Tatulatard

The big egg has been a favorite wake bait of mine for years. I think they might be discontinued though because they aren't available online and my store has only a few in stock. I'll have to get one and rattle can it black as a night bait. I need to do it this weekend as I drive by the store.

Its all aliexpress chinease baits. Prices may or may not be higher than the same thing on ali. I'm not afraid of ali baits. I have a few and they have all bee of a good quality with performance ranging from excellent to "pike bait". I don't have any bladed jigs from that place but I wouldn't be afraid of them.

I refuse to put that crap on my line. I think the tws and daiwa braking must help me out. I also don't go over 16 lbs flourocarbon line or 20 lbs mono so maybe that helps too.

With these cheap reels you need a bit if a stomach. You can get high performance, smooth or problem free longevity in a cheap reel but not all 3 at the same time. An assasin or phantom would offer high performance with a 14 gram spool paired to a centrifugal brake that could sling a weightless fluke out there right up with the higher end reels in the $200-$300 range and be very light weight too. It will however flex under load. Be very geary out of the box with poorly cut aluminum gears and a composite frame that will only get worse over time. It will lose all the silk screened lettering on the outside. The level wind may need regular adjustment to lay line right (they get loose on these) and some day the clutch will fail and need to be replaced. If you can stomach these not so pleasant quirks you can have a very cheap very high performance reel. On the other end there is the abu black max. Its not a high performance reel with a heavy magnetic brake only spool and a weight of nearly 8 oz for the gen 3. It is a smooth out the box reel that while it does get geary with use, will keep working for a while and is one of the better long lasting cheap composite reels. They just work. I play around with cheap reels that catch my interest and will often give them away later. I go for the high performance cheap reels to see how good a performer something can be for how cheap it can be and I compare the performance to my higher end reels. Because of this I have a bit of a stomach to tinker or fix a reel that is acting up and I don't rely on them as my main use reels. More of a novelty and spare or backup thing to tinker with.

On the affordable end there is the 7 gear tatula 150 or 200. Both are the same size with the 200 having a much deeper spool but a loss of the mag z brakes. I would go with the 150 for frogs. The 200 is more of a large diameter line and baits over an ounce type reel. Oh yeah the zillion hd is also awesome but should be phased out soon in the US with an already released new zillion hd. It would pain me to see anyone pay $400 for a reel getting phased out and sold for $300 in Japan but thats me. I would get the newest zillion hd if money wasn't a factor. https://japantackle.com/casting-reels/reg0000316.html

There is a tak tatula elite rod that is supposedly a pretty good regular taper stick. On the highest end I'm pretty sure there is a regular taper steez usdm ad jdm. On the adrenas I hear the 73mh and 72h are good moving bait rods with the mh being a good all arounder and the h being the better bladed jig rod of the two. Depends what you want to throw. If cranks 1st a foremost I would go with the tak tatula elite, pa 73mh for all an round super versatile rod and the pa 72h as the heavier moving bait rod. I went down this path for a versatile moving bait rod but ended up spending more than double what I planned on a mh megabas valkaryie that has been haunting me for over a year. Finally gave in and it is an amazing glass composite mh.

You're not boat flipping, you're not pulling out snags with the reel, you're not running high drag pressures you're not using super deep spools with a pile of line wound on under no tension. These all contribute to line dig in with thiner braids.

What aluminum frame centrifugal or dial brake reels can be had for $80 these days? My fuego ct was $80 but that was pre covid purchase. I don't think bps fire sells their pro qualifiers anymore. They dropped their bionic plus reel. The last gen of that one was the same platform as the kistler reels. It was a darn fine reel for $80 normal retail or $60 on sale. Their are plenty of plastic reels for $80 but I would avoid all those. Watch out for "carbon fiber" reels too. They a plastic polymer with some amount of a graphite/carbon powder mixed in. The physical properties of the material is defined by the polymer used since the carbon fibers are so short strand they add little to the material as reinforcement compared to a real or long strand carbon fiber product. They work just fine and are affordable but just aren't super solid under load as a aluminum reel and the really cheap ones can develop issues after a few seasons of use.

I skip a lot out of a boat and kayak. There is a bit of an adjustment between the two. I can't roll cast like I can on the boat and get the rod to really sling baits on a skip when in the kayak but I am lower to the water and this opens up more targets sometimes.

Looks like a Cotton Cordell Big O. These are still made but not in that color. You could get one of them or a suitable modern "square bill" crankbait.

