redmeansdistortion

Excellent reel and the US market variant of the JDM Alphas 103. The differences are the level wind idler being brass and not nylon like the Alphas. Alphas also uses a duralumin drive gear to shave about half an ounce of weight. It uses a 33mm spool so any 33mm SV105 spool will fit. The wider pitch worm gear from the Alphas SV105 also fits and will speed up the level wind if you choose to use thin braid. 7.2 Alphas SV105 gears also fit. The Alphas platform is a blank slate and nearly as mod friendly as a Zillion or Steez. It makes a nice BFS candidate if you choose to go down that path. You could get 31mm spool spacers and run a PX68, Pixy Type R, or Alphas Air Stream Custom spool if you wanted.

You wouldn't believe the level of multitasking a seasoned pro with manual transmission is capable of behind the wheel. My grandpa used to be a long haul trucker. I watched that guy do more while he was rowing gears than anybody I've seen with an automatic. Eat a sandwich, sip a coffee, have a smoke, and unfold a map in his lap to find the right route. It was all second nature for him.

Something I tell people, follow through. This is the same line golf instructors use. You aren't trying to beat down a angry goose (yes, I did that once on a trout stream), but a nice fluid motion that loads the tip. As was said previously, too much jerk/snap in your casting motion will cause problems. If you go to the driving range, you can immediately tell who's a newcomer to the sport apart from the seasoned veterans. Don't focus on distance, because that will tell your brain to snap it. Start with more attainable distances according to your skill, and as you get used to it, reach out further. Aside from what I just said, next time you go fishing, take only baitcast gear with you. This will ensure that you're more mindful of your technique and skill level. There will be no other choice but to learn since you won't have a crutch (spinning reel) with you.

Something else worthy of mention, Pure Fishing JP operates independent of Pure Fishing USA. They are both under the same umbrella company, but PFJP is in full control of what they offer the Japanese market. They are what arose from the ashes of Olympic, the distributor of Abu in Japan up until 2000 when they went bankrupt. Pure Fishing bought the remaining Olympic assets and formed PFJP. Up until Sycamore Partners bought Pure Fishing in 2018, PFJP still operated like they did under Olympic. After the acquisition, Sycamore Partners cancelled all business partnerships for Abu Garcia. This is why Svangsta has closed, why we've only gotten C3/C4 rehashes, and why Abu no longer produces parts for reels made prior to 1997. Before then, Abu was still making parts for the Ambassadeur going all the way back to 1954. Some of those reels in Abu's history came with a lifetime warranty that needed to be fulfilled. Plus they supplied parts to guys like Jerry Foran and Simon Shimomura to create models of their own for sale.

Look for an old Ambassadeur Black Max 1600 or 3600. 21" per turn and the same drag stack as the larger 4000-6000 Ambassadeurs. The original Max reels were the answer to the Shimano Calcutta B, with a one piece aluminum frame and low reel foot to facilitate palming. They also have a disengaging level wind and cast pretty dang far if that's a concern of yours. The spools are light and the casting very controlled, yet capable. You can usually find these for under $50. Get a set of drag washers for $10, some blue or black brake blocks, and a set of good quality stainless bearings for another $10-$20, and you are fishing something good for under $100.

What's really interesting about the Zenon lineup is they are not priced to the moon in Japan, even if you aren't taking the exchange rate into account. For instance, the Zenon BF7 in Japan retails for 35,800 JPY, here the LTX-BFS, which is the USM equivalent runs $550, or about 85,900 JPY at the current exchange rate. Even if the exchange rate were much more in favor of the yen, it would still be considerably cheaper to buy the JDM model. Pure Fishing could lower the price considerably on many of their Doyo made reels, but to give the impression that the Zenon is their flagship lineup, they price it accordingly.

I know you've posted that reel numerous times, but today is the first time I noticed the hook keeper under the bridge screw. Very trick, love it.

That is super cool, the newest one is nothing like that. Would be a lot of fun jigging crappies over brush or gills from the docks.

One thing you will want to do with that is check the frame alignment. I evaluated three of them for a local rod builder who wanted to offer a finesse reel to go along with his rod offerings. The very first one has a loose top crossbar, the second one had a misaligned frame, and the third was ok. I did some polishing, shimming, experimented with bearings, and still couldn't get it anywhere close to my small Ambassadeurs. I heard on another site that somebody in Japan was making bar stock frames for these that made them much better, but haven't seen one yet.

The Coronet was a smelt reel if I remember right. A friend of mine bought some for ice fishing some years back, still using them. I don't know if this is the smallest, but it's the smallest that I own, Isuzu DD310SSS. 2500C for scale.

That's not on them, but their parent company, Sycamore Partners. They're in the process of relegating Abu Garcia to a brand only, with no in-house engineering or production. There was even a drive to petition the Royal Family of Sweden to step in and try to purchase Abu Garcia and keep it in Sweden, but it fell on deaf ears. Bummer.

The last Morrum we got was the ZX, made in 2014 and was on the market for about 4-5 years. The ZX 1600 Mag is the unicorn. They pop up on the Japan auction sites from time to time for $500-$600, but they are often in the $1000 range, or more for a south paw model. That lefty tax is real for these types.

Since the discontinuation of the Ambassadeur, Abu Garcia is just a brand now. How the mighty have fallen. Their low profile reels haven't been on my radar in at least 20 years, just because they aren't involved in the designs aside from badge engineering.

