bulldog1935

Based on description, Samuari braid is probably made by Izanas. I did find made in Japan on a label, and this is Daiwa's higher-grade braid. What they describe sounds like finer fibers, tighter weave, and hard coating.

@Kev-mo The best line capacity calculator, starting with given capacity: https://www.pattayafishing.net/fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/

@FishTank that's probably do-able if you can find Mr. Ito. The whole purpose of a Japan broker, like Masamichi at noppin.com is to solve the language barrier, payment issues, and shipping across the big pond. Eighteen years ago, he baby-sat a custom inshore fly rod for me, rolled from scratch on order. Our friend @redmeansdistortion hasn't played on the forum for awhile. I know he's in constant communication with Simon Shimomura about new Ambassadeur upgrade parts in the pike. I would love to hear his answer to the OP question.

I can see one advantage to mesh rod covers - keeps rigged lines from wrapping adjacent rod guides when you pick up multiple rods in a single hand. Second choice is don't do that. I totally understand multipiece rods in socks in hard travel tubes, lashed into p/u bed - even the long plano tube for 1-pc rods treated the same. Since I'm usually in a kayak, don't travel often with more than 3 rods, and have a few secure options, kayak bow bungee and even p/u bed-rail bike holder doubles for multiple rod holders. Neoprene reel covers are a priority for me. Both for protecting reels during travel, and keeping dust off reels stored on rods in rod stand.

gotta hope they've improved in 17 years.

@WRB @casts_by_fly What makes mid-frame round reels nice are the offset-grip rods the Japanese still make to match them. Also, when you set these up with shallow spool, full-BB-LW, internal mag + centrifugal, they cast as reliably as any modern LP reel with modern brake system. speaking of Japanese rods and rod blades, following my own embedded link, just stumbled on this Kuramochi effort - US flags woven into the rod wrap. These arrived and sold out since the last time I visited Headhunters Lure Shop website. The "Japan Underground" market is all small batch, and you have to keep up to snag exactly what you want.

I'm not a fan of Daiwa's stock spools, even their BFS spools - aftermarket spools really improve their Air and PE Special reels. If you prefer centrifugal and can set up a Shimano the way you want with Avail spool, I'd try that route first. My small frame reels are Ambassadeur and Isuzu. I targeted 34-mm Daiwa for my salt finesse niches, and delighted with my results using aftermarket spools. Had my Steez on the bench today - heading back to my favorite finesse shore fishing next weekend.

@KeepinItBassy Rorolure.com is slow-boat post, inexpensive and about 3 weeks. Hedgehog Studio is the fastest out the door, and I've had delivery in 40 hours. If they have to recover stock, e.g., Avail, it takes an extra day. KTF requires using a Japan broker, e.g., noppin.com. But if you take the broker route, you can add a couple of handmade wood plugs. Normally, e.g., when I'm in a reel project, I'll have a noppin cache building that may include Hedgehog parts ordered through the broker - Haneda Craft, various lure shops, Yahoo, Tailwalk reel cover from Rakuten - to take advantage of piling small orders together for a single courier charge. Another vendor that's good about doing this is Plat.jp - they will order anything from Japan to add to your order with them.

um, you're not going to post Megabass Monobloc photos (MSRP $950) so we can stare at them, too? How about a Pagani drive by?

I don't know enough about Shimano to answer the question, but Jun Sonada does. https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/shimano.html If he rates a spool capable of casting 1.5 g, you can take it to the bank. Avail doesn't make Daiwa spools, and Jun stocks and rates Roro-X spools to match with Daiwa. https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/daiwa.html The other spools that are worth looking at for Daiwa are from AMO Store on Express website, and Ray's Studio SV spools from the ebay Thailand supplier (where Ray's Studio is made). The Ray's spools keep the moving SV inductor function, and are very versatile for casting wide weight range. Gomexus also makes a very light BFS spool for Tatula 80. The Roro X30 spool that sent me first to Steez is no longer made, but this is a 2-g-capable reel, and is my light-end distance champ. The Steez 145-g weight, made 15 g lighter yet by spool and handle swap, matches perfectly on my long Yamaga Blanks shore-casting finesse rod (8'2", 73 g rod weight), and 34-mm spool is a distance advantage. Likewise, the AMO 34-mm spool that I have matched with Silver Wolf will cast extreme light to extreme distance. The extreme-BFS spools for Daiwa are 2-3-mm deep, 4-5 g spool weight, and fixed inductor. Not many Tatula spools are below 7 g, because of the full-width spindle, and that's a good target for a Tatula spool.

When this reel isn't covered, I can't walk by the rod stand without looking at it. Custom Ambassadeur 4600C, I call my Black Cherry. In a kayak frogger niche, 45-lb YGK braid on Avail 5-mm-deep spool. Full-BB-LW, mag plus 4-pin centrifugal. From my bench, it's 100% backlash-proof from 1/8 to 1 oz. Flame-treated titanium Haneda Craft handle is a different color from every direction. Photography doesn't quite do it justice, needs moving light to show how shadow and iridescence play on the reel. This photo is the closest I've come.

@Randy Price you're in luck that Stradic FL is closing out everywhere. Take two - the're small.

Uni knot was Duncan loop before bass fishers borrowed it from fly fishers. Double surgeon's knot for piecing leaders (triple surgeons works for braid to leader on the water). If I need a new knot, I will learn it. This one was snell knot to stinger hook, perfection loop to stinger leader, and loop-to-loop a fixed loop to the jighead. heck, I even learned to seize double braid - Ahoy My Allbright knots were shooting through snake guides 40 years ago, and I'll never need another for braid to leader.

