bulldog1935

Shimano reached a design in '18 Stella that's tough to improve upon. Since then, they're making small changes here-and-there, such as pitch rate and different drag cap. Vanquish stands alone as the best finesse spinning reel ever offered, and hasn't changed much in the last 6 years. But the difference compared to Stradic and even Twin Power doesn't prevent the cost-effective and beast reels from fishing finesse. From inception, spinning reel has self-destructed with normal use, and hit bottom with "performance" gains in the 1990s. Big improvements in the last decade are from computer design. Shimano has done the best job of designing life into their worm-drive reels, and are comfortable pushing their design with small performance edge.

I think you need a new Ryoga. I know I do.

Andres, look at it this way - casting 10 g to 40 g, SV is not needed, and MagZ will be more reliable, especially at your top end. If you want to cast below 7 g, then you need SV. Regards. Ron

A note on both 150 size reels (I'd lean toward the Tatula 150 LC Concept for your weight range). Spool capacity is going to be big, and you stated PE#2, which is great, but the weight (and cost) of filling deep spool will add up. I'd recommend deciding how much #2 working line you need, and backing the spool with much thicker braid (use cheaper, lower quality braid for backing). Use this capacity calculator for stacking line: https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/

@redmeansdistortion That's how I fish for redfish, this one on PE#0.6, Zillion Silver Wolf, and Abu Kurodai BF Take an AI fishing - maybe he'll learn something.

I've always said redfish and coho have identical shoulders. @Micro Module Police - "accidental" striper (smaller of 2) on 5-wt S-glass fly rod and Hardy click-pawl. I went home tired.

Zillion HD will not come up short or be intimidated by 10-lb fish. You'll also enjoy fishing 100-size reel more than 150-size.

Floating spools have less spindle length and mass - these are used in Daiwa Zillion, Steez, and Ryoga. @Andrés Milano The pinion is fixed by two bearings and has its own separate spindle. vs Tatula long-spindle spool.

This price looks better https://www.digitaka.com/items/4/4/2/ZILLION+TW+HD

I'm going to agree here with @Micro Module Police - Daiwa 34-mm floating spool is the most versatile platform out there - you can't go wrong with Zillion HD if that works into your budget.

The difference, my mag + centrifugal Ambassadeurs are set and done - mag at low end, centrifugal at high end - never need futzing.

Don't worry too much about HYPER hype. This is a salt-use '18 Ryoga I bought used for a good-enough price to completely rebuild with new MagSeal bearings and a new Hyperdrive gearset from '21 Basura. You can see the teeth differences between the aluminum stock gears and Hyperdrive brass gears. (stock pinion laying on frame) My Zillion SVTW has spent 5 years in the salt, beginning Jan '21. Last fall on the water, picking up and putting down both Zillion SVTW and brand new SLPW-Z (based on '22 HD), I noticed a difference in gear smoothness. My 5-salt-year Zillion SVTW is getting a new brass Hyperdrive (HD) gearset this winter.

for that weight range (over 30 g), you want MagZ (+ Boost or LC) - - was this thing on? Also keep in mind, if you want a spool for lighter-weight distance, you can swap-in SV spool to a MagZ Daiwa. The inductor and retractor on the spool is the only difference. You'll find Daiwa easy to set and no need to futz with again. No one on BR has ever provided a simple description of why and how to set Shimano centrifugal. Lots of opinions, though.

When Motoyama coined BFS to describe the reel mods in 2000, it was in his first book in a following decade on shore bass fishing (all his previous books were mountain trout). Shore fishing BF rods take 2 approaches, long progressive tapers that load in a band moving down the rod with increasing weight and cast power (e.g. 2-hand), and fish wider lure weight range. Second is shorter semi-para tapers that load more of the total rod length (Smith SPX and this Kuramochi Synapse ML/L) - note the progressive taper above has much thicker butt diameter, while both cast comparable low-end. Trout rods run this way, also - 5' and over are more progressive taper, while rods under 5' are semi-para. The Japanese tend toward more progressive tapers, and their rods will usually fish below their rated low-end. I've never found an Ali Express rod with a true progressive taper - from short glass to long 4-axis carbon shore rods, they're all semi-para taper, generally won't fish their rated low-end, and fish best in the middle of their rated range. Not a problem if that's where you want to fish, and haul a foot-shorter rod. Solid tip is a special case of a progressive tip (can still be added to a semi-para taper). Solid tip rods are recommended for soft baits, tubular tip for hard baits.