Black Friday sale at Hedgehog started today. I bought a SLP SV PE 700 spool and a pair of RCS finesse knobs with gunmetal caps. Going on my Millionaire CT SV. This is the same spool that comes on the recently released SLP Millionaire.

Another vote for Major Craft. I don't own any of their BFS rods, but have a fair amount of their trout rods which are about the best bang for the buck you'll find. I do own one of their more traditional bass rods, a Days 65ML and love it. While it's rated for 5-14g, it's very competent with a 3g total weight. I'm not sure how light you're wanting to go, so keep in mind that a jig and trailer will exceed that weight. I see you're in Ontario. If you're near Windsor, I'm right across the river and if you want, I'll let you check out my Days so you can get an idea.

About time you showed back up! Thanks again for the 2500CIAR brake plate.

That's your call, but carbon will wear if run dry. Over time they will wear to an opaque shine and lose their grippy texture. I personally grease my own, but I'm not a slop fisherman anyway since I'm in creeks and rivers most of the time.

They all use the nylon oscillator. I know I may get tarred and feathered saying this on the forum, but I'd choose a newer Penn model like a Spinfisher or Battle before I'd trust a Daiwa at a similar price point. Granted, they aren't as smooth, but parts are much easier to get and they use a metal oscillator. The design between them is very similar and the Daiwa is only smoother because of the lighter handle and rotor. Line lay is also fairly comparable.

Felt really isn't bad at all and can be preferable in lighter spinning tackle. Carbon has more bite and it takes more initial pull to start the spool turning, in extreme cases double what the drag is set for. Felt starts up with much less initial pull and when running light line, it's a very important attribute to have. Many 3000 and under size spinning reels still come with felt for this very reason, while their larger counterparts come with carbon. Felt will have a lower maximum drag pressure and will compress over time which makes it a consumable. Greased carbon will last much longer and is immune from compression. With carbon, finer weaves start up easier, but not as easy as felt. For a bass reel, especially something for fishing slop, I'd run a dry coarse weave. If it was for a salmon, I'd go with a greased fine weave. Just some examples of how a drag can be tailored to the fish being targeted.

Check your oscillator gear and ensure no teeth are warped, they're the weakest link of just about every Daiwa spinner out there, short of their JDM surf reels which still use a level wind. I've had plenty come into the shop this year with a warped or broken oscillator, or worse yet, having the oscillator mount broken clear from the frame. The offending models were all Tatula and Ballistic LTs. I cannot wholeheartedly recommend a Daiwa spinner and will not until they reinstate the level wind oscillation or use a more durable material instead of nylon. Daiwa used the level wind most recently in two models, the SS Tournament and Exist. The SS Tournament went out of production 3 years ago after a 35 year run, and the design for the Exist adopted the nylon spur gear oscillator 2 or 3 generations back.

Cog wheel has some teeth broken/malformed. When that happens, you get the whine as the teeth aren't meshing correctly with the spool pinion or worm gear. Those don't give up the ghost often, usually happens if something gets caught in the level wind. The cog being nylon instead of metal is a safety feature, it's meant to break if something like a finger gets caught in the level wind. I have plenty of spares if you need one.

https://zikuuke.shop35.makeshop.jp/

Those are their CRBBs, also made by NMB. At this moment they are priced at 400 JPY at the Bearing Store, while the DDL/DDR series of bearings is at 220 JPY. They're still stainless, but with an added coating that helps them better withstand corrosion.

Daiwa, Shimano, Isuzu, and Doyo models all use NMB bearings from the factory. NMB really are excellent bearings, but there is a catch, they are shipped to manufacturers with a light grease applied. According to NMB specification sheets, they are filled to 30% of the internal volume with grease. That grease makes them quiet, but also hinders performance when used for baitcast spool bearings. I run them exclusively on all of my reels and they really fly. I have better results with them than I have Hedgehog Air/Air BFS, Boca, and various Roro offerings. With mine, I remove the shields and give a through cleaning. When I lube them, I spin them until they quiet down and blow out excess with compressed air. This is how NMB ships their bearings, notice the grease. These are brand new bearings just as I received them, shields removed. Here they are after cleaning. I feel in many instances, where people see the benefit of an aftermarket bearing is simply because their previous experience is with factory installed greased bearings. They're used to that lack of performance, so receiving a clean bearing can feel like an upgrade. NMBs are cheap because they're the world's biggest bearing manufacturer by volume, supplying over half of the mission critical bearings the world over. These same bearings are used in high speed precision tools, dental tools, and sensitive instruments like aircraft instrumentation panels. Buying domestically, they run about $5-$8 each depending on where you get them. Importing from Japan in bulk, they run less than $2 each.

That used to be me, haven't fished on the ice in a couple of decades though. Lake St Clair just doesn't get ice like it used to. Guys break through often, back then it was a rarity. We would have walkable ice by Christmas and drivable ice by February. Ice would stick around until early April. Ice season here now lasts about 4-6 weeks, usually early January until mid February. Back in the day you had a good 10-12+ weeks of viable ice. We still get the occasional season where the ice is good, but it's very sporadic and not the norm that it used to be. In those days me and my friend would get our limit, fillet 100 perch and have a good old Midwestern fish fry the next day.