Tatulatard

The performance certainly is legit. Tiny compact reel with a dual brake and a light weight spool. I have don't very limited test casting and skipping with the reel over some water that hasn't frozen yet but it was in 23 mph winds. Seems pretty good although no combination of brakes were able to match my daiwas casting into that wind but that is kind of unreasonable. My only issue is the quality. Compare the reel to their phantom which has a metal (although stamped) clutch and kicker, metal thread inserts in the frame for the screws. It looks like it also gets a dual clutch spring too. The carbon xcs gets none of those but is an otherwise good little reel. Did they do it to shave a few grams? I don't understand. How are wood screws threading into plastic to hold the side plate on ok?

Get a tdz drag star and metal cast knob. That will look great. Do these take daiwa 34 mil spool? Could you put a zillion spool in one?

I was seeing those today in the $80 range. There are cheap shallow light weight spools for the black max that fit these for skipping.

Zillion

My alloy m is going to be a jig skipping reel. I saw that reel test guy that stands on the bank and bombs baits to see how far they go as a "review" skip with it with no spool tension. He was throwing an easy to skip bait but if that dufus can skip then it must be capable. He was struggling to skip with the lews skipping reel for reference. He's just not a good skipper. The issue with the alloy m is the price. It's under $70 overseas but the us Amazon sellers all want $90 for it which puts it against the lews lfs at $100 which is a very similar reel from a better company but with a heavier spool.

That's some use. How has the serviceability been? Have the centrifugal brakes worn? Are the screws threads metal?

I wish this reel had some more metal components even at an increase in weight. I'd take a 6.5 oz dual brake 10 gram spool carbon plastic reel with a metal clutch and machine threaded metal insert pressed into the frame for $60 as a cheap reel. The alloy m comes in at $67 on the chinease site. These look promising but are magnet only.

Anyone have experience with their reels? I ordered the carbon xcs and their alloy m reel reel for two hank parker lews rods. I saw a reel test review for the carbon xcs and he praised it but now i think he must be sponsored by piscifun or something because what I got while adequate is not living up to the hype yet. Curious to see if these reels are as good a cheap reel as the lews hp rods are cheap rods. I got the carbon xcs in yesterday. It's a small 5.5 oz alphas 800 sized carbon plastic reel with a dual brake,10 gram spool and carbon fiber handle. My impressions of it so far are that its ok and has some potential. Pros: light weight and small. Dual brake with a light weight spool and strongish magnets. I was able to skip a senko with it pretty easily with brakes all on maximum and the spool tension set to remove slop. I even made some really bad skips with and was expecting a spool blow up but it didn't punish me too bad. Price is ok for $60. Cons: very cheaply built. Centrifugal brake aluminum cover is riveted on. The aluminum has been pressed around 4 plastic tabs on the brake assembly to secure it in place. Its why the brake plate on the spool appears dented. There is no way that is serviceable. The centrifugal brakes can't be replaced once they wear out. The magnets don't wear out and can be used as a stand alone braking system so it has that going for it. The clutch, kicker arm and pin on the kicker are all plastic. The frame is carbon plastic and flexes. The worse is that the screws are threaded into the plastic without metal thread inserts. Regular disassembly and service runs the real risk of stripping the screws. The thing is a time bomb. Still, it seems to cast real good from the bit of testing I have done. It's going on a lews hank parker medium rod for some jerkbait and weightless plastics fishing. The alloy m is going on an older silver version lews hank parker mh to skip jigs. Both reels will be trying out the new basix flouro line next fishing season.

Bass are stupid. They'll eat a senko with a d**n Texas rig weight on it. Can you believe it? Don't they know a senko should only be fished weightless to allow for that beautiful fluttering action and that a weight ruins it. Stupid fish. I don't catch dumb fish so I fish my plastics weightless or with as little weight as possible. It looks better in the water to me and thats what really counts.

You are holding a stick with a spinning rod. You are wrapping your hand around the side of a reel and stick when using a bait cast rod and reel.

I think I have at some fishing store. Maybe a cabelas. I did my squeeze test on some green abu low pro with red accents with that sculped side plate. I squeeze the frames on plastic reels to see if I can make the frame touch the top of the level wind. They all do it. Not sure what I am testing other than "yes it moves" and maybe how easily it moves. I probably have autism. I would assume so. I bet it's a better polymer with more graphite than their max reels based on the price difference.

Nope but I have a few "carbon fiber" fishing reels including a the new piscifun xcs on the way. It's a cool material and popular in 3d printing because it adds additional strength to the base plastic. Compared to aluminum it is far weaker and much much more prone to deflection. For fishing reels its a nice cheap way to make a corrosion proof light weight frame and side plates. You can just kick out frames from an injection molding machine without having to deal with all the metallurgy and casting involved with alloy reels.

Even by Daiwa's own admission their zaion carbon powder reinforced plastic only "rivals" the strength and weight of magnesium alloys. "Rivals" marketing translation: "yes it's worse but...."

That pairing would work out well for 1/4 to 3/8 oz weight. I have a 68m mojo and have cast down to 1/7 oz ned heads and trds. It might be capable of lower but you would be better off with a ml rod if you want to cast true 1/8 oz baits.

Also we would need to slide up the brake block to make the brake shoes visible to see if there is a difference in brake material. We only see the tabs used to turn the brakes on or off in that pic.

Interesting. If I had to guess then maybe there is a different brake material for each of the two colors? A different plastic for each one with different brake characteristics. Mayble like how red brake shimanos were more aggressive than the white block we have now. I would try each color individually with the same brake and spool tension settings to see if there is a difference.

But it is precisely how your "carbon fiber" or "graphite" fishing reels are made.

That's the fun. A big fish on a bfs rod when the fight is on is heart pumper. I love seeing that rod folded over and the drag peeling. I run my drag a little loose and use thumb pressure on hooksets and to add additional drag when the fish is taking line. Just something I do unconsciously.

For minnow baits for sure. For Ned rigs I would want a majorcraft bfs offering over a finetail. I'm assuming Ned rig means 1/20 ounce head with 3 inches of plastic as big around as my pinky. Maybe even a wire weed guard. I would want a bfs rod with its larger diameter blank over a trout rod the diameter of a toothpick. Honestly he probably needs both. A graphite stream rod and then a bass bfs rod.

For distance try backing off on the spool tension and relying on the brakes. Also consider droppign down to a 10 lb fouro or 20-30lb braid. Get that spool spinning faster and pass a line through it that can get out of its own way and down the guides.

I wouldn't. Sounds like you want a bass rod and not a trout rod. I would look at the majorcraft bfs offerings or Phenix light powered bfs rods. Trout rods are very noodly compared to a bass stick of the same power rating.

It also could be the anti reverse bearing or the pinion support bearing. Gears on these aren't exactly buttery smooth or quiet with the plastic side plate but if its more of a scratchy metal on metal sound I lean towards bearings rather than gears. Gears are more of a cranking under load sensation.

Yeah. Phenix has a ml casting rod. Many medium rods have softer tips ans can cast quite low. What is "1/8 oz" to you? A 1/8 weight and bait or a 1/8 oz crankbait?

I'm not aware of any spools for the 200k. Maybe a scorpion 150 mgl spool but that would be expensive enough to warrant just getting another reel instead.

Consider the 70 mgl or bfs curados.