Bigbox99

No, the the last gen model.

The Majorcraft Benkei 652ML is worth considering. Also a 4" senko weighs 1/4 oz and the OP is looking to cast down to half that weight.

What is the reasoning behind spending $93 on Ebay for an Aliexpress spool that typically run $55? Is the shipping faster? I've bought numerous Ray's spools since i 1st discovered them in 2016 and we always bought them from Aliexpress and about a month later they would show up in the mailbox.

Oops I thought the Steez SV was a limited with the shallow light weight dimpled spool. I'd leave that one as is due to the weak magnets not playing nice with after market spools. I had a Ray's in an SS SV and I had to fixed the inductor into the extended position to get the spool to behave with those magnets. I also have a Scorpion 1000xt with a used Yumeya spool. This will fit your Curado 51, Scorpion 1001xt and Alde. I'm not a fan of it. It's fast and good at slinging compact finesse baits but anything that slows rappidly or skipping, just forget about it. I break it out once a year to sling some 1/8 to 3/16 ounce hard baits. The Alphas SV 105 is the closest to a stock BFS reel so would use that and if you want to go lighter or cast lighter baits further then get a Ray's spool for the Alphas assuming you are using bass baits fishing for bass. All bets are of if you're casting trout magnets. Fun fact, of my two Alphas SV 105 spools, one has a Ray's inductor and spring on it because I was so impressed with the casting performance of the Ray's spool but wanted more capacity so I just put the Ray's brake on the Alphas SV spool. If you're doing the stream fishing UL stuff then the TD-Z and a fixed inductor Roro or Amo spool would be good.

The Steez and TD-Z all take the same spools. That gen of Steez magnets are super weak so I would lean TD-Z just for the spool options. You can get every Ray's and Amo Aliexpress spool as well as high end JDM spools for the TD-Z 103. You can get Ray's Studio spools for all of those Daiwa reels but while I am a big fan of those spools they aren't great below 1/8 oz total weight. They have a dynamic brake that doesn't play well with the super UL baits like used in stream fishing. As long as you stick to bass baits such as small "weightless" plastics and little jigs the Ray's Studio spools are great. Personally I use my Alphas SV 105 with stock spool for 90% of my BFS needs. It's basically a mass produced Daiwa knock off of an Alphas KTF with a bit more capacity and spool weight. I've been slinging 1/16 oz flick shake heads on 5 inch skinny finesse worms as well as weightless 4 inch stick baits for years on a ML Shallow Cover Finesse 1st gen Steez rod. While we're at it, the Steez LTD 105 spool is also very shallow and super light weight. I'd fish it stock for BFS for all my finesse skipping needs on 8 to 10# Sniper ans a L to ML BFS rod. Also why are we buying $55 Aliexpress spools on Ebay for $80 plus THIRTEEN dollar shipping?

Many often fall into the kayak trap. They get a kayak then load it up with electronics, motor ect and before you know it, it's too heavy to car top and has to be drug around on a little trailer like a boat. If you need a small fishing boat then get a small fishing boat. If you need a kayak get a kayak. To me, the kayak fills a special niche of one man transportable and deployable fishing platform that can be transported without the need of a trailer and deployed without the requirement of a boat ramp.

Are we talking 1/8 oz as in an 1/8 oz lure or 1/8 oz peice of lead on a bait?

The metal drag washer is probably deformed from the stamping process and this produces a spotty touch and go from the drag as line is taken out. You can try lapping the metal disk on some sand paper and flat surface or just locking the drag down amd showing the fish how big you are. That seems to be popular.

Try a 5'6" cherrywood. It's graphite but pretty limber from the cheap graphite and has a soft tip. I use to use one with baitcast reel with a light weight spool full of #20 braid. It made for super accurate one hand casting to targets from a kayak.

Unlikely and if they do make a hyperdrive gear set for this platform it won't be put into Tatula 150s and will only be used in a sea jigging variant or something like that.

