Bigbox99

If you want to make it a burner you can do the 7.9 swap. The SV 103 is a TD Zillion. https://tackletrap.com/products/daiwa-sv-103-xs-7-9-1-gear-set-right-hand

6.3:1 should be fine. It's a 36mm spool reel. That brings up the IPT compared to a similar ratio 34 mm or 32 mm reel. I can keep a buzzbait on top with my 6.5:1 36m spool reels easily. Are you actually finding the reel too slow or is the ratio getting into your head? You can aways do an IPT test or do what I do and "can it fish a buzzbait comfortably" test.

I'd use it for 1/2 oz to 2oz trebble hook and single hook moving baits on 15# Big Game. Buzzbaits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, ploppers and other big topwaters, cull shad, nessie, lipless ripped out of grass and L bill crankbaits in the 3/4 to 1 oz range. If it can really handle 2oz well then I'd toss a big wake bait and some Savage Gear baits up to and a bit over 2 oz like the shine glide and 3d bluegill. Basically use it as a big moving bait rod.

No. My kayak doesn't like to spin and is actually hard to turn in a circle. It's like paddling a barge. I think the fin like protrusion in the front is what keeps it tracking sideways in the wind

Many years of geary service.

I refuse to believe they can resist the wacky senko. It's the closest thing to a guarantee in bass fishing. If they'll bite they'll bite that.

That's nothing. There are people that collect these and buy they from Japan where all the colors and limited edition runs are. I remember seeing a guy on another forum selling them. He had a whole collection of them with soft coatings like fake fur and that soft touch coating you see on pens. They still sell limited editions. Here is one from this year. 2019 limited edition colors:

I like the last gen 7' M "fast" as a trebble hook baitcasting rod. It has a regular taper and fished a lot like a poverty spec Orochi xXx Black Elsiel II. https://jdmtackleheaven.com/products/megabass-orochi-xxx-baitcasting-f4-610k-black-elseil-ii

It'll work just fine for those baits. If it's super stiff just throw 3/8oz and up jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits ect.

I don't know why people buy Loomis rods either. I like to imagine there is some sort of overlap between Loomis buyers and Harley Davidson buyers. Like the exact same age and location demographic buys both. Might throw trek biclyes in there too but that's not what you asked. The appeal of Loomis will forever remain a mystery to me. I like expensive rods like Megabass, Evergreen, Designo, ect because they are cool and not because they are expensive. They just look cool and have actions and lengths that I prefer for my style of fishing. I buy mine from used or new from Japan or both and save quite a bit of money doing this although they still run hundreds of dollars a piece. I get no warranty but IMO rod breakages are user error and shouldn't be subject to warranty replacement anyways.

If it can be trusted. The Lews 7'MH fast Hank Parker is rated for 1/4 to 7/8 oz but has a super slow loading stiff tip like something from an XH swimbait rod. It won't load the tip when throwing a 3/8 oz total weight bait. I bought the rod because of how stiff the tip was when I handled it in store. I wanted to try a stiff slow loading broom handle type rod for jigs, big Texas rigs and crawling frogs. I'm able to look past the fact that says it's "fast" and for baits down to "1/4" when it clearly isn't any of those things but I also was able to handle it and realize what it is before buying.

You'll have to find out how stiff it is. For your use maybe even a stiff rod is an all arounder. I expect to be able to cast a 5 inch weightless senko on a MH all arounder (my Lews HP can't) but maybe your definition of all around uses heaver baits. If its as stiff as my Lews HP then as long as the bait total weight is over 3/8 oz you're good.

I am in fact, still shaking from the experience. I will lose sleep tonight knowing that Lews spining reels exist.

Seems like fair value. A lot of these combos are borderline scams with a garbage rod and/or reel for an inflated price. That appears to be an LFS reel and a Lews MH rod that I imagine is very similar to the Lews Hank Parker 7' MH. If purchased individually that rod and reel would be about the same as that combo so you aren't paying an over inflated price for the combo, which is good. Those Lews 7' MHs can be really stiff in the tip which makes them great for jigs, big worms and frogs but too stiff for all around MH use. You'd have to get your hands on the combo and see how stiff the tip is without breaking the rod by high sticking or bending the tip too much. I would hold the rod out in front of you parallel to the ground with the rod's side facing you and pull down on the tip with one hand without lifting the rod up too much (high sticking).

