FrnkNsteen

My experince with glass has been mainly on the Dobyns 735cb glass and 736cb glass. I like Dobyns CB Glass models because as Columbia Craw said, they are hybrid graphite and glass. As such, they are much thinner than other company's glass rods and I feel they are actually lighter and better balanced. I use my 735cb glass for deeper cranks (5XD and 6XD) while I use my 2 736cb glass for bladed jigs on braid. My only other experuence with a glass rod is a St Croix Legend Glass 6'10" MM I just picked. I put my 2021 Zillion SV TW G reel on it, and like it so far, but havent had much time on it yet. Just throwing it around a bit in the yard and atva friend's farm pond. It is thicker and a little more tip heavy than a similar sized Dobyns, but so far, I kind of like it.

I'm just curious what you meant that you "accidentally put the spool on free spin". Does that mean you loosened the control knob on the spool tension so it is super free, or did you turn the brakes way low or off?

Define "Free Spin" Are you saying very little spool tension, or very little brake?

I had a Tatula CT Type R that made noise like that. I had fallen in the boat and landed on the reel. It made a noise like that after the fall so I called Bryan, the reel tech at Tackle Trap and asked about it. Bryan recommended looking at the anti-reverse sleeve on the main shaft. He specifically had me look for indents from the anti-reverse rollers imprinted on the anti-reverse sleeve. I had fallen on mine, and sure enough, mine had indents. He said a hard shock to it, like from my fall, or even a hard hookset can cause the indentions to happen. We replaced the anti-reverse bearing and sleeve and most of the noise went away. Try lubing everything up and see if that helps, but if not,... Look at your anti-reverse components.

Does it seem to be timed with the handle? Or the spool? What I mean is does it seem to occur consistent with the handle as you turn it, or does the timing of the squeak seem to vary and happen at different handle positions? Trying to determine if it is in the handle shaft or spool shaft. Could it be in the handle knobs?

Order placed! Thanks Mike! Had to try a couple of your Perch and Bluegill special swimjigs!! Mark

For me, it comes down to what type of presentation I am looking for. Swimjig being the most subtle, followed by a willowleaf spinnerbait, then colorado bladed spinnerbait, then a bladed jig A swimjig works well for me in clearer water or when the only vibration I want is the kick of the trailer. If the water is a little more dirty or stained, I'll go to a willow leaf spinnerbait, as it gets dirtier I may go with a big colorado blade spinnerbait. If I want more vibration I will go to a bladed jig. That being said though, I've had a few very productive days throwing a Jackhammer or Thundercricket in clear water on rocky/sandy flats of pencil reeds!! I'll even choose different "Chatterbaits" depending on how much vibration I want. I think a Jackhammer has more vibration than a Thundercricket,... and Sieberts Fogy has much more thump than either of them.

Just thought of something,... The other possibility is it could be a hot lead that is tied to a switch, so if there is no reading, it could still be a hot wire that is just switched off. Best way to confirm it is not a ground is to use the continuity alarm or ohm meter to check continuity to ground. If the meter reads OL (overload) it is not connected to ground. (I would have to wonder why you have red ground wires though! Not a good practice!) But make sure it is not a powered wire first or testing ohms could damage your meter.

^^Agreed^^ A voltmeter measures voltage differential, meaning it measures a voltage drop across test points. If you put meter on DC Volts then put the black lead/wire on the battery negative and the red lead/wire on the positive, you will read the voltage difference between the two at give or take 12 volts depending on battery charge. So test as Scott suggested and set meter to DC Volts, put the black lead on negative post and the red lead to your wire. If it is hot, you will get some amount of reading around 11 - 13 volts. If it is a ground, you shouldn't get a reading as there won't be any voltage difference. DC (Direct Current) volts need red lead to power and black to ground. AC (Alternating Current) volts can be either way.

Well,... My wife and I decided to hop in the car and head down to Evansville IN (Home of ALF) to get out of the house. They had some rods in their used section I wanted to check out, plus I kind of like just looking at their used rods and reels. Never know what you can stumble across! Ended up getting a very nice price on the following rods, all in excellent shape and have already initially paired them up with some reels I have that I think may work well. St Croix Legend Glass 6'10"MM - Put my 6spd Zillion on there for a nice smooth cranking setup. Kistler Helium 7'0" MF - Put my 7spd Tat SV70 on there with some weightless 4" stickbait or maybe light texas rig Megabass Levante 7'2" F5 72LV Diablo Spec R - Put a 8spd Curado 71 MGL on it for now, but don't really know what to use this for... Just liked it. This is my first Megabass rod. Any suggestions for the Levante? As I said,... I don't have much history with them but have plenty of reel options to try different setups. Open to suggestions!!

I was going to mention those same reels and add the SLX series (except the SLX DC) .... But especially the SLX MGL!

