bulldog1935

@new2BC4bass stacking braid over heavy mono (not fluoro) backing works well - always worked for me on Lew's, with no shallow spool options. If you plug into Pattaya calculator link above, you'll get about 20 yds 20-lb backing, and 100 yds braid. Easiest way to load is tie braid to backing w/ allbright knot, and spool backing onto braid source spool, then load both on the reel together. Two yds is easy to measure, it's a wing to wing stretch. Another option for TD is swap-in a shallow MagZ spool, here's 1012.

sorry, my Ryoga's not allowed to speak.

I know bot bandwidth can cost the forum a lot of money. Guess I promise not to compliment you for bringing Cloudflare to the top of log-in recognition, which has worked well on other forums.

Funny, I have one AI bot signed up as a Follower on the forum (ImAscammer-xxx), and I've received two pm's from bots that the forum caught and deleted - didn't get to read the whole messages before they were deleted, but I received the e-mail notification with the truncated message.

@Kow 34-mm Daiwa floating spool is so versatile, all the models kind of blend together. Silver Wolf is different, in that, it has LW pitch increased by 20%, so it's capable of fishing crazy-light braid without dig down to PE#0.4 (0.10-mm dia - equiv dia. to 1.5-lb mono.). But all standard-pitch reels should be capable of fishing #1 (0.16-mm dia. - equiv. to 4-lb mono) without ever worrying about line dig. Silver Wolf comes with 1000S SV Boost spool, and I found the capacity is 120 m of #1.5 (0.21-mm dia.). I move spools around so much on Steez, Zillion and Ryoga, I rarely think about stock spools.

OP's opening post seems like an antithesis to his thesis question posed in the thread title. You're going to have a hard time spending $350 on a reel - that's already in the stratosphere, epsecially for those of us who bought JDM Zillion for $200+/- since they were introduced in '21. This year I splurged on a Ryoga, which has a niche advantage for me - besides, they only come around every 8 years or so. Every niche where I have a $120 rod, $225 and $330 rod in the same niche, it's simply a question of get what you pay for - lighter weight, stronger rebound, better distance. I don't have too many homogenized rods - very niche-specific covering a lot of niches. Especially when you get to long shore finesse and surf rods. I have one Evergreen 9'1" UL rated 1 to 30 g. I don't plan to buy another one, but it has notable advantages over really nice Yamaga Blanks 8'3" rated 1 to 15 g. When you get to surf rods, $250 should be entry level. Everything you spend over that will reward you. I just added a $150 Tica surf spinning reel. I like it, and know it's comparable to everything Daiwa has (made by Tica). Next step in Daiwa surf reels is Japan-bench Basia, which I could never justify or even desire $650 for aluminum-body, or $950 for magnesium-body.

I straightened a dropped Daiwa spool edge to functional with these bending pliers, but it was tedious work and not quite perfect, but functional. (shaping a phosphor-bronze click spring for 1914 Talbot Niangua - this was tedious to get the old broken end out of the block - it's bent, sanded to correct width, not yet cut to final length).

@A-Jay here are Breakaway Coasters - I call them saddle clamps (looks like Roy's does, also)

Not an asthetic fix, but measure diameter and put a plastic hose clamp around the cracked part. (search Amazon). More asthetic than a metal hose clamp.

Guess I don't get the grievance. My small-frame trolling lever drag on kingfish rod wasn't rated for line capacity, but I searched-up a youtube with the result "350 yds 40-lb braid" I spooled it with 400 yds 40-lb braid, and still had room for 75' of 35-lb fluoro leader. Why no rating? - Seigler is smart enough to stay out of the quagmire I've found sticking to JAFTMA-spec X-braid on aftermarket spools made for threadline braid, I get very accurate results from Pattaya line calculator for stacking lines, and always have a little room to spare. But even when I was fishing deep spools and fluoro, never worried about it - just filled the spool. Why does Daiwa rate their reels with J-braid? To sell J-braid. If you want something to gripe about, compare fly line grain weights to AFTMA fly line specs. In the '80s and '90s when Ted Leeson reviews in FR&R lauded Fast rods, fly rod makers began under-rating their rods, e.g., a 7-wt is really an 8-1/2-wt to get good reviews in the rag. When no one could load their fast fly rods any more, line makers began under-rating their fly lines the same. It's worse now with the new silly marketing names given to fly line tapers. Even worse when you consider how much of $120 fly line price is going to fund the marketing dept. If you think about it, high tech and fly fishing don't really go together.

hmmm Besides, last time I cast this, a football field was 30 m too short.

Daiwa, especially, under-rates their spool capacity. They always show a range in capacity for the spool, and typically, the higher number is 80% full. e.g., 1000S (SV Boost PE Special) spool, they rate it for 90 m PE#0.6, and it will hold 100m of #1.5.

As long as it works for you. When you don't want to look at it, give it to a friend to enjoy.

The question is whether Shimano still supports parts for your reels - I don't think you can get spare spools. They're a different older design from '18 and '22 Stella series. If I was buying, I'd go to JDM for new before considering $200 elsewhere.

