bulldog1935

A couple of Japanese wood plugs I couldn't leave alone (think mullet) Wood continuity added to my Bright River super short grip Concorde/ 4500C combo (before)

well, no, FL denotes USM version of '19 model-change year. While JDM sells 13 versions of this reel with different gear ratios and spool capacities from shallow to deep, the 5 versions exported to USM are all HG or XG gearing. note same frame sizes interchange spools, small frame, medium frame, etc. JDM spools can be swapped onto the correct frame, e.g. for using threadline braid on a medium-frame reel.

Most bass fishermen are going to want medium frame reels to get medium-frame carbontex drag stack. Pick between 2500 and 3000 for the line capacity you need. I love the small frame reels with 7-lbs fiber drag in finesse niche (normally set drag at 1.5 to 2.5 lbs for 6- to 10-lb leader). The large frame reels are really not needed away from salt. I have a 5000 on kingfish rod, and like the weight balance with a 4000 on St. Croix Legend Glass.

Sounds like your backlashes are going deeper than you're chasing. Braid is so limp, it makes 180-degree backlash loops that you can't see. When you pull the line to where the backlash jams the spool, best to use a plastic toothpick to pick the line and find the backlash loop. Line dig is Not the issue, I think you're reading buried backlash loops the wrong way. Line dig is something different - it occurs with high cranking loads, that is, hooked up to big fish using big drag - if you haven't been doing this, there's no way you're getting line dig.

@KP Duty The 15-l front bag stashes a 15-l Ice Mule and a 6-pack. You'd think we've done this before. Building bikes is the only thing more fun than tinkering reels and rigging kayaks.

The Legit Design Wild Side is among the best travel casting multipiece rods offered. It comes in a Meiho box (rod inside a sock, inside a neoprene zipper case) and fits in a bike half-frame bag, e.g. opportunity fishing in Laguna Atascosa

(Daiwa does not own all their offshore manufacturing - e.g., Tica, Doyo - and many China and Korea rod companies - e.g., Valleyhill, Whiplash Factory, NS Black Hole - aiming at Japan for their prime market, try harder, offering higher quality for the price point). Reigning this in for perspective. What you're getting in a Bates reel is their spool and dual brake, with a low-profile reel built around it. Very likely more attention to the assembly and better Q/C than typical Express site reels. The thing to watch is replacement on the sold-out reel batches, and the thing to question is future support. The mark on the right - the lightning bolt - does require 100% Japan production

@redmeansdistortion Japan bicycles and components were anathema in the 70s (world leader in the 80s - by the end of the decade had to move the industry to Taiwan because of home labor cost and falling USD). But anyone with a brain in the 70s swapped their Campy rear derailler for SunTour Cyclone. Campagnolo was the last hold-out to copy SunTour's expired derailleur patent, waiting until '88 - par for the course, Shimano copied it in '80, 2y before the patent expired. On the right is Campy's SunTour copy, which is all anyone makes currently. back on topic to answer a specific question, map of Daiwa suppliers, which includes China.

There are a few companies bench-building reels in the US https://irtreels.com/ https://www.seigler.fish/collections/conventional-fishing-reels look what my friend JD Wagner does in fly reels http://www.wagnerrods.com/wagnersmallbatchreels3.html My opinion, Bates has made a suave marketing effort to ride their coattails.

@Hella Bread You'd be hard-pressed to say Lew's doesn't spec or Q/C their Doyo-built reels - they also support them with a future. Doyo is a major player, supplying parts to both Shimano and Daiwa. No question marketing is the biggest effort, and Bates initially approached the China company to batch-build reels to their spec. Probably began with him handling and liking the Loongze round reel. Likely a few trips to China to work out prototype details. I had a friend who answered a small-niche fly reel for cane rod market (he already had a China-import fly business going - the biggest China complaint then, they copied cane rod tapers of living rod makers and sold using their names*). He went to China for this, I helped him work out the bezel for the red agate. I suspect the process worked the same way - Tom saw the CAPS reel he liked, knew he had a cane-fisher market adding the red agate. He sold 2000 reels, half-RH, half-LH, and the project was done. Years after these were gone, people were listing WTB in fly forum classifieds. I had S/N 001 until it was too easy to sell to an Australian buyer. * AJ Thramer was known for quietly repairing the China rods bearing his name that were "returned" to him for warranty issues.

Skipping is all in the tip - the rod taper should be fast progressive with a relatively soft tip. My answer is niche-specific, and it's probably not going to be your answer - both from kayak, cypress overhang in tight rivers, and mangroves in salt marsh. Direct comparison, I've found S-glass skips better than graphite, at least partly because these rods will cast-off-the-tip weights lower than their rating. The rods have a low-end rating of 3/16 or 1/4 oz - all the S-glass will skip 1/8 oz, none of the graphite will. My craziest tight-river example is 4'10" OL, the butt-half is graphite, with a seamless swap to S-glass tip.

