PTasker15

After some lew's trouble, I'm going to try to see if they'll refund a faulty reel and put it into a Shimano Curado K 200. I am new to Shimano, but I did some research and noticed people mention the "MGL" and 70 size variants being better at casting lighter lures. I don't know what y'all consider lighter, but I plan to pair this with my 7'4" Medium-Heavy. I use this rod for everything. Football jigs, Carolina Rigs, Spinnerbaits, Lipless crankbaits (in heavy grass that I wouldn't say I like using 12lb test in). But one of my most common uses for this is texas rigs. While I own heavier weights, most of my weights are 1/8 and 3/16oz. Paired with a creature, they probably weigh around 3/16 and 1/4 I would guess. As of currently, spooled with 15lb fluoro, I would guess my Lew's could pull about an 80-90 foot cast using a 1/8-3/16oz texas rig (I guessed since the reel has a 30IPT retrieve. Averaged 33-37 reel turns, I believe comes out to around 1000 inches, divided by 12, around that 80 feet area. Let me know if there is a better way to calculate this). I'd hate to lose much of that since bombing a texas rig does well for me. Do y'all think there Curado 200K would produce similar results, or should I use a 70K/MGL Curado?

There is no O-Ring. Both old and new knobs have spacers. KVD knob doesn't work on KVD Reel, KVD Knob works on every other reel. Other reel knobs work on KVD Reel. Very odd.

68lbs? I bet you thought you had the world record largemouth for a few seconds there. That's impresive.

I know, but trust me when I say my spool was spinning THAT fast even at full tension before I put a new knob on there. They sent a replacement knob which also did not work, yet the knob from a different Lew's Reel works perfectly on the KVD and the KVD knob works perfectly on the other reel. It feels like the KVD Knob was not made for the KVD Reel at this rate lol.

Well Toledo is where I'm heading, so Im learning to use the #15 MH/F for my Football jigs or whatever applicable and my #20H/F for carolina, or whatever applicable.

What do you consider quality? I use Strike King Tour Grade and G Money. About $6 and $4 respectively.

Hey y'all. I know this is based on opinion, but I want to get some of yall's opinions. I have a 7'3 Heavy (3/8-1 1/2oz) that I plan to use this winter paired with 20lb fluoro. I live in East Texas, so I do expect double digits. I obviously planned to use this for pitching, casting jigs and texas rigs when applicable, heavier style lures, etc. Next outing, my two power techniques will be carolina rig (1oz) and Football jig (3/4oz). I know that football jigs can have some lighter wire hooks, so wondering if anybody has used heavy gear on them without straightening a hook or pulling a hole in a fish's mouth. Do some of you think I should jump my football jig down to 15lb test and throw my carolina on 20 main/15 leader? Just curious to see others experience and opinions. Would rather not lose the fish of a lifetime by straightening a hook out. TIA

No since I did it online, but Lew's being Lew's, is sending me a brand new cap on them. Might not be here in time, but I appreciate the customer service.

Forgot about this. I did swap the tension knob with one from another spool and it worked flawlessly. Oddly, the tension knob from this reel works just fine on the other reel, so no issues. I did contact lew's about a replacement. Hate to see it, got really scared there for a second.

Dont appear to be. Ill switch knobs to see if that's the issue.

I bought a Lew's KVD LFS Reel the other. Brand new from the factory. Last night I spooled up some 20lb test and tied on a 3/16oz Texas Rig to practice pitching and short casting with and found even with: The Drag Locked Down Spool Tension Knob turned as high as humanly possible Centrifugal Brake Pins all turned on Magnetic Brakes set to max That the lure falls way too fast and cannot be controlled. And that's just 3/16oz, I planned to use up to 1oz lures with this. Any Ideas on fixes? I've serviced reels before so I don't mind opening her up. Just don't want to go through Lew's warranty because I need this reel in 2 weeks for a tournament and cannot afford another meanwhile. Thanks in advance.