Longer handles allow you to apply more torque to the input shaft and this is beneficial when the reel in under load making it "easier" to turn the input shaft. It does not make it any easier or quicker to recover slack line. Your hand just makes a bigger circle with a larger perimeter. Psychologically, making a bigger circle with your hand may make you feel like you moved more line but it all comes down to the input shaft rotations. I have a 6 gear flipping Daiwa reel that I won't go above a 90mm handle because anything longer slows me down too much. It had an 84mm handle originally and when I went to a 110mm the rate of line recovery was too slow for my liking so I went with a 90mm. I have also put a 130mm handle on a 300 size reel I have and am debating going down to a 110mm to get an increase in speed although I like the 130mm for working glides and getting the right cadence so it may stay.

Shorter handles actually increase your rate of return of line by increasing the number of rotations of the input shaft per min. With shorter handles your hand makes a smaller circle per input shaft rotation and a smaller circle equalls more circles per unit of time measured. Ignoring gear ratio and just focusing on input shaft rotations per unit of time, the smaller the input crank radius (handle length) the more rotations per unit of time that can be made. To keep it simple, for a given gear ratio, longer handles slow you down and shorter ones speed you up.

Yes but be prepared to wait month for the reel to show up.

For $310 it better be like new with box. You can get the USDM 150 for $370 new on Aliexpress.

It should be a Steez reel. The Megabass IP reels were Zillions. I could go for a Megabass Zillion but the Zillion HD sort of already has that Megabass IP vibe.

Grug no like fancy rock. Simple rock work gud.

I've got Daiwa and Shimano reels from over 20 years ago and current examples and there does not appear to be any difference in technology. Magforce V works just like Magforce Z and the SV Boost seems like an approximation Magforce Z without the centrifugal activation. It's like a Magforce Z emulator running on SV operating system. Don't see much difference between my VBS 50e and SVS 70 Shimanos other than an external dial. Even modern features like the hyper armed housing found on the excellent Zillion TW SV 1000 is more of a return to tradition than a new feature. 20+ year old Daiwas just had an aluminum side plate and a double supported pinion. Even the Shimano DC brake was found on reels dating back to at least 2006. The only evolution I see is a shift to smaller reels enabled by a reduction in spool diameter to 32 mmor even 30 mm. We've had 33 mm platforms like the long lived Alphas from 2003 to 2019 but only recently did it become mainstream to accept a decrease in line capacity from a 36 mm or 34 mm spool to a 32 mm as the norm. There has also been a shift to shallower light weight spools becoming mainstream. It's not that they didn't exist before but were in the enthusiast realm.

The Zillion, Alphas and Steez CT all use the same gears from a compatability standpoint.

Aldebaran 50 MGL, Curado 70 MGL or SlX MGL. I'm a Daiwa guy but if you're casting with the wind and throwing trebble hook baits out on open water then it's hard to beat an MGL centrifugal reel.

Older BFS reels like the 2015 Alphas SV hold more line than the modern stream orientated reels. There has been such a shift in modern reels to casting lighter weight baits that you have MGL reels with 13 gram spools including the stainless spool shaft. For new reels I would go 70 MGL Shimano if you want centrifugal and Daiwa SV in Alphas or Tatula 70 if skipping baits is a priority. I'm assuming you're looking to throw lighter bass baits as a spinning reel replacement and not stream fishing for trout. Also if you already have a Daiwa reel you can get BFS spools for them that will suit your needs new or used.

Airy red? Ray's Studio? Both?

The Tranx Curados are like the Daiwa Coastal reels except Shimano put more effort into them to make them better suited for salt water with a hydrophobic coating and a modifed spool to keep water out. I'd take the Tranx 200 over a Curado 200 just for the aluminum handle side plate even if they are basically the same reel.

Put a toad bait on that buzzbait. More weight for more distance. Also it catches fish for some reason.

I have a snappy/power casting stroke and use almost exclusively Daiwas. With rare exceptions I don't go below 7-8 on the dial. For the close in work I turn the brake up to control distance and make my muscle memory casts and skips. I don't practice the low magnetic dial settings and soft casting some do with magnetic brake reels although that is something I want to get into just to see what it is all about.

These and the morrum are timeless designs. I don't think they will ever look dated or out of place.