bootytrain

Why buy anything but a Zebco 202 then?

As a guy who fishes finesse bait casters on light and ultralight rods over 50% of the time, I can say that you will catch a lot of fish, and not just small ones. This spring I went back to fishing this cove where there were big bass swimming around and guarding beds. They wouldn't touch anything over 3 inches. So I had success mostly with 3 inch Keitech Easy Shiners on a 1/16 oz jig head on 4lb mono. A negative point is that if you are around any type of cover like docks etc.. an UL rod may not have the power to turn some of the bigger fish away from the cover or pull them out once they are there as I found out and lost some nice sized fish. But it is super fun using light gear as even a 1 pounder will feel huge.

Not available currently but looks to be in the works for release soon.

I think you will be fine but there is a shallow spool option coming out soon. another suggestion is get the new Metanium. It can handle 3/16ths quite easily and should go lower than that with the right rod and line.

My Curado I smokes my Tatula R in distance by 15+ feet average. And i actually measured with a line counter. Same line, same rod, same weights. The curado palms a lot better for me too. Its a very small reel with a ton of line capacity but built like a tank as well.

This is pretty true in my case. The curado got put on the shelf after I rediscovered my metanium xg on my expride rod. But I did use the curado the past couple of weekends and couldn't tell the difference casting wise from 3\8ths up. Now the Metanium is going to stay at home for awhile.

I got my Memorial Day order pretty quick vs the last order I bought from them. I ordered because they have some colors of LC pointers that TW doesn't have.

I'm going to see how low it can throw tomorrow.

In a lot of cases casting distance.

Anyone using this on their baitcasters?

I have one, its awesome. Super smooth. On the heavy side but it doesn't bother me. The DC system is fookin awesome.. I has a special night mode where you don't even have to thumb it at all, even when the lure hits the water. Theres a extensive reader review on it on TT which is spot on. For $300 its tough to beat. Its got the body of the Core100/Chronarch D but with X Ship, so its basically the same size as the new Metanium but higher. Heres some pics.

Go down to 2 brakes on. Unless its windy you don't need 3 brakes on. And if you are throwing something pretty aerodynamic you can go down to 1 brake on and bomb some long distances.

Head over to TT. BFS reels are common there. BTW you will be blown away by the Metaniums performance.

Im gonna have to disagree with you on this one guy, I have an Aldebaran BFS with Hedgehog BFS Air bearings and my LTZ/LTX easily hangs with it.

So are you wanting this to be a dedicated finesse reel or are you going to be throwing regular baits on it too? On Rakuten you can get LTXs for 280 plus shipping. Or if you want, get an LTZ for about 350 which comes with ZPI bearings and knobs and an extra deeper spool. Looks cool as hell too.. The Metanium can throw 1/8th but not nearly as well as the LTZ and Aldebaran BFS. There are a couple of shallow spool options available though.

Awesome combo! Diggin the Metanium love lately lol

The spool limitations come from Daiwa themselves. And while I don't have an Air the only site that did a head to head comparison with the same rod and line and lures between the T3 air and Aldebaran BFS XG, the XG was easier to use casting ultralight weights. Granted those are only TTs results, but Ive not seen any other direct head to head comparisons so it holds a lot of weight with me.

The Daiwa Airs(SS and T3) are nice but you have to take into account the limitations due to the fragile spools they have for what appears to be no performance gains over competing brand offerings.

Finesse on baitcasters is fun. If you like Abus I don't think you will be disappointed with the LTX. *** did a nice review on it.

Ive got both, well actually Ive got the Revo LTZ Which is a special edition LTX(mechanically the same but the LTZ has a fancy paint job and upgraded bearings and knobs) Ive also got a few 50 size Shimano LPs. What are you wanting to know? With the right rod the normal Shimano 50s like the Core/Curado/Chronarch E will throw 1/8th all day with no issue, the Aldebaran BFS with the shallower spool will throw 1/16th and maybe slightly lower. The LTZ/LTX will also do this. Ive not tried to lower but at 1/8th and under the performance between the 2 seems to be about the same. But the Aldebaran is noticeably smoother on the retrieve.

Aldebaran BFS followed closely by the Metanium XG. Rods.. Poison adrena and expride.

The Rods and reels are on sale at TW. Usually an indication of closeouts. Probably new models coming out at ICAST.

This usually happens to me when the lure is way too light for the rod I'm using.

Avail

Its not perfect but Id buy this before any other reel in the $200 and under category.