Bigbox99

Megabass will just make a change to a new line of rods and depart from what they did before. The best way to look at it is that Megabass will create a line of rods based on an idea for a new type of graphite material and then develop a theme for the rods. They will not be related to any previous line or rods or a direct improvement over an older model. That's why older Megabass rods are as well liked as newer ones. Each Megabass rod exists in its own universe doing their own thing instead of being a direct evolution of a previous line. In some cases the old stuff is even more exotic and strange than the rather mundane modern rods that have more mass market appeal. I've owner both gens of Orochi xx and 2nd gen is definitely lighter and it's probably a better tool for it. I just really like real seat better on the 1st gens and I like how the braided carbon wrap on the blank has a snakes skin appearance. It's beautiful and cool looking for how it was made when the 2nd gen just put on some cosmetic wrap to try and make the snake skin connection. I appreciate the effort but it comes off as cheap to me. Modern Megabass rods in general don't do it for me. It's like they are soulless compared to the old rods. Also there was some minor backlash over the change in the Perfect Pitch. It was probably better off for it in the long run but the old PP was a real XF with a ton of power. You can pitch a weightless senko on that rod and then go bomb a frog. It had this really great XF action for pitching that to this day makes it the stand out of the line for many. The 2nd gen nerfed this action and made it more moderate but it was redeemed in time when it became an excellent all arounder junk fishing H rod. Something the 1st gen was ABSOLUTELY not. Also they turned the EMTF into a crankbait rod (it was the bottom contact of the 1st gen) and the Brailist was the bottom contact rod of the 2nd gen. A lot of people got tripped up by that change and when looking for a replacement next gen EMTF for jigs they ended up with a crankbait rod.

Hey, the 7' MH Lightning rod makes for a good ultra cheap heavier moving bait rod. I use one with a $40 Aliexpress reel spooled with 15# green BG as a stand in for my MH Valkyrie and LIN10 Black Jungle with 14# Sniper. It does the same job just as well throwing and working chattebaits, cull shads, 3/4 oz L bills and thanks to the mono, does better with ploppers and buzzbaits. The Valkyrie is more forgiving when a fish is hooked poorly but the Lightning rod and elastic mono combo is no slouch either and can be pretty forgiving when a fish is hooked badly with a treble. Its kind of a low vs high build with the $40 rod and $40 reel vs the $500 rod and $500 reel with a $50 handle.

You can put a Tatula Elite long cast spool in your Tatula or Fuego CT if you want for $45. https://tackletrap.com/products/daiwa-tatula-elite-long-cast-spool-assembly

I'll also add the Aaron Martins flipping stick Orochi XX but in the red trim JDM Special Edition. Not a super high end rod but those red Special Editions are rare and with Aaron's passing it would be a nice addition to my collection. Just not sure how much I would use one and I do fish all my rods. My 7'5"1st gen Orochi XX is a heavy rod that I don't love jigging and worming with so an even longer more powerful rod wouldn't get much use which is why I will probably never track one down. I also already have a vintage flipping stick destroyer with spiral wrapped guides that fills the niche of cool old Megabass flipping stick that I need to fish more often. Pic is the destroyer and weird similar vintage Daiwa lefty flipping frame reel.

Vintage slant bridge Megabass. Megabass X7 series. Designo rods. Evergreen high end like the Direwolf, Black Rose ect. Individual rods that were the standout and must have from that line (71MH Valkyrie, Otomat US destroyer, Super Red Demon Black Jungle ect). High end stuff that only circulating in the hands of enthusiasts and collectors. Tacklewarehouseslop is fine but not what I consider top tier for my tastes.

Set your centrifugal brakes. They are on the spool under the removable side plate. I forget how many these have. It's either a 4 or 6 pin Doyo centrifugal brake. I'd turn 2 on and leave the rest off. They slide up and become free to move when on. They slide down and click in a fixed position when off. When on the centrifugal force of the spool spinning will extend the brakes from the spool and they will ride on the brake race fitted to the side plate. I would run 2 brakes on, zero spool tension and high on the magnetic dial. As you cast back off on the magnetic dial until you are happy with the results.

