JustJames

I have used those in the past as well as duo lock type. I had only one time the clip bend off it’s shape after hard frog fishing (the smallest one 15lb?). other than that it is fastest and easiest way to change the lure with this type. I’ve caught numerous fish with it 5-6lb and never have any problem. I also had cheap duo lock type clip open by itself and my jerkbait and lipless crank flew away twice.

Hybrid Ceramic bearing (orange shield) is not JUNK, it works just as good as clean and properly lube stock bearing in regular fishing. The benefit only you can remove the shield for faster cleaning, run dry to even get faster spin rate. The cons are cost where you spend more but get don’t get extra distance and it is loud like hell. I used a few of those (not boca bearing) on my reels for weightless worm (not Senko) and 1/8-1/4oz jerkbait. When compare between both you get about twice or three time spin time on hybrid ceramic bearing, but that doesn’t always transfer as more distance. To me it is about start up and more control. I don’t have to whip as hard meaning less overrun in middle cast. I since now used only stock Japanese bearing which give me about the same result.

Ooops I saw that you tried spool tension. Maybe brake block struck prevent side plate to sit properly? Try put all 6 into off mode?

I can fish all night for bass, as long as no crappie to be found. Lately for the past few weeks, I have to get up 3:00 in the morning on my day off just to get those crappie bites, so my Bass time was end super early, or none since I spend most of evenings time searching for bluegill. To be serious, I used to come home from work at midnight, getting my boat ready and fish until the sun come up.

Cleaner N lube just like WD40 or just any gun cleaning oil “REM Oil, Lucas Oil” doesn’t sound special to me. Now why and what make you think you need to clean reel braking system? When I clean my Shimano reels, I always clean Centrifugal brake area both, brake blocks and metal surface area. Why because I want to get the most free and smoothest spin out of my reels. I don’t use anything special just regular bantam oil that come with my reel, a drop on q-tip and rub all the area. You could see how dirty Q-tip get, especially in plastic brake blocks. Im not familiar with Lew’s brake but some ppl the own Abu also polish the metal surface just to make is as smooth as possible.

Kastmaster should be able to catch both and cast able on bass gear. Tiny rattle trap?

The guy on IG, I don’t know him personally but been follow each other for awhile. His IG is Georgedlc12 he is pretty cool guy too and should be able to help you.

A guy I fish with, fish at Pudd a lot. He shows me a lot of nice bass caught at Pudds early morning and late evening. You can get to him from Tackle tour his screen name Pudd Legend. You can use me as reference “James Canyon Lake” Also if you have IG account, George is guru for pudding stone. He caught a lot of bass with his own chatterbait. DM him up these are nice guys and ready to help fellow SoCal. I on the other hand, would like to help but schedule and other thing make it impossible.

I bought a reel from Alixpress before. It is cheap reel, Daiwa Exceler LT 2000 5.3 gear because I can’t find it anywhere else. I wouldn’t buy expensive reels from them. I’ve heard about knock off, B grade or even internal swapped.

I’ve heard story about ppl broke their solid tip more often that I wanted to. I broke one myself but from operator error when I tried to whip cast a 3/16oz lure. Fixing broken rod tip, is an art from and I wonder if action or strength would remain the same and your is solid tip rod that gonna be even harder. Of course casting such light weight lure like trout magnet, spinning would be the best both distance and control hand down. I happened to have speedstyle UL 6’3 SFS as well with lure rating 1/64-3/16oz that I use for mostly trout magnet or 1/64oz jig head with 1” plastic target bluegill. I can cast about 40-50’ with nice lob cast. The rod can handle 2-3 lb bass no problem but feel over loaded casting just 1/16oz jig head with 2” plastic. If you are looking for long rod with solid tip for trout magnet with nice parabolic bend blank, you will have to look for light game mebaru solid tip rod (good for crappie and trout) but if you want nice stiffer blank gotta be Aging rod. I also have Majorcraft crostage 7’3 tubular tip lure rating 0.5-7gram that I use specifically for crappie casting 1/32oz jig head with 2” plastic about 60’ but won’t get as far as my solid tip when using 1/64oz trout magnet. Line is also important, my friend can cast 2lb mono with trout magnet on his Majorcraft XUL rod, but to me no weight line like 4lb Nanofil is better and further.

