Bigbox99

Also, you're correct that line capacity has a huge impact on spool weight. Spools meant for light weight baits are shallow to keep the line capacity and weight down. You can also under fill your spool to reduce the weight of the line on the spool and effectively make the spool start up faster and behave like a smaller diameter spool. Daiwa puts a line on their SV spools that indicates roughly the 30mm mark. Its visible on the side of the spool. This is meant to be used as an alternative filling level on the spool to help them start up better and work better with lighter weight baits. I remember when they 1st came out in Japan. They would show off this feature in videos. They later made reels with small 30mm spools from the factory.

I've noticed a huge difference in control when using braid vs fluoro. I remember skipping a reel with ease at max brake when spooled with braid and then struggling with overruns with another example of the same reel spooled with 14# Sniper. It was like the spool was heavier and wanting to spin longer and overrun when skipping.

Yeah, these aren't worth much. The T3 MX is the base model to get. The Ballistic isn't well liked. It's a $50 to $60 reel in that condition.

A slower action rod with a stiff slower loading tip will help with fish throwing the bait. I'd bump up to a H regular or mod fast action glass or glass composite rod made for moving baits.

Yup. It's basically Doyo SV. Unlike the FTB style brakes this one twists an induction rotor closer the magnets like the SV Air Brake. Hopefully they did a good job. The BPS Extreme uses a similar system that twists a flat plate on the side of the spool closer to the magnets. When I played with it in store on multiple reels I was able to get the plate to get stuck partially extended when flicking the spool at max brake. This is a $200+ reel with a fresh take on that brake so I assume they worked out the issues.

Regular action is a slow action and great for moving baits.

This might be a nothing burger. There is no mention or animation of a dynamic brake like FTB moving the magnets based on inertia. I assumed there would be since thats the mag braking meta right now. It just shows them sliding towards or away from the spool with the dial. If that's how Paramag operates then it's just a rehash of normal magnetic braking with the magnets turned on their side and a rotor extension on the spool. The operation would be the same as other linear mag brake reels that use button magnets that interact with the spool's flat side. I only advantage here is maybe better packaging that could allow for a slimmer side plate? The new LFS has it too https://youtu.be/sS4_AfyXbZ8?si=JegAv_ZWjc3lf70H

No, Lews doesn't make reels. The OEM they use has a number of systems like this and Paramag is their latest. The Bass Pro Extreme uses a system similar to the SV Air Brake from the same OEM. Paramag looks more like a cross between SV and FTB. Haibo uses a similar system on the Arise and Gravity reels. The rotor stays stationary while the magnet assembly moves closer to the rotor. This is like Shimano's FTB but instead of residing in the spool ID it fits inside of a Daiwa like rotor. Basically, it's Doyo SV.

Also, you want the Procaster 103 or 105. The procaster 153 or any of the other Procasters are different animals that I can't comment on.

This is a cool reel I discovered a while back. I've seen them for sale for as little as $20 in great shape. What makes them unique for their price is how modern they are even today. They have modern Daiwa features like: Alumimum, frame, handle side plate and set plate ( called armed housing concept now and normal back then) 34mm free floating Magforce V spool. The stock spool has a dynamic brake that is functionality identical to Magforce Z. The spool dimensions and fee floating spool shaft mean you can drop in any modern spool for a Zillion, Steez ect. You could BFS spool it of you wanted. It has, for its time, a large crank case with a large main gear. I have other reels from this late 90s period and some will have main gears the size of a quarter. The larger main gear helps with winding power. It's pretty well built on the inside with metal clutch components and a metal yoke to lift the double supported pinion. You can also use other common Daiwa parts like spool tension knobs, drag stars and handles to update the reel and remove the ugly, riveted on plastic knob handle and plastic drag star. They came in a few variations but are all the same reel. The Procaster-X, Procaster-V, the Walmart and other stores exclusive black and gold TD-V (these may have been combo only) and the JDM TD-S that gets an updated TD-Z like appearance with thumb screws to remove the non-handle side plate. As an old Daiwa, all casting models are right handed and the lefties are all "flipping frame" models meant to be used while palming the reel flipping or pitching. Daiwa didn't switch to mirrored version of righty reels for their lefties until a little later. My TD-S pics below. The TD-S are kind of expensive because they are rare and JDM but you can get an excellent Procaster-Z for next to nothing. Keep in mind, they are big and heavy reels. That is one way in which they are still quite old.