Man, I can chuck a weightless lizard 50 feet. THAT is impressive to me. Granted, my line plays a huge role, but I've used similarly rated rods and only gotten them about 20-30 feet. I can also get an ultravibe speed craw weightless the same distance. Color me impressed.

As per usual, not a lot of reviews blah blah blah First Impressions: This rod (7 foot 4, Medium Heavy, Fast) is extremely light. I'm always sketched out by EVA but this is good, quality stuff. Feels extremely good. Doesn't overheat or have a rough texture. Rod feels great and is also Kevlar-wrapped. The taper is as described. Loadfs up very well on casts, and has power behind it. Know what I don't like? The reel seat is enclosed, no exposed reel seat. It still feels great, but I feel like it does lack a little bit of sensitivity at its price point. But again, I do update review so I could choke on my words. I haven't caught anything on it yet, so don't take my word until I do. It has the same blank as the Omen Gold (which I reviewed) and the Omen Gold is stupidly sensitive (but has a skeletal reel seat). The guides are great.

It's very pretty. I say it loads up better than my Lew's ML as I can chuck a 1/8oz ned rig about 60 feet, which impresses me. Definitely going to be a favorite for me. I will say, since it loads up easily and has a soft tip, throwing a drop-shot 1/4oz with a 20-inch leader feels awkward due to the load, so I usually roll cast it. Again we will see how well it holds up to abuse since I fish in an aluminum boat currently, so the rod sits in the boat floor while tournament fishing, so sees about 16 hours of rough treatment a year before being carressed back into its rod sock.

Oh yeah forgot I made this. I don't remember dates but I'll tell whoever is stalking me what I think. Still have it. Still runs great. I've put it through the ropes on squarebills during an October Tournament and it did extremely well. I still would urge one to buy a slightly softer rod, but it is perfect for shallow cranking. I did pull off medium-depth cranking as well. I feel after using it that the lure rating is off. It is rated for "1/4-3/8" but I would place it around 1/4-5/8oz. While this rod really shines with squarebills of the 3/8oz size (1.5), it can pull off lipless crankbaits (3/8-5/8oz) and larger squarebills like 2.5, 3., and I've even thrown 4.0 on here ( would suggest thinner hooks). As I said, it handles medium divers too, but the furthest I would push this rod is 10ft. The rod is pretty sensitive (for a crankbait rod). You can very clearly tell when you're hitting things such as rip rap, feel the rattles in a lipless, or feel the swing of your crankbait. The reel is, of course, still working well. I am a fanboy of the dual braking system. Working a smaller crankbait? 2-3 pins. Working a larger crankbait? One pin. I can get a 1.5 close to as far as a 2.5, or about 50-70 feet depending on wind, and how brave I'm feeling. I have rarely backlashed this but I did lose a lot of line when my co-angler decided the make and overhead cast at the same time as me. Did not end well. Took one look and said, "Can you give me some scissors?". 10 minutes later and 30 yards less of line, I was back at it.

