Bigbox99

I wish I had data that compared the two. I feel that the fluoro gets into plastic deformation much sooner than mono. With mono you have to pull on it with what feels like forever to get past all the elasticity and into plastic deformation where it finally breaks. With fluoro it seems like you can get into the plastic deformation of the line with hook sets and repeated powerful casts of heavy baits and then it "mysteriously breaks off" on a hookset when the line fails at the knot. My favorite video capture of this was when Matt Allen broke off a fish on a hookset with 30 pound leader of fluoro to braid fishing a rof 12 Hudd. That bait had to be 3 oz and his power casts of it must have beat up that line and then "the fish broke him off" when he set the hook like he was trying to hit a home run.

New good. Old bad. Fluoro is seen as new and mono as old. I was a braid only user then I started using fluoro when it came out and now I use it alot. Recently I started to use both mono and fluoro and am always taken aback when using mono and realizing how similar it is to fluoro. We make them out to be radically different lines but they are very similar. Both a plastic monofilament lines with the one we call "fluoro" sinks a bit faster, is a bit harder/stiffer and has less elasticity at hook setting forces than the one we call "mono" making it less stretchy feeling when being fished. The one we call "mono" seems to float better and keep top water baits on top and has is more limp and stretchy witj greater knot strength. The invisibility argument in favor of fluoro is also powerful. It's mostly bunk but we want to belive that an invisible fishing line exists and when the advertising makes the claim that "its much closer to the refeactive index of water and invisible to fish" we believe it and buy the product because we want to. In reality the percent difference of their refraction between the two and water is small. Last time I looked it was like 4% or something. I like this video because it is making the case for fluoro being harder to see than mono but in basically every comparison of low vis green mono and clear fluoro they look the same. It's a test rig being spun around in the water trying to catch rays of light for the camera too. Image it is was just fishing line tied to a bladed jig moving through the water. No way there is a difference in visibility. https://youtu.be/fRpO4Blwj8U?si=MoTpZS4XkMX0rF4a

These are Histars or the same reel the Histar Black Mamba uses. I converted mine to a dual brake. I have dual brake Lieuwang or something plastic reel based on this platform that bombs baits then later got the Histar Black Mamba because of the aluminum frame and hande side plate and put the dual brake parts in the Black Mamba. The Back Mamba also came with 3 spools with a super deep, regular deep and shallow finesse spool. Since I converted that reel I don't have a use for the spools and they sit in a drawer with the plastic wang reel. I'll send you my wang reel and spools later. It has a cone level wind. I think the royal legend 2 and some Okuma reel also use this platform but are plastic.

Also, your issue with the spool tension no longer working could be from dented metal shims under the tension cap. If you want to continue to use spool tension you can inspect and replace the shims. You don't have to use spool tendion as long as the reel has a functioning centrifugal brake and Shimano, in their home market, actually states that it should be set to just eliminate side to side play but you are free to do whatever you like.

Get a cheap rod for your cheap reel and use that for a while until you know more about what you want and upgrade later. That Lews rod looks great for $55.

Those belleville washers look wrong to me. Like they are inverted. Is that clicker catching on the upwards curved top belleville washer?

"Has drag on the side" Adjusts the ACS brake "Fishing poles" Sets spool tension to max "Casts as far as any other reel on the market" Does not infact have 1st hand experience with other reels on the market. "Casts as far you need" Makes a pitiful cast

I thought you bought one and put it on the rod that came with your black max combo?

It's OK to turn the brakes up every time you want to skip. If you are using your Tatula you can scroll the mag dial while palming the reel. You can be holding the rod and reel reeling in a bait while scanning the shore for your next target and then scroll the dial up to a higher brake setting or max without having to stop palming/reeling and to search for a dial to turn. The Daiwas like the Tatulas are adjustable while palming. Just move your thumb on the palming hand from the top of the frame to over where the top of the mag dial is and scroll it towards you to increase braking and scroll away to decrease.

Also it might be normal if you are assembling the reel. Drag star clickers will feel rough when tightening down the drag star from fully backed off until the clicker parts align and start clicking. This is usually something you only encounter when assembling the reel and are threading the drag star and clicker mechanism down the handle shaft before fitting the handle. If the reel is assembled and doing this then perhaps the clicker is broken and is making the drag star rotations feel rough instead of clicking. In that case, remove the clicker and inspect or just discard it and replace it with a few flat washers. Clicking reel parts are a meme anyways. No one needs that.

Make sure the star isn't rubbing on the reel side plate when tightened down. You'd have to be missing parts for that to happen but it happens from time to time.

Not a fan of the Vengence, or Berkley LR for the medium powers. I've owned a few Vengence and Berkley LRs. Each one has what I consider the star of the line. With the Vengence it's the 76H, the 7MH for the Lighting rod and both of the Lews Hank Parkers are good. The Lews HP 7MH is a little unusual in that it is a broom handle but that's also its strength. The 610M has what I expect out of a medium powered rod. If you wanted some sort of cheap rod lineup you could use the Lews HP medium for finesse spinning. The 7MH LR for moving baits like square bills (3/8 oz+), buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and paddle tails up to a 6" Cullshad. The Lews HP 7MH as a big worm, jig, frog and short punching stick and the 76H Vengence as a punching, beast hook paddle tail and big bait rod. You can alternatively use the 76H Vengeance as a super deep cranking and swing head jig rod with a forgiving line. I've done it with 12# Big Game and it works but that rod is too stiff in the middle to be ideal. It's very similar to my 711XH Veritas Winch 2.0 but stiffer in the middle.

