EzyEric

Ordered last week Tuesday night. Got email right away and shipment info a few days later. Arrived today...all the way from Japan. Faster than TW. Unfortunately my Metanium might have an issue. Handle does not spin freely. Takes a slight amount of force to turn, more than I've experienced with any reel. Feels like the entire thing might be over loaded with grease. Anyone ever experienced this with a Shimano reel? I'd hate to have to open up a brand new high end reel to try to figure this out. This is my first order from Japan and first Metanum. I'll probably email them too of course. Can't imagine returns to Japan are very fun.

I don't know many details about those specific reels but my guess is with lures this light the start of the cast / spin up needs to be extremely free. Since the centrifugal ones can activate almost immediately they could easily kill the inertia since the lure is so light.

Practicality also includes cost, which can be quite high for a "high speed" upgrade kit. Hardest part is taking them out which you have to do to upgrade anyway. I was going to do this exact thing for one of my older shimanos a few years back but then I learned how to properly clean bearings. I soak mine in brake cleaner (in a pill bottle or other small plastic container) overnight. The results have been as good as or sometimes better than they were new. So I have actually never "upgraded" any yet. It's up to you of course as it is possible they are going bad and cleaning won't resolve that. I have only had this happen with a few over 10 years though.

Fury 705CB with Curado 70 and YZH 10lb is my sqaurebill setup currently. The combo is so light. Really blown away with the rod for the price. Casts really well too.

Last night I was checking all my reels to see if any needed bearing cleaning. The Curado 70 MGL I got last fall barely spun at all with no brakes or spool tension. So I took out the bearings and they had fair amount of grease on them and would not free spin at all. Soaked them overnight and they are much better but still not as good as I would like. Only spin for a few seconds. All that matters is how well it performs though so I will test it out soon. Surprised it was casting well the 5 times I used it last year but it was casting great so maybe they don't need to free spin as much as I think. So before you worry so much I would get out and see how they cast.

Blade Bait

This is also one of my JB combos. Zodias 610 M, Curado 70 MGL. Casts great.

I got the Zodias 610M in early fall last year. So far I'm slightly disappointed with the action for Jerkbaits though I'm not the most avid jerkbait angler. I'd love to know how the Magassbass fishes.

Here they are on their website: https://fish.shimano.com/content/fish/northamerica/us/en/homepage/Shimano_Product_Page.P-EXPRIDE_CASTING_B.html#product_image_2 Only change seems to be the monocoque handle? Really glad the price didn't go way up though.

You may have also noticed it shrunk in size over time so it's certainly losing moisture. I put them back in the bag to recharge them. They will absorb some if the moisture again. Or add scent and they will hold on to it longer since they are so porous. You can also add them to gulp alive jar and they will absorb so much they grow almost 25%.

That sucks if it's same blank as E6X. Loomis badly needed a rod at this price point that could compete or at least be more sensitive than the competition. We'll see after a year what people think. Maybe it is much better. Zodias redesign certainly added a lot last year.

I have the Champion XP 703. I got it with cracking tubes in mind but I found it was not stout enough for really ripping the 1/2 oz plus tubes out of grass. So now I use it for everything else. Senkos, light Texas rigs, finesse swimbaits, lighter /normal tubes, and even a heavier ned rig.

I like a pretty long leader for ned rigs. 10 to 20 feet as I fish deep water. Since the braid floats I think if affects the sink rate a bit on tiny 1/10 or less oz heads. I like the ned rig to just hardly touch the bottom or patch of grass. Wind could also blow the floating braid around and pull it off the bottom. I may be over thinking it though.

I have the 795 and tried the A Rig a bunch on it last year. I was very dissatisfied with the castability. Rod did not seem to load up enough to really fling the rig. I assumed it was because my rig was on the lighter end. Flashmob JR with 5 - 3.8s on mostly 1/8 oz heads with slightly heavier heads on the bottom two. So I weighed it this winter and it's actually 2.7 oz which is more than I expected and closer to what most consider the sweet spot of this rod. I will try it a few more times this year with different casting styles but I'm likely to try a different rod that loads up more. If the 806 is even more stuff than the 795 I really think it would not be good for A Rigs.

Was just thinking I need something similar for my sons rod (small kids zebco rod/reel) as the line that it came with has way to much memory. How is Trilene XL 4#-6# memory?

6 to 7 for heavy braid. 8 or 9 for light braid.

I've tried 3 different 8 carrier braids. Power pro super slick, Suffix 832, and Berkeley X9. Best was 832 followed close by X9 Super Slick was too flat. It did not keep it's shape well.

They work great for bass. Alive is just them in a tub. Which is very nice as they won't dry out. One if my best and maybe under the radar techniques is one rigged on a 1/4 oz darter head. Jigged off the bottom with short hops. They would work well on a ned head too.

This is very intriguing to me as I have some ceramic boca bearings that were in and old Scorpion that have been sitting around for a few months. Assuming the 70 takes the same size.

Regular (old) 70 or MGL?

This fact alone makes me really think IPT should be more important a figure to advertiser than Ratio. Ive seen many members here talk in IPT figures about what they prefer for a specific technique. I think will be trying to focus on that myself more too. Especially when buying a reel for a specific technique.

Probably Tatula SV or Zillion SV given his budget but I think there are even more SV reels in his range. Or were you questioning me assuming what people on the forum will recommend?

I have the 70k as well and really like it overall but as you know it's not the best with really light lures. The 70 MGL is supposed to be much better for that due to the MGL (lighter) spool. But the #1 recommendation you will get on this forum is any Daiwa SV.

Based on spool inner diameter or outer? Huge difference there based on how full your spool is. I would have hoped the took an average of something like 75% full since most our casts put the spool between 50% to 100% full (technically less since we usually leave a gap). And yes, if you are not aware, this means the inches per turn is constantly increasing as your reeling in.

They make X9 in High Vis Green. It's the last braid I purchased. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-LNEBERKLEY.html?from=basres