I suspect others are reading this thread and might appreciate my recommendation for cost-effective XUL BFS with backbone drag. Should be noteworthy that both Sabre reels and Aioushi rod grips made a mark in JDM boutique market. I really like Aioushi offset grip blanks, but don't recommend their rod blades. The one AE BF rod I can strongly recommend is PureLure.

Small frame Ambassadeur was introduced as a 1/4-oz reel. My two, in stream and salt shore niches, have centrifugal pin replaced with Avail spacer and mag brake. Even my slaved spool 1500C fishes 1.5-g balsa plug.

Discovered my Reply Badger 20A, sold in Japan by two lure shop brands, is the same reel as Sabre 50. I replaced the 3 spool bearings with silicon nitride, and it's 1-g capable. I strongly recommend this reel, with the caveat that the thumb reach is happiest on offset rod grip. Mag brake range is perfectly tuned, and it has the best drag of any small-frame reel I own. There's also a version selling on Amazon

@Peacedivision - probably wear resistance of the line guide. They also state maximum line capacity to avoid spool crushing from mono relaxation - they've done the math.

At 1/4 breaking strength, mono elastic stretch is 2%, which is 5' stretch in 80 yds line. I only do empirical.

Might check with Mike's Reel Repair in BC for a zirconia pawl - standard MOC in Lew's reels since the '80s - this one fished the surf for two decades. Mike's zirconia pawl upgrade is go-to in my bench mid-frame Ambassadeurs. I'm kinda amazed anyone still uses 440 pawls.

Brian, may not be anything you did - sometimes bad rubber formulation just separates - I had that recently on a Wheeler screwdriver bit-holder. That's a tough knob swap, because I doubt the handle was made for it, possibly riveted with bushings. Also pretty sure this reel was made by Tica. You can find a big range of hex-shaft handles on Amazon. (you can also search reel handle knob) If you want to try the knob route, first take it apart. see what's there and measure - here's Daiwa shaft dimensions

What's line memory? For that matter, what's backlash - two things in fishing I've long forgotten. But if you remember backlash, might be best to fish 5-lb UG rather than threadline braid.

Target is 3" weightless senko from river kayak. Reel is obscure Reply Badger BFS from Japan. These went on reservation sale in January, I watched the last half-dozen sell on Yahoo in a few weeks, and found the last brick-shop inventory slightly discounted at Blue Marlin in Hokkaido. The reel is probably made by Doryu, and was sold last couple years with mono spool as Frog Products Toy Machine Competition. Also been moving around rod grips and blades to dial in my niches. My perfect 3" weightless senko combo has the reel matched with Bright River Quatre 5'6" 1-power, and Aioushi offset grip with single cork. The tiny reel is smaller-frame than Ambassadeur 1500C, spool diameter and pitch are mostly identical, but the spool sits in the top of the frame, so it likes offset grip. Aioushi grip is about a 3/4-offset, in between half-offset Rivermaster and full-offset Chucker. I originally had this rod blade matched with Isuzu BC420 for this niche, but this reel is crazy fast and perfectly-tuned mag-brake range, casting 3" weightless senko effortlessly beyond 80' on the short rod, and skip-casting like a bullet a foot above the water. Yes, it has a name - Blue Badger. I also picked up 5'9" Kuramochi Synapse ML/L semi-para finesse blade, which makes a better match with my BC420 on Rivermaster grip for finesse baits. (great distance, just doesn't skip-cast) Taking BC420 out of the weightless senko business, I was able to reduce internal mag brake force by 7/8 turn, and it lights up casting 2-g loaded jighead beyond 90'

The biggest problem with "braid" is that 4 different generations of product are currently on the market. Happily, I missed the first two on purpose - just watched my friends suffer it - didn't use braid until the 3rd generation, and quickly switched over to the 4th generation after the first try. Next trick is using reels and spool capacities made to take advantage of the newest generation braid.