bulldog1935

Yes, handle length and gear ratio should go hand in hand, and you should find what you like. I use 100- to 105-mm handles on 8-geared baitcasters. . On 6-geared reels, I'm using 88- and 92-mm handles. You can still use power knobs on low-geared reels with short-pitch handles. The 6.3-geared reel on the left, I fish mostly 3.8-g sinking finesse plugs, and always feel the swimming vibration. Both handles above are also much lighter than stock handles, with titanium spindles and carbon knob tubes. A friend put a long Gomexus double handle on a low-geared spinning reel, and couldn't keep up with charging fish.

No question fluorocarbon disappears in the water - when you go down to size 22 thread midges and haul up bruiser bucks.

Perfection loop. I loop on micro snap-swivel, paper clip, titanium-wire micro-swivel bite trace, and complex rigs. Can loop lines together. Loop connections are stronger than any single-bend knot, because larger contact area keeps the smaller line from cutting through the larger. this is on salt finesse leader business end, and the loop is 1" long (ok, a double surgeon's loop, which is easier to control the length) so I can also loop-on a clicking cigar cork

Noteworthy, the PE/acrylic (mylar film) tape doesn't leave a residue film, it's unbelievably thin, and it's so strong I use it for seizing knots on kayak trolley lines that will be dragged up and down my hull in salt water for a decade - the tape lasts as long as the sailcord.

You should probably be fishing 12-lb mono until you get the hang of it. I always say don't try braid on a baitcaster until backlash is a distant memory. Plus, you can buy a bulk spool for a fraction of the cost for one braid charge, and fill your reel several times over.. Several of us here fished mono and fluoro for 40 years before we ever thought about braid. Mag brakes work best with lighter baits, and you have to get all the start-up jerk out of your cast. Don't cast hard, cast smooth and accurate. You'll get better distance with a smooth cast and less brake than with a hard cast and a lot of brake.

Food (and brew) is pretty good in Alaska, because that's how Alaskans entertain themselves 9 mo/yr. The Don't-Miss in summer is fresh blackberry pie.

August is Silver runs. Also blackflies - DEET and a cigar helps. This was a fly-out from Soldotna to Crescent Lake in Lake Clark National Forest. Adding a note about silvers. They're the only salmon that actively feed in the river. Fishing for them is a lot like redfish - you fish the side sloughs, and sight-cast to wakes and jumping bait.

Susie landed this on XUL spinning tackle, with 1.5-lb drag set, and two 50-yd runs, first across the barge channel, and the second up the dock row. That's a 25" male schoolie spec. Major Craft Crostage Rockfish, CR-732-ULS and Shimano Ultegra 1000, 6-lb 832. No fumbling, no guesswork - it came unhooked in the net.

if you haven't relegated some braid to backing only, you haven't tried every braid in every size and application.

you have to roll the loops as you're tightening the uni knot, but the only way it can slip is to get tighter.

don't use your fingers for tension, run the line through a phone book for tension. I can walk away from this and the spool maintains tension

Start with your spool capacity spec and this calculator to determine the capacity of 15-lb 832 on your spool. With that answer, you'll know whether you want to use backing or not. If you need backing, go to the Advanced calculator to determine amount of backing. @FryDog62 On spools with holes, I use a double loop uni knot to attach braid. On spools without holes, I tape a braid arbor knot with very thin PE/acrylic (mylar) tape.

the spool is probably not centered in the frame - try backing off on the spool tension. Can also depend on alignment of the line through the guides - you should use at least two guides on the rod to spool a baitcaster.

depends on the spool depth and what diameter braid you're planning to fish. E.g., to fill the spool on my Zillion Silver Wolf, I backed with larger diameter 20-lb Sufix 832 (35 yards calculated from IPT), then topped with 110 yds PE #0.8 (16-lb). Thicker braid is a better backing choice to keep weight down, and nylon mono is a better choice than fluoro. You can use a double uni-knot to connect braid, while you need Allbright knot or finer to connect mono to braid. Here's the Pattaya calculator for stacking lines.

@WC53 @FishTank I have been through a whole gang of trials with spools and bearings. 3 spools, 3 reels, 3 bearings - didn't test every combination, but mixed it up enough to identify the trends, and pick my applications. The constant was this lure, which is a 2-g jighead. Also walking back and forth across my casting range, I measured slightly downwind casts, and used the slightly upwind casts to set mag brake. The Silver Wolf spool turned out to be more competitive than my initial casting trial. Stock Silver Wolf spool with stock Daiwa bearings cast consistently to 90'. Swapping to unshielded microbearings increased that distance to 100', so 10% difference in the bearings. The Roro-X spool on Silver Wolf also would not cast beyond 100'. You pay for the fast-pitch line lay with 10-15% cast distance. However, for just about any big fish and small braid application, it's worth it to not suffer line dig with finesse braid. The Ray's spool cast 110' on Steez and Zillion. The Roro-X spool on Steez cast 130'. Roro bearings seem to have a slight light-lure edge over the IXA bearings, but the double ball bearings are a boon for wide weight range. Made me reconsider my applications. Steez and Roro with PE#0.8 is going to stay in my salt BFS niche. I'll just be extra careful with exposure and cleaning (It has the same magseal drive as SW). Silver Wolf with the stock spool is going on my bass BFS rod. Casts all the distance I need there, and totally forgiving. The wide-range IXA bearings are going on my salt ML and bass BFS, where they're casting the widest weight ranges. My extra Ray's spool is going to back up all my 34 mm Daiwa.

