bulldog1935

I've become a Japan X-braid junkie. Duel, YGK and Gosen - - no lines are rounder, smoother, tougher, quieter, or better-mannered. Before that, most of my reels were spooled with Sufix 832, which is round, smooth, quiet, and good manners. The Sufix is always a bit larger diameter than published, whiich makes it good for filling spools. X-braids are always a bit smaller diameter than published. Also, for the same diameter, X-braids are more than twice the pound-test of Sufix 832. e.g., in the same 0.185 mm diameter, Sufix 832 is 12-lb test, and X-braid is 27-lb. If you're loading shallow spools made for braid, I'd recommend X-braids. If you're new to braid and wanting a good brand to try, just like the title you gave this thread, I'd recommend Sufix 832. A couple of brands complained on this thread, I would consider them for backing, but not for casting.

they make a sail for it...

Casting is a ballistic shot. Every 20% increase in initial velocity doubles cast distance. It doesn't take a lot of velocity improvement to add 30% to your cast. You can also improve your cast by aiming up, but then, mid-cast wind backlash becomes more critical.

many internet vendors share inventories and ship to each other. It may have been sold from the inventory at a different store. I've had Asian Portal and Japan Tackle refund me for OOS that I ordered as in stock on their websites, and both are very good at keeping up their website inveitories. JT orders from some nearby suppliers when you place your order (e.g., Avail), and sometimes the manufacturer is OOS. I've received many calls from TackleDirect with OOS oops - they would always offer me choices, and when I wanted the item and could wait, they always hunted it down for me somewhere. I think the call counts as good customer service.

tracking result on my new rod 54 hours from Asian Portal to my hand.

I've bought all my Ticas from Amazon, and got more than I paid - 3 of those were half-price loss-leader. Amazon stocks their own inventory in their warehouses, and if the shipping looks long, those are vendors that sell through Amazon. I take advantage of my prime to order Seaguar, lures, gadgets, cooking sauces... Daiwa USA also sells on Amazon

going after redfish on a few-times/year tide and wind combination this Thursday, and for the same reason... I never freeze fish - only float fillets in the ice water until I eat them. Should I bring home surplus, as expected this trip, will give them to my folks.

the problem with rods is always finding stock - even was in 2019. Digitaka and Plat may show a rod with a good price in their online catalog, but actually being able to buy one means being there at the right time - and I've bought several great rods from Plat. The way to buy a rod on Plat is to follow their News page for stock arrival, or begin shopping on their In Stock Now page. The good stuff sells out within a day of its arrival in their inventory, and this was the same in 2019, 2018, etc. On recent Asian Portal rod purchase, went through their entire rod inventory, found 3 rods that would more or less meet my spec and price, then picked the widest lure weight range from those three. I compared prices to Digitaka and Plat, and while the catalog prices were slightly better, they had no inventory. Also went to the rod builder's website, and Asian Portal had sliced their listed retail by more than 20% - throw in free FedEx shipping. Allowed me to buy what I wanted without making the compromise I didn't want. I'd never find a rod to meet that spec in US inventory.

part of what we were discussing is that, with braid, big reels have too much line capacity, unless you buy the shallow spools that fit them for back-up. This is my 4000 inshore reel, with a Yumeya spool that's made for 200 m PE#1.5 braid. The stock deep spool fits 200 m PE#2 braid, and the deeper 5000 spool fits 200m PE#3 braid - 60-lb For the US market, Shimano imports 5 reel sizes based on 3 bodies and no gear-ratio options. In Japan Domestic Market, the same 3 reel bodies are offered in 13 different versions with different gear ratios, spool diameters, and spool depths.

With braid these days, most people pick smaller lighter lever drags like Avocet and Seigler.

Metallurgist, corrosion engineer, licensed PE. Consulting for petrochem plants in component failures, and life prediction in plant systems. Some legal work, which is always interesting.

They're shipping a rod to me this week - BFS for reservoir bass (shock all you gus) They're among the best prices you can find, and completely reliable. Might want to read this post:

All my rods are braid to fluoro leader - improved Allbright connecting braid to leader Every fluoro leader has a perfection loop or surgeon's loop on the end. My loops work for everything. If I ever choose, can loop on another piece of leader for tying directly to lures. I loop on paper clips on most of my baitcasters to swap lures. All my spinning combos get titanium-wire micro bite traces looped on to swap lures, plus that gives me have a full-time swivel. Or, I can loop on a complex rig, such as a clicking cigar cork (shrimp rigs) The loop is stronger than any knot, because there's not a single mono/fluoro bend tightened around anything. If you ever try tying two very difference size mono/fluoro lines together, the smaller line will often cut through the larger line after a few fish. But if you loop them together, you can fish indefinitely without either line being damaged.

a pair of inexpensive Japanese Rockfish rods, made by Takamiya, I imported through a Japan broker more than a dozen years ago. Bought the rods for pier fishing for nursery seatrout with my daughters, the logic was the long salt UL and XUL spinning rods would cast weighless rigs farther than typical short UL rods - - ritual Fulton Beach pier drill between Cap'n Benny's fish dinner and ice cream. Sight fishing big specs in the canals one night, landed 22" and 23" on 4-lb test, and discovered the rods had more backbone than I would have guessed. Since then, have been aiming them at big schoolie seatrout, redfish and snook, imitating winter glass minnows in tide passes. Still use the original two rods, but they've multiplied to longer and higher-grade small game rods, and finally to BFS.

Shimano's line roller is the same for Stradic to Stella, all 5000 down. If you look closely at the reel photos I posted, every one has MTCW roller.

