JustJames

To complete in the market, Shimano gotta add new line of reels. Why? Humans are sucker of buying new things, even though the differences are not much. For example, mr. bass fishing SoCal, would use his 70 for light line 10lb FC. Use 200 size for medium to heavy topwater/swimbait with 20lb FC. Now he is reading internet, stumped upon new 150 size, told himself why not get a reel for medium/heavy bottom contact with 15lb FC and this new Curado 150 MGL fit the bill just right. Now he looks back and he has SLX 150 already but still convinced himself, the new reel with Curado badge should be better than his old cheaper SLX and might make him a better fisherman so why not? It is a marketing tactic but always works. Different folks different strokes, they will try to find whatever excuse to buy new toys. Look at Daiwa Tatula, how many models utilize the name Tatula and same frame? Added*** I heard about this new Curado 150 MGL a few days back, watched a couple of videos about it, there are already three threads about this reel in this forum alone. Aren’t we a sucker? ????

Which reel is this?

X3 on dropshot

You might as well check out San Diego forum, there are ton of ppl there dropshot from either float tube or bank for bay bass. I myself don’t like FC for dropshot especially when used as leader. I’d prefer my bait to have a little bit of buoyancy from mono and FC trend to have problem with knot especially smaller diameter 4-6lb. Where was your line snap? If you convinced that smaller line is key to your success, try 2-4lb Copolymer or similar diameter. I’m really doubt if it is the claim of FC invisibility.

Back to anti reverse switch, since you already figured it out that switch is for letting the line out manually. The benefit to me is none whatsoever. I use spinning reel for 20-30 plus years but never ever once use the switch for fishing purposes. You won’t miss a thing along with other 80-90% of spinning users. I tried to use the switch when vertical jigging searching for crappie but open the bail arm and let the line out is faster and more convenient.

Don’t beat yourself up when fishing in SoCal city pond, and don’t compare with others. You are in a tougher place to begin with. Dropshot try lightest weight you can 1/16-1/8oz, small 4” worm and drag slowly with pause and a little bit of slack line in between. If that doesn’t work then go weightless finesse worm, 4” Senko or even slim Senko. Ned rig might work but there will be too much algae on bottom. Small top water 1/4oz popper might be good early morning or evening. SoCal City pond is structure less, shallow with little to no fish but tons of fisherman legal and illegal.

To make it lighter and smaller ?. If you don’t mind the weight and size, DC reel should do fine compare to any out there. You might not get the longest distance but you have a lot more control and less frustration.

I think you should set primarily goal to catch bass with whatever you have first. Eventually you will own BC for sure. If you can’t catch bass with spinning you won’t catch bass with BC neither. Then you would have two frustrations, first learn to catch bass second learn to use BC and deal with backlash. Yes there are many lures out there but you don’t need all of them at least not at this moment. Get something proven that can catch bass with your spinning setup. Senko, Ned Rig, small topwater or small crankbait. Once you become proficient with spinning then you can venture to BC for even more varieties of lures and techniques.

Thank you Tom, totally agree with you on this. Over the years I have learned there are not only just a tab bite or hit and run bite. Still need a lot more bass to develop my skill though.

I have super old Crucial ML/F which today standard should be labeled as Light (1/16-1/4oz) No I don’t really use this rod for bass, it is actually my main crappie rig. The rod is suitable for weightless finesse worm or 1/16oz Ned rig. The tip is too soft, slow to return and get over load with just a tad heavier weight. To me that is hard to get a good action out of any other techniques and also harder to get a good hookset on any but open hook or light wire hook application. Yes it is fun to catch a bass with light/ultra light rod, but my lake average bass are 3lb, a lot of rock, docks and tree. I stick with M/F 1/8-3/4oz rod.

This is the way I do for line all the way down to 4lb Copolymer. Tie the knot under the sinker get more chance of loosing both weight and the rig. The way I do is to just clip the line until it snag tight, not all the way which will weaken the line a lot. I hardly got the weight pull itself loose when cast or snagged. To OP, why do you use 4lb line? I use 4lb line for only panfish when dropshotting. I don’t use FC line either since I want the lure to have a little bit of buoyancy not drag down to bottom. This type clip would damage light line and FC more than any other techniques.

Dropshot is one of line twisted enemy doesn’t matter spinning or baitcaster. If you are using braid you can use good small swivel, to help reduce line twisted.make sure to hook plastic straight, nose hook seem to be best. Slow down the retrieve will also help tremendously since those plastic would spin no matter how straight when you reel in fast. Once the lure out of water, let it spin itself out for a few second before next cast. The vmc spin shot hook might help but for me with thin 10 lb braid trend to get in between those two gaps by hook eye. Another method is to use bobbers stopper dropshot rig, instead of clip weight, you will have to use swivel weight to tie good knot, because there would be no knot on the hook itself. The lure will spin freely when twisted.

Yeah even Shimano expride that a lot give the compliments and compare to even more expensive still made in China. Made in doesn’t mean everything come from China, though. I hope at least material come from more reliable sources plus Shimano QC not China’s QC. For under 200 rods I really have no complain land still prefer this over some made in USA rods.

