bulldog1935

the whole power vs. finesse argument in Shimano doesn't quite hold. Vanquish is the magnesium-frame upgrade that Vanford wants to be. You can only tell the inertia difference when you're winding Vanquish and Stradic side by side. But you can't go wrong with any worm-drive Shimano, which begins at Stradic and ends at Stella - all reels in that series exchange parts. This is my medium-frame Twin Power, which can be a power reel one day, and a finesse reel when matched with a shallow spool for tiny braid. (happens to be a Vanquish shallow spool).

Shimano can sell smooth in their bottom-end reels. What matters, though is how accurate the reel manages line, and what matters more than how long does it feel smooth is how long does the line management accuracy last. I've fished through older spinning reels on big fish, but when they're worn out is when they will no longer give flat line lay. The only change from Stradic FL to Stradic FM is a slight increase in spool pitch (slightly taller spool, slightly longer spindle). It shows Shimano had so well over-designed FL that they pushed their design a little farther with FM.

Difference between JDM and USM? You can get JDM Zillion SV TW for the same price as USM Tatula SV TW 103, and less than USM Tatula Elite.

I've done the shake in can of solvent - it's less than a trick with less than complete results. No comparison to ultrasonic cleaner, even cheap $5 jewelry cleaner, which is perfect for cleaning reel parts. With the ultrasonic, you actually see the grease leaving the bearing - until the solvent goes completely opaque with dissolved grease - the film can still has clear solvent, so you're not getting the grease out of the bearing. If you also clean bicycle chains, you can justify a $35 ultrasonic cleaner.

Hexane, alcohol, acetone and mineral spirits only dissolve paraffins - oil, grease, wax. I would be hesitant about brake cleaner, which likely contains stronger solvents that dissolve oxidized polar organics, and may attack rubber bearing seals. You can get a small jewelery ultrasonic cleaner for $5 on Amazon. Nice thing about ultrasonic is it moves dissolved grease and oil farther away from the bearings, leaving less residue - works like a tiny toothbrush.

I'll add about my dad. He stepped on rods walking around the boat to find the stringer. Good thing my idle rods were always in the center console rack. But it did make it easy at Christmas and birthdays, replacing his short Falcon rods.

Hi @FrnkNsteen - yes, exactly correct - Z and SV are the inductors. The guys on TackleTour tune their spools by swapping inductors, shims, and springs. One trick is swapping-in a Ray's Studio inductor. Jun Sonada on JapanTackle offers milder springs (e.g for HLC) and different thickness shim washers.

With proper casting brake set-up, you should only need thumb to release and stop the spool (adjust final distance) - that's kinda the point, for brakes to take the place of your thumb modulating start and mid-cast. But there's more to a proper cast, which is how you load the rod. The bad habit brought from spinning tackle is wrist snap, which is rewarded in a spinning cast with extra distance. In a bait cast, this added jerk has to be subtracted by brake force to eliminate start-up backlash, so it adds Zero to a bait cast. If you only have linear mag brake (fixed-inductor BFS spool), wrist snap is start-up backlash (in a fly cast, wrist snap is a tailing loop). Maximum cast distance comes from smooth acceleration and wrist follow-through without adding jerk. In the early 80s, I was fishing Ambassadeur weightless, and could out-distance guides with their weightless spinning tackle. I made a forward-spiral centrifugal cast, which is completely without jerk, and also effectively lengthens the rod (tricky thumb, feeding line during cast stroke). I PO'd two guides who tutored me on what was wrong with my cast, then we compared, and I doubled their cast distance. It's ok, I made them both look good back at the dock. @FrnkNsteen those two anodize colors in my spool photos above are the stock inductors for all Z and SV brakes. Daiwa tunes those inductors on individual spools by shimming the inductor depth in the mag field (see white washer in SV photo above), and changing return-spring rates. Also Note with Daiwa brake - leave the spool tension out of it. Only adjust mag brake scalar to prevent mid-cast backlash throwing the lightest thing you plan to throw. If you're facing the wind, add 2 mag notches. Thumb - if you want to become a thumb master, take one of these to the back acre. Meek and Talbot NLW reels from the ninteen-teens held all world distance-casting records until Ambassadeur CT arrived in the '70s.

Denatured alcohol (iso-ethanol) - lighter MW - it doesn't suck as much water from the air as iso-propanol, so it flashes drier, and flashes quicker.

Only one, and I blame the redfish. If it hadn't followed my lure out of the water (right at my knee), I wouldn't have reacted with a high-stick set at the exact moment the redfish reacted with its flight lunge. When I called looking for replacement discount, 13Fishing gave me a warranty replacement.

you'll find links here that give the physics of backlash and casting brakes, shows the difference between MagForceZ and SV brake inductors, and describes the dual inductor return springs in Boost. The changes between MagForce/V/Z/SV and SSAir relate initially to the strength of the magnets, improving with magnet technology, and evolution to lower-mass inductors, with SSAir having the lowest-mass inductor yet, 25% lighter than SV. The reasonable assumption is MagForceZ is tuned to heavy line and casting weights, and SSAir is tuned to the BFS end. In these photos, note the Z inductor is thicker and heavier than the SV inductor, etc. With good cast habits, you can adjust either to be close-enough to backlash-proof, by setting to the lightest thing you plan to throw.

