MassYak85

That's a killer deal on the patriarch casting reels! Thanks dude! I've wanted to try these for a while, especially early spring, but could never justify the price.

The only 3 I usually use are a fluke, keitech, or a grub.

For the record I just got done doing some upgrades to my tatulas. I got some cheap Abec 3 RC bearings, put four in the handles, and moved the handle ones that came with the reel to the levelwind. No issues so far.

I use the Tatula 200HD for 1-4oz swimbaits paired with a Dobyns Fury 795. I highly recommend it and I'm sure the new 200 is great as well. Mine is the 6.3:1 gear ratio. It's going to depend what you plan to do. If you plan on burning baits like bullshads or triple trouts the 7.3:1 might be advantageous, but I think the 6.3:1 is good overall.

IMO using anything but braid for frogs in heavy vegetation is shooting yourself in the foot and not even worth fishing them. If if it were me I'd go 40 or 50lb braid and then use a leader for the swimbaits.

Yes it is. It's about 8ft and works pretty well for shallow ponds which is mostly where I fish with it. I put a wooden dowel inside the PVC to give it some stiffness, which adds some weight but it's not too bad. I put an eye hook towards the top and hook it onto my anchor trolley once it's where I want it. The "T" at the top helps me jam it into the mud bottom, but it does need to be mud/muck to stick in well.

My winter usually goes like this: - Lakes starts to skim so I put my gear away and get ready for ice fishing - Over about a week I clean all my gear/reels and organize stuff for next season and take note of what I need to get for next season - Inevitable warm spell tempts me back out in my kayak wherever I can find open water - It gets cold for good and the gear goes away for good - Ice fish for a couple months - As march approaches and anticipation of the next open water season builds, and ice becomes unsafe, I make too many tackle purchases to scratch the itch ?

If you are 6ft I'd say a solid 5lbs for sure. Nice fish!

The bearing check tool is nice. I got a cheap one made for RC stuff off of Ebay for like 5 bucks. Works for most stuff but it's missing one size that I've encountered on my spinning reel (I think it's 7mm or something). The hedgehog one has that size I believe.

I use the Hedghog studios one: https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/2 It's cheaper than most of the spool pin pliers out there and you don't risk slipping off the pin and marring the spool shaft.

What sizes have you found necessary other than the PH1?

I think I was actually using an older version of that same set, the screw was a Philips and seemed to be the right size but I stripped it still. Thank I'll check them out.

What do you guys prefer for screwdrivers for reel maintenance. Especially with Daiwa, I seem to always have a few screws that they really torqued on at the factory (and add blue loctite on top of that) and on more than one occasion I have stripped them out. I am sure part of the issue is not having the exact size of screwdriver (although the ones I am using seem to fit pretty well). Any recommendations? I've heard good things about Wiha but they certainly are't cheap.

I'm thinking of picking a day next week to fish the lower Charles in my kayak. Does anyone have any tips fishing it this time of year? It seems a lot of the really late season fish I see caught are out of the Charles. I was thinking of targeting the deeper areas near the esplanade.

My knowledge of EMF is pretty limited beyond what I wrote in my post and what @BaitFinesse wrote. There is a cool video on YouTube where a guy uses magnetic viewing film to show how the magnetic field changes as you change the brake settings:

It's not that it provides more at the end of the cast necessarily. It's that compared to the normal Magforce Z system it does. The fixed inductor provides steady magnetic braking throughout the cast as do normal magnetic brakes since the spool position relative to the magnets is fixed. With the Magforce Z you get a large amount of initial braking since the acceleration of the spool forces the inductor closer to the magnets. At the end of the cast the inductor is more or less retracted back and provides little braking compared to the start of the cast, and also less compared to a standard fixed inductor like the Tatula 200HD. Of course the actual force applied is all relative and will depend what you set the brakes to.

I sometimes have my reel knobs "buzz" when I spin them after a nice clean. Like DVT said it's not indicative of anything. They aren't meant to or designed to be run at high RPM like a spool bearings. They just need to be smooth at normal retrieve speeds. If you want to spend more than the reel is worth for 6 Abec 7 ceramic hybrid bearings to upgrade the handle and levelwind I'm sure it will feel great spinning the handle ?

I wish they offered the swimbait rods in the sierra lineups.

I believe many true higher end reels use Magnesium frames. Which is both lighter and stronger than aluminum.

Yea, if anyone thinks they have The next big idea, see a patent attorney for sure.

Did you clean the bearings? I don't know if they come greased from the factory but they shouldn't be rough. They should be perfectly fine in place of the levelwind bushings unless you just got bad bearings from Daiwa. Also, I assume you then put the bushings into the handle? Are you sure it isn't the handle that is binding up and causing it to not be smooth? Generally the handle has little washers that allow the screw for the post to ride on the outside race of the bearings while the handle knob rides on the inside race (I may have that backwards). Using only bushings I believe will cause it to bind up, but I could be wrong. Try turning the handle without the knobs, if it feels fine then it's the bushings in the knobs causing the issue.

I also have the Lexa 300 as my other big bait reel (for hudds mostly). For both reels though I generally start with the brakes at like 10, and the cast control knob so that the spool has no side to side play. From there I will back off the brakes 1 click at a time until I am confident in casting and not getting backlashes at the start of the cast. If I need additional distance from there I'll back off on the spool tension knob a bit. But on both reels I can usually get 40-50+ yards (big baits, long rods help of course) without too much fuss unless I'm casting fat baits upwind or something. But stuff like slammers and hudds both those reels bomb for me. The fixed inductor is definitely not as good as the Magforce system on the other Daiwa reels so the other spool I'm sure will help, by how much I don't know. The one @BaitFinesse linked looks like it should still have plenty of line capacity for 20lb CXX though.

I just remembered I have actually had two Lews reels, one was an LFS which I fished for a couple years as one of my first ever baitcasters. The other was a BB1 Pro Speed Spool that I found for like half-off in the Cabelas bargain cave a few years back and had to give it a shot. Both reels were great, no complaints at all and yea you're right the sticker just said "Korea" on both of them I believe. I eventually swapped both for Tatula CT's. I tried a CT after seeing a too-good-to-pass-up sale ($70 bucks) and fell in love with their Magforce breaking system and made the swap. The LFS was a great reel I could cast some pretty light lures with it, same with the BB1. The customer service at Lews is pretty great in my limited experience with them. Sounds like they are treating @RipTheLip well from his post too. I broke a small part in the braking system the first time I serviced my LFS and they sent me a whole new braking system no questions asked free of charge 2-day shipping.

The only thing worse for the ice than this warm rain is the snow! Too much snow and it starts insulating the ice from further freezing. I remember that winter, tons of crappy white ice 'cause of the snow. I'm hoping for a chilly January with little snow!

I've had one Lews reel and liked it, sold it earlier this year though. They are made in Korea if I recall correctly (at least my LFS had a "Made in Korea" sticker on it). As far as the issue you are having... A lot of times reels come over-greased from the factory to get the reels past their warranty periods, so a greasy drag-stack would not be uncommon. However, grease alone should not cause the drag to spin freely as excess would just get squeezed out as you tighten it, which would certainly gunk up the inside of the reel and cause a lot of slip in the drag washers but shouldn't eliminate your drag completely. As far as the gears literally not touching, that seems crazy to me. The only way I could fathom that happening is they accidentally put in the wrong (smaller) gear.