newapti5

It's a nice paint job, but personally I don't quite understand the popular obsession with this particular color. I call it "vomit green".

If this happened every time you tried some fluoro, then it's not the line; it's very likely the line was kinked somehow, maybe by a chipped line guide. Fluoro line is notorious for that, because as others mentioned, any kink or sharp bend in the line will weaken it. And this is why normal knots that suit mono or braids won't work well with fluoro. I highly recommend the double improved clinch knot. I regained confidence in fluoro lines because of it, and it's the knot Seaguar recommends:

I got a couple of new rods in the winter, like one Legend Xtreme and a new Tatula rod. Reel wise, I am going backwards: a T3 SV, a first gen Steez, and a Z2020 are 10+ years old, a CV-Z 105 is 20 years old. I also got a couple of Shimano Cores I want to try out. They are all cleaned, re-greased, repaired/upgraded, ready to go.

If you don't care much about line diameter, Seaguar STS leader may be a better choice than Blue Label. It's thicker but more abrasion resistant, and the price is a lot lower. Especially if you're using 15lb+ leader material, I believe STS and Blue Label have the same diameter for 15lb and up.

With. That Tournament Pro has the P2 feature, which consists of one bearing and one bushing. Like other suggested, the bushing serves no major purpose. Only after upgrading that bushing to a bearing, that reel really has a dual supported pinion gear.

That's actually quite true with its original bushing, as the bushing inner diameter is larger than 8mm. After I changed it to a 8x12x3.5 bearing on my Tournament Pro, the tolerance is much better, and I did notice an improvement on durability.

The majority of my current Daiwa reels were models of at least 10 years old, and I only kept 5-6 new models. For Shimano though, it's the other way around.

From my experience, the dual-supported pinion gear is not a feature that triumphs in all reels of all brands, but in Lew's reels, I did feel the difference in smoothness and durability. So if I were picking up a Lew's reel, I'd definitely go with P2 features. Not all P2 features are the same though. Some models use a bearing and a bushing, the higher end ones use two bearings. You could always upgrade the bushing to a bearing, which I recall is the standard 8x12x3.5mm size.

When done properly, lacquer is another great option:

Out of the three major line types, I feel like fluoro is the one you get what you paid for. Some budget friendly mono and braids are quite good, but I have never tried a budget friendly fluoro that outperformed or matched more expensive ones. I think that's one of the reasons people are turning away from fluoro, too much preliminary investment before you get to the good ones.

Yes, they are the same size bearings as my 16 Tatula CT's. As for Boca bearing website info, here's the page: https://www.bocabearings.com/products/bearingapps/fishing-reel-bearings

This is the only Daiwa reel that uses the so-called Hypermesh, a gear design similar to Shimano's MicorModule. Not sure why they discontinued it. I have the Crazy Cranker low gear ratio version, and it's quite smooth.

I know where you found that deal😉, as I was tempted as well. The spool is relatively light, but I don't need a spool that deep. It's for heavy lures and heavy lines, which I don't use much. The reel should be very smooth though; I have a similar Quantum reel.

Boca bearing website has many fishing reels bearing sizes. For Tatulas, spool bearings are 3x8x4 and 3x10x4, and the pinion bearing is 8x12x3.5. These are the three bearings that often need change/upgrade. IMO ceramic bearings are good for performance and maintenance, but you're sacrificing quietness and smoothness. It's a trade-off, not an upgrade.

Am I the only one who enjoy both Tackle Advisor's and Reel Test's channel? Heck, I subscribed to all of them, and Randy's, Roland and Scott Martin's, Ike's, NDYakAngler's, TacticalBassin's, Glenn's, ... I even enjoy some of the Googan early ones. I know some of them may be "controversial" to others, but I learned all about fishing and tackles from the Internet, and I find all of them entertaining on different levels. I am no pro, so I kept reminding myself: don't take yourself too seriously and stay humble; don't take fishing and tackles too seriously. After all, they're just hobby entertainment to me.