Haibo is also behind the Ray's Studio stuff too. I was an early adopter of the Ray's spools and some of the earliest ones were for Daiwa TD-Z/Steez, T3 and the Haibo Steed/Smart. They even came with a Haibo brake fitted to the spool. The early Ray's spools overall appearance and design also looked like Haibo shallow spools seen on some of their reels. Also, the 4 postion fixed rotor assembly on the Ark reels was 1st seen on the Ray's Studio Long Cast, short shaft 34mm spool. Years later it re-appears on the Haibo Arise and Ark reels. Early Ray's spool: Haibo smart stock spools. Ray's also briefly made color spools for Steed and Smart that they sold along side the early Daiwa spool.

There is also the PR100 Daiwa offers in other markets that is some sort of chinease reel.

Their lowest baitcast reels aren't real Daiwas and they use some other OEM for them.

Either a 1st gen Zodias 72M or Tatula Elite 73MH.

My favorite cheap M rod is the Lews Hank Parker.

It looks like an older Lubina like the Lubina G4 (gen 4?) or Urano G3. It could even be a reel that is not on the site that they are no longer offering to new clients with BPS being the only remaing customer. Lews used the same platform for their last gen LFS and have moved to the newest Urano platform. I'm guessing that was done more by force than choice with Doyo no longer offering the reel.

That's a Doyo reel. BPS does use Aliexpress reels from Tsurinoya for their cheaper options like the Tourney Special but once at the $100 range they seem to be Doyos which is good. Doyo makes the Lews and Abu reels and they are solid for the money. BPS used Doyo back in the 2010s and then moved to cheap reels for their house brands like Bionic, Extreme ect. During that time the BPS employee that was part of the process of ordering reels for BPS left the company and bought the rights to Browning from BPS, which also owned the dead reel brand, Lews. He then revived Lews reel brand using Doyo reels that he was familar with and brought the brand back and it quickly caught on with US anglers looking for an alternative to foreign brands like Shimano and Daiwa. BPS was so butthurt over this they barred Lews reel from their stores for a while after this. What gets me to this day is that when BPS owned Browning they never used the Lews brand for reels and actually made sold Browning reels. Blows my mind how hard they fumbled those bags https://doyofishing.co.kr/goods/catalog?page=1&searchMode=catalog&category=c0001&per=40&sorting=ranking&filter_display=lattice&code=0001

No issues so far. It's a solid feeling reel when winding in under load. It's not the smoothest and you feel every tooth on the main gear but it pulls in 25 foot diving cranks and casts them really well. It's a very free casting magnetic reel. Loads of power with the long handle and lower gear ratio too. For under $40 it's great as long as you are looking for a cheap reel or are sufficiently curious. If you can afford to step up to a Tatula 150/200 it's worth it because those reels are more pleasant to use and can be maintained nearly indefinitely thanks to the abundance of parts and an over 10 year production run.

I think this is the answer. It's a cheap reel and they work great. This is leads to a positive impression of the reel so you get responses in these threads over the years like "best budget reel hands down" "best reel for under 50 bucks" or "best reel for under $150" comment in this thread that made me blow a gasket. Is the Black Max the only cheap baitcast reel they have used? Probably. That's probably also why they think it's the best cheap reel. They are more than content with the Black Max they have used so they will make complimentary statements about the reel such as "best budget reel". I have a 3rd gen I turned into a BFS reel for tossing UL cranks. The beat thing about the reel is that they are popular so there is a ton a cheap BFS spools, deep swimbait spools and color parts to trick out a reel however you want. When it comes to widely available cheap reels to customize to your liking its the next cheaper option down from the Fuego CT.

Help me understand bat poop insane takes in this thread . Do people have zero experience with other cheap reels? Is this the only cheap reel they have ever used so that makes it the best? You can buy an aluminum frame, let me repeat, AN ALUMINUM frame reel with other features like a conical level wind and power handle for LESS than what even a USED LAST GEN Black Max costs. Why? Why are there still hot takes like "hands down best budget reel - Bob". It's like people shut their brains off when you mention anything outside of Walmart/Amazon/Tacklewarehouse. I know the $30-$40 alternative aluminum frame reels are on Aliexpress and that's scary for some reason but some of you already buy Aliexpress reels on Tacklewarehouse or Academy rebranded as familiar brands at an exorbitant markup because KOLs shilled them so why not just cut to the chase and buy the thing from where it came from without the middle men? "I want bang for my buck and to cut out the middle man" "No not like that!" I'll never understand this.

Looks like a last gen Tatula 100 with hyperdrive gears and blue paint. They did this with the 16 Tatula CT in 2020 and kept it in production along side the Tatula 100 with an update of the new style thin knobs and blue accents with new paint. There looks like there will be two Tatula Xs with a 100 and an SV. The reel on Daiwa US is not the same as what is on TW. The reel on Daiwa US is clearly an SV reel and features what looks like a darker blue paint finish and SV spool. This is either an unreleased SV version that Daiwa US has leaked through incompetence or a prototype using an SV spool that didn't make it into production and they went with the deeper spool 100 instead. Only time will tell. These two reels are not the same. Notice how much smaller the spool diameter is on the darker reel and the groove or line on the side of the spool. This is something you see on SV spool.

You could pick up a shallow finesse spool for the reel for under $30 to make it even better with lighter baits. Ebay and Aliexpress have them. Top reel is the BM3 and the bottom reel is the BM4. The BM4 has the red side cover release shaft and is a pointier and more squished down shape compared to the BM3.

Spend a little more and get the Seasir Megacuda if you want a cheap deep cranking reel. They have an aluminum frame, power handle and a cone shaped level wind. I paid $31 for mine but they run a little over that now.