newapti5

The one on the left seems more like the o'shaughnessy style hook instead of EWG, and the one on the right is more like the common round bend style. In general, round bend hooks have a better chance to hook a fish than o'shaughnessy hooks, but once the fish is already hooked, traditional o'shaughnessy hooks have a better chance to keep it hooked.

100 will be fine. 200 is for 1/2 - 2 oz lures IMO.

For ar bearings, you don't have to tear them apart to clean it. After cleaning, just apply a couple drops of oil from the inner rim, where you can see all the tiny pillars. Use a q tip or small brush to make sure the oil is applied evenly. That's about it. As long as it doesn't slip after that, you're good; otherwise, you can wipe clean the oil and do it again. For bearing cleaning, I find an ultrasonic cleaner very efficient. Several minutes of ultrasonic cleaning with acetone do a better job than an overnight acetone soak. As for levelwind, some believe oil is better, as grease attracts dirt. But that means you'll need to apply oil to it on every trip. As a lazy person, I use grease on them, and so far so good.

On this reel, spool bearings are the two #24, which should be lubricated with thin oils. 68 and 26 are the pinion support bearings, and 28 is the main shaft bearing. These three bearings can be lubricated with grease or oil; the choice is yours. Whichever you choose, just don't overfill 68 and 26 with lubricants, as they may spill inside the pinion gear and on the spool shaft. That would affect the casting. Anti Reverse bearing is #31, the big one. You may not be able to remove it from the frame for deep cleaning. In that case, you can either soak it in Simple Green with the frame, or just fill it with a few drops of clean oil to flush out any debris. After wiping clean all the oil along with debris, you only need to apply maximum two drops of oil in it. This bearing is a bit tricky - both too much oil and too little oil would cause it to slip. For this generation of Curado/Scorpion, I believe Shimano recommends against putting oil in that AR bearing during regular maintenance. But I find that after deep cleaning, a drop of oil or two inside would be beneficial and necessary. Good luck and have fun!

Any part that sees metal-to-metal friction should have grease on, but grease will hinder rotation speed. So for me, spool bearings and the AR bearing are the only parts that see oil. You can put oil in other bearings as well, to achieve a free rolling feeling, but I personally prefer longer-lasting grease in those bearings.

Is that 30 size spool truly capable of 2-3 gram BFS stuff? I wonder if it could surpass the '22 Aldebaran BFS in casting.

I have only used 20# on baitcasters. Maybe "poor" was a strong word, but the casting distance was just so-so. When I thumbed it, I could feel the braid was not that smooth after it got wet. Really great abrasion resistance and tensile strength though.

Perfect excuse to upgrade to a Zillion rod😉

I have a 7'2 Tatula full cork rod, and a couple of the old models. None of them have that problem. I believe it's a tiny manufacturing defect. Exchange a new one if that matters to you.

Spring time heavy rain would bring more fish to tributary creeks for spawning. When the river is heavily flooded and local tributary creeks water levels stay the same, it is the golden opportunity to fish the creek mouths.

I used tooth brushes and Dawn to clean reel parts, except bearings, which go with acetone and ultrasonic cleaner. For extra dirty parts, I use Simple Green sometimes. Like DVT said, it's not about the cleaning materials, it's about how often you clean it. Don't wait until the grease is all dry or you feel the grinding already.

Tried it several times. Impressive breaking strength but poor casting, coating not smooth enough I guess. Gave the rest of the spool away.

Yes, they are to make the drag smoother when under heavy load. Not really matters much for reels under 4000 size IMO.

Just one? As a Daiwa fanboy, I do like Shimano's Metanium series:

That's a wide range of lure weights. 1/4-1 oz MH would be better suited for the chatter baits you mentioned, but it won't be the best for 1/8-1/4 trigs. BTW, Tatula XT rods are a little tip heavy. I would suggest the regular Tatula rods.

Many, but you will need a proxy - a Japan agent who makes the purchase and handles the shipping on your behalf, in exchange for a small service fee. There're many proxies as well, and the one I use is buyee.jp. It constantly gives out coupons for Mercari, the largest Japan online flea market.

Not just reels, I ordered many stuff from Ali on weekly basis. My most recent purchase is a smart watch $100 cheaper than Amazon's, and it's exactly the same thing. Ali is like Chinese version of eBay, which means Ali itself doesn't sell anything; it only provides a platform for Chinese sellers. I hate to say this but just like eBay, it has scammers sellers, and Ali has done little to ban them. For example, if you search flash drives/thumb drives, you'll find tons of fake ones claiming to be 18T, 20T capacity, which is unheard of. Ali reels sellers, on the other hand, seem to be mostly legit, but I'd still use common sense when ordering: if the deal is too good to be true, or the seller has a lower than normal rating, stay away. Reading the comment sections definitely helps as well.

Crazy deals, but this is like winning lottery. I think I have better chance browsing through Japan online flea market sites.

I do agree on a slow jerkbait reel. My favorite jerkbait reel is a 5 gear ratio Daiwa SS SV. But with today's 8 speed reels, I honestly don't feel the need to wind super fast nowadays.

Once I discovered Japan online used tackle market, I just couldn't go back anymore. Maybe in the future when yen gets much stronger.

While we're comparing sizes, might as well talk about the length and smoothness. IMO 90mm handle length is the minimum length for any reels, BFS reels included, but over 100mm would be a bit too much. I don't need to wind the lures in like crazy fast, and I don't need that much torque for bass fishing either. IMO the knobs material and surface smoothness contribute a great deal to the reel smoothness that we actually feel. Wooden knobs, though look classic with a smooth surface, transmit vibrations the best, which could results in a slightly "geary" feel. That's why I only reserve them for the smoothest reels I have. Cork knobs and rubber knobs mask that vibration quite nicely, but their surfaces are not as smooth as wood knobs'. At last, EVA knobs excel in masking vibrations; this is why I used them for many old reels, even though their surface is just the roughest. Shimano knobs strike a perfect balance among those characteristics. They mask vibrations well and have a very smooth feel and ergonomic shape.

I think Bulldog pretty much summed it up: to solve that 2.5mm difference, you'd need an extra bearing or a plastic bushing. Either way, the size should be 4x7x2.5mm or 4x7x2mm, and then it's just a matching game with shims of different thickness, until you get no axial movements. I would put so grease in as the last step, but many others like the free spinning feel.

Their $14 1K carbon handle is a better quality and slightly lighter option:

Different people fish differently. Maybe it's the way we hold the rods, maybe it's from the water from different fishing lines, maybe it's the lures and fishing methods we used... My buddy and I bought a Bantam at the same time, and his was way geary than mine. We finally figured out the culprit : he held his rods with a slightly higher angle. My point is, I wouldn't dwell into it too much; this isn't one size fits all.

I use all sorts of brands' and manufacturers', including cheaper ones and more expensive hedgehog ones, but once debris gets in, it doesn't matter what brand it is. My fishing river and creeks could get quite muddy with debris and weed the current brings, especially during spring times, that's why I always leave the bearing shields on, otherwise I'll have to clean them on weekly basis. Casting performance wise, the best I have used is a pair of Japan ISC bearings from a Chinese made reel. They are regular stainless steel bearings, but the quietness and smoothness without oil is something I have never seen. Of course I still need to put oil in eventually.