Bigbox99

Don't worry about the knobs on a reel. It's like making a car buying decision based on the stock tires. You can easily change that with Bantam knobs or an entire $10 handle like what is pictured. I'd get JDM Zillions for both. Maybe the normal JDM Zillion in a slower ratio for the crankbait rod and then a Zillion HD for the jig rod.

Tatula 80 from Japan or China via Aliexpress. Daiwa US is out of their mind with pricing.

Are you talking about the Tatula SV 150? That one is a Tatula CT with the Coastal 150 SV spool in it along with hyperdrive gears. If that's the one then it's defining feature is the higher capacity SV spool. You have to know if you want that or not.

Are you referring to the old 13-24 Tatula or the new one? I have the old one and it's been great. I'd lean to that reel just because it's a proven platform and the 200m is new. It also has an alloy side plate instead of the 200m plastic. Both would be fantastic with braid and long casting baits like frogs and ploppers but I would lean to the Tatula for large plastic lines and to the Tatula 200 for plastic lines and glide baits or big wakes that like to helicopter. The advantage of the non dynamic linear mag braking found in reels like the Tatula 200, 300 and Lexas is that the stronger braking profile helps to limit that helicoptering on the cast.

It's a military term for the spout that goes into a jerry can. Donkey something or other.

Cut and re-tie with fluorocarbon line frequently. The threshold for plastic deformation with fluoro is pretty low compared to mono. That means that every hook set and even every cast with heavier lures will weaken the line at the knot a little bit. If you don't cut and re-tie religiously you will experience a break off on a hookset or when fighting a fish.

4 rods laying down in front of me. I can't have anything sticking up behind me. I sweep my rods across the back of the kayak on every cast.

A Japanese 68L BFS rod would be my recommendation. So the Expride from that list. Assuming you are just buying on Tacklewarehouse then don't overlook the Majorcraft Day's 68L either.

The 2025 Tatula looks tempting. That's what I would go with over any of the SV reels if casting distance with heavier fluoro was a priority.

West Okoboji. Miller's bay and "the canals". If you fancy some smallmouth then the rocky structures around gull point can be great if you don't get blown off the lake.

I went cycling in that. Was flying on the Papio trail not even getting my heart rate up until I decided to turn around and head back to the truck into that 45mph gusts and 30 mph sustained wind. My body still hurts.

Levante Leviathan

I'm confident anyone on this site that regularly builds rods can build a better NRX if starting with an NRX blank. Loomis build quality is lacking and their imagination is non existent.

Epoxy

You may want to try the new Tatula 150/200 handle when those come out as parts. It will have a narrower but longer knob sort of like the Zillion HD but not EVA. The paddle knobs are old Tatula knobs and look out of place on a high end reel IMO. This new knob is in the same family of the current gen Daiwa knobs but is the power version.

I like a little slower rod for weightless plastics. I use a 72M Zodias gen 1 and a 73MH Tatula Elite gen 1. Both rods are very similar and basically have the same action, tip and cast the same with the Tatula having more power deeper into the rod. 12# Sniper on the Zodias and 14# Sniper on the Tatula Elite. If I were to do it all over again I would get a 610M Shimano rod like a PA or Expride. I really like that stiffer slower Shimano medium for 3/8 to 1/2 oz weightless plastics and the shorter length would help with all the dock skipping I do. I would put a Zillion on it with 12# Sniper and make it my jerkbait rod and shallow cranking rod early season then transition to soft jerkbaits and dock skipping weightless plastics. This is my primary weightless plastics setup pictured here pulling double duty with a flatside crank. It has an aftermarket SV spool to aid in skipping.

I find this model to have "thin grips" in that when I am casting with my trigger finger behind the trigger the soft tissues of my palm pad, pinky and ring finger are on the highly tapered portion of the grip and onto the blank giving a very "small grip" feel. It's not bad or anything and I don't mind it other than I think it looks weird. The diameter right behind the real seat is what I considered normal but even a smaller diameter here wouldn't stand out to me the way the highly tapered ends of the grip do. When palming the reel I have 3 fingers in front of the trigger only my pinky and small portion of my palm pad is on the grip near the reel seat. When I am casting my hand is further back flowing off the end of the grip and onto the split grip blank portion. I think what you like is a larger diameter grip right at the reel seat? I would avoid rods that have reel seats that taper the rear of the seat towards the grip. How do these two look?

I would get the Levante Leviathan but those grips may be too thin for you. I don't have any issues with normal sized or even thin grips but I plam the reel and am holding onto to that when working a bait. The BPSCarbon Lite glidebait rod looks like it has big grips and I have heard positive things about that glidebait model. On the grip thing if I remember correctly you like the last gen mojo bass rods? To me those have thin short weird tapered grips that are one of the few rods I could see someone complaining about "thin grips". Does the rod pictured have thin grips to you?

JDM shops will also sell below MSRP which helps to further drive down the price. You don't see that with major US retailers unless the item is on clearance.

As is the Tranx 200.

Scorpion 200 MD

its a product of the manufacturing process. They wrap the blank blank before curing it. You can see it done in the video at 5:29. They sand it off afterwards but it became a trend to leave the textured appearance on the blank in the 2010s. The 1st rods I remember doing it were the 1st gen Orochi xx rods. They had a cool appearance and texture where a portion of the carbon wrap was under a thick epoxy that gave it an ocean deep appearance then went to a super thin epoxy after a thread work transition that let you feel the carbon wrap and see it raised off the blank and finally, the rest of the rod blank was finished in that unfinished scrim wrap textured. It really seemed to work with that rod and was kind of a new thing to do at the time. I don't know why modern rods still do it other than it became an acceptable trend and as a cost saving feature rod manufacturers will continue to do it until told otherwise. https://www.tackletour.com/previewmegabassorochixx.html You can kind of see the textured carbon wrap treatment on the gen 1 xx rods in this pic. It worked with the unsanded blank treatment or may have even been the reason for it.

I'll throw large treble hook baits on a jig hook moving bait rod. Large moving baits usually have large trebles made from large diameter wire with big barbs. Similar enough for me.

If anyone is curious on the difference between the narrow and wide 36mm free floating spools. https://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwazilliontws.html

No, those are a narrow 36mm unlike the wide 36mm found on the Zillion TWS, USDM Zillion HD, Catalina TW and Ryoga 1516. The only modern reels to get the narrow 36mm spool is the Steez HLC. The new Tatula 150 will probably also use a narrow 36mm spool but will have a long spool shaft. There are aftermarket spools from Amo and Ray's Studio that fit the narrow spool 36mm reels. There are also used spools from the reels sold individually but the gigas in the US Trail is one of the more sought after spools and you already have that.