I agree too. I like my Alphas with its free floating spool over the others as well, and the Alphas through the JDM sites is a better deal than regular price on a Tat 70/80. I wish Daiwa would have released the Alphas in the US market with the Zillion as they are both great reels. That being said,... if someone doesn't like the idea of buying from JDM dealers and no warranty, the Tatula 70 and 80 are both decent options that are getting pretty good feedback,..... And for under $100 as mentioned above??? Kind of a no brainer!!! Oh,... And I would have to go grab both to pick up and confirm, but if memory serves correctly, the Zillion G is just a touch smaller than the 2020 Sv103 and the brake dial sits lower on the side plate. I actually bump it with my index finger at times and accidently change it. It's the only thing I don't like about that new Zillion.

I don't have the Tatula 80, but I do have the Tatula SV 70. They are a little smaller than the Tatula 100 and Tatula SV103. I also have the JDM Alphas SV 800 and I believe the SV70 shares the same basic frame. Here are some images of the SV70 next to the Alphas SV as well as a side by side of the SV103 and the SV70. Here are the SV70 and the SV103

Yep! I just pull a little line off the spool. That's what it's for. If you can't pull line out, it might be set to tight!

We go to the Fort Frances area just across from International Falls Minnesota.

I will say that the law of diminishing returns comes in quicker on spinning reels than on baitcasters in my opinion, in that the higher you go in price, the less and less gain you begin to see. Not as much difference between a $150 and $250 reel as you typically see between a $50 and $150 reel. I felt the same as you in that I don't see huge differences between the lower level Daiwas and the upper level reels. I always said that I can't justify spending the money for a higher dollar spinning reel and usually stayed with Daiwa Regals and Pfleuger President reels. Now that being said,... I splurged and traded in to get a Vanford 3000 at this year's Bass Pro Spring Classic sale. I put it on my Fenwick ET Smallmouth rod throwing wacky stick baits. While on our annual smallie trip up to Ontario I began to notice just how tight and smooth everything was on the Vanford from casting to reeling it back in. No spool noise rattling on the cast, and catching fish was smooth and steady. Came to love how that reel fishes. Can't really explain the difference,....it's just there. There is a difference in the higher dollar spinning reels.... It is just subtle. Don't go expecting the clouds to part and angels singing. Just give them time and appreciate how well they fish.The other benefit is they will likely last quite a bit longer than the cheaper reels before they start loosening up and getting sloppy and noisy. Fyi.... Since coming back from our trip I bought another Vanford used off ALF and found a great deal on a couple Stradic FL reels. ?? A few of my 11 ounce Presidents are now sitting in a box to donate or trade in.

I don't have either, so nothing really to offer. I happen to really like Dobyns casting rods and have numerous models from the Fury up to the Extreme, but I don't like their spinning rods. I hold my spinning rods with three fingers in front of the stem and hate spinning rods with threads at the front of the reel seat. I prefer a foregrip with either hidden threads or threads at the bottom of the reel seat. Lot's of other comment on both, so I'm sure someone will have a comparison.

I used to like the Revo reels and have a number of gen 3 Revo S and STX, though I have started to give some of them away. It used to be that the Revo S was the centrifugal brake model, the SX had the magnetic brakes, and the STX had the dual centrifugal/mag brakes. I believe the gen 5 Revo SX has the dual brakes now, but I could be wrong. All that being said, all my recent reels have been a majority of Daiwa followed by a number of Shimano. I like the Tat SV reels and have a couple of the 2017 CT framed versions as well as a couple of the 2020 versions with the smaller frames. I also have a number of the Tatula CT Type R reels. I like all of them.

My Abu rods did that too. Then they started to peel. They seemed to have a thin rubberized coating that deteriorated over time. I ended up giving the ones that were still useable away and tossed the rest.

I've got the 18 Bantam MGL in a 6spd and currently have it on a Mag Heavy frog rod throwing a Spro paddle frog. I just went and checked and have 2 brakes on with dial set between 2-3. I also grabbed one of my Curado 151 MGLs and held both of them. Curado is a slightly more rounded shape and palms just a BIT smaller, but both fit comfortably into the hand.

That's good to know. I will have to look them up. Thanks!

??? Is Tackle Trap open again???

So the question is if I had to choose one brand to use for the rest of my life, what would it be. For me it is Strike King or Berkley due to the variety of offerings they both have. Just a couple years ago it would have been Strike king due to their hard and soft bait offerings, but they don't make hooks. With Berkley's recent additions of fusion hooks and items like the slobberknocker and jigs,it would have to be Berkley since they now offer products in pretty much every category.

^^ I like this! ^^ I've also rigged them on a small screwlock belly weighted hook. Used to use a Lindy internal tube weight and a 2/0 or 3/0 EWG hook, but the stopped making them.

I like Dobyns and have a bunch, but if you are looking at options around the price of Colts, and AREN'T limiting it to Dobyns, you might check out the Daiwa Aird-X. I believe they typically run around $50 and though I don't have the heavy model,... I do like the lighter ones I have tried and have also heard good things about their Heavy action.