Not fishing for condolences here, but after 4 weeks in hospitals, my mom passed away last week. We had our annual Arroyo trip scheduled for the March new moon. So Dad, you want to come to Arroyo? Got nothing better to do. His last trip here was his 90 b/d weekend, when my mom could last make the trip. He looks 10 years younger holding his early morning stringer (caught in an hour). His Parkingsons probably limits him more with a baitcaster now than it did just above (now 94), so I snagged him a pair of Omega Pro ZO3 for this trip. They were a steal for half-price on Amazon. When I was growing up, he fished nothing but 808, until I kept him in Lew's. I'll report Other Species when we get back. Omega Pro is quite a reel. The spare double handle in the box is junk, but the single grip that comes installed on the reel is quality, with dual-BB and knob that swaps-in Revo/Lew's (SDS Customs). The Omega drag set kicks butt. I can see knocking it around while you're fishing, but the detentes set like a champ on the bench, and it has way more drag than it needs - reported 11 lbs, I only needed 3 lbs (along with most everyone else). Good video. and his second with take-down maintenance.

The difference with micro-balls is in the mass (inertia) that you're starting up and applying brakes to - more cast energy goes into distance, especially at the light end. Hedgehog Studio has a really good chart rating bearing style over casting weight range. Their ZR-bearing is full-size hybrid ceramic. You can see, they have 3 different ranges of Air bearings, Air BFS, Air Ceramic, and Air HD. Air BFS are optimum casting 1/4 oz or less, and maxed-out at 3/8 oz. I noticed immediate improvement (lighter lures farther) on deep spool Lew's Super Duty with a swap to Air HD, and the equivalent IXA MBS bearings from KTF. You have to add a drop of oil to unshielded bearings about every month, but where I fish in salt, they're an advantage that they're being continuously flushed. Hedgehog Studio is also an easy place to shop. I've been using a broker to shop in Japan for 18 years, which makes it easy for me to buy from Japan vendors who don't market direct to US, like KTF. (this is building up a cache of small orders from different shops, held in storage, and shipped together at once). On big items, broker fee is 5%, and a little higher on small items. He earns his keep, finding stock, getting questions answered we never could from this side of the big pond.

showing up late - that's a Hedgehog Air bearing, which compares to Roro-X, aiming at 1/8-oz ML niche. Comparing micro-ball to full-size hybrid ceramic and especially shielded bearings, it's the last 10% of your cast distance. I'm currently running the KTF/IXA doubles on all except 2 reels in <3-g finesse niches. Casting light weights, only the inner race and micro balls spin. Casting big weights, or with big drive loads, the middle race and outer balls spin. I'm trying full-silicon-nitride ceramic on 2 salt reels, and they're really promising for extreme casting (and cranking) range.

I'll try this again. The SLP Works tool is no fun to use, either, but that and Roro TX6 are the design and function required for hollow-flange, recessed spool bearing. The Hedgehog Studio design, copied in Roro TX8, is limited to full-flange deep spools.

PE#1, PE#0.8 - diameter 0.17 to 0.19 mm Vanquish is the best finesse spinning reel ever. Pick a rod that will take advantage of the feel. But the right rod is going to depend more on your use.

Right now, Roro shows that great design is OOS. I've sent a lot of people to the Roro TX6 tool, and it works well for them. The anvil design is different from SLPW, but works on the same principle and elevation drop. I have not used that one specifically, because I already had the SLP Works tool, used first on Lew's Team Pro SP (and then on all my later Daiwa, Steez, Zillion and Silver Wolf)

yes, both are mid-frame reels, Shimano spool size S-20. I checked Hedgehog Studio, and looks like the older Yumeya 1215 series are sold out. But they have good stock on '19 Stradic spools. https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/4580

There are two different designs, and you need both to cover the range of possible spools. The answer is not One Best tool. Anyone who says there is a Best tool only has One style of reel. The best buy on both styles is Rorolure.com You need the Hedgehog style pin tool for wide-spindle, deep spools with full flanges and the spool bearing located outside of the spool flange. You need the Daiwa SLP Works style tool for shallower spools with the spool bearing recessed into the hollow of the spool inside the spool end flange. The tool above cannot reach this pin.

I suspect you will find the Miravel worm-drive and shallow spool excels fishing light braid. I would treat the deeper Carbon X spool as light fluoro/mono. Part of the size and weight difference may be worm- vs locomotive-drive (guess), Shimano is going to have stiffness targets in their frame and rotor to get that good line management, etc.

Mine likes a large-frame reel, and it's definitely a square-bill rod.

@Eric 26 I think it's unlikely Berkley actually built the reel - highest probability, it was made for them by Shakespeare/Kalamazoo. The Japanese still love their direct drive reels - they call them Revolvers - and love fighting bass with no A/R, drag or clutch. They like our old Shakespeare and Langleys. (so do many of my friends) Direct Drive Revolvers still come off the bench at Isuzu and Ebisu, competing for bench time with the other reels these small shops bench-make - they're limited, high-demand, and they sell out. Unfortunately, it sold, but there was a BP Bait on Yahoo last month that was a virtual twin of @ATA's Berkley - drive side plate was the same guitar shape. Closest I can find in current search is a round reel. https://noppin.com/yahoos/detail/j1032675156 Original list for Isuzu Tabby (6 ball bearings) - note the price is more than doubled in resale

Adding the USM link, $749 MSRP. https://daiwa.us/collections/baitcasting-reels/products/steez-sv both JDM and USM come in at 160 g = 5.6 oz. An ounce (and change) of weight lost from Steez A includes hard-anodized alloy fine-teeth gears in place of broached brass.