Bass Rutten

I was just curious, looks like a beast of a reel.

@ATA For swimbaits?

Never owned or used one, just curious about your application, when and how you fish them, and what weights you use for what depths, setups you use for them, rod/reel/line etc.

A good 'ol fashioned ritualistic dance usually does it for me, other boats steering clear for about a thousand yard radius is a nice little bonus

My 80 wasn't great out of the box, but after fresh grease and a bearing flush, it casted like a champ. Might be worth a try before springing for bearings.

Yep, it's the stock spool from the older 2016 model.

Unfortunately, it could be a while, every rod I own is on the other side of the country. What interested me in it is that it's stated as being fluorocarbon safe due to its wall thickness, and has a two stage braking system like daiwas boost.

It'll be going into a zillion. It's the stock spool from the older steez svtw, and weighs in 2g lighter than the stock zillion spool. Reports are generally glowing and raves about control and lighter bait handling. I've yet to use it.

Performance wise they're similar, the 80 is a little more finesse oriented with less line capacity and drag power.

Tapped out and pulled the trigger on this for one of my alphas 800's...

Might be worth a shot to send a private message, he may have email notifications enabled for them.

Not sure you'll get an answer, he hasn't been logged in for almost 3 years. On topic I moved on and sold off my 80 several years back when I picked up a pair of then new 3rd gen tat100s (jdm). They are just as smooth, and the ergonomics are as good as the 80, although slightly fuller in hand, but noticeably more compact than zillion. They've been nothing short of the best reel value I've ever stumbled upon considering the $120 I paid for them brand new.

I've found that split ring pliers are perfect to open up the line tie, just "pin" it through where the line goes through and pull on the weight and the triangular wedge part splits it open perfectly with no damage, pliers for larger rings work better.

It's been a minute, but I was curious what your experience was with the clutch. I'm interested mostly in the taper and how it fishes cranks at the lower end of its weight range, and if the guides will be a problem for a braid to leader.

I’m not big on the deeper cranking stuff but I love me some squarebilling! Typically the 3-5ft range is squarebill territory. Technique is most important here, chuck and wind ‘em and bang ‘em on any and every piece of hard cover you can find, laydowns and dockposts etc. also bang them along hard bottoms, run em along any edges even rip them out of weeds. I don’t just straight crank them; crank/pause crank/pause twitch twitch, pull/pause/pull etc. mix it up, they’re made for speed and reaction bites and the more random and erratic the better ime. There’s lots of them, can’t go wrong with an old standby and one of my favorites the og lucky craft LC1.5, my other fave being the megabass s-crank, nice but expensive. Other good ones are the berkley squarebull and the under the radar sk hybrid hunter. As for the setup, contrary to popular belief I don’t buy into the need for a proper “cranking” setup (ie moderate action) for this part of the water column. I use a 7ft medium power/fast action st croix rod with a soft tip for casting, I like to get into the backbone fast around cover, and I like a more powerful hookset than you can get with your typical moderate cranking rod. I roll with a 7ish geared reel and 10 sometimes 12lb yo-zuri copoly. I also use this setup for mid-divers in the 6-10ft range, any deeper then you probably do want to go more moderate on the rod. Also on youtube there’s a video called “Rick Clunn and the history of the squarebill”, it’s a very cool and informative video about its beginnings and how it evolved. Good luck to you sir.

POWER finesse

A bit off topic, I currently use a 7' st croix avidx med/fast for squarebills and mid-divers like the dt-6/8, and with the 873bjr being seemingly a little light in the power department could this actually make for a good cranking rod? Is there a bit of moderation in the taper or is it closer to a traditional fast action?Wondering how soft that tip is.

Please tell me your spool is not sitting in a powerbait egg container 🤣

Finally got one...

So I managed to finally find a brand new 1016sv spool from Japan Tackle and paid a ghastly $89, oh you want it shipped too? That'll be another $33.98 ugh. Then dhl hits me up today, sure we'll deliver it, right after you pay us another $20.53 (15%), yep I paid $143.51 for a spool for my zillion. I better be able to cast over them mountains...

[distant ooh ooh ahh ahh noises]

After years trying to plug holes in my quiver I ultimately just settled on optimizing my setups for my 5+/- favorite confidence lures or techniques. I find my fishing experience much more enjoyable this way instead of trying to cover every inevitability. Here's an old stickie thread you may find helpful https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/130634-rod-selection-the-basics/ Basically a Bottom contact setup (jigs/worms), a cranking setup, and a finesse setup should cover around 75% of bass fishing scenarios. From what I can tell your picks should serve you well and then some. I'd add just the cranking setup, then just fish and let the waters tell you what you need.

There's no better way to shorten the life span of fluoro than to stretch it.

Swimbaits are in regular rotation anywhere I go, been looking for an excuse to try out the rapala mayors.