The BFS term orgins are pretty unspectacular and it has had quite the transformation over time. The term originated from Yukihiro Sawamura when applied BF (baitcasting finesse) to bass fishing and he made up Bait Finess System (BFS) to pair his KTF spools and/or KTF developed Daiwa Air reels and his bass rods together. In the video above you can watch him tell the story of BFS if you turn on captions and auto translate to English. To summarize, he wanted to use heavier fluorocarbon line for bass fishing finesse and these lines were too stiff for spinning reels so he developed baitcasting spools for bass reels and bass rods able to throw these light weights while being powerful enough to move fish away from cover. Other rod brands jumped on the trend and we had an explosion of BFS rods from all the usual suspects in the 2010s. The term entered the US fishing scene when bass anglers in tackle enthusiast circles that regularly follow Japense bass fishing trends and import JDM tackle began to pick up on BFS and import rods and spools. The Majorcraft Volkey BFS and Corrza were popular affordable rods at the time. I belive TTT even imported and sold them in their shop for a while. I owned both the Volkey BFS UL and L and they were unlike any L or UL rod I had ever owned. Once BFS leaked out of enthusiast circles into the wider US fishing scene the term lost it connection to its origins and now is just a duplicate term for BF. BFS used to be bass fishing specific but since that connection has been lost you can still reference your species and application with things like "BFS bass" "BFS trout" "BFS inshore" to help determine what kind of rod you would prefer, which is basically what we do today.

A normal aluminum frame reel from a reputable manufacturer should handle mono in that diameter just fine. The braid in that diameter will want to dig in so a shallow spool reel would be best. A Tatula 80 from Aliexpress or Japan along with a Ray's BFS spool should do the trick for under $150. You'll end up with two spools too so you can use both braid and non braid. If you want even cheaper than that there are options like the SLX BFS. The SLX MGL and Tatula 70 should also handle 6 pound mono but would worry about dig in with a 10 to 15 pound braid on those reels.

Try it. I'd get a light Majocraft Days for that money but you do you.

Lock nuts are a functional item and the reason we see aluminum ones is so they can be machined and anodized. It's like cars with aluminum wheels vs steel wheels with plastic wheel covers. They both function the same but one is widely considered nicer (and better to have) than the other. Why is one better than the other despite functional the same? One is nicer to look at and the other is unpleasant to look at.

Nope but I do have lews rods that have an actual exposed blank at the reel seat and Tatula rods that in addition to probably being glued together 2pc joint at the handle rods sold as 1pc rods that also don't have an exposed portion of the "blank" at the reel seat and just have a dent in the reel seat to look like a cutout to expose the blank. The Tatula rods are way more sensitive. This whole exposed blank thing at the reel seat is vastly over stated IMO. I think it stems from an old timer line of thinking that you need to put your fingers on the blank or line in front of the reel to feel bites. I've written it off as bass fishing fudd lore like needing to set the "spool tension" for bait weight on reels. When I hear it's one ear out the other.

I hate it when misinformation is propagated by these you tube personalities. All reels from every brand I have had their spool tension from the factory exactly as my "zero adjust" Daiwas. Daiwa just started calling the spool tension knob a zero adjuster and put a collar around it to make it hard to access to psyop you into not tightening it. You shouldn't have to use "spool tension" on any reel unless it has an incompetent braking system and or user. The exception being spooling a slinky like heavy fluorocarbon onto a fast spinning free casting reel like a centrifugal but that is easily mitigated by not doing that and using the right tools for the job.

Fishing a soft plastic on a keel weighted swimbait hook is not a new type of rig. The "rage rig" was always nonsense.

Daiwa Shimano Abu BPS Seasir Piscifun Johncoo Leydun Histar Haibo Pinnacle And they are all function the same. All have zero adjust spools tension and all cast in the same ball park with each other for distance. The Daiwa SV spools reels are my stand out reels in that they make skipping easy compared to any other reel I own.

Your local Walmart may have the Vengence 76H for $20 on clearance. It'll throw 2 oz baits with ease.