As I usually do with rods I cannot find many reviews for, I'll leave my thoughts on it. The rod I Got is the 7'2 Medium-Light, 1pc. First off, the rod has some features the website does not mention. The split grip section is EVA Foam. Feels nice, but I am slightly worried about degradation from use. We will see. Also, the rod is what I believe is referred to as "Kevlar Wrapped" past the reel seat. It's the same stuff the Shimano Curado rod uses. First impressions (Nov. 9, 2023) - The rod feels good. A tiny bit on the heavy side but doesn't matter to me. When paired with a Lew's American Hero 2000, balances out fine. Eyes are well made and wrapped. Cork feels nice where it is. Rod has an excellent backbone but a soft tip, which I personally like when working lures like Dropshot. I am slightly worried about the material the butt section and reel seat is made out of; it feels great, but I am worried about grip when wet. The reel seat feels great, and even with larger reels, the threading on the reel seat doesn't get uncomfortable or in the way even when exposed. Surprisingly, the reel seat lock does not get in the way despite being below the reel seat. I suffer from the awful disability of being left-handed and haven't had good experiences with the reel seat lock being below the reel seat instead of being above (like lews) Since my left hand often ends up quickly loosening it. This reel seat locks up real tight so it isn't a concern to me anymore, which is nice. Now understand, I've never been a big spender on spinning, so I've never owned a spinning rod over $70. The Omen Gold Retails at $129.99, so my opinion on the performance might be biased since I cannot compare it to other similarly priced spinning rods, so take what I'm to say with a huge spoonful of salt. I think this is one of the most sensitive rods I've yet to lay my hands on. Whether or not I will choke my words with that statement later, who knows. But I know that feeling a dropshot bite on slack line with a 10 foot mono leader 60 feet away is very impressive to me. While that was the only bass I have snagged with this rod so far, I got plenty of bites from sunfish and crappie that were very clear. I also think a small catfish tried to get herself a mouth full of roboworm since something tried to yoink the rod out of my hand. A catfish would be a very good test of durability for this rod. I ought to take it to a catfish pond and see what It can do. Yeah, I'm going to do that and then cry to 13 when my rod ends up snapping under the weight on a 15 pound channel cat when it runs into a brush pile. Anyways, yes very sensitive. Loads up fine on a dropshot. I plan to test a Ned Rig @ 1/8oz with a TRD so we will see how it handles that. Also if anybody can suggest some fluoro mainline I can use as leader, that would be nice. Thanks for reading my rambling.

Yeah I'll have to get one soon. I'm thinking about using my normal gear? Medium Heavy/Moderate, 12lb Fluoro?

What colors worked good? Currently a crawfish pattern and dark bluegill pattern are on sale, wanting to use them this winter/spring. Thinking bluegill would be a little more versatile.

Anyone use these rods in their cranking variants? I think I found one review on the V3 "Chatr-Crank" and none on the Meta. The specific model(s) I'm looking at are both 7'4, Medium-Heavy, Moderate. The Fate V3, priced at $100, is a Composite blank while the Meta, priced at $150, is "Thin Wall Fiberglass". Wanting to know if anyone owns these and can, mainly, attest to them being true moderates. I bought a Lew's Cranking rod and while it was neat, was more of a soft-tipped Moderate Fast, and I'm basically trying to round off with something that can throw 1.5-2.5's fine, be able to handle up to a 5XD style crank (15' is as deep as I need to go, but usually throwing in 8'-10' for my "deep cranking"), and regular sized lipless. Lastly, I use faster rods with heavier line for ripping up grass so I'm not worried about feeling grass on one of these rods.

A jerk bait suspends, but is able to get deeper due to its bill. How does a suspending, lipless lure get down in the water column? One would think after sinking a certain depth, it would suspend, right?

I'm wanting to try some 6th Sense Suspending Lipless Cranks, but can't find out how exactly they work. Anyone use these? Do they reach a certain depth before suspending? How would one use them?

13 has some of the fastest customer service I've ever seen. If I send an email during business hours, I often get a response within 30 minutes to a couple hours, which is great. Also, they offer lengthy warranties for even their cheaper stuff, which makes me feel a bit safer. I already planned to buy a Omen Gold 7'2 Medium Light for finesse so will leave a review here when I do. If I like it, I plan to add a Concept A2 G3, Omen Gold Panfish, and/or a Meta to my arsenal.

I wish they still made a casting omen on their site. I'd really like to try their envy 3 someday. I also plan to buy the Saltwater Omen and use the XXH for freshwater big fish like cats and gar.

When do Dobyn's rods usually go on sale? I have access to 30% off sitewide, but wandering If i can find a better deal on another retailer before I try to grab a maverick using $20 in shipping and taxes.

Anyone own this rod on here? Reviews seem scarce. I plan to make a trip to Academy soon to see how it feels in my hand compared to a Dobyn's Mav.