I used tacklejapan years ago for a rod. They had higher prices than other Japanese sites but had stock of a rod I wanted. I'm told it's the english store front for Proshop K. I don't know if it's still in operation or a dead website or some scam service took the domain name. They haven't been relevant for US buyers in 10 years. Here is their Japanese site. https://www.proshopks.com/

This was a real discovery for me when I got my 1st saltwater finesse rod. I got it to distance cast finesse baits with my Pixy using an Airy Red spool. Longer rod = more distance but after struggling with normal casting and rod not responding as I expected I began to research different casting techniques from outside the US bass fishing scene and discovered vortex casting. I specifically ignored all bass fishing context because I had a hunch that a seabass rod might require techniques not employed in freshwater bass fishing. There is a whole different world of casting out there using magnetic braking and long rods. I began to see why distance competition using surf rods were using these techniques and mag braking. It's very different from the 7' MH bass rods were are accustomed to.

Those long limber rods don't benefit from the wrist snappy type casts we employ with our short stiff bass rods. I learned this when I got my 7'6" L powered Kuying Leadership. Normal casting made a wave form undulate down the blank and yielded worse and worse casting the harder I cast. I learned to more softly cast and to get tip speed with vortex casting instead of wrist snap and actually began to prefer my linearag brake reels when paired to this technique. @bulldog1935 knows all about this and is how he fishes his saltwater finesse. There is a related topic up right now on the snappy casting mechanic we use with bass rods. Basically, don't cast this way with these long limber saltwater rods but do cast this way with you average 7' MH bass rod. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/267975-casting-mechanics/

Bass rods are short and stiff compared to surf and other long limber rods and benefit from a snappy, lots of jerk wrist snap type movement at the release point of the cast when casting for maximum distance. To get this range of movement you need be able to rotate the wrist on the cast by moving the rod 90° on the cast. This is hard to do if you are palming the reel while casting. To some reading this may be obvious but a surprising amount of newer anglers are doing this. They are using left hand reels to avoid changing hands between casting and retrieval but are also casting the reel while palming with two fingers in front of the trigger and resting their thumb pad on top of the spool or on the side of the reel and then coming down on the spool with the whole thumb. While this is great for close in work ( well get to that later) it's a hindrance for distance casting. It's better to move your hand down the rod and grip the rod grip and place your trigger finger on the rod's trigger when casting. This will free up wrist movement and allow you to rest your thumb on the thumb bar and rock your thumb forwards and back of the thumb bar to use your thumb tip to regulate spool speed. Notice how these rod are reel components of trigger, grip and thumb bar are named? They were designed for this use. Palming while casting isn't inherently bad and is great for flipping and short target casting and objectively better than switching between a casting and 3 finger in front of the trigger casting style for the ability to rappidly enguage the reel and set the hook. I do this with my lefties and I believe everyone who punches should learn to punch with a lefty reel palming while they punch and should palm with 2 fingers in front of the trigger so they can use the thumb base to operate the thumb bar while holding the spool with their thumb pad to control the spool as line is stripped out with the left hand. The reel can be engaged to make the punch/flip by either moving the handle with the drag star by the right palming hand or lift up on the thumb bar with the thumb tip. Even if you don't punch much of this still applies to pitching.

The brand that makes all the stuff SDS Customs sells. They started out selling finesse spools, other alloy color parts amd carbon fiber handles on Aliexpress like 10 years ago and are still at it. SDS is selling their products for more than Aliexpress but targeting Ebay buyers that don't know what Alexpress is or just won't use it.

Mine is 20 something years old and steering wheel has been polished smooth and glossy from use. The odo quit working at 231k and I have since put in a low milage ebay motor and WRX 4:11 trans/rear diff. It's got to be at 350k+ on the body and other components by now. I might 6 cylinder swap it next for fun. I have Yokohama Geolanders on mine and they are great for severe snow rated A/T and super quiet. It used to be my dedicated kayak car but now it's the winter car.

