Bigbox99

They have silver ones now? Where?

The Steez reels are a luxury item. The Zillion is a great functioning reel but isn't super high end in stock form. I don't like the plastic nut retainer, the cheap plastic collars around the handle shaft and spool tension. Not a fan of the paint finish either. It's not bad paint finish but is boring. The gloss black paint, nicer handle with a cleaner looking nut retainer and the metal drag star really make the Zillion HD feel higher end in hand to me compared to my normal Zillion despite being the same reel.

I know the old timey way of setting the spool tension knob for slow drop based on bait weight caused the line to become taught between the bait and reel on the cast which resulted in very little slack line sitting on the water after a cast compared to a spinning reel. This lead to spinning reels allowing baits like a senko to sink vertically which was and still is by some touted as an advantage.

It's the 19 Zillion if you go by JDM release year and those that prefer the SVS centrifugal brake of Shimanos over Daiwa's Magforce Z and SV Boost will always prefer the Met. I see what you mean about the masses maybe prefering or switching to the Zillion for the braking profile with SV Boost. I like the ability to run 12# Sniper on it throwing jerkbaits early seaon then switching to skipping weightless plastics under docks so I wouldn't even consider a non Daiwa but that's my preference. I don't know about the Aldebaran. As an outsider to the alde that reel has always been a finesse reel to me with the whole jerkbait rod pairing being a Tactical Bassin promotion in recent years. Maybe it was a really well kept secret but I have only heard of this pairing from them and Matt specifically so I wrote it off as a Shimano affiliate promoting a Shimano product.

I'll use a 15lb braid but prefer light fluorocarbon between 7 and 10 lbs for L and ML BFS rods.

Just set the tension knob for no tension but don't have the spool sliding side to side wildly. Just back it off until it slides side to side just a little to confirm you have no tension. Set the magnetic dial in the middle setting and off you go. Scroll the dial with your thumb while palmign the reel a few clicks up or down to get more control or more distance. Scroll to max brake to skip. Ezpz.

Isn't this normal? I do this all the time with my Daiwas with no adjustment. Zero spool tension and mag dial setting based on distance and not bait weight. I haven't made reel adjustments for the bait weight in over 15 years maybe? As long as the rod and spool can handle the bait my settings are the same from 1/8 oz to 5 oz total weight across all of my reels. Spool tension set to just eliminate side to side play, brake in the middle and scroll brake down for extra distance and up to increase braking for head winds or poor bait behavior in the air. Scroll to max brake when I want to get wild and willy and try to skip whatever I am throwing under things.

They are very different from bass rods though. If you compare a Benkei UL BF to a Finetail L which is a full power heavier the "UL" Benkei BF rod will have vastly more power since one is a BFS rod from a bass line and the other is a trout rod. Any BF or BFS rod from Majorcraft is going to struggle to cast something like a trout magnet but their dedicated trout casting rods will do it with ease. If you ever compare a bass BFS to a trout rod side by side the difference in black diameter is immidiately noticeable. It's not just a Majorcraft thing either. The same holds true when comparing Shimano BFS rods from their Expride and Zodias lines to their dedicated trout rods.

Yep they make special steam rods just for trout or panfish. They will be different from the same power rating bass rods and be much softer.

UL Benkei 2pc for sure. Majorcraft knows how to make a BFS rod.

The Sol is a well liked reel. Many have regretted selling theirs. The reel comes up a lot in enthusiast circles often due to its unique color in a sea of black/grey reels.

I don't put any faith into the made up gibberish on the outside of rods. I prefer to rely on the consensus of others to know if a rod is sensitive or how sensitive amongst its peers.

I buy reels from Aliexpress and if there were such things as knock offs then I'd see them there. Instead they just sorta knock off the Daiwa logo and stick on some $30 Sogayulang reel or make up a new name like Shishamo. I don't believe knock offs exist. Too much effort.

The elites don't want you to know this but you can buy fishing reels from places other than Tackle Warehouse for MSRP. I have 22 fishing reels at home.

Alphas non TW spools. Parts are hard to come by new in the states. Tackle Trap has parts sometimes. https://tackletrap.com/collections/gear-sets/products/daiwa-sv-105hsl-7-2-1-gearset-lh Color parts like these Ize spools are expensive but there is a good chance you can get a used black SV105 spool from someone who upgraded to a BFS spool in their Alphas SV105. You can also go the BFS route pretty cheaply too. https://www.ebay.com/itm/364783398148?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1LywJPdS2R1OPriOtlIr8Pw52&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=364783398148&targetid=1585159291131&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9024539&poi=&campaignid=20385105599&mkgroupid=150744488839&rlsatarget=aud-1412318123216:pla-1585159291131&abcId=9316499&merchantid=101650672&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnv-vBhBdEiwABCYQA9Jx_8toCk8XzRx47CEysPF_b-w0CbC1x6oaTRZ2N9wbbKli_dFxgxoCGZAQAvD_BwE

That's an orange Alphas. Common upgrades are to switch to a curved 90 mm handle, SV spool and butter smooth 7:1 gears from the Alphas SV105.

That's a good reel. That Doyo platform was well liked and many are still in service today. The one OP is thinking of was this reel that I think is a silstar styled to look like a USDM TD-X but with a Shimano like VBS brake and brake access cover. Back when Korean reel were still in copycat mode.

Tatula 80 or SLX MGL.

I would go with the Tatula 80 for the Magforce Z braking.

I buy colors I think look cool.

He learned the correct way by messing up and learning from the mistake. Now he can expand his mistakes to learn even more. If you're not making mistakes you're not trying.

You could also be missing a thin washer that sits over the bearing in the handle side plate and over the handle shaft. Without it you may be tightening the drag star into the handle side plate but not actually compressing the drag washers. I have made this mistake.

It's not uncommon for 7'2" "heavy" rods from Japanese brands to be in fact, an XH with double footed guides and a realistic upper bait range of up to or over 3 oz. Think of them as short swimbait rods. It's some unspoken thing but a lot of the rods are like this. I own a few myself since I am bit of a connoisseur of these as kayak big bait rods that do everything I want out of a H+ from throwing big frogs, beast hook paddle tails, big topwater and 1-3oz swimbaits. I was eyeing the Orochi X10 72H Swamp Survior but I may have to cross shop with the 72H BLX.

About as visually exciting as a bowl of oatmeal but I'm glad they stuck to what they know and made a quality conservatively styled rod instead of going off the deep end like St Croix with the space ship grips.

Even with my left handed reels I still have to change up hands between casting and palming. I sometimes do the palming cast but that really chokes off distance so I only use it when making close target casts. For me it comes down to what the dominant means of moving the bait are. If it's cast and wind then I use righty reels. If it's cast and move the bait with my rod and only reel for slack line recovery then I use lefty reels.