The whole ProjectTM seems like an answer without a question, and an upscale marketing effort. The same money spent on Lew's or JDM Shimano or Daiwa will probably make you happier. But who am I to talk, with predelection for old-design bench round synchro reels and S-glass rods (at least part of this, I love tinkering the reels, and the S-glass does skip-cast better than everything newer).

@NavyToad has a good point. In the 90s, I fished one Okuma monobloc (Calcutta-style round reel) that drove me crazy. Could best be described as cold-blooded. Everything about the set-up changed from cold start to warm use, and you had to change the settings in use. Every time you set it down, you had to start over.

If this really is a systematic problem with Ark Rods, the only thing that makes sense to me is they're using some type of filming wax as a finish treatment on their rods. Try cleaning the guide inserts with denatured alcohol. May need to clean a few times - mineral spirits is a more tenacious solvent for waxes, but may not want overflow on the rest of your rod finish.

They can't make it deeper than the stock G1 spool, because the SV inductor is recessed into one side of the spool hollow, and the spool bearing into the opposite side. Here, you can see all the Daiwa spools, including Original and RCS https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product-list/325

no worries friend. I don't want to dis our OP, but I'll say again Ark Rods seemed to go out of their way to help him. Biggest problem with extrapolating, he hasn't given us anything about the line other than frayed fluorocarbon.

the math is highly against cracked guide(s) existing on 3+ rods in question as in, just....no

It's your thread, so I'll follow your lead. I stumbled onto Tica 13 years ago matching my first salt finesse rod with micro-frame Cetus. After 7 hard salt years, I retired that reel, not because it was worn, but because my friend Paul just handed me another as a gift. Eric now has 7-y-salt micro Cetus, and it's still going strong. My first large frame Libra saw some brutal use, still going strong. Tica has a world market, but not a US market, probably in agreement with Daiwa, their biggest customer. These reels aren't for everybody. I like them as a pimp platform, because they can accept upgrade Daiwa handles. Generally, though, they have odd gear ratios and mis-matched handles for what most USM buyers want. Tica goes back to offshore reels in 1960, and they build them tough. For my niches, Libra SX is the best locomotive-drive made. I more than alluded on the parallel Shimano Power/Finesse thread, I'd take a low-end (Tica-built) Daiwa over non-worm-drive Shimano to have durability over short-lived refined feel. Stradic-up, even Daiwa fanboys admit Shimano's line management of fine braid is best. Filling this speckled trout limit on the Libra SX 1500, my buddy said, "well, it's not as smooth as Shimano"

@Bandersnatch MagForce (v. SV) says this is a big-weight reel, likely aimed at the same offshore (or shore) slow jigging niche. Isn't Alphas SV TW 800 the reel you're spec'ing out?

kinda - Procyon-down have optional A/R. What makes it most is they offer more models below this price inflection. Tatula-up have full-time A/R. The Daiwa reels with optional A/R are built by Tica.

Same size, 34-mm dia spool that interchanges. In fact, it's a magnesium-frame Zillion with extra ball bearings, better thumb clutch.

F-ring inserts are Fuji's second-lowest ceramic grade - one grade above Aluminum Oxide - other than economy, Fuji doesn't say a lot about them. The thing is, it's still Fuji, The heirachy, Torzite, Silicon Carbide, Alconite, Silicon Nitride, Fazlite (F), and Aluminum Oxide (O). Fazlite is lighter than aluminum oxide for the same hardness. I haven't had a problem with Concept Aluminum Oxide guides on kingfish rod. Some search results get repeated coments poo-poo'ing everything below Alconite. Reinforcer doesn't mention the insert, but Fuji only offers their top two rings, Torzite and Silicon Carbide, with titanium frame. Torzite is lighter than SiC for the same hardness. Valleyhill - Fuji Ti As Glenn said, fluorocarbon has a limited life - better UV resistance than nylon, because it's transparent to UV, but it will definitely fray and become brittle with use. Also sounds like Ark Rods went the second mile trying to make you happy.

it doesn't look much different, except position of the mag stand-off adjustment. I'm not disappointed, but I prefer this position over my Zillion - I find this easier to read when it's time for a notch or two.

Mitchell made 440 Ottomatic that solved that - one of the few '70s reels that would manual bail. (Penn, Hardy Exalta copied Mitchell 300's bail lock/trip mechanism) Pushing on the Ottomatic bail opens it, pushing on it again, it closes itself - you can do both with your rod-hand index finger.