Glad everyone is happy. I personally find that type of failure to be appalling for even $40 reel when I can get a Laguna, Legalis or whatever the good cheap Shimano egg beaters are. I'd want my $40 back rather than yet another one of those things and I'd never purchase a Lews spinning reel again after that kind of failure but thats me. Their baitcast reels are different story and from a reputable manufacturer. I have pretty low standards for cheap reels and have numerous examples of cheap chinease reels and I have never experienced a main gear failure like that. That failure of multiple teeth breaking off the main gear is absolutely mind boggling. I read the OP as: Good news from Lews: [horrible mechanical failure happened to a man made horror beyond comprehension] and they sent him another one!

Wow what a peice of crap. Glad everyone involved is somehow happy about this.

It is possible that the 200 has a dynamic brake. No one has gotten their hands on one and checked yet. That arbor might be big enough for an SV brake but I would think they would market it as an SV reel then.

Daiwa US isn't real Daiwa and everything they say should be ignored. The 200 is a fixed inductor spool. I suspect LC isn't new and is just a rebrand of Magforce Z and Magforce. I imagine they wanted a two letter acronym for their braking systems that weren't SV. LC is basically "not SV". The enpoopification of everything continues.

I lock my drag down when fishing frogs.

The baitcaster is a Doyo.

Tick like that is usually from a bearing. You'll have to remove them and then roll each one on a hard surface like a countertop with a bearing tool to inspect. I'll often encounter this bearing tick in my cheap chinease reels new out of the box and its almost always the bearing for the handle shaft that sits in the side plate over top of the A/R bearing. I assume it gets dry being exposed and some corrosion spot forms on the race. I usually just oil it and use the reel to wear down the corrosion until it becomes smooth. I'd just oil the usual culprit bearings and use the reel for the rest of the season and see if it sorts itself out.

You want an L bill crank. L bills and weeds is the brother to a square bill and wood. The L bill shapes deflects the bait over the weeds instead of wedging the weeds between the line and bill like a normal shallow crank/square bill.

You may have missed this part. Shimano's 70 can refer to a small reel with a deep spool or a larger reel with a shallower spool. While there are examples of smaller number reels like the curado 50e being smaller than the 200e, the 70mgl being smaller the 150mgl there are also examples of the smaller number being being the same size as the larger number reel. Such as the metanium 70/metanium 150, scorpion 150/curado 200k, curado 200k/curado 150dc, slx150/1st gen slx 70mgl just off the top of my head. I think all the 30 reels are also just shallow spool versions of the normal reels too.

There is no such thing as a 70 sized reel. The 70 is in reference to capacity (in that 70 is less than 100 or 150) and that capacity can be achieved by making a small reel with a small deep spool or a larger reel with a shallower spool. All the modern Shimano low profile reels are pretty tiny IMO but if you really want a tiny DC reel then consider the Aldebaran DC or maybe a newer gen conquest DC if you want a small tank of a DC reel. I don't know where Shimano gets this numbering system. It's like they use the 30, 50, 70, 100, 150 and 200 to have different numbers with a smaller number meaning less line and bigger number meaning more line without and actual translation to 70 = 70 meters of X line. Might as well just make them blue, green, yellow, orange, red and magenta perhaps.

12 to 14 pound fluoro and weightless plastics are my go to. I can't remember the last time I broke a fish off on a hookset. I would cut and retie your bait frequently and/or change to a different brand of line (I use sniper). Fluoro can get beat up at the knot from casting and hooksetting so it's good practice to cut and retie so you have a fresh knot as often as possible. Beyond that there are little things you can try. I think that a reel setup that let's you cast effortlessly with a lower energy smooth cast also helps to keep the line alive at the knot. Consider freeing up the reel by backing off on the spool tension. Also don't rip at the fish with wild hooksets. Load the rod, reel and sweep the rod. The leader or the terminal knot? I'll retie the terminal knot 4 times in under an hour easily. I'll do it after one fish if it's a big fight by the boat with the fish diving under the boat and my rod fully loaded, the stretch pulled out of the line and all that force going to the knot. That's an instant retie.