PhishLI

I've caught a number of bass with tails sticking out of their throats, but never a head.

Anecdotal: I primarily fish at night in very weedy shallow lakes with very little hard bottom. Bass set up on ambush points and grab baits coming by. Line type doesn't seem to matter here. During warmer months when weeds are in full bloom I catch plenty of fish on braid, or braid to short leader. Up until last winter I fished all year long with braid, but always did poorly once the weeds died off. Late last fall I switched over to straight copoly and Fluoro and did very well from January through May. I really couldn't believe the quantity and quality of fish I was landing. Water temp here was still 42 on May 1st, so the weeds hadn't yet sprung up. Since I fish in the darkness I chalked up my success, in part, to the "difference" in sound made by plastic line. It's entirely possible that I simply went on a 5 month hot streak where I'd previously suffered horrible skunks, but I'm sticking with the "sound" theory. I've used some of the most sensitive acoustic measurement equipment there is for business. Everything has a sound, or resonance, and water transmits and amplifies sound at a very high speed, especially shallow water. Perhaps in colder water, braid may transmit a more unappealing vibration than nylon or fluoro? Everything hardens in cold water, so that may be a factor too. Speculation aside, I'll be fishing with plastic line this winter. Life's too short.

Agree! It took me a little time to get a grip on this reel's braking profile with a range of lighter baits, but now that I have I love it. As far as putting light baits way out there with ease it's every bit the match for an Aldebaran 50, which is no slouch in that department. Mine's on a Powell 703CEF where I throw primarily a MB Hazedong Shad, weightless flukes, and finesse jigs. My buddy has an Alde 50 on a IMX Pro 853c jwr. I know exactly what it's capable of in my hands with those baits. The TP LFS doesn't have the feel or build quality of the $420 Alde, but as far as on the water performance goes it's right there, IMO. If anything it's less touchy when dialed in loose, and easier to dial in when changing baits. It's definitely one of my "always with me" setups. Big thanks to DodgeGuy for sounding the alarm on this reel.

I have the same weather here. The past 2 days all the action was on top. Pompadour, Spook, and Bullwake. Not a sniff on slow rolled small paddletails or jigs, or anything else on the bottom or middle. Not even jerks. If it wasn't noisy, or on top, it wasn't happening at all in two different locations. Both qualify as ponds. Antifreeze and snow tires.

Daiwa Catalina TW 100. It's not touchy and a real bomber. Super smooth cranker. Comes in a 4.9:1. Clocks in at 8.1 ozs with a full spool of mono.

All of my lakes have muck bottoms. Carefully survey the spots you want to fish, then mentally log them in. You can even use a broom handle to probe around if you don't want to invest in an official wading staff. Some areas are too soft to step into, but many will be hard directly under a few inches of muck and are safe. I night wade all the time, but know my lakes so I stay in the safe zones. Some extend pretty far out from the shoreline. Probe the areas out beforehand and you'll be good. Don't and you'll be inviting trouble for no good reason. I usually wade all year long in breathable stocking foot chest waders like Simms Tributary. Those types require separate wading boots. Wading boots are super tough and comfortable. Yes, you'll still sweat in breathable types, just a little bit less. I also have neoprene boot foot hip waders for quick trips, but affordable types like Frogg Toggs Anura II really need a good athletic gel insole or you'll feel every pebble under foot. With either type you'll need to adjust your layers in the cold and wear the lightest undergarments you can in the heat. With thick wool socks and long johns I can wade for hours in 35 degree water. My hands will quit before my legs or feet will. Upsize the boots for thick socks if you plan to fish in cold weather. If you can, try on the boot/wader combos to make sure you're comfortable in them and that they feel good together. I'm picky about that, but most of my friends simply buy whatever and go with it.

I brought my fishing gear to a party in Jersey. Tony Soprano tripped and spilled a plate of Lasagna on my fishing reel. I just let the dog lick it off, then I went fishing. No problemo. Bada Bing?

