PhishLI

Once you've placed the springs on the posts are you keeping the gearset pointed north and level while holding it up at eye level and not twisting the side plate at all while dropping it on? Also, are you installing the AR sleeve before you install the sideplate? This will limit movement and center the assembly. A small dab of grease at the bottom of the spring posts will keep the springs from flopping around.

When he responds we'll know more. In the meantime, I have a JDM Daiwa Catalina TW which is just a Zillion HD with Magforce Z braking and clicking drag. If I'm running mono while using a somewhat moderate rod and catch a decent fish I hear the drag start and stop with the line's stretch and rebound. Bass rarely run out in a straight line, so this makes sense. When I'm running straight braid and a faster rod the drag sounds more consistent on short runs. It's still possible that something in his drag stack is a skosh dry, but I haven't come across that particular complaint elsewhere. My Zillion G has been on backorder since November, and it might be a thing, so we'll see. Mine will get cracked open for a look as soon as it arrives. @bulldog1935 has one now. Maybe he'll chime in.

iRod Powell Dobyn's St.Croix 13 Fishing Daiwa

One has nothing to do with the other. The click ratchet washer might be dry, or the carbon drag washer might need a whisper of grease.

It definitely makes buying blindly online a roll of the dice. I've bought a few rods that way and have hated a few of them.

It never gets old, even after I've had a long, tough day and feel like curling up in a ball. If my brother or one of the dudes call for a night sesh I'm instantly energized. I don't drink coffee, but I imagine the boost I get is like chugging a pint of it. Also, around here there's always a good chance I'm gonna get my butt kicked. It keeps me hungry, and I'm always thinking about getting some payback.

Perhaps this is something you should re-think. I fill my Tatula LT 3000-CXH shallow spool a shade over half full using 50lb braid as a backer. This leaves enough room to top off the spool with about 70 yards of Power Pro 15lb Super Slick. Not a single bait I'm likely to throw on this setup has the weight to get me anywhere near the backer. Even a bait like a weightless 5" Senko coming in at 3/8oz, which I'm throwing on a baitcaster 99% of the time anyway, is only going to get out to maybe 130 ft or so. A full size spook, maybe 160 ft. When enough line is payed off of a spinning reel's spool, spool lip friction is going to be the limiting factor. If casting distance is a priority, you really want your spool to be filled as high as possible to the lip to avoid friction from limiting your casts as line gets closer to the arbor. BTW, I've always had the spool packed right up to the hairy edge on this reel without issue.

X3

Just in case you've waffled in the past hour, I'm with @Choporoz. I have one and hate it.

The 3000 does. I have one. Search TALT3000-CXH

Had me wondering too. I found this where it's explained further:

Get both and throw each where conditions dictate.

Buy enough swim bait rods and you'll find that many if not most are grossly overrated. This is such a commonplace thing that guys in the game simply shrug off the printed data, accept the rod for what it is by using it where it works, then make purchases up or down a line to fit their bait requirements. A short cut is to pay attention on the swim bait pages where you'll find the rod's actual working range in a discussion, or just ask and a real user will tell you. Some rods can be pushed, but you won't know until you put the pedal to the metal.

Is it a secret reel??? Maybe

Yes, if you like Shimano. Personally, I've become too accustomed to my Lew's and Quantums with externally adjustable centrifugal brakes to want to have to open side plates to adjust brake blocks, especially when I'm rotating through a wide range of baits while fishing with one rod. However, if you're a Shimano guy and that doesn't irk you, then the 150 makes the K sort of obsolete, IMO, so it's worth it. With its build elements it'll hold up better than the SLX series.

It's everything the Curado K should've been, but isn't. Way more versatile than the K and the lower line cap is meaningless. Nobody's using the line cap of the 200K in bass fishing unless they're throwing 2oz cranks on a 8' rod.

That would add him to Gerald Swindle who they've picked up recently. He's getting his own signature rod line which is supposed to be released at this year's iCast. Me either. There should no drama in fishing, especially if you do one specific thing while standing upright. Some of those guys, as well as some of the Insta guys, are really sensitive and petty though. I enjoy seeing Wayne at SU occasionally shutting them up when they go off the rails. A bunch of Tatted and bearded meangirls pretending to be tough guys.

People have different priorities. I don't have mini-me hands, so palming ergonomics are rarely an issue for me, and I don't care how smooth a reel is if I dislike its braking profile. Sure, I'd like every reel I own to be micrometer smooth, but if I hate casting with a particular system, and I do, then smoothness on the retrieve really doesn't matter much. Most of my reels run from reasonably smooth to very smooth, but while I'm focusing on what my bait's doing at the end of the line I'm not focused on that aspect one way or the other. But that's just me.

Trim the Bull Shad down to the 5" version and you'll be able to throw all the other baits you've mentioned on a heavy jig rod. Add to your list white and bluegill colored Black Dog Shellcracker G2 crank down wake baits and you'll be covered nicely.

Yes, but no problem with jigs either. It's a little slow, but not mush like a FR733C. I've caught a ton of fish on 1/2oz and 3/4oz MB Dark Sleepers using the 7'MH Aird X 2 piece.

Great and West still produce, especially during prespawn, but after 7/1 they're choked shore to shore right up to the surface except for a swath near the spillways. Like trying to fish through astro-turf. Leave the trolling motor home. Loaded with golden shiners, so donks are roaming.

I really like the Divine swim jig. Great skipping jig and you can rip it cleanly through mucky slop. If you're not into the screw lock bait keeper of the Divine the Hybrid comes through very well too, but it has a conventional keeper. Both have vertical line ties which is key to busting through heavy veg and slop cleanly.

I throw the weedless Z through pad fields without weed in-fill, and through weeds not yet draped in filamentous algae. Comes through way better than a standard CB or JH. Other than the 1st 2 fish I missed, which immediately caused me to judge the Z weedless as junk, hookups have been very good otherwise. They tend to hit chatterbaits to kill, so the weedguard doesn’t seem to do much to impede hooksets. Up until the past week or so we’ve been so choked out here that the Z weedless has been the only VJ I’m able to throw without total frustration. I’m not throwing any VJ in wood, weedless or not. The blade is the issue, as much as the hook.

The furthest thing from junk, and one of the best buys out there, period. Get the 7'3" MH and 7'H and you can cover a very wide range of baits with both. My brother and I have had 5 rods in this this series for the past 4 years. Zero glitches after a shiznit ton of fish.

OK! Then I nominate you for official Link Clicker/Food Taster. Congratulations?