Beetlebz

When all else fails a 1/4oz flippin or bullet weight (tungsten) and a motor oil 7" power worm. I change color to find what works best but I always start there. If I'm getting wrecked every cast then I start switching out to upgrade. Start at the waters edge and drag it back till you get bit or buried in weeds. The only difference is if I'm actually flipping into beds or brush, then I go lizard or craw, color dependant on water clarity.

You can find the casitas a little cheaper if you dig around the dark corners of the interwebs. I picked mine up for $89 USD I think. I run with a pretty tight drag, haven't had issues on bass slipping when it shouldn't be. When it does slip is smooth and consistent. I might feel differently if I was chasing stripers with it, but i haven't tried ?

I decided to get some this year also to see what all the hubub was about. I wasn't let down. The flat 75x, the ****** 70x, and the MVMT 80x all are getting a ton of work in and catching a ton of fish. There's a few in my box that 6th sense won't be replacing, but not too friggin many that's for sure.

KISS... at least for me anyway. I run a bone one and the black one with the white detail. To be honest, the bone one is the only one that I ever throw.

I filled the spool of my Sahara 2500 with about 50%, maybe a little less with 15lb mono. Even on monster bomb casts I haven't spooled all my 20lb PP off the reel. Even if I did manage to get it right to the knot and a big ole bass went to gobble town, 20lb braid, the uni knot and the 15lb big game backer are all more than stout enough to handle it, just as long as the knot doesn't get outside of the bail. That's just what I had handy, 10 or 8lb mono would lay nicer on the spool.

Hah, that's an awful lot of my fault. To be honest I'm not super huge at the... let's say... $150 Mark and up. You're literally just comparing features and picking what suits you. Dawia's strong suit in that neighborhood is the speed and ease at which the brakes can be adjusted and how forgiving the brakes are. It's that fuego though. The high end brakes, the aluminum frame... and it comes in almost 20 bucks cheaper (normal eBay prices, not sales) than you can find the casitas, which for my money is a *really* close second. If they dropped the price on the casitas 15 or 20 bucks it would be an even tougher choice. The real beauty of it though... the casitas is still a really CLOSE second. You have a thing for shimano? Your grandpappy ran all shimanos? A shimano saved a little boy who fell in a well? Whatever your reason, neither one is a BAD choice. Sure I think the Fuego edges it out for the price but both are fantastic reels.

I was just going to say this. I have a Casitas and I absolutely love it, I fish it four or five times a week. The issue I have with it is for a few bucks less the Fuego is every bit the reel the casitas is. I can dial the casitas to cast a *little* farther than the fuego, but the Fuego brakes can be set by a monkey in the dark underwater with his eyes closed. Just last night I was seriously toying with the idea of selling my Casitas and getting another Fuego.

Nice catch lasher! I was at the reservoir for a couple hours this morning when I went to leave some guy walking his dog started chatting me up. He was telling me about how he bought a "bass" reel at one point, meaning a bait caster, but he never could cast it without backlashing. I told him to try mine and handed him my 7 foot 6 inch heavy favorite Defender with a fuego 8.1:1 that still had a ChatterBait tied on from yesterday. I turned the brakes up a few notches but the guy stood there in amazement that the reel didn't backlash... not one loose wrap lol converted another one!

I used to. Honestly braid with flouro doesn't do anything that straight flouro won't do and without the annoying zip through the guides. It's just my opinion but I couldn't stand it. I just switched to straight hybrid which I'm also not a big fan of (on my flipping rig) and I just ordered abrazx.

If you can swing it financially I'd personally go with a fuego ct ($70 at cabelas right now) and a fuego rod. If you're willing to shop online you're looking at 120ish. Gonna be a combo he can run for a long while. I have a silvermax, ran it forever. Still run it sometimes. Great reel. Big for like 20 bucks more the Fuego is really hard to pass up IMHO.

If I had a dollar for every time I said that I would be a rich man. Well no, I'd have more lures. I'd have alot more lures.

So update to the update. I tried swapping the sideplate bearing with one out of a spare abu I had laying around. Spins a ton better, but i doubt it'll translate to longer casts. I got a new Fuego and it's dramatically quieter than the tat SV, even after the bearing swap. I watched a tatula SV video from reel test (not a big fan, but sometimes informative) and his makes the same noise. I'm thinking it's just the SV spool. It still casts just fine so... who knows. It works for me I guess

So I was out fishing today, I couldn't get bit on a jig to save my life. I decided since I had too light of line with too much stretch anyway (I was throwing 15lb yzh) I switched it to a chatterbait. The fuego, on 15 yzh on a 7'6" heavy handled the chatterbait like a dream. The more i fish the reel, the more I like it. I did have on backlash.. it came from smacking the water on the back-cast during a full swing. Still wasn't horrible, got it out without cutting any line lol

I had a premature sideplate opening during a cast on a citica. I haven't tried with a curado but I also don't want to spend 150 bucks to find out it doesn't work any better. I run my spool tension super loose anyway. But alas now I'm off topic. The point is I have my citica up for sale and now own 2 daiwas that I absolutely love!