I use one of these in ML casting as a car rod. The ML is an extra fast because all the rods up to MH have the same back portion of the rod so it casts like an XF. The ML is the tip and the middle sections are more like a M. It's basically a MLMMH rod XF action https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqI9vOL

The 1st gen reels were good. The current ones are not as well liked and use a plastic frame in many of the models that were aluminum on the 1st gen reels.

Habitually cut, strip off some line and re-tie with fluorocarbon line.

I curious on how they did the slant bridge with these. If it is a machined part or cast like the old ones.

Great reel with heavy fluorocarbon. The tws let's line flow out smoothly and the braking system can handle stiff heavy fluorocarbon without needing to use spool tension to compensate.

Looks cool. I wish they had a carbon grip just to knock it out of the part with a modern rod. To me the posion adrena was the bass fishing iphone moment when we went from black berry's and flip phones with buttons to a glass touch screen that worked with human hands. Ditching the tree bark for a carbon tube handle assembly was like the rod stepped out from a time portal from the future. I would like to see that at sub $200.

While palming the reel working a bait? Thats normal. If you cast this way you severely limiting your range of motion and energy input on the cast. That's not always a bad thing and it can be a tradeoff for the ability to instantly engage the reel and set the hook once a bait lands. For short pitching and casting scenarios this becomes a beneficial trade because I don't need that extra distance a normal hand on the rod grip trigger finger on the rod trigger type cast allows for and I DO want to be able to set the hook as soon as a bait punches through a mat or is pitched into cover.

You still have to switch hands between casting and palming when using a left handed reel. I use both and it's the same thing. You cast with the rod's trigger on your trigger finger then switch to a palming grip of the rod to center the mass of the reel at the fulcrum point of the rod (your hand). Since you are changing up grips anyways its as simple to just stuff the reel into your open left hand to change hands as it is to move your right hand up fron a casting grip to a palming grip with a left hand reel. I do both and it's the same thing. The only reason I own left hand reels is so I can palm while pitching, punching or target casting (this last one is debatable because there is bait flight time). If all I did was normal casting I would just use whatever i learned 1st because they are functionally the same thing.

Another dirty secret is that the majority of rods from Japanese companies (Shimano, Daiwa ect) are actually two peice rods that join at the grip and for the US market they simply glue the two together so they can call it a one peice rod since the US market has an irrational HATRED for two peice rods. They have to remove a feature and gain nothing in return to appease the US market and this boggles my mind to no end. The reel seat doesn't have to be that way for a 2 pc joint at the handle. It can be absolutely normal looking. I have rods that join at the handle and the "exposed blank" at the reel seat looks exactly like the blank. I suspect the choice to use that reel seat was to harken back to the 1st gen Steez rods with their air beam reel seat.

I use both. Because I am right handed I and I have greater fine motor control in my right hand a right handed reel is preferred when the primary means of moving the bait is with the reel and use left handed reels when the primary means of moving the bait is the rod. Much like writing the pinching of the knobs between my fingers and rotating at the wrist are intensive use of fine motor control and my left hand simply isn't as good at this. I reel slower and fatigue faster than my left but like writing left handed you can improve over time as you develop the fine motor skills with use. That's why it really comes down to what hand you learn on. I learned on right handed reels but have taught my left hand too and it has gone from being a fumbling mess trying to reel a baitcaster like a spinning reel to being adequate at reeling a baitcast reel. As far as arms go there should be no "strong arm" like there is no "strong leg" unless you are disfigured. These are large musle groups and have equal strength so setting the hook should not be impared no matter which side of your body the rod is on. I say body rather than arm because you should be using your body to set the hook and not just freezing and swinging an arm. The switching hands thing is also the same with left hand reels as it is with right since you should be using a casting grip and then switching to a palming grip of the reel. I think people not palming the reel or palming with too few fingers in front of the trigger trying to be cute with a left handed reel is why there is such an obsession with reel weight lately. People aren't palming the reel properly and centering that mass into their hand so the felt reel weight is exaggerated. There are instances where you can cast while palming the reel but this restricts wrist movement and should really only be used for pitching, flipping and short target casts. You still end up with only 2 fingers in front of the trigger when palming but it's a compromise that allows you to instantly engage the reel on a pitch or lift the thumb bar up with a thumb tip after pulling out line for a flip cast.