Bigbox99

It will start with the x ship bearing then the gears will wear and buzz even after x ship bearing replacement. If caught early it can be solved with a bearing replacement but any amount of play in the bearing and those MM gears lose their smoothness fast.

"Bad gears" still function 100% in that as you turn the handle the spool will still spin backwards and recover line without issue. It's the noise and vibration that develop over time that anglers dislike about the MM gears. If you don't notice it then you don't notice it and should count yourself as lucky. Those that do dispise it and go to great lengths with gear swaps to cure it. The MM gear buzz is well documented but I only own a few MM Shimanos and they see lighter use and buzz the same amount as they did out of the box so I am wary of future MM Shimanos but still adding to the collection since I what I have experienced is more than tolerable and nothing out of the ordinary (smooth even). Mine don't get a ton of use since I view centrifugal only reels as niche for long casting with braid but I still add Shimanos to the arsenal when needed.

Great. I got my Super Destruction from them. They were able to beat the price of local sellers even with the shipping cost. I'm also eyeing their used Tomahawks at the moment. I have a thing for early Megabass rods. They have also purchased items and shipped then to me that were on Tackleberry and listed as not available to foreign customers.

Here is a shot of a Tatula 150/200 platform reel next to a Tatula 80/Alphas TW reel. I consider the Tatula 80 to be small and the Tatula 150 to be large but not monstrous.

Everything is legit and great except the customer support. I haven't used customer support but the policy is basically that once a timer ticks down from the time the reel is shipped the order is finalized and if there is any issue its between you and the seller. Aliexpress doesn't seem to want to get involved. I've ordered like a hundred fishing related products off the site and never had an issue with an order but I only do buisness with sellers/stores that sell a lot of items. The prices are so cheap for USDM reels they also sell on the chinease market that I'd rather just fix the reels myself and still come out way ahead vs buying the same thing on Amazon. I treat the reels like I do JDM reels and use the lack of a US warranty but a way cheaper price to just fix any issues myself if they arise. If you wanted to be sneaky you could send a china market Tatula to Daiwa US for warranty work but there may be stickers on the reel that indicate it is a non US market purchase and you could just peel the stickers off. I know there are Daiwa line capacity chart stickers on all china market Daiwas that must be some rule over there that I always peel off. If one came across a Daiwa US bench for warranty work that would be a dead giveaway it was purchased outside the US.

Are fishing reels disposable to you or are they long lived items that are repaired and maintained over long periods of time? The Tatula 150 is a bulky reel even for a 200 size reel since its an old design from 2013 but has been in production for a while so there are a ton of parts out there to keep it going forever. It's a popular enough platform that there are aftermarket parts like spools, drag stars ect as well as parts that are cross compatible with higher end Daiwas. I have two from 2015 that plan to keep going for another 10 years at least. If you are going to use it bone stock until it stops working and throw it away then paying $150 or whatever scamwarehouse wants for it is not a great option but you can get them for way cheaper (fair market value) on Aliexpress. It's a bigger brick shaped reel so if weight and palming are a big factor you could get something like the the Smoke S3 or similar pictured above. That's a deep spool version of a normal 100 size bass reel making it a high capacity small reel instead of big wide spool Tatula 150/200. I don't mind the size of the old Tatula platform but not everyone feels the same.

The Curado 200m also looks good and I will be picking up one for a lipless rod soon on Aliexpress. Speaking of Aliexpress you can get Tatula 150s for $100 free shipping now.

Just to get an idea of the size of the Tatula 200's spool. It's actually a 300 size spool/capacity making the 150 more like a Shimano 200. The 150 has a wide spool like the 200 but has a larger arbor to accommodate Magforce Z that the Tatula 200 lacks. If large diameter braid and power fishing is your thing then the Tatula 150 is the Tatula to get.

You want the 28mm Ray's long cast spool with the SV brake linked above. That spool in that reel is highly regarded as a great casting finesse bass reel. West Door is a reputable seller too.

Tatula 150. It holds as much line as a Curado 200k.

I'd look at solid tipped rods on the Japanese market. 2pc rods that split at the middle are common as are solid tipped rods for drop shotting which are all XF. My gut reaction is a Jackall BPM because I have a M+ XF solid tipped casting rod I use for short drop shots in shallow water but the only spinning solid tipped rod they have is a light powered rod that tops out at 1/4 oz. I'm sure other brands offer what you are looking for.

Can the Zillion gears be put into the 16 Steez SV TW?