Which zodias are we talking about? I have the old gen not newest one in ML 3/16-1/2oz. It is fine for wacky rig hook set or even Senko/light Texas rig. The tip is soft but there is plenty of backbone. I use mind a lot for dropshot and any weightless worm including fluke and wacky rig.

If our forum members watch or listen to him, I think we can eliminate at least 10% of the same questions over and over what type line or what lb test line? Im not agreed with him 100% only because I don’t fish heavy cover and don’t see the need of more than 15lb FC line. The rest is pretty much agreed. Choose the line that match your lures and presentations.

I am not worry about it. Even though Rage menace and rage craw are two of my favorite jig trailer but I have use other type creature baits with success. This one I have hula grub skirt combine with baby brush hog on 3/8oz plain jig head. I always save hula grub skirt once the plastic is too damage. Other creatures I have success with, Yamamoto flapping hog, Yamamoto psycho dad gonna be my next experiment.

I normally use thumb to apply more drag especially when the fish try to run under cover or weed. I do this all the time since I never lock down my drag. I only dis-engage the spool and rely on my thumb twice that I remember, first time because the drag was jerky and to save light line I have to use thumb for smooth operation. Second time when the fish keep bending my rod (ultralight rod) but line wouldn’t come out fast enough. I used my thumb to release the line out when needed to save my rod.

I want one of those, and thanks to a young man who used his 3500 dollars drone to safe my iPhone XR back from bottom of the lake. He going to give me a footage, I’ll share when I got that. Story went like this. After changing the oily plastic on very first cast, fish grabbed the lure and ran off right after the lure hit the water. I felt the bite tried to set the hook but too late, line pulling the rod out of my hand. It is my favorite rod and reel( Daiwa Tatula rod and Daiwa Kage LT 2000). The line still keep pulling the rod down so I emptied everything out of my front pocket and jumped down to save that 300 setup. Got the setup back, fish was gone so I continued working the lure back. After a minute got another bite set the hook and line broke (d a m n Nanofil with rock). Went back to the car and noticed I didn’t have the phone. Checked on back pocket and realized I didn’t not empty back pocket when jumped in the lake. Came home and contacted this young man that post his footsteps on community page. The next day, we went for phone hunting, he found the phone within 10-15 minutes tried to grab with drone arm but instead kicked all the sand and cover up the phone (I got red phone but front was up). Spent another good hour and almost call it quick to come back in evening for less activities and better visibility. The last drive he spent almost 4-5 minutes at one spot about 8 feet deep and I kept saying that is a good or very close where he first saw the phone and where I jumped down. After that he start pulling the drone by the cable out of water and said I have to be careful because the drone arm have my iPhone. Very cool gadget to have indeed. I of course donated some money for his next project or school fund. BTW came home and put the wet phone in warm wind tunnel. 3 hours later here I am posting from the very same phone. now you gotta believe why ppl spent big bucks on iPhone. More than 15 hours and about 8 feet under water. The phone was still on when we first got it out of water. We tried very quick to turn off to prevent more damage. So far everything work, face recognition, speaker camera charging port and Siri. No photo yet but I have some video on other iPhone.

Just a piece of mind I guess. I actually use nail cleaner, can’t get pure acetone around here and don’t want to leave any residue on bearing. it might not be necessary process just a few thing I do to complicate myself a little bit more.

It is Alphas SV 105 and I don’t have it any more ????. Nope I actually still have it but sit inside my Yellow pixy, the rest are in the box.

Look like 30lb Goliath to me lol. serious thoughts that is a giant fish might as well be well over 10lb but why long hand? You should long hand just to make it look realistic not to be doubtful.

30lb braid might be too limb for newbies but very doable. As everyone mentioned, “spool line tightly” is help but not really a “solution”. Now before someone quote me, Iet me say why. In the real fishing time especially those that require rod movement not just cast and reel, line can get slack. In order to keep line in spool tightly all the time gonna be harder. The best solutions for me is to learn how to deal with braid. Lure weight, spool tension and casting technique. If line dig-in when cast, meaning spool speed and line coming out is not in-sync. A little bit more tension on spool and/or more brake would help. Hard casting is a solution for disaster especially using heavier lure with braid, so go easy, lob cast if you can until you get a hang of “tethered the line”. when over run start to happen.

If you don’t plan to use with o-ring at least 1/0 is the way to go. With o-ring I can go as small as #2 for less snag. I’m also a fan of VMC Neko hook, got 1/0, #1 and #2 both weedless and regular.

I think you might able to get about 100 yds of 8lb tatsu only on 2000 size. Just for the side note that is pretty plenty for regular bass fishing and you can use 200 yds spool to fill twice. Here just for reference on my 2000S.

Because you compare line for US market that usually using larger diameter to fault advertise the strength or abrasion resistance. When I look at diameter of line I usually base on Japanese line and I believe all the Japan reels do the same, sunline super natural is the one I always compare to. 8lb = .009”. if you plan to use Tatsu line, I think it would be safe to follow line capacity that show on the reel.