BigTimeBassin

I will definitely give that a shot as soon as I track down a small enough screw driver. Appreciate ya

Newer to Daiwa and the T-wing. Was fishing a chatterbait today and noticed that it was creating a lot of vibration/rattling from the line guide area. To the point it was quite audible. The line guide has a good amount of play to it, not sure if that’s normal or if there’s something I should adjust. I’m fishing braid main line so it does transmit a good amount of the vibration from the blade. Any insight appreciated!

I’m of the opinion that to go completely thumb free you have to tighten the spool tension way too much. I tighten mine just enough to remove side to side play. Only thumbing needed is when the lure hits the water and if you’re fishing something that sinks I feather it it a little bit as it’s dropping or it’ll over run.

I really like the 6th sense rod sleeves. Neoprene and have an adjustable cord to poop around the reel handle. Retail for like 10 bucks.

not floating but maybe something like this would do the trick? https://www.mrblurecompany.com/collections/buzzbaits/products/f-series-weedless-buzzer

Siebert has good prices on tungsten. Definitely worth it for the size and sensitivity.

Siebert Outdoors has jackhammers for 12 bucks.

Don’t really follow the googans, but these jigs looked pretty good, and with my free trial membership at Karl’s they were priced just right.

Had really good success with the live target frog this past year. Super soft body, only frog I’ve found that rivals it is the scum frog “launch frog” that I picked up recently. Also like the bully wa from river2sea.

The first fish I caught the last two years was in a small pond on a red lipless crank. I’m in western NY and were talking just after ice out, mid April. No idea what the water temp is, but definitely sub 40. Yoyo retrieve has been most effective for me.

Last year I started throwing power pro super slick v2. This year I’ve switched all my reels over to it. Really like the onyx color, when it fades a bit it turns grey.

Family portrait

Biggest smallmouth came in just shy of 4 pounds on a siebert tungsten button head with a xzone lures finesse craw, Bama craw color. Biggest largemouth was about 4.4 on a weighted Texas rig, xzone lures muscle back craw in pb&j.

This doesn’t really address your question but I’ll share my experience anyway. I’ve been all over the spectrum with different braking systems. Started with lews, then had a couple of shimanos (slx, bantam, curado k), then went to Daiwa. Finally this past year I ended back on Shimano and have built up a little arsenal of DC reels (3 curados and 1 SLX). I’ve been really happy with this decision and will continue to purchase DC reels. My experience with them has been that I can set my spool pretty loose, and cast a good range of lures (weight wise) with no adjustments needed at all. My setup does require some thumbing, but typically only as the lure hits the water. For me, I really appreciate this level of simplicity and “set it and forget it”. For a beginner, crank the spool tension up just a tad and you can operate entirely thumb free, if that’s what you’re looking for. Is it a bit of crutch? Probably. But darn do they sound cool.

Odd. Definitely worked for me. Might have to actually place the order? Took a screen shot of my paypal transactions: first is the expride which is 269.99 2nd is the slx dc, 2nd day shipping, and a 14 dollar spool of braid

Now go stock up! ? picked up an expride and an slx dc for myself.

Incorrect. Shimano is working. It doesn’t apply until the very last step the payment process. Doesn’t reflect in the cart before hand.

Awesome breakdown. Thanks so much!

Appreciate the info!

My understanding is the only difference here is that there would be no factory warranty, is that correct? Short of that, the reel is exactly the same as the US market reel?

Setting 1 is very little braking. So you’ll either need a ton of thumb control or to tighten down the tension knob. Setting 2 is the braid/mono setting. If you want trouble free casting you’re much better off staying right there.

FishUSA has Spro Bronze Eye 65 frogs on sale buy 2 get 1 free.

Picked up one of these a few months back https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-extreme-qualifier-360-backpack-or-system Bottom compartment holds 4 3600 trays, in the upper compartment I keep a 5th and about 20 bags of soft plastics. Have a few spools of leader line, pliers, scale, fish grips, braid cutters, sun gloves, face shield, and a towel. Holds it all very well. It's not the most comfortable bag out there but I don't know if you'll find one better made with as much storage anywhere else for that price.

Why not? Looks pretty sweet to me!

Haven’t tried this knot before, but I just tied it for my next trip out. Looks like it might be slightly thicker than the blood knot I usually use, but still thin enough to pass through the t wing on my daiwas.