Valkyrie MH. It's widely considered THE Megabass moving bait rod on the market. It beats out the madbull amongst those that have both. I only have the Valkyrie but it's the most incredible moving bait rod I have ever owned. It casts like a graphite rod then turns into butter once a fish is hooked. I use 3/8 oz chatterbaits plus a 4 to 5 inch trailer, buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless and billed cranks up to 1oz. I also throw 1/2 chatterbaits on it too but mostly use 3/8 oz out of bait preference. I think the heaviest bait I throw is 1.1 oz and the lightest is .3 oz. It's not a super sensitive rod and you only feel the blade of a bladed jig once the bait is close to you but you can tell when the blade is moving by the rod tip loading and resistance when the bait is way out there. I like this because it let's me know the bait is working without being beaten over the head with the blade wobbling through the rod I also use my Valkyrie out of a Kayak even though I shouldn't and have cheaper kayak rod but the rod is so versatile for a moving bait rod it can do all from a Fritside 5 to a Cullshad. Also it has the adjustable length handle that's really handy when kayak fishing. I can shorten it kayak fishing and then extend it with a DD22 or something making long casts on open water deep cranking.

Aliexpress Tatula 150 for $100ish and a 5.5:1 gear set from TTT. I'll be doing this with a Tatula 200 7:1 to both make deep cranking reel and get a new 7:1 gear set to swap into my old Tatula HD Custom 6:1.

New Tatula 200 for 2025. The current Tatula HD dates back to 2015. The new one uses a taller spool but looks to be more narrow. Palming wise it should palm a little taller than the current Tatula 200 but not nearly as wide thanks to the more narrow spool and the fact that 1st gen Tatulas were big blocky reels. https://youtu.be/90HmxygQLMk?si=3UDwWirCOLTqnHXr Narrow 38mm spool instead of the wide 36mm of the current 200. The knobs look like chunkier version of the new style Daiwa knobs everyone hates. No more big paddle knobs for the 200. They do look like are bigger than normal knobs found on the Zillion, Alphas and Tatula 100 making handle swaps a thing for other Daiwa reels if sold separately (come on TTT).

It's there to stop line from eating into the plastic. https://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwat3ballisticpg3.html

Their home market does. They have had shallower spool versions of reels sold in the US market for as far back as I can remember.

Aren't you looking to throw 17lb fluoro and bladed jigs? This lines up well with the Zillion HD. It has the TWS and braking profile to let the slinky you will be spooling the reel up with flow out easily and controlled without having run a bunch of spool tension unlike the Metanium 100 you were looking at in another thread. The Met is a great reel but you should play off it's strengths and stick to free flowing lines, minimal to zero spool tension and baits that cast like rockets IMO. For spooling up with 17 lbs fluoro and chucking bulkier baits the Zillion HD will allow the fluoroslinky to exit the reel in a controlled but unrestricted manner allowing the rod tip to stay unloaded as the baits flies. This will also dispense sufficient line on the cast to get a vertical sink instead of the bait penduluming back at you had the line been yanked tight between the spool and bait on the cast by spool tension. A smidgen of spool tension can work to add some slowness to a fast spool without having adverse affects to how the rod feels on the cast or tightness in the reels retrieve but its still a case of "you bought the wrong reel" if you have to do that to a reel for your intended application. Its better to play off the reels strengths than to compensate to shortcoming. Centrifugals including Shimanos absolutely send baits on bomb casts using line and baits that are conducive to this type of cast (free flowing line like braid and compact baits) while the more agressive braking profile Daiwas like the Zillion HD excel at managing stiff plastic lines and bulky baits. You can spool up a Zillion HD with braid (mine is) and sling frogs far but a centrifugal will beat it in pure distance and ease if the two were compared side by side. You can spool Metanium to 20 lbs fluoro but you are going to have to use line conditioner and run bunch of spool tension to slow the reel down enough to get the line to flow out of the reel. When armed with the understanding of braking profiles and braking systems of the reels then why use them that way?

The Tatula 200 is actually a 300 capacity reel and has an identical spool dimensions (thus capacity) as the old non TWS Lexa 300. If it wasn't for the Lexa 300 having a spool bearing mounted on the spool then you could swap spools between the two. I own both reels and the only reason the old Lexa 300 is bigger is because it is longer to move the level wind a mile from the spool to help non braid line flow out smoothly. The Tatula 200 gets around this thanks to the TWS and is much shorter in length than the old Lexa 300. The modern Tatula 300, modern Lexa and Tranx 300 use a different approach than the 36mm wide spools of the old Lexa 300 and Tatula 300. They use a 43mm tall bit narrow spool to have the reel palm less wide but taller. You may want to palm a Tatula 150 or 200 in store to see of you prefer that low but wide palming profile over the modern tall but narrow take.

TT did a review on it. It's looks teeny tiny. https://www.tackletour.com/reviewshimano24conquest31.html

Whats the difference between the core solid Scoprion 300 and this new Tranx? Same reel but with the Tranx saltwater treatment? https://fish.shimano.com/ja-JP/product/reel/baitlurecasting/a075f000042pnecqas_1.html

It's like the white people can't season their food meme but for fishing rods.

The benkei UL should do the trick.

There are some people that actually like that look. It sounds unreal but it's true.

How? Are you using spool tension to vastly slow down the spool to yank the line taunt between the spool and bait on the cast? That's the only way I can imagine 20 pound fluoro coming off a met and what I have to do to my reels that can't handle fluoro. It's better than line fluffing up every cast but it's still awful feeling to cast like that.