Phil77

I think the Hypermag is their best reel. My only gripe is not having it in a 6 gear ratio for spinnerbaits. Mine is dedicated to square bills and has a couple hundred bass on it with no issues.

Cardiff or Calcutta.

That's odd to have bad bearings, I have a couple of greenies and a few Chronarch E's that have thousands of casts on their original bearings. I flush and lube them once a year.

Thanks for the update, just ordered a CC200. I will be sure to check the bearings before spooling it. Did he replace the bearings with stock shimano's or aftermarket ones?

7M for square bills and traps 7'6 MH for down to 15-20 Below 20 not worth my time, more productive with a shakey head or Tokyo rigged paddle tail.

I don't trust fluoro for my glide baits. I like Berkley BG or P-Line CXX 15# and up. If I was going to use fluoro it would be Sunline as I have found it to be one of the stronger fluoro's available.

You don't need the top tier reels to be successful. Fish what you can afford. When you find the platform you like most of the top end reels are just higher bearing count versions of the lower end models with a fancy finish.

No experience with the SP but do have the SLX MGL. The SLX is not a bad reel, I just prefer the ACB brakes over the SVS. It's a cheap way to get into the MGL reels to see if you like them. Doesn't palm as well as an SLP to me but it's very smooth like a Curado on the retrieve.

Might try dadsoletackle.com. it's not ideal but I've bent a staple to use as a bearing retainer before. Good luck.

I like you can afford to fish the top of the line reels if I choose, I have over the last twenty years. I simply prefer Lew's nowadays and that could all change at the drop of a hat, still love my Shimano's but the Lews are more comfortable to fish all day for me. For context I've had two Steez's that both had the infamous click/tick and dry bearings out of the box, took down completely and still couldn't find the issue so sold them and wont ever buy another Daiwa. Never had an issue with Shimano in almost twenty years, would still use them exclusively if they didn't abandon VBS. I have had a couple of issues with my Lews reels, one was my fault but they sent me the parts for free including spare spools so that made me choose them for now. To each their own and get out and fish.

That's the way to go until you see if you like it. I started out with a meat hunter that had a 3/4 to 4oz rating and it did fine.

ereplacementparts.com or mikesreelrepair.com. Might try shimanos site if it's still under warranty.

No experience with the quantum, have a slx mgl which is probably close to the same size as the 151. Not a bad reel but I'd take the lews for the price. If it's the silver model with cork knobs that is an excellent reel, has the 4 pin ACB which works great.

The Cardiff will be fine, might see if Dobyns has a 7'4H - 8H in your price range. I like the Huddleston Deluxe but that's quite a bit more.

For the price those reels should be flawless, hope its an easy fix.

How? You don't have to make any internal adjustments with the ACB it's all done with the external dial.

Nice reel. Is it IDC-5 or 4x8DC? The IDC-5 can bomb braid on any setting on my scorpion, haven't played 2ith a 4x8DC in a long time. Go get some cheap Berkley solutions braid and try it in the backyard, worst case scenario is ten bucks and some time wasted.

The SLX MGL is still a chunky reel, the Curado 200k has an excellent profile and palms very well for me. Look on Asian portal on ebay, they have great prices on JDM Shimano's.

If it's only doing it on the retrieve you've got binding or friction coming from somewhere. My only calcutta is a 20 year old 100 so I'm sure it's a completely different design. Are you sure it's not over filled with line, almost sounds like the spool scraping the reel seat. Handle is on the wrong side too.

I have eight combos in the rod locker and four or five on deck. If one runs out of line i have another one ready to go.

I used nothing but Shimano for almost twenty years, cant say one bad thing about them except I'm not a fan of the SVS brake system. I still love all my Shimano's but the Lews work just as well and palm better for me. If you don't want to buy one of their high end models try the Curado MGL. You cant go wrong with either company, If Shimano brings back the old VBS system or had a true external adjusting centrifugal brake system like the Lews ACB I would be using their reels only. The Aldebaran, and Metainium can flip/pitch/skip very well but they are expensive compared to the SP. I would get a custom lite for your flip/pitch/skipping needs.

Got my two best old reels their annual clean and lube tonight.

I have a dozen Lews reels and all of them came ready to fish out of the box, even the brake ring on the centrifugal models come oiled. I thought daiwa Thailand was the only one shipping dry reels.

I just tape my braid to the spool with electric tape. I don't backlash very often and when I do I catch it before it blows up to bad. I prefer the kiss method, no leaders or backing and it's worked well for me. The biggest thing that has helped me over the years is to ignore the marketing and what the pros do on tv and just go fishing. A jig is almost impossible to fish wrong, hop it or drag it, or swim it and eventually you will find a willing bass to eat it.

If you have the brakes up high it won't backlash. The main function of it is letting off the thumb bar to stop the cast to place your bait more precisely. I think, or that's the best I can come up with. Like I said before it's easier for me to do it without the switch. Yeah that's why I only use it for jigs right now. Don't like to go slow when pulling them out of heavy cover. The 8 gear ratio helps horse them in and haven't had one outrun me yet.