bulldog1935

@QED the klugey part may not be quite accurate. Feathering works just like thumbing your baitcaster for final elevation (distance), and combined with manual bail, it adds tight line for near-instant fishing. This is also how you deal with wind and runaway line issues. My experience with almost exactly matched spinning and BFS rods, the latter can cast lighter lures farther than the former. @islandbass trying too hard to get the distance is often a factor. Effortless casting always improves accuracy.

You need a tip just soft enough and short enough to throw the weight, but that's where it ends. To transmit the feel needed to fish the lure, the mid needs to be long and fast, the rod needs to be light-in-hand. The longer you go, generally, the longer the soft tip will be, which you don't want. A few exceptions are long Japanese rods specifically made for shore micro-jigging. Maybe @Eric 26 can chime in on his 13Fishing ML spinner. I fish the 7'1" bait version Omen Green ML, and it would meet all the tests - I always say I can feel every blade of grass through this rod. Here's the major-long, wide-lure-range Japanese shore micro-jigging rod with MH power - - Not Recommending this rod, just showing the example.

What could be simpler than fly fishing. And yet N+1 marketing has compared fly rods to Trident submarines, magazine reviews made elaborate measurements of disc-drag start-up inertia. Rhetorical - how can a fly rod become obsolete. When 20+ years ago I became jaded harassing fish on overqualified fly tackle, I also discovered you could buy vintage cane rods and click-pawl reels for less money than a new Trident rod and disc drag reel, enjoy fishing more, and make money when you were ready to sell something for an upgrade. I made a rule never to buy anything people wouldn't line up to buy from me, and only spend more than I considered wholesale price on something I really wanted. I made a niche for myself repairing OP's antique fly reels and, especially, converting the almost exclusively right-hand-wind half-century of vintage fly reels into wrong-hand wind for modern preferences. Strange niche, I found myself an historian on between-the-wars fly reels made by JW Young & Sons of Redditch. Not a book I could ever write from this side of the pond, but my research has contributed in other's books and just today, a history professor asked to use one of my photos, and details on dating this reel to 1940, in his manuscript on Lyon & Coulson of Buffalo, NY, who imported this Redditch fly reel.

You left out type-III anodized 7075-T6 chainrings. B takes second Fiddle around here to S - in chorus, even. And when the numbers are right in front of you. Of course cyclists are the most lemming-like for marketing - fly fishermen are only second.

@Bankc a note, if you've ever handled anything finished with deep Type III anodizing, it's so polished and hard it feels soapy. With asperities polished away, that reduces its lube requirement. And yes, you're right, brass contains lead (however, to get to those lead particles, you have to wear-away brass). I can't say much nice about nylon gears, because I fished through my Mitchell 300 gears in 4 years in high school.

Vince Cummings Water Witch (polished and tuned St. Croix glass blank) and c. 1930 click-pawl Medalist. More often it's about skill set.

This topic pops up in strange forms and context, such as zinc gears on spinning reels are better - NOT. Brass gears get repeatedly mentioned as a security blanket for those who admit to being paranoid about aluminum gears - brass gears cost more simply because they're more expensive to make. While gear MOC and finishing treatment has made strides in the past decade, where they've really made strides in the last five years or so is in gear teeth design and manufacturing. Finer gear teeth reduce contact stress, spreading the load over several engaged teeth, and better self-aligning. The fact remains, hard anodized aluminum alloy gears are Lighter, Harder, Tougher, and Stronger than brass gears. Microhardness of anodized gear teeth is comparable to quenched and tempered alloy steel, equivalent to 360 Brinnell

They make a short-range pitching model - this one ain't. The spool is so fast, it's not for the faint of heart or bad habits. Distance is effortless, and effortless is accurate. The mag brake cam has a long narrow ramp before it jumps up. My niche for it is MM to MH, drift-fishing a kayak, 1/4 oz fall bread-and-butter lure to big winter-morning 1 oz topwaters, 5-6", also big 5" Corkys 7/8 oz As long as you keep jerk out of your cast, no surprises - no need to bomb it, it will bomb itself. It's the one wide-weight-range reel that leaves Super Duty in the dust for distance and effort. The stock spool is just right for medium braid (20-40-lb 832) or mono, the shallow spool for finer X-braid. To me, it's the reel with the spools Super Duty needs. FishingShop.kiwi has a 7-geared LH in stock for $210.