You can always fish through your current line roller and upgrade when they Will need it. Or try one now and see what you think. @Tail Slap The MTCW comes with everything you need, including a great pair of bearings No seals are needed, or even wanted. The only time you really need seals is fishing the surf, because of sand slurry. Shimano uses them because of brass MOC. When you install, look closely at the shim stack order on the package diagram - they're different thickness for each position. The tricky thing on Shimano line roller installation is keeping the sex bolt female seated in the square boss in the bail.

that's the stuff - here shown next to a 60-lb swivel. The website will take you right up to payment, then tell you they have no payment option for you. For some reason, they stopped posting to USA. No one else in the world makes a titanium wire leader this good or this small - this one is 13-lb test. Based on this chart, plus, I have C1000 and C2000 in hand, C1000 is slightly smaller spool flange (working diameter), C2000 and C2500 are the same slight step up in diameter. Again, C1000, C2000 and C2500 are all the same reel with different S-27 spools that will interchange. 2500 is a bigger spool diameter (and stroke) than C2000 and C2500, because for the same gear ratio, it's a jump in retrieve rate. The weight also shows it steps up to the mid-size body of the C3000. A bit of a tedious website, but best prices on YGK braid - only order from stock - "preorder" will put your money in limbo until they restore stock FishingShopKiwi (this link mixes braid and fluoro) I can strongly recommend YGK, which I fish from Oltollos Finesse braid to Oddport in the surf. I have Castman on my offshore topwater spinner, and really like it. YGK X-braid Upgrade is the benchmark braid. Generally, I like YGK lines better on spinning reels, and Duel lines better on baitcasters. Duel coatings seem harder. With either braid, I like the dense, fine-fiber X8 lines. Japan Tackle also carries YGK, and Jun there has better English than you'll find in most of Japan. JT is also great for baitcaster tuning parts and lures. Plat is a great place to order repair parts, lures, also Duel lines. May also find Duel stock at Asian Portal, but a very tedious website to find stock - but the really good thing with AP, if you can put together an order slightly over $100, you get free courier express. Any time you're ordering from Japan, you usually load up a cart to make the courier shipping cost worth your while. A good reference for PE# line diameters (and X-braid test) A great online calculator for spool capacity This also links to the Advanced calculator for stacking lines of different diameter. The Jackson plug is only for bottom-bouncing and making mudballs - all of these lures, I had to swap to salt hooks. The spoon stinger hooks are Vanfook.

A drybox cooler like Engel - you can always put it between your legs and use its buoyancy to help launch you back onto the boat.

this doesn't care Easy enough to single hand on the beach by sliding off and swinging each end. (could also slide it onto rollers) I back it up to my garage and slide onto saw horses, then place closed-cell foam hull pads. This also stores it in an easy spot to work on rigging.

I use 6-lb Sufix 832 to 12- and 14-lb X-braid (PE#0.5 and #0.6 Duel or YGK). The nice thing about the Rockfish UL 802L, it's good to 10-lb line (nominal PE#1), and I use 10-lb Seaguar Blue for leader. This is my salt BFS with PE#0.8, 16-lb Duel X-Wire, and 10-lb Blue leader. Since I'm in the salt with toothy fish, I also add now hard-to-get Mako titanium micro wire traces, 8-lb (from Ukraine, but no longer posting to USA). A good Allbright knot will zing through microguides. The Vanquish looks even nicer with the YB TZ Nano - I keep both these off my kayak, strictly for Arroyo dock fishing now, where this rod out-casts every other by 30%.

NS Black Hole makes some high-grade rods, and their US rep only imports their offshore stuff. IRT imports their high grade rods to sell in combos with their benchmade spinning reels. Really, the only corner they cut on this rod is not sanding the blank - it has bare scrim wrap - it also has Fuji guides. I have a few photos of my Dark Horse Rockfish UL, though here it's matched with my Vanquish. I was queasy about taking the Vanquish out on the kayak, though I did it once, later picked up the Stradic C2000SHG to match with this rod.

Attended a memorial open house - really a picnic - for my "2nd mother" yesterday. It was a celebration - she was so ready to go, her last coherent statement was, "you need to visit me tomorrow, because I'm leaving", and all her kids were holding her hand when she left early last month. I grew up with all her kids, her middle son is my best friend since 6th grade, my daughters grew up with her grandaughters. But since I dressed up for her yesterday, I'm dressing up today to take my mom to lunch.

fwiw, Scotty track balls are better than Ram track balls (I know your Ram double uses the good solid Ram ball on the base). Ram 1" track ball has this hollow that collapses under clamp load Here's a Scotty ball I used on a home-finagled mount for my VHF/GPS A Scotty 1" track ball will support a rod and the only thing more fun than rigging kayaks is building bicycles - - with either one, it's always a satisfaction with getting on the water (or climbing a hill) and everything works just like you planned it.

see, that's how the put the monkey on your back - first time is free

I'm going to be kayaking Estes flats this coming Thursday. Here was a remarkable trip the day the freeze ended in Feb. Paid our dues getting across the flat to the tide pass, then released 45 redfish. Little Cut, Estes Flats, TX 2/20/21 - Other Fish Species - Bass Fishing Forums (bassresource.com) Hitting a duplicate tide on Thurs, though higher MWL. The TZ Nano is YB's flagship rockfish, and it was $400 and change. The newer Blue Current III is very good mid-priced rod, but tough to find stock. Plat will put you on a notification if you need one. I have the BC3 82/B for my first BFS salt, and taking that out Thursday. Here was one of my first two dozen-year rockfish, both made by Takamiya, an XUL and UL. My buddy Lou has a Major Craft solid tip, and I've seen him reel it up to where the tip and first guide mated - many more times than once. @Tail Slap PS - though a much better all-around rod, the Dark Horse Rockfish ST isn't near that flexible - another friend broke the tip on his. But you won't be disappointed, it's a jewel rod for $100 and change.