bulldog1935

Best approach is to identify a phase in your click. Look at the reel and note when the click occurs - is it always in the same place in handle rotation? Is it always at the same end of the LW? etc. (Does it happen 6.3 times in a handle rotation?) From there, we can start narrowing it down.

Friction contributes to start-up inertia, because it's a force that has to be overcome to start the mass spinning. The less brake you have to use to limit start-up overshoot (the reaction to start-up jerk) the more of your cast energy goes into casting. The other lesson learned on my 1500C, the centrifugal brake became pointless once the inertia was significantly reduced. Fishing 3 g isn't always the goal, and neither is casting to 130'. These are measures of what you can gain. In practice, what you gain is fishing whatever weight range with less effort and greater reliability. Of course you don't have to buy parts to improve a reel performance. But the fact they're out there and add a measured improvement is worth communicating - it's also fun if you like the tinkering. I used to back up inshore with Tica Caiman until I had to try it fishing 3/8 oz one day (Lew's BB-25SW fell off the bad-match reel seat mid-cast). I found a great niche for the Caiman in offshore jigging, where it shines at casting 2 to 4 ounces (100 g). While I'd rather have a Conquest, and might have one if offshore jigging was my go-to fishing, the $140 workhorse Caiman fills this niche pretty perfectly.

I improved on Don Iovino's good elbow grease and choice lubes - and after he told me that I wouldn't be able to. These reels certainly aren't dogs, but there's a growing amount of hyperbole on this thread. Mass and inertia are real and if you reduce either/both, you improve the reel. They offer parts that will reduce the mass of the LW by 80% Imagine what you can do without a LW

@Phil77 and @redmeansdistortion A little bit of hyperbole there, but you can make them perform remarkably for slave-spool level-wind. Ambassadeur free-spool was a clean sheet of paper in 1950, and it took another 30 years for the next big design jump (separating the LW from the spool). When I received my 1500C from Don Iovino with polished idler gear and Avail LW parts, it would free-spin 2 trips across the LW - 1 full cycle. Switching to Roro spool bearings increased that to 1-1/2 free spin cycles (3 trips across the LW worm gear). Swapping in the BB skeleton idler gear increased to 2 complete LW cycles in free spin. The really big step was switching to Avail 1520 7-g spool, which doubled the cast distance with 3 g - 40 to 80'. If you take the same approach with spool bearings and shallow light spool in a Daiwa SV, it will send that 3 g past 130' My 4600 that I showed above is getting AMO microcast spool, Roro bearings, Avail magnet, and Valleyhill and Kagawa LW parts.

When I broke off an over-slot redfish on my SP one day, switched to 1/8 oz on my Super Duty. Discovered the SD mag cast 1/8 oz farther than the SP. Sent me to trials with the SP centrifugal, and I could lower it to backlash, but could never cast the 1/8 oz as far as Super Duty. I sold my SP and bought another Super Duty (on sale). Though I set up a Daiwa Zillion in my ML niche. Even in the salt, my 1st SD is going after 4 years. I did begin rust on the magnets, so I swapped the magnets. I better add, I understand your affection for the Lew's SP - it's a great reel. The spool has low inertia, you can race it out with better bearings. It just probably better fits with centrifugal and heavier weights for it's designed pitching niche than where I wanted to use it. Again, my problem was the centrifugal with light weights.

I'm not quite done with the reel - maybe next week but this is going to be a trick combo Custom 4600C, Express 6.3 gears, 6' Falcon Glass rod

I'll do my best with what I know (checked before I bought my Steez SV-TW). Spool diameter and frame MOC with resulting weight are the biggest difference. The CT reels are smaller diameter, magnesium frame, and 130 g. The 1000 series reels are all 34-mm dia spool with different spool depths. Steez SV-TW are magnesium frame and 160 g - this also includes Steez LTD. Steez A is aluminum frame and 190 g. Daiwa rates all Steez salt-safe. All the listings I checked don't show any mechanical differences between SV-TW and LTD - just finish appearance.

There are actually very few custom-made rod blanks. Most rod builders are buying off-the-shelf blanks, and only a few have blanks made to their private specs. What you gain with a custom rod is the rodbuilder's preference on guide spacing, hardware choice, and finishing detail. His attention and labor also costs more than a ready-to-fish high-grade blank from the manufacturer. Perfect off-the-shelf high-grade bass rod. Custom surf-lure rod with custom blank, and a custom build was the only way to get a reel seat that fits this custom reel foot. If you know exactly what you want/need, you can spec it - if you don't, you're still at the rodbuilder's mercy. It's odd there aren't more spiral-wrap rods out there What you gain with spiral wrap is using fewer guides to eliminate line-slap. Spiral wrap also eliminates torsional loading in the blank at very high tip loads - torsional loading causes those 45-degree rod breaks on your high-stick set. But spiral-wrapped rods look weird.

In both cases, the side of the tapered sleeve that seats on the bearing race is a tight cylindrical fit - try putting a spool bearing inside the spool bearing sleeve - it has to be perfectly aligned to slide in. The part you want to move - inserting the spool into the frame, or engaging and disengaging the pinion, the taper fit limits side-to-side travel, gives you instant alignment, and a low-friction fit that's easy to separate.

the system is good Allbright knot to leader with a standing perfection loop. Loop on anything you want from there, paper clip, micro swivel trace, or loop-to-loop a sacrificial piece of tippet to tie direct. Been doing the same thing for fly lines for 40 years.

If you look at the latest generation of X-braids, 90% of the strength is in the center core strand. The 7 outer strands are abrasion resistant. Give me shallow spools with X-braid.