Take a look at the Tatula 300 too. It cranks as smoothly as the Tranx 400 on big crank down wakes. Definitely feels smoother and stronger than the Tranx 300, meaning you feel it working less on the retrieve. The frame is quite narrow for a Tatula if that matters to you. Here's one reel where the t-wing seems to actually pay dividends as heavy line like 25-30lb Big Game isn't fighting it's way through a typical line guide aperture, and you can feel that on the cast. The same would go for heavy Fluoro. The 400 is going bye bye, probably.

200 at the top, then 300 then 400.

Have you considered waders, even a cheap set of hip waders? If your spots are wade-able it's a game changer. So many of my local waters are built as you've described: Tree lined. Once I started wading out just far enough, knee high, to cast baits down the bank the game changed. You'll also be able to put your baits in spots other bank anglers can't. A real plus. Also, you're not relegated to fishing spots that are pounded by other bank fishermen. Having a good set of pruning shears on you will allow you to cut your way through bushes into some prime spots. Shore wading opens up tons of options. If you take this route learn about wading safety first. Don't take it lightly. Consider each new area you try as you would a live mine field. Test your steps first by probing with a wading staff. Don't take risks without knowing where you are if you're alone. I had one close call this year, and left unscathed. Didn't even get wet. But one of my crew wasn't so lucky. Ironically, he was the most cautious one of us by far. He uncharacteristically took a foolish chance by going way farther out than he should've and paid the ultimate price.

I agree with this point, but at the same time I don't discount the opinions of others that are super sensitive about balance, especially if they say they feel pain, or are worn out by less than optimally balanced setups. It could be a physical/structural issue. We're all not built the same. I've never felt a lick of wrist pain from fishing any technique, and I have more than a few tip heavy setups, but I'm built like a chimp. Personally I'm more concerned about rods loading and unloading the way I like them to. I'm very sensitive to that.

If the lake isn't frozen then I'm fishing. I don't do anything else recreational where my hands are freezing to the point of burning, but I can hack it to go fishing somehow. Nothing warms me up faster than a bite.

Instead of writing "were your samples", I could have written "were your examples", or "were your units", or simply "were your reels". My apologies. English is my second language. I come from Brooklyn.

Yeesh. Mine doesn't sound like that. If anything it had a slight whine in the beginning. My brother was out with me the first day I fished it and asked if it was some type of DC reel. After oiling the brake race several times with Bantam oil, and the individual brake blocks just once while fully extended, that sound went away after cranking up the brakes and bomb casting a 1 oz dark sleeper for a while. The thought here was to soften the blocks slightly allowing them to conform to the conical brake race as recommended for the Chronarch CI4+. It worked in both cases. My Chronarch screamed before this treatment. I recall that you bought yours during the classic sale, which means you're registered at their site and have their receipt. It has a solid warranty. Why not send it back?

Absorb what you can on BassResource, and in it's archives. Learn to read your waters. When you find the small fish you'll find the bass. One day the cork will pop and everything will change, even if that seems impossible at this moment.

Stay with Shimano, but get a Tour S3 if you'd like to dip your toe. No reel I own, and I own a bunch, has gotten more time than the Tour this season. Despite @BaitFinessedoing his best to terrify me about it's aluminum main gear spontaneously combusting, and worse, it's remained trouble free and just as smooth as new. Another member here, @QUAKEnSHAKE, claimed his Tour's brakes were noisy below a certain setting and shelved it. I've had no such issue, however they're not as quiet as the K's SVS Infinty brakes. This fact is one of the reasons I like the Tour. I fish at night more than any other time. Sound and vibration are my cues as I can rarely see the lure in flight. I need to hear and feel what the spool is doing to feather and stop it in time. The Curado K is super smooth and quiet, but it's almost too much of a good thing in this scenario. Put that together with Fluorocarbon in cold weather and darkness, it's a challenge. Besides that, the Tour is more versatile regarding lure weights, in my opinion. With the brakes set on 6 I can switch from a 9/16 oz WP75 to a 1/4 oz squarebill, making no other adjustments whatsoever, and fire the bait out with abandon. Try that with the K without juicing up the spool tension or fiddling with brake blocks. Good luck. In my hands and the way I fish I find the Tour far more forgiving of the two when switching between typical bass baits under 3/4 oz. That said, my K now sits on a Dobyn's Champion 794SB for chucking Gantarel Jr's, Shellcraker G2s and the like, and is just outstanding in this role. Perfect. Dreamy. Look, nothing's built like a Shimano, not even Daiwa until you get into the stratosphere. Shimano is top of the food chain regarding build and smoothness. Having cracked open and serviced every reel I own, plus my brother's and beyond, there's not much to complain about with the Tour S3, even if it's not a Shimano. The drag is smooth, the thumbar/clutch has a nice positive click, it cranks pretty smoothly, it has bearings in the most important places, and is one heck of a caster. Build quality should matter, but performance in hand is what matters most. There are little things, beyond absolute build quality alone, like braking profile, that make for synergistic match ups. It's personal. That's why there are Daiwa guys and Shimano guys, but there are other players on the block. You'll never know unless you try. I'm glad I did.

