Bass Rutten

On one of my mh rods I use backing to minimize amount of braided line used, not necessarily to prevent slipping. To maintain the lightest possible spool weight on my two bfs setups I do without backing, three wraps around the spool finished with an arbor knot won't slip with braided line. You could also put a tiny strip of electrical tape on the spool if you're worried about slippage.

I agree, there's some inconsistency and some of their webpages don't go into as much detail. See the link below for the zillion and scroll down the overview which describes the hyper armed housing feature in more detail. The double pinion support is called hyper double support and I believe is only on the reels from the zillion on up. https://daiwa.us/collections/baitcasting-reels/products/zillion-sv-tw-1

On daiwas website, the metal side plate is part of the hyper armed housing feature set.

Yes it does.

I hesitate to make a recco since I don't own both, so I'll just say I've never wanted for more distance with the tat100, especially with a frog which is a short to medium distance lure for me, and the hyperdrive gearset is a bonus.

The elite is distance tuned and one of the longer casting daiwas, the 24 tat 100 has stronger braking but is still no slouch when it comes to distance,

I wrote a response thinking you were referring to the regular tatula so I deleted it. I don't have an elite but I have a tat 100 with an elite spool, just keep in mind they're tuned for distance. I'd choose the regular tat100 over the elite just for the hyperdrive gears.

I second the dirty jigs SC compact jig, one of my favorites. Available in 5/16, 7/16, & 9/16 only though. They used to make it in 3/16oz too but discontinued it about a year ago, luckily I stocked up before they were gone.

Straight braid for punching or heavy cover, braid to leader (1 rod length) for t-rig for my bfs setups for light/med cover. Co-poly or fluoro for all other t-rig fishing, no right wrong or better, just what works for me, except when it doesn't lol

Just a few of my own opinions, observations, and preferences... Neko over shakyhead for soft bottom areas and vegetation. All things equal it has more action, fishes shallower, falls slower and differently than shakyhead. Shakyhead over neko for wood and cleaner, deeper, and harder bottoms, except chunk rock. Fishes deeper, subtler, and faster (if necessary) than neko. Wacky - Anywhere and everywhere, throw at targets, too slow for covering water, I far prefer flickshake which can be fished faster and/or deeper. Ned - Clear clean water, typically more smallmouth oriented. Free rig - I dabbled but gave up on it.

I own kistlers, daiwas, and st croixs. The last few years I've been fanboying on kistler as I own 4 heliums. I had a chance to handle a few of the new tatulas yesterday and was pleasantly surprised, they're at the top of the list for my next rod purchase.

@RRocket Oh man that dolive stick has been on my radar for a while, just haven't got around to it. What's your favorite ways to rig it?

Giving up the juice here... a few years back I figured out that a straight retrieve with a soft jerkbait rigged with a light keel weighted hook gives it a subtle glide bait like hunting action. I then discovered that, just like a glide, when retrieved with little reel bumps it enhanced that action even further, I use this retrieve around shallow vegetation. Just another little trick to add to the bag to show them something different.

As does Netbait. I've caught many a bass on the t-mac finesse worm in okee craw.

A pitbull of a mayan cichlid, an absolute handful and so much fun on bfs. 4/19/25 Lake Ida, Florida

I'd send it back for correction, the bass are confused enough as it is.

Well after some time comparing the stock and elite spool in the 24 tat100 (with 12lb yozuri hybrid) I can say they are same in capacity but definitely behave differently. Weight wise they are very close with the elite weighing slightly more by about .2gm, but the biggest difference is the inductor spring which in the elite spool is stiffer making it noticeably faster and longer casting. A downside is more difficult skipping requiring pumping up the brakes considerably, and my guess is that with fluoro it may become very wild, but I found with the yzh it made for more distance than I'll ever need and long easy pitches, which is around 90% of how I fish. Nice to have choices at the swap of a spool, like having two reels in one

Which size you collecting? You can buy the fat rap 5 on tackle warehouse right now.

You're going to love that tatula.

I can't imagine a must have bass fishing lure list without some kind of soft plastic worm, preferrably for me a 6-7in straight tail finesse worm. Quite possibly the most versatile lure in existence. It can be fished so many ways - weightless, wacky rig, flickshake, neko rig, texas rig, carolina rig, mojo rig, splitshot rig, dropshot, jigworm, shakyhead, and probably a few more.

I can't imagine a must have bass fishing lure list without some kind of soft plastic worm, preferrably for me a 6-7in straight tail finesse worm. Quite possibly the most versatile lure in existence. It can be fished so many ways - weightless, wacky rig, flickshake, neko rig, texas rig, carolina rig, mojo rig, splitshot rig, dropshot, jigworm, shakyhead, and probably a few more.

Yes and yes. A stiffer spring means less braking at given spool speed, it's faster and requires a bit more of an educated thumb as they say, the complete opposite of an sv spool.

Stiffer inductor spring on the tat elite spool, fishes very differently imo, see my comment above

No experience with the elite reel, but I did recently put an elite spool into a 3rd gen tat100 (the original post is over 4 years old and referred to the 2nd gen tat100). The tat100's stock and the elite spool are same in size and capacity, but the elite definitely has a stiffer inductor spring which I can physically feel when pulling on them, I find the difference in performance between them in the 3rd gen tat100 to be significant. With the bearings flushed and oiled with tsi321 the distance casting with the tat100/elite spool is crazy good, but it's the distance to effort ratio in the pitching performance that really stands out for me as I'd say close to 90% of my fishing is pitching to targets.