I've posted this before, from Duel/YoZuri international website: Yo Zuri Hybrid

throwing in a Revo alternate. This is ZPI Alcance, magnesium spool, titanium spindle, and tuned mag-brake cam. It's a bench-raced Revo. Samurai Tackle in Japan has best price, always seems to have stock, and a close link with ZPI.

The finest-wire, sharpest hook you can find This is Tiemco 5263 streamer hook Bring your pliers for extracting the hook

If you're planning to fish braid, go for smaller capacity shallow spool to have better line lay result. Deep spools are for mono/fluoro Some of the tuning parts I've bought are shallow braid-specific spools for my larger inshore size reels. This PE1520 spool is 200 m of PE#1.5 as well as deeper spool for (5-lb) fluoro on my L/UL Vanquish C2000 F6 spool is for 6-lb fluoro As far as gear ratio goes, I vote for the lowest gear ratio with the stock-length handle. High gear ratio, I prefer longer handles both for lure finesse and fish leverage (with lower gearing, both are in the gears). This is my near-offshore 5000XG with a 65-mm-pitch handle. Here's all the skinny on Vanford sizes, spools and gear ratios They import 5 different capacities to USM, all high-speed gears, while JDM offers 14 different models with wide-ranging capacities and gear ratios. Here's the line diameter chart comparing silk thread PE# Big difference between Daiwa and Shimano is all the current mid-grade (Stradic) and up Shimano reels are derived from the '18 Stella, and parts interchange on common reel bodies of different models across the lines. Daiwa models have less rhyme and reason with varying design and stroke. Below mid-grade with locomotive (v. worm-gear) drive, Daiwa are built stronger than equivalent Shimano. Daiwa also has a better line roller across the board. All that said, I too am tempted by Luvias (stroke and spools), but all my Shimano spools swap between my reels.

the sleeves are tapered, which makes it easier for the pinion to move in and out, and also aligns/limits the side-to-side position - the cylindrical bearing fit would be too snug to move freely. On this spool bearing, the spacer positions the bearing side to side. 1134 bearing without sleeve sits deeper into the frame, and 1034 bearing with sleeve is closer to the spool

'19 Steez SV-TW-H 57 pinion bearing, 28 spool bearing, 38 looks like an inner pinion bearing and mates with the pinion yoke - they call it clutch-cam BB The '21 Steez LTD markets on its two pinion bearings.

@imabassguy I've bought a Vanquish, 2 Stradics, Steez and Zillion, Valleyhill rod, half-a-dozen $100 carts to get free shipping on tuning parts and lines, Asian Portal communication is not the best, but they are 100% reliable. no duty - Fed-Ex express shipping is free - here's tracking on a 54-hour delivery:

I would expected to see two changes in a new Steez - a second pinion support bearing, and a lighter-weight spool. Don't expect your '19 Steez to be instantly obsolete.

In Shimano, light is '20 Vanford. In Daiwa, Light is '20 Luvias LT. Both reels have composite frames and rotors. Asian Portal has models of both in stock with free Fed-Ex express.

@Georgia Bill sounds like you have either worn out drag washers or stripped pinion gear Inside, they're still your basic Ultracast Ambasadeur, and are pretty easy to work on - most of the changes are on the palm-side mag brake. note also this reel has anti-reverse dog (v. roller-bearing A/R), which makes the main shaft a hair trickier to assemble (good youtube takedowns out there) For Abu detractors, that's the platform ZPI Racing chose for their remarkable bench-raced Alcance with magnesium spool, titanium spindle, and matching tuned mag brake.

First loosen a little, check to see if the reel rocks in the reel seat from side to side - if you can align it, re-tighten. Otherwise, live with the OCD. It's not going to affect your cast. Even spiral-wrapped rods cast well. ps - the purpose of spiral wrap is to keep braid from digging into the blank on a heavily bent rod, like this offshore jigging rod. One famous Texas rodbuilder and many long-surf rodbuilders argue they cast better because they need fewer guides. Daiwa builds their Proteus casting rods w/ spiral wrap.

The treble that would fit that 3-g spoon would be a size 18. Size 6 or 4 single has a lot more hooking power. The stinger hooks are pre-rigged Vanfook Twin Dancer. The small spoons have a specific niche, which is winter glass minnows in salt tide passes and nite-lite dock fishing. The fish below happens to be on a fly rod and size 6 whistler fly, but this is the same target - schoolie male seatrout that sweep through the lights at night and slash into "balls" of minuscule bait. During the daytime, the same tiny bait is dominated by wind currents and focused on structure. Spoons, even big spoons, are usually the best way to imitate the smallest baitfish, because the gamefish doesn't often see the individual bait, but the larger flash as the bait ball evades in chorus.

Finally getting around to posting (gear washing done and work plate caught-up). Coming back from Estes with half-shell redfish fillets in the ice water, I grill-blackened redfish to share with my folks up the road. My dad roasted parmesan zucchini and buttered new potatoes. My mom was chewing on the redfish skins when we were done with the feast.

Only the shipper can run a trace or file a claim, and that should be their first reaction and action. They should apologize for your inconvenience (even though it wasn't their fault), reassure you that you're covered, no matter what, and they'll make sure it's straightened out, even if that means shipping to replace the lost stock. I've only had one package mis-delivered, happened to be Fed-Ex from Japan. The seller by e-mail did everything I just stated. Whoever received my package by mistake placed it on my driveway the next afternoon. All solved. A lot of the of the shipper/seller reaction, especially on the phone, is going to depend on yours. Place the blame in the right place and ask them for help. Certainly this happens a lot more to them than to you - they ship a lot more than you receive. If you don't trust them that much, file a claim through your payment source to get a refund. and btw, paypal's "safety net" is now 180 days - that's half a year. I'm guessing you weren't willing to wait that long to buy it to begin with, and also not to get a refund and buy another.