It's a long story, I had a post about it before. Go pick up a curado like you're going to cast it but hold it in the wrong hand. Basically my index finger rests on the latch or really close to it.

Unfortunately that doesn't work for everyone. I tried to get into that bracket of Shimano reels, sadly because I cast left-handed but then Reel with my right hand my index finger is prone to hitting the side plate release latch during casting. That's how I got involved in the tatula series to begin with but I have to say I have zero regrets

That's a good question. The tat SV has a little more of a refined feel to it... if it were me I would stress over the decision lol I'd go tat, but either way you won't be disappointed.

I don't know if I'd go that far lol the one thing I didn't really account for is I find the reel actually a bit noisier. I attributed the noise (super subtle, btw) to the line wiggling into the guide. I do think the twing is a little quieter, but I'm not convinced it casts further because of it. I guess now I need a regular tatula CT to round out the fleet. The real question (reel question?) Is do I jump straight into the steez next year or get the zillion first ?

I saw that! Bro, it just isn't worth not being protected. I just got my first neck gaiter as well. Unfortunately I can't help you decide on gloves as I am still doing the homework myself, but can i ask what sun shirts you wound up trying? I look like a stuffed sausage in most under armor type shirts ?

I had quite the mail day yesterday! The one package I've been most eagerly awaiting arrived.. my shiny new Fuego CT. I didn't even need a reel, but it seems like that's about the one most recommended reel on the interwebs these days. I had to see what all the fuss was about, and that I certainly did. Let me start by saying that I'm a pretty fresh daiwa convert. I've owned a ton of low-pro casters, always been a bit of a shimano fan boy. I tried the kastking trend, switched in to a few Abus last season. This season I tried out a Casitas and thought I had died and gone to heaven.. But then I got a tatula SV. I really didn't expect much from the Fuego, especially putting it up against my only other Daiwa, the Tat SV. I gotta say I was impressed out of the box. The flat black paint is appealing in person, I expected it to look cheap. I spooled it up with 15lb YZH and put it on a 7'6" H/F. I spent the whole day on and off flipping, pitching and casting a Jewel 3/8oz jig with a Z craw (didn't catch a d**n thing on it ?) and let me tell yoi, I tried so hard to get this thing to screw up. I'd get some unruly wraps here and there but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it to birds nest with the brakes at a somewhat responsible position. Even the thumb bar released effortlessly if I pressed it in the middle of the wind up to cast. The kastking stealth I had on previously for flipping took some unf to get the thumb bar to disengage if I was mid windup with a heavy bait. I did not have a chance to throw heavier baits like 1-2oz swimmers but I don't really doubt that it will take it in stride. Not so much a review, I just wanted to share my experience. It seems like alot of folks are asking about this reel these days and for the $70 price tag I can absolutely see why.

I've had a couple great kastking baitcasters, but i got a Mela II 1000 to try out. I wanted to like it, I really did. Cheap, knock around back packing type reel. First time I caught a fish the spool shaft started binding. After through investigation all I can come up with was it had a bent shaft. Replaced it with a 2000 size... same thing. One fish, bent shaft. Ive heard good things about the new snarky 3 but I have a bad taste in my mouth now. For what it's worth, I snagged a shimano Sahara off eBay during one of their eBay wide sales for $55. There's a sale going on now but I think it's 10% off. Still worth looking!

I just had to order a couple new chatterbaits. Last season I switched to 3" swim senkos to try as small trailers for when the bite got tough. Two of them have straight rusted hooks from leaving the baits on the hooks.

I run my spool tension on my SV all the way loose. I run it so loose I take the knob off and leave it at home! Seriously though, I have it screwed down just tight enough to eliminate side to side play... I haven't found a bait that the brakes couldn't handle on they're own yet.

Lol seems to be the thing to do. After my tatula SV changed my opinion on daiwa forever, I ordered a fuego ct in 8:1 also ? I'm going to use mine for flipping jigs and t-rigs and small swimbaits. At this rate I might just have to replace my beloved casitas with a daiwa too.

To be honest with you, I only own 1 medium power rod and it never leaves the house. You don't need to load a rod way up to get a good cast out of it. What little you might lose in casting distance with lighter baits will make up for itself the first time you lean way back and rip a bass out of grass and bring half the grass with you. With a good reel and good line the little bit a MH rod will load up on casting will be enough. I cast weightless senkos on a 7'2" MH/F all day. Sure I could cast further with a M/M or an M/F but then I couldn't tie on a MVMT 80 squarebill and throw it in the brush, or a big lipless and throw it in the grass.