CFDoc

I have a falcon expert spinning rod for just this purpose. Very sensitive rod for the $200 price tag. It serves me well for both crappie and light finesse tackle for bass. However, I mostly use it for crappie. Haven't bass fished with that rod in a long time.

Neither am I. I'm also aware of the crud storm stating "XXXX performs as well as YYYY at half the cost" can start. So I will refrain from making an entire list of rods and what I think. I named Poison Adrena because it's probably at the top of the list, especially for $350. My advice would be to stay patient and take the opportunity to try, feel, experiment with all of the premium rod builders out there. Megabass, St. Croix, etc. all make very good rods in the $3-500 range.

IMO, there are a lot of rods in the $3-500 range that feel, cast, perform as well, if not better, than the conquests at $700. I was never overly impressed by them, especially at that price point. I'd even go far enough to say the Poison Adrena line is on par with them.

Big words coming from a keyboard cowboy.

30 years of bass fishing experience? Basic understanding of how marketing fodder works? Common sense? Any of those suffice?

The point: Skipping is not difficult, regardless of braking system, with even a novice amount of skill. The takeaway: The SV spool/technology is nothing more than a crutch for dexterity deficient anglers. It actually hinders long skipping techniques. Hopefully that clears things up.

You’re more than welcomed to continue to drive as far past the point as you’d like; however, I’d recommend you just admit you missed it.

One day, you're really gonna have to figure out that not everybody needs training wheels in order to skip baits...

The pic is hard to distinguish too much detail. However, from what I can see, the gap is much larger than what I see on all 4 of my hyper mags. Whether or not it's causing your issues is another question. Check out the picture of the top of my SLP Lite. Notice how there's no real discernible gap on the top of that reel. That's essentially what all 4 of my hyper mags look like.

I don't have a good basis on the 2016 Metanium MGL. I can tell you it's a very different reel from the Metanium DC model. Much lighter, much more compact profile, different feel in casting and reeling. Just an overall much different reel. My guess is the differences in the 2016 & 2020 Metanium models is a good bit more than the weight reduction. From pictures, it does look like a smaller overall profile as well.

Are you talking about this one? Mine is louder than my other Lews; however, I don't find it sloppy at all. At first, I didn't think I was going to like this reel. But then I tried casting braid with it and now I love it! It is a perfect frog reel for me. My main lake is the Rez near Jackson, MS. It's a well knows frog lake where a frog bite can last from daylight til dark. This reel, being so light, is very nice for a long day of casting frogs. My distance tests had this reel casting a SPRO frog a good bit further than my Metaniums and Revos. A bit further than my Pfluegers. About the same as my Hyper Mags. I was also impressed with the power in this reel for it being so light. I was able to pull this 6+ pounder out of extremely thick grass after a long cast and she hit as soon as the frog landed. I had to pin her in the grass and then troll to her to get her out. The reel did great holding her still.

US model or JDM? Huge difference in the two spools from what I'm finding. Especially with casting braid. The USDM spool with 30 pound Sufix 832 was a good 30+ feet short of other Lews, Pfluegers, and Revo's I put it against. The JDM spool was much better.

I looked at all 4 of my hyper mags. I've included a picture of the "worst" one I have as far as a gap is concerned on the sideplate. This particular reel is one I was able to get my hands on back in the summer of 2017; so it now has 3 years of usage under its belt. Also, this reel has been taken all the way down to its individual parts and cleaned twice. There is no gap on this reel that I would say is anywhere near 2 mm.

Call Lews. They are excellent to deal with. I have 4 hyper mags. Zero of the issues you and FishTank mentioned. All if my side plates are flush and easily removed. Also, they are some of the smoothest, consistent, and longest casting reels I own.

Got some JDM spools ordered from Jun. Also did some measurements for those interested. The JDM spool is a tad under 7 mm deep. The USDM spool is pretty much dead on 10 mm deep.

~$95 with DHL shipping. Should be a good bit cheaper when EMS opens back up.

Update on the JDM spool. Jun at Japan Tackle can get the JDM spools and mail them to the US. He said it takes about 3 weeks to get them from Shimano. Then shipping time. I highly recommend the JDM spool if you plan on using this reel for finesse applications and long distance casting applications with braid. I saw a substantial difference with the JDM spool for the better.

Shimano Cumara 1st generation 7' 2" medium rod. Shimano 2020 Metanium JDM version 7.1 ratio. Forgot the pic.

Is this some sort of club where anglers sit around and blame science for their poor fishing abilities? Is BaitFinesse the president of this club? lol Me personally, I prefer the size of the USDM handles. Unsure about the Curado 70 comparison. I haven't held one of those in a looooong time.

It takes a special kind of narcissist to project an austere understanding of the governing laws of physics in order to mask what’s ultimately nothing more than your lack of skill to skip a stupid bait across the water. I’m not even mad, I’m impressed.

xgb is 8.1 gear ratio. hgb is 7.1 gear ratio. Everything else is the same.

