PhishLI

Yes, they do and also have internally switch-on-off brake blocks. I have more than a few too. Definitely not as many as you though! If I had a boat deck full of them pre-tuned to specific baits this wouldn't bother me at all, but if I'm going through a progression of different baits on a multi purpose setup and need to switch them on/off it does.

Good luck. Brand loyalists will list very legitimate choices that may fit some of your requirements, for the most part. I'm not brand loyal and own or have used most of what's out there at this price bracket, so I have my opinion and it's based entirely on casting performance. In that regard, I had to spend $359 on a new Zillion G to surpass this reel. One thing both these reels share is external and easily adjustable braking systems, if this matters to you. Also, neither gets too touchy in the wind.

Hard to beat this reel at $200 for either distance bombing or light lure casting performance. Lightest spool in its class. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Lews_Tournament_Pro_LFS_Casting_Reel/descpage-LTPS.html

We were in the 20s this past weekend, but mild temps since then have been a relief. Water temps are up to 41 degrees again. I probably should've stayed home last night with a nearly full moon beaming down on glass flat water. I barely needed a flashlight. The icing on the cake came in the form of a huge armada of geese splashing down in front of me, then they went to war with wings beating the water everywhere. Rogue males like to horn in on a mating pair, then the fight is on. They don't play. Their honking and displays are quite interesting though. I finally got a little break in a goose-free spot when some clouds came in and a slight southwest breeze added a little ripple. I got a small swim bait into a cohort of males looking to play keep away, but only got short strikes. Tied on a Livingston Bullnose crank, missed a few, but finally got a few. It should've been a total bust, so I'll take it.

The adrenaline pump I get from landing a solid fish is the closest feeling I can get to going wide open throttle at night on a CBR900. The bike is long gone, I'm less insane now and feel mortal, and I actually get weak in the knees even thinking about doing something that dumb now. Perhaps if I knew the world was ending next week...yeah, I would. Bass fishing's my rush now..

Correct. Reels with builds like the Tatulas (minus the Tat 300), standard SLXs, and previous gen Lew's are hit or miss. I have yet to use a free floating spool Daiwa that wasn't smooth. I can speak about the Zillion G because I own one, and its smoothness is on a different planet. My Zillion variant Catalina TW is very smooth, but the G feels like belt driven smooth. I'm pretty sure the guys from the other place would be crying loudly if it wasn't, but not a peep about geariness in a 58 page thread on this reel. FWIW, I spent last night throwing a 75mm Livingston Bullnose wake/crank on a 7'6" stick with 12lb copoly. Even got 2 small bass to play. Super easy to dial in to wind conditions, barely moved the dial, and I was very surprised with the distance I was getting. I was in a cove I'm very familiar with, and came within inches of clocking a swan on the opposite bank. I know for sure I've haven't thrown this particular crank that far before. That said, if you see yourself bombing 1/2-5/8 oz flatsides into the wind a DC is hard to beat. P.S. Pinion bearings can see alot of water during use, or just get dry. A washed out or dry pinion bearing that's a tad damaged can feel like poorly meshing gears. Typically their proportions are odd compared to standard bearings. They have a large-ish thin walled inner race with very small balls. This is something worth looking into if you have a geary reel.

Victory!

See, you can be reasonable without trotting out your angry guy act. No need to be a total DH when you disagree. BTW, I ordered some 15lb Tatsu on sale recently. I'm waiting until it's warmer out to give it a whirl, cause I'm smart...Not like everybody says, like dumb. I'm smart and I want respect!-FC The guy who posted the sale deal on the Tatsu happens to have rendered an opinion on a reel I like very much which runs contrary to my experience. While what he said struck me as odd, or even absurd, I 'aint mad. I didn't even try to straighten him out. See, just like me you can interpret things differently than someone else and keep a grip on yourself. All it takes is a bit of interweb communication skill and a little restraint. Yes, there are facts, but there's also plenty of room for subjectivity. Very few things are totally black and white. P.S. Now go apologize to poor @A-Jay before everyone ends up hating you.