I just bought some Varivas 8 in finesse braid size on Amazon (onshore stock) - it surprised me as much as many. It was discounted about one-third, $20 for 150-m spool. It's noteworthy the X-braids were introduced in 2018 after this thread was OP'd. They changed the game on braid, and initially cost $1/yd, but that's changing fast.

guess I'll have to change my answer. I throw big baits on ZPI Alcance and Super Duty G.

bad idea. Proper drag set is one-fourth of your weakest link, line test, leader test, or Rod Max Line Rating. The reason is that shock loading stress has a 4 x multiplier (impact can be as high as 10x) If you don't use a scale, you're tightening drag, not setting it. adding a ps here - don't set your drag past the rod tip; instead, set it at the guide closest to the reel.

If you set drag with a spring balance, 7-lbs is enough for offshore, though this lever-drag is 35-lb capable. The reason you want big drag numbers is so the drag set won't fade on long backing runs. For 10-lb test, 2.5 lbs is the correct drag set. The only reel I had that wouldn't reach that was an inexpensive Tica worm-drive model I bought to tinker, and solved that with a drag washer replacement to carbontex. (the reel drag was rated 1 kg = 2.2 lbs) My Ambassadeur 1500C wouldn't reach 1.5 lbs drag for 6-lb test, with the carbontex that Don Iovino installed. Solved that with Haneda Craft fiber washers, which are just slightly thicker than carbontex. Note that carbontex isn't always the best choice. On my surf Ambassadeurs,Valleyhill B Trap outperforms carbontex. Shimano fiber washers on their small-frame spinning reels are excellent. You'll find the 3-lb drag set you want on most of your baitcasters is a Lot more drag than you'd expect.

as a rule, grease is for contact stress (gears) and oil is for rotating spindles and bushings. You don't want to use too much oil, because it will collect and form a running film, so use it judiciously on things that spin and pivot. A/R roller bearing gets grease, but the sleeve that goes over it gets one drop of oil. I use a flat-end sable artist's brush for applying grease - that way I can get the gear teeth fully and keep it light, also the ratchet teeth on the main shaft. Keep in mind all you want is a film - you don't want excess of any lube.

Most aftermarket spools come with these spool cans, but you can also buy them from Hedgehog Studio, and probably the China Express site. @fish_burrito 40L that I linked is the correct size for any baitcast reel with any spindle. Think about it, spool dia = 32 mm, 33 mm, 34 mm, 36 mm, 37 mm ps - I wrap loaded spools with velcro electronic cable tape, which you can buy on Amazon - it's really fine, soft velcro.

@WC53 Roro is electric fast, and makes all the difference when you get below 4 g. I just got my spool reloaded w/ 120 yds PE#0.6 - won't cast it until the heat eases off, but the free-fall difference between Roro and the stock Daiwa SW spool with 2-g jighead is pretty shocking. Roro doesn't tolerate any jerk in your cast. Most are going to find the Ray's SV spool safer, more forgiving with light braid, won't cost anything they'll notice for the insurance, and it's a better choice to push weights out to 3/8 oz and more.

One thing I've always read about using Cal's drag grease - aside from removing almost everything you put on to keep the thinnest film - make sure the outside and inside edges of the drag washers get that film. I can see a drag washer edge rubbing either the main shaft or main gear recess making some nasty sounds.

@newapti5 no, you can actually see the ramp for the moving rotor in this photo - why I took it. I fish these on two reels, Zillion and Steez, both in wide lure range niches. I didn't name it, but Ray's named it SV Honeycomb, because of the moving rotor, and my two definitely have springs to retract the rotor back down the ramp. Pushing a year-and-a-half in ML niche, this reel has never backlashed. ok, I see - I've never had one of those deeper Ray's spools, which are actually about the same depth as the stock SW spool. @KP Duty on another thread reported about Very Nice Japan-made ZPI spools still available for Tatula.

@FishTank the only reason I'm calling you here, this inline spinner directly relates to finesse - - had these Vanfook spinner hooks with pre-tied woolly bugger around for awhile, until I found the spinner I wanted to swap them into. The pre-tied hooks are Vanfook Aomidoro (marabou) AM-801 (olive) and 802 (brown) The perfect spinner is Mukai Max Spinner 4.0 g - a single-hook spinner made to keel hook-up and let you bottom-bounce for the best of everything. Last time I looked, BFE has the Mukai Max. Part of the trick is finding a spinner that uses split ring to hang the hook. You can do the same thing at your fly-tying vise with a Tiemco 5263 hook.