I keep my sports camera on a tripod at my bench. Also, my old eyes need my Ott magnifier and lamp, and the lamp is perfect photo-temperature daylight. I take breadcrumb photos when taking down a reel, and have them to refer to later. Electrons are cheap.

I would assume the Penn grease viscosity is wrong - too low - you need higher viscosity grease on the gears. I apply grease to main gear using a square-ended sable art brush. Too much over-flow will find its way to your spool bearings. (obviously not Daiwa) e.g. - https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/4633 Not suggesting you run out and buy this, but I keep -B and -SW kinda ML and MH viscosity for fresh and salt reels, respectively. SLP 300 is Daiwa recommended for baitcast drive gears.

@Jsher19038 - that's Ambassadeur 4600C, 5-mm-deep BFS-mod spool to fish PE#2 (45-lb) X-braid. The reel is set up to fish 1/8 oz to 1 oz - tiny frog plugs to big topwaters. I enjoy the bench time finding ex-condition bargains, then building them into custom reels. I think you'd do fine with the Tatula SV that's on sale now, and a longer rod is usually a shore-fishing advantage.

@Reel has done you right. Any rule against kayaks in your lily pads? Kayak is a little different - I like my 6' MH for fishing close and possible overhang.

The trick with fishing threadline braid is filling your spool (see BFS). One way to fish 20-lb braid on normal deep-spool baitcaster is backing the braid with 20 to 25 yds of 20- to 25-lb mono (not fluoro). You mostly fill the spool with the backing, giving you working braid capacity of about 100 yds. The large-dia. backing stacks inefficiently, keeps loaded spool mass down, makes casting reliable, and prevents line dig. That said, I wouldn't consider braid on baitcaster until backlash is a distant memory. For your learning curve, I would begin with 10- to 12-lb mono/fluoro.

You left out that you like line memory. Since your braid makes noise, you've never tried good braid. My fastest boat does 5 kts.

You're beginning to understannd why all my reels, from stream to surf, are technically BFS. The only reason to fish more than 30-lb braid is because you need the diameter to fill your deep spool. Beat the rush and fish a shallow tuning spool.

While people use BFS to mean whatever they want, it's the reel, the combination of shallow. lightweight spool, low-inertia spool bearings, and threadline. Bait Finesse System was coined in print in 2000 by Hiroyuki Motoyama, but the practice goes back to 1985 and tuning parts made in Japan for small frame Ambassadeur (also made in Japan by Ebisu). Before it had a name, it was simply called "reel tuning" https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/finesse-101.html The progressive-taper rods employed are best termed baitfinesse or BF rods.

Round reels are gorgeous with offset-grip glass rods.

Mick, BFS-mod is the reason I went to Steez and Zillion - because of the range of aftermarket spools made for these reels. (otherwise, I was perfectly happy fishing Lew's). Loaded spool mass and spool bearing inertia are the last words on light lure distance. Alphas and Zillion are basically the same reels - Alphas is the compact frame version. I've never looked past Steez and Zillion, and have a gang of 34-mm-spool reels that everything swaps. Shore-fishing distance was always primary for me, and I've never had the compact frame bug. @FryDog62 mentioned '23 SS Air TW https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Bait-Reel-Finesse-AIR/dp/B0BY89LJKJ/ref=sr_1_1 SS-Air brake is the latest version of MagForce, with the lightest inductor yet. Daiwa blurb reads the configuration makes the reel a bit more compact than Alphas. There is a general agreement the smaller-diameter spools in compact frame can give you greater cast reliability, easier brake adjustment, etc.

@F14A-B they also make shrink tube grip with different patterns https://www.amazon.com/stores/Accering/page/4EF858D8-F48B-4F40-AA58-BA2F71F8B1BA Here's fish-scale pattern on my 8' surf-lure rod

What @Eric 26 is talking about is X-shrink (X-wrap shrink tube, X-tube), and I'm a major fan. Can't imagine it hasn't come up yet, especially with other suggestions that I would run from. https://www.amazon.com/Greatfishing-Fishing-Bulding-Waterproof-Insulation/dp/B07H81DBHJ/ref=sr_1_4 X-shrink over EVA is the standard grip on high-quality offshore rods. Kingfish rods above, slow jigging rod and my 14' surf rod below I have 2 versions of a favorite JDM finesse rod (Abu Prototype) that the grip was too small for human hands - maybe just right for Japanese hands. The rear ridge was intended to split 3rd and 4th fingers, but split my 2nd-3rd fingers, and split them wide. On both rods, I reshaped the grip with cork tape and covered in X-shrink, and love the result. another happy 2-hand grip - I didn't like the EVA quality, and the butt needed some grip help for hand-off long casting. It has a lot of other uses - repairing a split foam grip on 15-y-o stake out pole I put indexed-position hand grips on my straight-shaft kayak paddle by rolling on closed-cell foam and covering in X-shrink. Also added bump-stops to keep my paddle leash in check. It's very easy to apply. Buy the diameter that's close, but easy to slip over your grip. Use a boiling tea kettle, and pour from the middle to each end. If you don't like the result, it's cheap to cut-off and start over.

Mick, you might want to review this thread. Tatula 70 SV TW is the right package in USM reels for fishing mono. If threadline braid is ever in your sights, you might like the JDM Alphas, giving you more, lighter spool options. Note, you can get the Alphas Air ready to go for the same price in RH. https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Alpha-7-1R-Baitcasting-Reel/dp/B09LQYMTB7/ref=sr_1_5

yeah, typo - I've been busy