I've read elsewhere that the brass gear set from the Icon PT drops into the Vapor as they use the same frame. If smoothness becomes an issue over time due to the Vapor's aluminum gear, I can give you measurement specs on the pinion and gear if you come to need them and wish to confirm before a swap. I've beaten my Icons on swimbait and frog rigs and they're remarkably smooth still. I greased them with ACE straight away and they've been butter so far. Were your samples the previous gen black and white dual brake PTs, or the white S3 with ACS 3.0 centrifugal brakes only? I've never tried either. Just curious which version disappointed. AFAIK, the current model Accurist S3 is essentially a Vapor with a flipping switch, but without a carbon handle. The 10ish gram spools are the same.

It needs to be done by someone that knows what they're doing specifically with reels. A precision machined casting cant just be painted. There are many fitment issues that need to be understood beforehand.

Here's an option. Nothing below 1/4oz, but they're small. I like them. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Eco_Pro_Tungsten_Sick_Boy_Swim_Jig_/descpage-EPSB.html

Post pics of the Tat 300 when you get one☺️

The 200's perfect for those baits. I'll have to see what the bottom limit of the 300 is with it's big spool filled with 25 lb or 30 lb BG. Could be sketchy chucking a 1 oz bait.

I've been a bit spoiled since I got my JDM Catalina, which is for the most part a USDM Zillion HD. The metal gear side sideplate with a fully supported beefy gear train feels quite a bit different in use when compared to the Tatula variants down the line. The 300 is more in line feel-wise and build-wise with the Catalina and Zillion HD. Not knowing this ahead of time didn't keep me from ordering one, but I'm happy that it turns out that this reel is built in the old school Daiwa way. The hard core Daiwa guys will probably still cry about the T-wing, even with it's improvement, but the gear train is legit. Just what you want to see if you look at schematics for fun. No tears on that note.

The 200 is on the right. The 300 looks much bigger because its not seated on the rod. Its taller for sure when seated, but it isn't huge. Not small either though. I have mitts, so I'm not bothered by larger reels. YMMV.

Just came in. Solid, smooth, and impressive in hand. Just about an hour at a pond casting 3-4 oz baits. It'll go on a Champ 867 and get a full workout this weekend with some nice bigger baits. The line guide section of the T-wing is definitely wider than the 200's shown in the pic below. I'm not a leader guy, so I really don't care, but this may satisfy the leader-knot-thru-the-T-wing issue for those that are. Its curious that Daiwa didn't flog the fact that this reel has a dual bearing supported pinion. While it doesn't use a classic free floating spool, there is a bearing on the spool's shaft. The shaft extends through the pinion into a bushing that looks to be set in the far pinion bearing. I'll know more for sure after I've cracked it open. Regardless, its an interesting twist. Whatever it is that they've done here, there seems to be little issue with friction on the cast. Baits sling way out there with the 43mm spool. Big rat wakes crank effortlessly. The 110 mm handle with big knobs adds to the overall beastly-ness. I'm diggin it.

For $30 you can drop a lower ratio gear set in for different presentations. Might take you 15 minutes tops, and that's if you stop to clip your toe nails in between. Easy and fast. Another upside is that you'll get some much needed lube on the gears. Daiwa's stingy with the grease lately.