Definitely not the same feel as the K. I've owned Shimano's in the past, but these Metaniums are my first Shimano's in about 7-8 years or so. I had an awful experience with Shimano USA way back when and stopped using them. When this 2020 Metanium came out, I decided to give them another shot. Having said that, my boat partner is a 100% Shimano guy and I've used his reels for various things over the years. He's got K's, chronarchs, Metanium DC, and a few more I've forgotten about I'm sure. This 2020 metanium is easily the most compact and palmable Shimano baitcaster I've held. Maybe the Aldebaran is similar, but I wouldn't know from experience. My current arsenal of baitcasters is 15 rod/reels that include Lews (SLP Pro, SLP Lite, and HyperMags), Pflueger Patriartch XT's, Garcia Revo Premiers (Gen 4), and Tatula150. I would say that this Metanium palms very similarly to the HyperMag. It's a comfortable palm and my index finger rests easily on the front of the reel without interrupting the line guide. It feels nothing like the Revo's and Tatula. Well here's my honest opinion so far. When I originally started looking at this reel, I was convinced this was going to be the best reel on the planet that could handle all of my fishing styles. I honestly thought I would be selling my entire lot of other reels and going with a dozen or so of these in the various gear ratios. What I have really come to appreciate is just how lucky we are as fisherman these days to have extremely capable and quality reels from a lot of different manufacturers and price points. My frankencluster of reels span anywhere from $150 - $400 per reel, and there are applications where the $150 reels outperform the $400 reels just as much as the opposite being true. I've also come to appreciate just how hard it is for a manufacturer to make a single reel model that can excel in all aspects of finesse, power, cranking, skipping, etc. This is not to suggest the 2020 Metanium is some sort of slouch. There are a lot of areas where I am impressed by this reel and consider it the best money could buy. But I'm also able to see where other designs/manufacturers are better suited for other things. Lastly, I would say that I obviously can't measure durability at this point. But I'm sure this reel is built to last. If my 8 year old Patriarch XT (which has caught thousands of fish including LMB, limits and limits of speckled trout every year, bull reds, black drum, and 15 pound stripers) still performs good as new and only requires a DVT cleaning every other year or so, I'm certain this reel will be just as good.

Here's another attempt at some pics.

Apologies. Took me a bit to figure out the Daiwa fanboys are using underhanded, passive aggressive techniques these days. Should be good now though.

"Low speed" is relative to the centrifugal setting. The engagement/disengagement speed varies wildly depending on how its set. You can make the centrifugal brake play a substantial or minimal (basically zero) role in the cast when skipping. When I skip, the centrifugal system plays almost no role in the cast (I usually lock all weights so the moment of inertia of the spool is constant with angular velocity). This is true for the Shimanos, Lews, Garcias, Pfluegers, and Daiwa's I can all skip equally well. Again, I still have no idea why you (a) are singling out the SVS system on Shimanos, and (b) suggesting I rely on it to do my skipping. I'd suggest you go watch and pay close attention to the best skippers. They are not all using Daiwa's and the centrifugal system is a non-issue. You must not do a lot of skipping or you only lightly skip short distances. Those 30 - 50 ft skips where the bait makes contact with the water for several seconds and "runs out" for a long distance on top of the water requires initial spool speeds comparable to a regular "high speed" cast. You need all around high/low-speed spool control to be a complete skipper. Again, go watch someone like Gerald Swindle backhand skip a dock in front of him with a light/low-speed cast and then directly toss a full speed, forehand cast to the dock 50 ft away from him. I dare you to suggest he only uses low speed control in his skipping. lol This is bad, dude. Just bad. And getting worse... This statement is 100% false. I rely on neither of those. My spool tension is never touched once I get any line/bait combination to freely fall. If anything, I loosen it up after that. Even for skipping. My thumb pressure is also not used to completely control the cast during the skip. I use my thumb to get a feel for the line coming off the spool. I do not press the spool directly (except on the new metanium because the spool is so d**n narrow). If you skip as much as I do, you come to realize that all skips are not the same. Especially for baits like chatterbaits or jigs with large trailers on them. Sometimes a bait will "run out" perfectly just as expected. Sometimes, a trailer gets in the way, the vibrating blade folds down and kills the skip, a small wave in the water kills the skip, you miss the first dock piling but forgot about the one behind it, etc. etc. etc. These nuances and just straight up stochastic nature of skipping means you've got to be ready for anything. This is why I need to "feel" the line lightly as the skip starts. This is also true regardless of Daiwa's SV spool, air brake, etc. Terrible assumption on your part. Just terrible. I'd love to forward this to Andy Montgomery or G-Man and let them see what gets tossed around as "advice" here. There are no inducting rotor air brakes on Lew's reels and I'll bet they are skipping just fine. Anyways, regardless of particular manufacturer's ad campaigns, the physics of skipping is really not that hard. Furthermore, suggesting that anyone using a reel without the dynamic magnetic system at "low speeds" is a "crazy person" is just the type of sanctimonious, ignorant, and disingenuous bs that this place reeks of. And I'm calling you out on it and asking you to stop.