Bass Pro owned the Browning brand which itself owned the Lews brand. Bass Pro never revived the Lews brand and sold Browning branded reels for whatever reason. I never understood that. Anyways some BPS employee or executive that had been working with Doyo for BPS reels left the company and acquired the Lews brand from BPS. He then re-launched the Lews reels brand using his Doyo contacts and began to kick BPS reels butt. BPS has also taken a misstep at the time by moving away from Doyo for some of their house brand reels and failed to update their popular Pro Qualifier. After a few testing the waters $200-$160 halo reels with a strong retro lews influence such as the Speed Spool and BB1, Lews then began to offer cheaper mass produced $100 reels like the LFS that was basically a better Pro Qualifier. They then further saturated the market and got a whole bunch of people on the Lews bandwagon. BPS fumbled intergalactic bags on this one. They were so butthurt about it they banned Lews reels from their stores when they 1st came out. https://www.tackletour.com/reviewlewstournamentpro.html https://www.tackletour.com/reviewlewsbb1.html

I've bought from him before. He is selling Ray's Studio stuff. Basically the Ebay option for Ray's Studio parts for those that don't want to use Aliexpress. He used to the more expensive option but now with the tariffs it might be cheaper or have more selection. A lot of that stuff has dried up on Aliexpress lately

Yes, but looking at them today the Black Max has a strong resemblance to the Morrum and is cheaper making it appear as a "poor man's Morrum" to me. At least is semi recent times. At the rate the 1600 prices are increasing that may no longer be the case. Last time I looked at these they were dirt cheap but now it's NO TIRE KICKERS I KNOW WHAT I GOT type listings.

He can use right handed reels if he is right handed. It's better to learn this way so he can develop proper casting technique. Lefty reels are great for spinning reels and flipping when you don't change hand positions between casting and retrieval. The problem with newer anglers is that they think you can just use a left hand baitcast reel and not palm the reel or partially palm the reel but also cast while partially palming the reel so they dont have to change between casting and palming grips. This can lead to terrible casting performance because they can't move their wrist on the cast and make terrible lob casts or exclusively side arm swing. I see it all the time. They can't put any energt into the cast and are absolutely shocked to hear that you can empty and entire spool of line on a bomb cast. The issue isn't left hand reels because you can cast properly with them but they do enable people to learn incorrectly. A right hand reel forces you to have a proper trigger finger behind the trigger casting grip and then transition to some sort of palming grip by changing hands. You can absolutely do this with lefty reels (I do on mine for long casts) but you can also just sort of hold the reel and lob cast without changing grips. Many newer anglers are doing this thinking they are clever and their casting distance suffers because of it.

If you're looking for $20 alloy frame reels I'd say stick to the BPS and Pinnacle 90s reels. They are hugely undervalued IMO. Old Quantums were frequently plastic framed back then. I remember buying a 2nd gen Energy and it had a plastic frame. The 1st gen was alloy but the 2nd went with "graphite" (graphite powder mixed ABS plastic) There was a resurgence of brands trying to push that material as something new and innovative at the time. You'll see it crop up time and time again because it's a a super cheap way to make mass produce a reel. The most recent time around all brands began to call it "carbon fiber" to cash in on that buzzword. 10 second low effort ebay (ebay is high retail) finding but even this is cheapish. https://www.ebay.com/itm/187458844406?

I had that reel. Mine was a 1st gen Accurist and my 2nd baitcast reel. My 1st was a Walmart Pinnacle Vision Limited round reel. I got the Quantum because of Bill Dance. That reel could also be a Quantum Profile. The Accurist was a Profile but with the ACS centrifugal brake. One or both were graphite (plastic) framed. I always thought the shark like appearance of that reel looked cool. I haven't seen any other reel with that organic, almost predatory, appearance until the Daiwa T3 (unfortunately also plastic).

What spool did you use?

Why did you capitalize Tatula, but not Steez? Have you switched to the tatula team?