newapti5

Couldn't agree more. 8oz is fine; let's put some brass gears and metal parts back in the reels.

Yeah, spending $230 for a Tatula is a bit much. Take the JDM route; there're so many options for much less. I just got an Alphas CT SV in mint condition for just $120. For your choice of lures, I believe the new Alphas SV 800, or the old Alphas SV, Alphas CT SV, they all would be perfect for that, while keeping the budget under $200. And they are superior reels than any Tatulas, design or performance wise. Or like you said, you could get a $35 third party finesse spool for your current Tatulas. They perform pretty well for light lures.

Daiwa starts printing schematics on the boxes for some reels. Also, I use them for reel storage in off season, so they don't have to collect dust for several months with the level wind worm gear exposed. During resale, it's safe for shipping as well.

There are plenty of second-handed 16 zillion for sale on eBay and similar Japan sites. For a little over $100, you can get one in pretty decent condition. I just saw one with zero scratch, AND a steez 1012 spare spool for only $150. So, IMO $180 for a new 16 zillion is an ok deal, not a great deal.

Yes but it's only one bearing one bushing kind of "P2" pinion support, which can be upgraded to dual bearing.

I'd choose the MP. It's only one bearing upgrade away from being a dual bearing supported pinion gear reel.

Yes I'm quite satisfied with the Super Natural. I wonder what the difference is between it and Defier Armilo that justifies the big price jump.

It depends. Do you want line stretch or not? Do you want extra abrasion resistance or not? Do you care about line memory/stiffness or not? ... IMO there's no one line that fits all, except maybe Tatsu.

Yes, I tend to believe that it's when the brake force at its minimum, such as the second half of the cast on a centrifugal brake reel, or a low trajectory cast during pitching, the precision of bearings will play a role in casting distance and ease. But even so, clean regular ABEC-5 SS bearings will suffice in most cases. I sometimes upgrade my reels bearings to ceramic hybrid only for the sake of maintenance free as I am lazy.

Shimano's stocking bearings are pretty good, but the best stainless steel SPOOL bearings I've used are a pair of Japan ISC bearings, 3x10x4 and ready for any Shimano reels. Without lubrication, they are the quietest and fastest; a gentle spin could easily last over 2 minutes, in total silence. But then again, what is the point of having these superb bearings on a baitcasting reel? Other than BFS, we actually don't need spool bearings of that kind of precision. I would rather trade bearing precision for durability and maintenance convenience.

Resale? I'm surprised no one has mentioned that yet. You guys must be like:

Never used the other two, but XPlasma is finesse oriented. Thin, extremely slick, not very soft, so-so abrasion resistance.

There's a limit what regular oiling and basic cleaning can do. Like others said, sometimes you just need to have it professionally serviced.

I have tried Gliss, YGK, Xplasma Asegai, etc., but the furthest casting braid line I have used is this less known Japanese Momoi Ryujin: http://momoifishing.jp/en/products/pe#sec-ryujin It's crazy smooth and very thin for each tensile strength, but naturally, the abrasion resistance isn't that good. It's more suitable for open water, but this line will DEFINITLY fly better than the other lines.

I could be wrong, but I am under the impression that we are not supposed to put oil or grease (or maybe only a tiny bit of them) into Shimano's AR bearing?

I may have some trouble understanding this method. Let's assume the pinion gear has 12 teeth. If the number of teeth on the main gear can be divided evenly by 12, say 72 teeth for a perfectly 6.0:1 gear ratio reel, that means each pinion gear tooth will only touch/mesh with 6 certain teeth on the main gear, FOREVER. In this case, yes, indexing the main gear and pinion gear would be helpful to maintain the smoothness. But in any other cases than that, each pinion gear tooth would have chance to mesh with EVERY tooth on the main gear. It just seems pointless to index the gears in these cases, especially since almost all the reels on the market now have an un-even number of gear ratio, like 6.3:1 or 7.4:1.

I know it's a bit early this year, but... is it coming? @Siebert Outdoors

IMO this trend of chasing faster reels is mainly caused by reel makers' marketing needs and promotions rather than anglers' demand. They just keep telling young anglers "faster is better," through numerous pros and promoters. Now 7 speed is new norm and 6 speed is considered slow. It won't surprise me that 8 speed would become the standard speed and 6 speed would slowly disappear.

They also have a lot of Daiwa parts for close-out prices. Perfect timing, just when I need to replace a sideplate.

NP, with so many factors to consider, I got sidetracked sometimes as well.

15lb on baitcaster might be OK for weightless worms, but is a bit light for jigs IMO, unless you only use micro jigs. Besides the dig-in problem, with some usage and abrasion on the line, one backlash in midair could break it. For my jig/worm setup, 20lb braid or 12lb fluoro is minimum.

Hmm, didn't know that. Will give it a try, thanks! Yes that's what I did, but not sure how well it'll hold though.

NOT too hard when tighten the sideplate screws. Even after I kept telling meself "not too hard, not too hard...," still this happened. It still holds for now, but not sure for how long.

Gen 4 Revo used to have IVCB-6L; the "L" stands for "lockable" I guess. You can lock/unlock each brake arm but the mechanism is sort of flimsy.

Why not both? Only kids make choices