The lure. The amazing hunting chatterbait from Seibert Outdoors to be specific. I had no idea a chatterbait could hunt. By hunt I mean actual hunting where is veers off course and then returns to center without having hit anything. Real hunting and not that "it hunts when it hits wood" squarebill talk. The 3/8 oz baits I have all do it. You have to burn them on a 6:1 to get them to do it but they will also do it sometimes when stopped and started again and also spiral or zig zag on the fall. Really awesome chatterbaits. I think the hunting is from the split ring between the head and blade. My hypothesis is that this allows for more movement and at high speeds the blade can over rotate at one direction or the other and lock causing the bait to veer or plane off to one side and then regain itself and track true then do it again.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/g4nQqwR/Screenshot-20220522-062054-Gallery.jpg[/img] This is as wild and wooly as I get. Nevermind. Can't attach it or use a 3rd party link to embed. It shall remain a mystery. Yum houdini on a break blade

I think I saw the same video. It was painful to watch him try and skip with it. I agree that sv spools make it easy but with some good technique and the right baits the reel is absolutely usable as a skipping reel. Might even be more free skipping and good for the advanced skippers.

I only notice flex on my cheap carbon handles when pushing on the knobs. Never notice any when reeling. The $11 one likes to unscrew and lose knob caps but thread tape cures that.

Upgrade to an aluminum frame reel for your next reel. If you like the promax braking the the way it casts then the lews lfs is a good buy as is the revo x. If you want to try a centrifugal reel then an SLX is great. For a magforce z reel the long in the tooth but good fuego ct is an option. You also have aluminum frame reels from brands like okuma, quantum, Kistler ect. Whatever catches your eye but I would discourage you from buying another carbon fiber powder (graphite) reinforced polymer (plastic) frame reel above $60. I just saw the budet. If $600 is the budget then get the best $300 reel and $300 rod out there. The reel is the Zillion sv boost. They run close to $300 for the usdm model and under $300 for the jdm one. Amazing reel. Not sure what the best $300 rod is out there but the expride is a good start if looking for versatile actions. For a dedicated bottom contact I'd be looking at a loomis or st croix rods. Those two may be uglier plain looking rods but they nail their actions so don't overlook them.

Most of the chinease carbon handles are 90mm from shaft to shaft and pretty much the norm in length. They are also usually take daiwa/shimano knobs but that's not a big deal unless you want to put your original knobs back on. I would look at what Kawa has too. The lixada is fine but the cheapest out there at like $11 when I got mine.

It happens when you thread like through the level wind. It's easy to pass line through a loop on the spool and you have unwittingly just put line under line. The solution it to pull it out or make a long cast and go for a walk until the spool is empty when wind the line back on.

Pollywogs? The space monkey is a versatile rage bait that can be a beaver or a toad bait. I usually keep a pack around. Seem more durable than the other rage baits too?

Seems like a good buy for the price.

Looks like a kk royal legend gt.

Use it for the same applications you would use a slow gear Tatula 150. Its very similar but doesn't have a twing and palms slightly better. I had an old advantage which is the same reel.

I like my St Croix rods but there is nothing better made about them vs my simiar price megabass rods. Quite the opposite actually and that is my #1 complaint about them followed by balance. Their actions are excellent though and thats what I really care about.

You are trading plastic cheapies for plastic cheapies. I would recommend stepping up to an slx or fuego ct. Maybe try a kastking centrifugal reel to see if you like that braking system. Most do because it allows you to sling baits out their with lower spool tension and not have the bait not feel choked off at the end when casting like is common then slinging baits with magnetic reels. Maybe try something like a spratacus. If you like that then move on to shimanos, centrifugal lews and magforce z daiwas.

I think that $55 is better spent towards an slx mgl or tatula elite spool for a tatula 100 or fuego ct. The performance and light weight of the assassin was good but I have heard those reels have issues with clutch springs and level winds not laying on line well. I'm sure they are great for a few years (mine was) but they are disposable plastic chinease reels. They are not built for the long run and I don't even know how to get parts for one if KK told me they don't support it anymore. I know the oem that makes it but have no email or number from them to use to get a hold of anyone. You could potentially buy $35 reels using the same frame and parts then cannibalize them to keep an assassin running I suppose.

Bass pro also has a house version of this that it pretty good too. I use their version of this work in a 5" and their 4" senko type baits on vmc 1/16 jig heads. The flick shake worms fall faster and have lots of wiggle while the shorty senko copy falls slower with less wiggle. On a hot bite I throw the flick shake worms but when I need to let that bait slowly fall in front of their face I throw the 4" bps senko. Both baits are durable enough that I don't use o rings or any other holder