Reels in the moderated-word country are gradually getting better with more innovation. The Sabre reel I showed above, which imitates Millionaire CT, shares the drive and multi-disc drag stack (and mag brake?) with the Seasir @Flushdraw mentioned - so much copied from Abu, I was able to use swapped-out drag star from my ZPI Alcance to reduce offset weight. Japanese Doryu is importing and bench-tuning some of these reels for JDM, here Reply Badger (which led me to the $45 Sabre). This is the best 3" weightless senko reel I have, and the drag is smooth and big range. AMO is one maker of quality parts, spools, and has gone far enough to make a bench small-frame Ambassadeur clone that swaps parts with Svangsta 2500C. They've also improved on the original with a barstock frame, for a little Beast reel. I think @redmeansdistortion will have one of these to show.

@softwateronly - I just checked, Zillion G (USM made in China) best price is $279 on A/E, includes import duty, and there's a coupon that covers the $16 A/E slow-boat shipping charge. it makes a lot more sense to buy a JDM reel from Digitaka (made in Japan) - with duty and free Fed-Ex, $260. I bought one A/E reel I like, at least after modifying it quite a bit - I also like the Aioushi and CDZ champion-ferrule offset grips for round reels and separate rod blades, which are 1/3 the cost of comparable rod grips from Japan. (I mostly don't like A/E rods with one exception, this ferruled-butt rod blade is Japanese) - mostly, I buy bearings, fasteners, small tools (bits, taps, end-mills), e.g., blue M2.5s on my surf Ambassadeur side plate. And yes, planning ahead - shipping is slow-boat.

There's really not much different about the grip - except it has a pistol-type butt, and the ferruled-butt rod blade is offset. The offset is to get the spool closer aligned with the rod guides. Casting rod separate grip and rod blade, the offset is to reduce spool thumb reach on a round reel.

I have the old Mitchell 440 Ottomatic. Pretty cool operation - push on the closed bail with your grip index finger, the bail opens. (also works with your free hand) Push the other way, it closes. Only 70s Mitchell that would let you use manual-bail technique.

Tica, who built your Daiwa if it has optional A/R switch, sells 4-geared reels. Unfortunately, they usually match them with a too-long handle - I always swap them with IOS hex-shaft adapter and a shorter Daiwa handle. Two examples, giant surf Samira with 74-mm spool and silly 85-mm handle, next to 4-geared small-frame Libra SX with 41-mm spool and 45-mm-pitch SLPW double handle. I swapped the too-long handle on the big surf reel for a 70-mm handle made for Daiwa Whisker.

I do, and I'm very particular about matching handle lengths for the right niche. Shorter handle lets you crank faster when you need, and longer handle gives you more torque through the drive. Two small frames, Vanquish C2000S w/ 43-mm handle, and 5.3 gears ; I like the lower-geared reel for winter finesse fishing with soft plastics. Stradic C2000SXG with 47-mm handle, and 6.1 gears - equivalent reel to USM 1000FL. Higher gears get you quicker pick-up when you need it, e.g, fishing deep, here I'm using a 4' dropper below a weightless cigar cork. JDM 1000S has slightly lower pick-up because of smaller spool dia. Double handle has 37-mm pitch. My medium and large frames are both SXG, 6.1 gears.

Won't find this for sale, but fished in salt kayak for 5 years. 1917 Hardy St. George, I fished for 5 years, then sold for twice what I paid. (It paid for the salt kayak). This busted as much brush as anyone else's tackle.

You can be thoughtful without being OCD. Some people abandon all thought when fishing is in front of them and may charge into it like lemmings (my buddy Lou). But if you take every step with thought, screwing up your tackle isn't part of the experience. Prewar Heddon marked for Folsom Arms, prewar JW Young perfect marked for MC Thorburn.

Most bushings are standard bearing sizes - some sizes are a tougher find than others. Two weeks ago, let my buddy borrow my Tsunami 1102H surf rod w/ big Tica surf reel. Twice he dunked the reel in the shallow surf. The spindle and mainshaft are all sealed, but I had a post-mortem rebuild to get the sand out of the bail-flip and line roller. P/N 31 is an 86ZZ bushing, p/n 33 is 85ZZ ball bearing. After ultrasonic I can't get the bushing clean enough for a free-spinning line roller - the bronze on plasma-TiN brass grinds like sandpaper. So the good thing about it, searching for 86ZZ bushings, hen's teeth 86ZZ ball bearings popped-up in my search, shipped from Singapore with Amazon Prime free delivery - can also give my other Ticas dual-BB line roller.

If a reel does a good job for you, aftermarket replacement handle gives you two ball bearings and the ability to swap knobs. Gomexus makes a part that will let you drill out a riveted handle and swap a spindle that accepts all Shimano-A and Daiwa-S knob. IOS Factory makes a hex shaft adapter that lets you use any SLP Works handle.

The complication and annoyance is in the brokerage fee couriers are charging. Form CN23, which I described on the First Two pages of this thread, includes the steel- and aluminum-derivatives calculation. Add the complication of Japanese courier office and vendor with limited ability to interpret the form or even talk to the USA-side of their business. It's inherent in the Japanese nature to fill out the form with detailed integrity - the vendors doing a really good job have learned how to "dart-board" the form. If you shopped in Japan 20 years ago, you'd understand the language barrier - google translate didn't work until just a few years ago.