You're still kind of young. Learning never stops. Good for you that this came to you before you were 80. Something else to think about if old habits die hard: I worked in a machine shop after school and sports in Jr high. The guy across the street from us owned it and was a workaholic, so going until 8 or 9pm was always an option. All, and I mean all of my friends worked in restaurants or delis at that time. I left home at 15 and was able to convince the school admin to let me dump study halls, lunch, and a few electives on the condition I kept my regents classes and grades up. I needed the hours to work in order to pay for rent, food, etc. I couldn't make enough at the machine shop with the hours I had for more than basic needs, so I got a job as a dishwasher at night at a very nice restaurant where some of my friends worked. Everyone started as a dishwasher before making it to busboy before making it to waiter. Here's what I learned from my stint there: Never, ever, ever be rude to waiters, waitresses, or food servers. Never. What I've seen done to food by the cooks on behalf of a waiter or waitress that complained of rudeness by a customer cannot be repeated here. Once I knew about this stuff and talked about it with my friends who worked in delis the stories just flowed. You don't want to know. Truly. Here's another tidbit. Many years later I used to get breakfast at a deli near a job I had. Everyone wore gloves to make sandwiches, bagels, etc, except for one guy. Let's call him Rick. He had a nasty apron he'd wipe his hands on, then make sandwiches. I always avoided this guy by letting other people take my place in line, but this became expensive after a while. It was uncanny how many times it was my turn and I got this guy when there were usually 6-7 other people working . Finally, frustrated, I very politely asked him to come close and quietly asked him to please wear gloves to make my sandwich. He'd already picked up the roll though, then angrily flung it in the garbage. He nastily and loudly went through a progression of insincere apologies. "OK Sir, Yes sir". You get it. I didn't let him make my food and left. I was already late for an appointment and needed to keep my cool. A week later I stopped in for the first time since the gloves episode to grab something quick because I was starved. Smartly, I grabbed a pack of Yodels. When I got to the register that Rick and a few of the other guys were congregated behind the sliced meat counter. The register girl took the time to whisper to me to never ever order food there again. She said I was famous now. Having been in the biz I knew exactly what she was saying, and they didn't see her tell me. I'm Irish and didn't mind a good swing at all back then and said the type of things to him that would make any man step outside. You really can't say worse, but he wouldn't go. The next time I went in there he had a big black eye. I laughed in his face, so that was awesome for a crazier younger me. It's a good thing that I've grown past that type of thing. The long term consequences of such behavior could've been much worse than unknowingly eating a booger on rye sandwich for being testy.

Mattlures Strong Shads

Yup. 46 days until bass season closes here. Very few breaks here lately. Brrrr.

Around here we have many shallow manmade water bodies. Early spawners typically build beds 1st on different sections of western shorelines in 18" -3' of water. Shorelines facing the rising sun basically. As the sunrise shifts to the east over time more beds appear starting on NW sections first then eventually down to SW sections. Shallow water edges that get sun first and warm up first get beds first. Emerging lily pad sprouts and weed growth follows this pattern. Fishing anywhere outside these areas up until the spawn is a good bet as that's a good place to find staging fish. In the meantime schooling crappie get voracious soon and will be pushing bait all over the place, which leads to tight bite windows. Find them and you can usually find bass nearby where deeper water transitions to shallower water.

Instead of throw away lines, why not put that into words.? Describe how it puts a Met B to shame. I read what you wrote as the 21 Ant DC makes the Met B feel/perform like junk. I'm asking honestly.

Some fun toads about. Toxic Wade Frog 3 oz Toxic Wade Froglet 1.5 oz Keitech Noisy Flapper 3.5" 5/8 oz

My buddy went all-in on the 4" Largo Shad this year. He'll probably do well with them.

Who's first to market with a horrifying parachuting spider lure? What's next? Invasive flying crocodiles? I wonder if fishing in a suit of armor is the pits? Yeesh.

Yes, they're perfectly polite and lovely when you speak to them, but it was their not following thru with what they promised part while being polite and lovely that got this thread going. It ended well, so....

Not if you're on the moon.

My true bluegill shaped soft baits get very little attention around here, and we're loaded with gills. The single exception is the Beast Coast Miyagi, and while somewhat stocky it doesn't have a true bluegill profile. However, hard baits that are truer gill profile baits like a Shellcracker G2 an Gantarel Jr get lots off attention, but they're fished quite differently compared to soft gill baits or even larger torpedo/trout shaped baits. They fish near the surface. Soft baits in the Hudd 68 size and larger range get bit, and occasionally by small fish too, but far less often compared to slim profile torpedo shaped soft swimmers. The bigger-bait-bigger-bite mentality has merit, but the right small soft swim bait gets eaten by big bass more often, at least in my experience here in colder northern waters. In comparison I have far more faith in getting a big bite from a large hard glide, wakebait/rat, etc, than a large soft swimbait. So, I'm all in on the bigger bait thing, but I've caught far more 6lb+ class bass on small swimmers like the 4.2" Hazedong Shad, 4.75" Champ Swimmer, 4.75" Miyagi swimmer, etc.

Quantum ICON PT 7 spd Lew's Carbon Fire 7'3" Heavy 50 lb Daiwa J-8 Braid Whichever frog I need at the moment depending on slop in the water. On the Yak this rig pulls multi-duty for punching, jigs, heavier hook soft swimbaits up to 1 1/4oz, Magdraft Freestyle, Beast Coast Miyagi, etc.

USDM. Dude, it doesn't feel like it has gears. Like belt drive.

It also has a double bearing crank. Keep it properly lubed and it probably won't quit. I've fished mine like I'm trying to break it, and it feels the same as when it came out of the box, which was pretty smooth. A real sleeper that'll bomb a frog stupid distances on a reasonably tipped 7'3" Heavy.

Another good argument for high speed gear ratios when frogging, up to an 8 spd, is that if you're long casting a frog to targets you want to get it back quickly after working the target area. No point in reeling your frog back in like a madman over a bunch of dead water with a low gear ratio reel. That's annoying to me. Plus, I've never once felt like fighting any fish back in using an 8 spd 100-150 size reel was laborious or distressing in the least.

Winner...Chicken dinner Do you take him on your boat much/ever/50-50?