Okuma Fishing No. 11, Sec 3, Chungshan Rd., Tanzi, Taichung 42756, Taiwan @Dash Riprock Pure Fishing Japan distributes and sells Abu in Japan. You'll see them listed on Asian Portal under the heading Purefishing Japan https://fishing.asian-portal.shop/category/select/cid/352/bid/87 A great Doyo-built reel sold in Japan and the rest of the world, but not in the US, is ZPI Alcance. The ZPI spool is magnesium, titanium spindle, with ZPI tuned magnets and brake cam.

@redmeansdistortion Contact board will normally get you a conversation with Masamichi. Others work there, and he has the best English. You submit a Shopping List. You'll get a Quote, which includes fee and domestic post to noppin. Pay from Wallet, and it's set up so you can load your wallet using paypal to the exact JY amount, while paying the exchange fee. Goes into Storage, free up to 60 days if you want to add from other vendors. Packing Request gets a second invoice for DHL. His post-20 website is a little stranger to use than before, but it's probably better set up for a pad or phone. He will also refund any excess from your Wallet. When he was down setting up his new website, I used ZenMarket, which is less interactive than talking to Masamichi at Noppin. It's easier to buy from Yahoo using him, and he's also set up to bid on Yahoo for you. He'll also contact vendors if you have a question. Most of my spool bearings come from KTF, Squid Mania is exclusive on their hook keeper that adds to Livre balancer. You can also order any Livre handle and knob combination from Squid Mania at a discount. Many Rakuten items/stores require a separate shipping broker, and it's easiest to have noppin buy on Rakuten for you. I ordered a lot through him, limited benchmade fly reel, fly rods, including a rolled-from-scratch-on-order inshore S-glass fly rod, my first Rockfish rods. Sun XCD bicycle parts for 40% of Soma import catalog cost. Back then, Japan was the only source of new glass fly rods. The custom fly rod really made me a believer - paypal refund option expired before it was done, he made a custom trapezoidal shipping box to meet the length requirement for the 2-pc staggered ferrule rod.

I've been shopping Japan 20 years since you had to use a Japan-based broker, both for the language barrier and their banking laws. Still use noppin.com for a broker when buying from shops that don't market directly to US, e.g. KTF, Squid Mania, Haneda Craft. With newer competition, brokerage fees are now down to about 5%, instead of the 20% that many years ago. Even when brokerage fees were higher, Japan shopping was always worthwhile when the dollar was worth more than 100 yen. If you think about the math, it's kind of simple - there's an importer and distributor for Japan-made USM products, plus import duties on lot-size shipments, which adds to their overhead and wholesale cost. With the current exchange rate, they're paying a premium for those. At the current JPY 143 to US$, all of Japan is on sale, and Japan shopping is a relative steal - even shipping cost is on sale. @T-Billy It was really FedEx that impressed you. While Digitaka is good about shipping right out the door (Hedgehog Studio, also), FedEx made a huge step change when the postal systems shut down in '20. Instead of importing through Anchorage, they added a non-stop flight from Sennan-Shi to Memphis. Likewise, DHL flies straight to Cincinnati - both clear US Customs while still in the air.

I have 4+ salt years on a Lew's Super Duty, just needed to replace cathodically coated magnets this year for onset of corrosion. Also bought a second. The most important thing to remember is that metal products of salt corrosion are more corrosive than the salt itself, so you don't want salt rust spreading through your reel. For light lures, I'm pretty floored with Super Duty G - can't explain why this reel out-casts most others with 1/8 oz except for the lightweight clean spool. What you find with most "Inshore" modified reels, they add-on a heavy centrifugal brake to the spool for a dual braking system for casting very heavy weight, and they need it because of the added weight of the dual braking system (the added spool weight complicates itself). Super Duty G blows them away, and most everyone I know fishes Super Duty inshore. I'm fishing Daiwa Zillion modified for ML, even magnesium Steez to a limited extent modified for salt BFS. Higher-grade Daiwas all have Magseal drive bearings. I use salt-rated unshielded spool bearings, because every time you oil them, you're essentially flushing them. Most reels are good for salt if you rinse and maintain them properly.

The holes provide a larger recess for the knot. This photo includes a mono anchor to braid.

@AlabamaSpothunter I tie this fly also with blue chenille and blue-dyed marabou. The white bass stringer was mostly caught on consecutive casts using the blue in the half-hour or so before first light (and a few from there to sunrise).