That is a no no for Shimano reel. The spool shaft need to be cleaned of debris and alll lubricant. To get the most distance and because of tight tolerance spec anything in there would restrict the spin rate of shaft/spool.

The one you show the OP probably can buy 6-7 setups in his price range ???

For curado i you need to oil the brake drum/red brake blocks very more often to get rid of those vibrations noise (just use Q-tip and clean around brass drum and red brake blocks on spool). If you want another 200 series then The Tranx 200 will perform just as good and a little more comfortable to palm. The 200i though very smooth after all these years and abusive. BTW those red brake blocks got replaced right after i series with white one with less noise (aldebaran 50), then the SVS infinity current one in all Shimanos. I

Sorry to quote you, I don’t mean to disagree. You should try baitcasters for vertical jigging especially searching (not target depth) for crappie. It is so much fun and a lot easier than open/close the bail, lift rod tip to let line out and lure fall uncontrollable. If we are talking 1/32-1/16oz crappie jig which doesn’t have enough weight to pull the line anyway. With baitcaster it is easier to pull the line out either lift the tip or simply pull line out with other hand. This way your finger is still on the line at all time. You can feel the bite and set hook a lot faster than spinning. Just a suggestion not arguing.

I don’t care about the rod, but love the reel. Any chance you wanna get rid off this one at a good friend price????. How does it cast? Is it good for vertical jigging?

Which one is that? I almost order SGN for myself and my friend. Still miss my Newell 225 that I used a lot casting iron and big bait for Mae-Khong catfish.

What wrong with AR bearing? It is kind of super duper unfortunate if you to get three lemons from Shimano at the same time.

I’m with @mrpro here or at least easier to check. It I remember correctly when open bail on Shimano reel, there is a piece or metal that rubbed against friction ring. Removed the ring and see if any smoother otherwise check the bail itself.

For 150 budget. reel I would look into Daiwa LT series from Fuego down. Fuego, Exceler, Legalis or Regal LT. Rod gonna be tougher since each manufacturer have different rating for action and power. I would look into M or ML fast that rate down to only 1/8oz. If ML rate down to 1/16 it might be good for only Ned rig or weightless worm but gonna have a hard time shaking Neko rig/Shakey head. Two rod around 100 dollars come to my mind, light and have pretty good action and exceptional power. 1. majorcraft Nanoace M 2. Daiwa Tatula XT 7’ M

@MiceNReetsit is more like Civic LX and Cvic Si. They both work, only one a little bit fancier and priceier than other ???. You might have to ask yourself if smoothness and stronger feel is worth 80 dollars for you. The differences between both is not just MM gear, you got 4 xtra bearing where two is significant make Curado feel much stronger when fighting fish, The X-ship bearing (already mention) and Main shaft support bearing, I don’t remember is any old Curado got the main shaft support bearing except the K. Also spool weight is different SLX is 13.2 grams where Curado is only 12.7 grams.

What kind of techniques that finesse to you? What make you think that what you have now is not capable of finesse fishing? What do you have on those two Texas rig? Are we talking spinning or baitcaster?

You can try shrink tube, hook through the side about 1/3 down Senko body. Move spot of the hook once Senko get thorn up. Another way is super glue the tube and Senko, then hook through the tube along side Senko body.

If you use stock carbon washer, I grease them just a little to ensure more smoothness. I just dab a tiny bit on my finger and rub them all the way around the drag. I don’t grease any of metal washer or main gear. To clean them just lay them fat on paper towel and just a couple swirl should be enough. I don’t see the benefit of smooth drag over stock carbon drag.

Spinning reel line lay problem usually happen either the lip or bottom of spool easy fix with shim that come with reel. In the middle should mean you did something wrong or reel oscillation faulty. did you make sure to tight the spool to main shaft enough to not creat slipping when apply pressure to the line when spooling? it seem like the spool doesn’t move up and down all the way while rotor turning. You are in good hand here, if you did everything right, contact Kastking for new working reel or refund, if no response from them, the mods here should be able to straighten it out for you since Kastking is heavy sponsor here.

Another option for you is to buy Daiwa SV 105 spool direct from Daiwa or tackle trap. It is basically the same as alphas SV. https://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10185 If you want mine that would be 55 shipped with PayPal F&F. I sold my alphas SV and as of now I can no longer using right hand reel.