that they were light. what's the price point. bps reels have come a long way. I won a little bps extreme last year as a door prize and even as low as it is on the scale, it feels like a solid well built reel. just finicky as all get out with the cast control but get it right with a rattle trap and it will freakin hurl!!!

very well said bud!!!

just bought 2 g models and while they're not as nice as the e's, they are worth every penny what they cost. I have 11 e's and haven't had the first problem with graphite sides and i beat the hell out of my stuff. I don't care if it's made out of plastic... If the technology and material is there to make them last I don't care what material is used. I actually think that composite frames are real close to being feasible.

I refuse to use a leader after losing a huge fish at the knot joint. since then I notice no difference in numbers and size not using a leader.

best looking reel made!!! looks like what a storm trooper would use if he fished. I have 11 of them but mine are green. I must say though that the new chronarch feels much more refined than the curado e. am i right? I picked up a curado g5 and g6. tried them out today. they are nice reels but no where near the e series. but I did get 55.00 off per reel. I live in monroe la about 90 miles from this years classic location and I picked up the curados there and yes shimano did offer an additional 30 off per reel by mail in rebate.

my brother just sold his 01 z71 with 330000 miles. the only repairs it ever had was a waterpump and a tranny rebuild at 275000 miles. I'd say it held up well. miles do not scare me with today's cars and trucks. but like others have said a good maintenance schedule is key

I use both. Daiwa samurai 70# braid and maxima 25# fluoro. I dont have any problems catching fish on braid in ultra clear water either.

I have and use both and you can't go wrong with either. I know that's not what you want to hear but that's that. the cara IMO is going to be the better rod though. I feel like the cara is a little better balanced. falcon's typically IMO are rated a little more powerful than they are.

I don't mean to interrupt but how is the deck width. the thing i don't like about for instance bass cats is how quickly the front deck tapers off. they advertise this wide beam but its at the back of the boat. I love how nitros carry their width so far up into the front deck. is this similar to the phoenix boats?

gearset is also showing not available on the website. maybe there is a problem with the material being used

I take that back on the pinion bearing, there's not one. I don't think it has anything to do with bearings. this is 100% in the gear set and an incorrect meshing of the teeth. I've disassembled and reassembled 3 times in the last 40 minutes and the same thing. I think that it's the quantum curse... feels good for a couple of months and then kaplooey. me personally, I dont think that the aluminum drive gear is up to snuff. It doesn't take an engineering degree to know that 2 gears made from 2 different metals will make one wear incorrectly. on a positive note I've learned that this is the last quantum I'll ever own. my father in law's energy pt feels the same way and its hardly ever fished and never been disassembled.

ghoti, yes there is a bearing that supports the pinion. bout to disassemble and reassemble

thanks ghoti, yeah I thought there was something out of alignment at first too but there isnt. it's been reassembled per schematic. when there is no tension on the spool its pretty smooth. but if you were to add some tension with either a lure or just a little tightness on the cast control knob, it gets that geary feel. it's baffling me. and Im pretty experienced with working on reels. I dunno

I've had my smoke 150 now for about 6 months. I've already gone through 2 sets of drive and pinion gears. the real is butter smooth for about 2 months and then it gets really rough on the retrieve. It feels like I can feel every tooth on the gears. like I said, when I change the gear set out for new ones, it's as smooth as can be but after a few months, it's back to the really gearish sound and feel. I'm about ready to sell it. is the problem the aluminum drive gear. none of my curados or calcuttas or revos for that matter feel this way. I use this reel for traps so I'm constantly chucking and winding. quantum offers no resolve.

I agree that the new chronarch feels a little more refined. that my be due to the fact that the tolerances are a little tighter, I don't know

I've "heard" that seaguar makes bass pro fluoro.

I would use RedGard. It's a paintable latex that I use for sealing walk in showers. I would just use a paintbrush and paint it on. this stuff is about 35 -40 bucks a gallon and is good to have on hand. I think they make smaller sizes maybe a pint but not sure. goes on pink and dries red. but is paintable.

I love sniper, its the closest thing I've come across to tatsu, I'll be trying some of the reaction