More a fun exercise in photography than lures of wide interest. These are very specific lures for imitating winter glass minnows under dock lights. The largest is 55 mm Rolling Bait, an 8-g bullet for prospecting deep. The smaller lures are all 3-g metal jigs, all but one with glow patterns added. This dim top-lighting shows the glow patterns, and makes a pretty good impression of what these lures look like 6' below the light. Note the blue lure doesn't have glow, but you should be able to see why blue is the best night color - it reflects dim available light, the the color wavelength is penetrating. Pink of course is for transmitted light and fish guts.

When you get jaded catching fish, and wondering why you're harassing them without enjoying it, is when you go back out with cane.

You cause your line to do this by using crank-bail-auto-close. Read about proper manual bail technique and use it. The problem the OP is having is caused by trying to pick up loose line by cranking the reel - this is the only correct answer on this thread.

Defect or crack in the frame? Drive back to Academy with the rod, and leave when you're satisfied with a reel.

Other than big game mono, no one has mentioned brand, except someone who was polar incorrect. Knot strength is everything, and varies widely with brand. Knot strength is also the first priority for Seaguar.

Two forums where you'll get instant answers with your photos. Joe Yates board, which used to be the NLFCC forum http://www.joesoldlures.com/wwwboard/ NFLCC has a new forum - though the lack of activity says Joe's board still carries all the traffic https://nflcc.org/

The Japanese have been on this for a long time, though the BFS versions only in the last few years. If you search Gure, the Japanese have traditionally targeted big fish on long threadline rods, as well - might be rhetorical to ask what you think they eat in Japan. These are both All-Range BFS rods - long progressive tapers, and I catch big fish on tiny lures with them all winter. Note the casting and line specs. The longer they get, the wider range. I'll get some better photos of this rod later, but look at max lure weight - essentially a full ounce. PE#1.2 is 27-lb test. Leader max 20 lb. (just received this rod today - a very good $100 rod made for shore fishing light lures to big fish) These rods are both capable of throwing 2-3 g lures Way Beyond 100' - with the right reel. the longest plug here is 45 mm - I'm going to replace the 3-g micro-jig assist hooks with a single #6-assist (same size as the plugs) This is Mr. Yamaga with my YB BC-III 82/B landing fish with shoulders. He's fishing a tide pass, same places I use them. Wind currents and tide currents combine to stack tiny bait on structure, and big fish turn out to sip them. Here's the spinning version, which they offer far more rod models, and Mr. Yamaga at work again. you also get to see why they call them rockfish rods - fishing from rocks Susie at work again. Jamming the rod early and jumping up and down is why you see people with their 3-wts running down the bank of the San Juan. Rather, you don't announce yourself to the fish, apply just enough pressure to keep them under control and confused, allowing them to wind themselves a bit, before you frighten them for a short final fight.

here's a list for 120 plastics https://omnexus.specialchem.com/polymer-properties/properties/max-continuous-service-temperature Nylon isn't on the list, but it's 180 F.

As I said on Joe's first thread, if you're in the market for a $200 reel, a Zillion anywhere near that price is Do Not Pass Go. I believe I paid $290 for mine from Asian Portal (already had the nice Avail handle to swap over).

In context, I believe our OP bought from an Amazon link using the US-based company, which is also established in every state, and charges state sales tax. If bought through Amazon.jp, which is established as a different, offshore company, he would not have to pay sales tax. Likewise, if you buy on ebay from Asian Portal, e.g., you have to pay sales tax because ebay is established in every state. If you buy direct from Asian Portal website, no tax. Worth noting in Canada, import duties are also required, but the price level is below consideration for US Customs. I'm going to add about exchange rate, it's a dice roll. If you buy direct in JPY, your credit card charges you the currency exchange fee. If you note Amazon.jp gives you the choice to pay in yen or USD. If you pay in dollars, they add the exchange rate fee. Asian Portal is the really weird one. While they list prices in USD on their website, their inventory is all priced in JPY. The dollar listing on their website was the exchange rate when they added the listing, but they will bill your purchase in JPY. You will end up paying the exchange rate at the time of your purchase. I've received AP invoices ranging from 10% less to 5% over AP list price.

JPY 144 to the dollar is exceptional. Buying in Japan is good any time the doller is over 100 yen. I've been shopping in Japan 20 years. $206 for a Zillion G or SV TW would be crazy to pass up in you're in the market for a $200 reel. If you wait they may not have stock, and you're risking it to save $2. If it comes from Amazon warehouse, when you load your cart for US delivery, they subtract 10% Japan VAT.