redmeansdistortion

Keep in mind some of the JDM 2000 size reels are often a 1000 with a larger spool. The rest remains the same with the exception of the handle in some cases. The 1000 spools are usually designed for razor thin #0.2 to #0.4 line and fishing for smelt, horse mackerel, and area (stocked) trout. With the 2000s, those are intended for #0.4 to #0.6 and geared more towards wild trout and rockfish. This is part of the allure of Japanese reels for me, they seem to be more specialized whereas US market stuff tends to take on a one size fits most approach.

I think they do that for most of their 500 sized reels. The larger Soare models are worm drive like the Vanford and Stella as well.

The spool on the OG Black Max weighs only 10g, which was a feather back in '91 when the reel came out. I bought a couple from you some years back, they'll throw 3/16 Hot n Tots for steelhead really well. I haven't tried anything lighter, but I fully feel they'll throw in the 1/8 range.

Angler Saito is a very skilled trout fisherman. He runs glass rods made by Anglo and Company. Most of his reels look pretty tricked out having a multitude of Avail parts. It's very easy to empty the wallet doing up a 2500C. For poops and grins, I added all the Avail stuff to my cart on Hedgehog Studio and I was over $700 including the low profile frame, and that doesn't include the reel itself. The rods he runs cost anywhere from $900 on up. Anglo rods are built to order. One guy I talk to on another forum bought one and the lead time was almost a year. I won't lie, I'd love to do up a combo like that myself but it just isn't in the cards at this time with another kid on the way.

Yes indeed!

For bass fishing, I run it on a 6'6" ML 1/8-1/2 JDM Daiwa Blazon and throw a lot of flukes and senkos, both unweighted and weighted, plus small top water baits. Most of what I'm throwing on that rod is in the 1/8 to 7/16 range and it does great. This is with the factory spool. For trout, I swap to my SLP shallow spool and run it on my Silver Creek Glass Progressive throwing small minnow style hard baits in the 1/16 to 3/16 range. I should add, the factory spool is lighter than the SLP spool, but I like to run #0.8 and #1.0 diameter lines for trout, and putting backer on a deeper spool and topping it off with thin braid will add unnecessary weight. If one were to fish the factory spool with something like 20lb braid, it'll be more than enough and cast well down to about 3g give or take. I can throw 1/16 countdowns on the factory spool with 20lb braid, and those weigh 2.7g.

The other part of the equation is spool diameter. Many of those old reels with the slower gears had large spools. Larger diameter spools pick up more line.

Mostly preference. The newer round reels aren't the same as the ones our fathers and grandfathers fished with, they have a low reel foot to facilitate palming. Years ago the round reels sat higher and rods with recessed reel seats were used to make palming more comfortable. Round reels will never palm as good as a low profile, but they are very solidly built and balance better with more rods.

The Millionaire CT is very palm friendly and not large at all. It weighs marginally more than the Conquest BFS. Here they are side by side. The Conquest does palm a bit better due to it having a smaller diameter palm side plate, but the Millionaire is much more pleasant to fish with. It's the smoothest reel I own.

It really is a fantastic reel too, probably my favorite in my arsenal.

What combo did you have before? If you had one of the Chinese reels, they tend to take a bit of effort dialing them in before they get to throwing consistently. If you want to buy something new, the exchange rate between the yen and dollar is outstanding at the moment. You can spend a lot less money at this point in time. The reels I feel are worth looking at right now are the Alphas Air TW, Gekkabijin Air TW PE, Millionaire CT SV, Calcutta Conquest BFS, and '22 Aldebaran BFS. If you're on a budget, the SLX BFS is currently running ~$150, and it's almost the same reel as the Curado BFS outside of the color scheme and a few other minor details. For a little background on the exchange rate, a year ago I paid $400 for my Calcutta Conquest BFS, right now you can get it for ~$330 or so. The Millionaire CT SV also runs in that price range.

Heck yeah, get yourself one. It never hurts to add to your arsenal and learn something new at the same time. Yes, there is definitely a learning curve, but I can imagine the reels now are far easier to learn on than the stuff I learned with a few decades ago. As mentioned above, the Fuego CT would be a good reel to learn on, but the SLX is also another good option. Those two reels fall into the same price bracket and punch well above their price point, most of all they are workhorse reels. They will take abuse day after day and still get the job done.

I too am mostly a bank/wade fisherman and usually carry only one rod, and it's either a L or ML as most of my baits fall into that category. I prefer mobility over choice. It's much easier carrying one rod and a small box with an assortment of baits I know work well.

They really have the style down to near perfection, in my eyes anyway. Most of my JDM rods have wooden reel seats and are adorned with rather beautiful hardware. I've paid as little as $120 and as much as $400 for the JDM rods I own and they all are set up this way. On USM rods, you get....plastic. Plastic is perfectly functional and comfy, but aesthetically it's pretty dang boring. Even more upmarket USM offerings can't get away from plastic. Granted, they may use plastic for the weight savings, but every single one of my JDM rods is as light or lighter than their USM St Croix counterparts.

Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated. I got some woven flax fiber sheets I intend to try for drag material, just haven't gotten around to punching washers yet. I got some 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 1mm sheets from a place in Colorado that builds race car components from it. It's a more rigid material and better vibration dampening characteristics than carbon fiber. The jury is out on how well it will or will not work for drag material, but experimenting will be fun.

This makes me genuinely curious. How do you increase drag capacity without increasing surface area? I was always under the impression the two were mutually exclusive. Does the other material have a more coarse weave making it less inclined to slip or something? If so, wouldn't that hamper smoothness?

Welcome! Recently moved to Hale in Iosco County, but spent 40-ish years living in Macomb County.

I do run backer on my deeper spooled reels, but for the shallower spools I don't use any backing. Instead, I go 4 wraps around the spool and terminate with a uni-knot. Cinch it down good and it isn't moving anywhere.

I service reels for a man by the name of Jim Bedford, probably the most famous trout fisherman in Michigan. He has written many books which are available on Amazon. When we first spoke, he mentioned to me that when he bought his Cardinal 3 back in '75, he bought another for a backup just in case his failed. That backup reel is still sitting on the shelf in his home unopened. The one he fishes with is beat to crap, much of the paint is worn from the rotor and the body has its fair share of paint chips, but it keeps on trucking along 47 years later. You can see that one in this video. He sends it to me every winter.

I affectionately refer to this one as my Creek Sniper, Alphas CT SV 6.3 with a 4.5g AMO spool, Roro bearings, and drag clicker. I run this on a 4'2" Major Craft Finetail Stream Glass mostly throwing Pins Minnows, Snap Beans, Euro nymphs, and Z-Vibers. It's the fastest starting spool I've ever used. Lures fished on this are in the 1g to 2g range. This reel usually sees action in the little trickles running through the forest. Most people would pass them off as a ditch, but smallies and mighty nice trout hide in them.

Since we're on the subject of spinners, here's my favorite. It has an Avail shallow spool, IOS Factory bail springs, IOS Factory silent AR ratchet, IOS Factory SiC line roller, and a custom made (by me) carbon drag.

This guy right here, it's such a pleasure to fish.

6'4" L for me with 6lb mono, works really well.

Facts! I've never had to wait longer than 4 business days.

I wouldn't think so. I believe that niche is already occupied by the Alphas SV TW on the Japanese market.