ska4fun

I never saw chronic defective duralumin main gears in doyo reels, even more so, when focusing on high speed reels. Neither Banax and it's OEM clients. Shimano duralumin alloy was a pathetic piece of work. And it showed uttermost quality decreasing, without any real testing before reaching market. Nor quality, so no quality control at all. Daiwa is putting its brand on very cheap reels, made by chinese OEM brands. The recente ''Daiwa'' PR100 is made by the chinese brand who owns Ryobi fishing brand. Very cheap reel. Same as the ''Daiwa'' Firewolf. The ''Daiwas'' made by Doyo, had decent build quality, the CX series.

Braid - Mono/Fluoro - Modified Alberto knot (two passes in the mono eyelet, when finishing it, to avoid it untying under heavy jerking/slashing). Mono/Fluoro to lures/swivels - Clinch knot and sometimes, the palomar knot.

Mine and from several users who dealt with defective newer reels, like the Metanium 2016-2019 series, Curado K... Argue with someone who saw the use of cheap AR clutch in the Stella series is pointless... And yet Shimano, unlike Daiwa, Doyo, Banax and several chinese brands, was unable to develop a reliable duralumin alloy.

Tell that to Shimano...

There is a cheap plastic window above the main gear in the frame. A translucent, dark plastic, very cheap. Were you really able to left out of the picture the two things I quoted as downsides for the CQ BFS???? The plastic assembly were the FTB brake is located. Do you need help to find it? Do they have the dual AR system? (roller and ratchet/trigger)? I would exchange it for a CQ51 or CQ51S without a second thought.

A Tatula 100 is easily able to deal with giant peacock basses.

For gods sake, take a reel at least with a 8:1 ratio, for big poppers and propellers. These lures just destroy your pulse and forearm!

Probably a charter focused on giant Peacock cichlids, like Cichla temensis and C. pinima. Usually for the size, a 20-25lb braided line would be enough, but these giant ones fight really dirty, putting a short, but intense fight (around 2min), allways trying to get into logs, weed, submerged roots. The overkill in the line is to improve the chances of landing one big individual. Accept both suggestions, merge them. If landing a trophy catch, feel more free to use lighter gear.

Yeah, lefty, lol! Too much plastic. The plastic window is of extreme low-quality. The plastic side plate, the same, and very prone to get stuck. Older ones had screwable aluminum ones.

I particularly have high standards over my reels. I have a pristine Conquest BFS. Don't use it since it's of lesser quality than the old conquest 51 series.

The olde E series is a rugges reel for past bass fishing, with heavier lures. The K has a very weak disengaging system and thumb bar. The bearings seem very prone to oxidation, even on freshwater.

A short resume of Shimano baitcasting reel history. Curado gen, 2, Bantam Curado, up to E series - Superb, strong, high-quality reels. Curado I - ''Let's see if our consumers will complain about reel quality downgrades'' Curado K - consummated, uttermost crap. The green curados have a strong reputation here on Brazil. I would love to have one on the 70 size.

I have some 8:1 BFS reels and use them with crankbaits all the time. They deliver a superb presentation over flat cranks with tight wiggling swimming. I just slow down my retrieving, quite easy. But it's even easier to speed it up in a 7:1 reel. The differences over IPT are hardly perceptible in your case. I don't like to just crank lures. At least a very subtle twitching happens, even with crankbaits.

Fluoro gets weakened by heat easily. Try the alberto knot.

My retrieve ratios: 5.X:1 - wobblers and bigger plugs. 6X:1 - general purpose 7X:1 - topwater stickbaits, twitch baits and jerk/slashbaits 8X:1 - Poppers, propellers and some jerk/slashbaits.

Exactly.

It depends on the crank swimming. A wobbling one requires slow (5.x:1) gear ratios. A tight wiggling one, works great with higher gear ratios.

Seems like a Banax made reel. Probably some kastking/piscifun ones are compatible with it. This reel is almost identical to the Lurestar C9 Air.

Yep. With a very educated thumb control.

Tatula 200. Way better build. The list of issues on the K series is absurd: low-quality springs in the spool disengaging system, low-quality thumb bar...

I understand. That was one of my biggest criticism of the DC system. If they claim it is an intelligent system, why it is dumber than the cheap linear mag system, needing to be fine-tuned like a centrifugal one?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these new DC version have pre-adjusted tension?

Aiming corrosion resistance and pitching, it would be a good update. Aiming long distance casting gains, no. No advantage at all.

Increase price, increase plastic usage and decrease build quality. Shimano trifecta.

I used a Fuego CT, basically the same reel without the TWS. Made it cast 4g lures easy.