little giant

Firstly enjoy the reels- they're great! Maybe okuma is phasing out the Hakai?? Dream did make the spool. Then they took the Hakai frame and innards and made bfs reels. Lightened the drag and shortened spool shaft so spool bearing are on the spool, painted them and applied red or blue accents. I have 3 of them and love them. 15 lb braid, casts a mile, no dig in. What was odd, 2 had pinion bushings, 1 had pinion bearing. All have bearings now. Price on Amazon is great! The Hakai is an excellent reel! Built like a tank inside.

Italian rice dish: risotto

Thinkin there's no external fix for this and it will have to be opened up. Have you worked on baitcasters?? If not, contact a local repair shop?? Or Delaware valley tackle, he's a sponsor here.

Zillion HD, Metanium 100

@dk2429 I have a zillion sv tw and absolutely love it. Then I bought 2 zillion hd. I feel the hd is the better reel, built a bit better on the inside. They are on 2 Cara's- a MH and a heavy. If comparing either with shimano, compare to the Metanium or Bantam. I have the Metanium 101 hg which is a great reel as well. All are jdm.

My majority is Falcon, all price ranges, fresh and inshore salt. That said, Loomis and Kistler always go with me for bass, and a Crowder in the salt.

For a Super Fluke or D shad , I use a weightless vmc 4/0 swimbait hook, owner would work as well. Allows me to count it down to where I want it. I twitch and pause and the action is great. Something different: I use a 6th sense 3.5" whale paddle tail but cut the paddle off. 3/0 weightless ewg. Sorta finesse presentation (bfs)

@The Rooster I have a Star inshore spinning. Seagis model. 7'6", 6-14 lb line, 1/4-5/8. According to Calcutta (the maker) rod is a MH fast. It is very lightweight but has a very strong mid section. It is a great rod for speckled trout in the gulf casting hair jigs and small swimbaits. Ratings on inshore rods can be tricky. I have a Crowder inshore MH spinning and that rating goes up to 2 oz.

Small, light, slow....

I have an Oath med-fast which I use for weightless flukes. Bought it last year on sale and have used it a lot. Good rod, light and sensitive. Hope this helps.

Me living in the sunshine state, they are a must have!!

I use high vis braid with flouro leader, 6'-7'. When I fish heavy cover without leader I use 832 camo. Water here is tannic stained. Don't know if it makes a difference or not. I catch a lot of fish. It does seem my catch rate has gone up using flouro, might be my imagination.....

Not much current although water seems high. Maybe keeping the level up to keep the gators happy! We saw a lot of them!

To get to the lower bearing of the mainshaft

Prayers for Noah, hope it turns out well.

My neighbor and I went to Arthur Marshall Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge this morning, it's 11 miles from my neighborhood. We used his Bass Tracker. On the water 7 am, temp 71°, light fog, cloudy, no wind. Last month went south, today north about 4 miles. Warmed up to 82°, wind picked up from the south. Stopped fishing at 1 pm. Caught about 30 between us, quite a variety: 75% Largies, biggest landed about 3 lbs. I lost a big one, probably 5 lb, my fault! We Caught Peacocks, Mayan Chiclids, Oscars, Gar, Bluegill, .and 1 big Talapia, on a crankbait no less. Most of my fish came on Flukes, Ned's, and Senkos. My biggest bass on a Rattlin Rapala. Fun day!

Nice rod!!! I'd use that for larger Cordell Big O and Bagley mid and deep divers!!

Liking my 2 Crowder salt spinning rods so much, bought a E series MH casting inshore and use it for beavers in the weed for the big bass. Super strong rod! Lovin my old USA Caras 1 all around MH and 1 heavy, T-7 blank. Also a old Loomis Greenwater inshore, MH fast, great worm and lizard rod.

I put the Daiwa SLP shallow spool on my alpha 800, (don't remember spool weight), 20# braid, 13 Oath rod. Dedicated for weightless flukes, cast a mile!!

^^^ This! When I wanted to try bfs, I bought the Gomexus bfs spool for a Daiwa tat 80 that I already had and put it on ML salt inshore rod, and it was a great way to fish finesse. Now, I have 4 bfs setups. I'm sure I could do the same with spinning rods but I love baitcasters!

If you don't mind the weight of it, Penn Slammer, built like a tank.

Great to read you like the combo, especially the rod! I use Seagaur Abrazx 12# for my leaders, strong stuff! Too bad about the big one......

I have 10 lb on a 2000 size spinner. No issues, no breakage. Have caught a lot of fish. I'm in south Florida.

I don't know anything about those rods but the curado bfs is a great reel. Easy to dial in, (magbrake) and throws light baits. I use 15 lb braid, 8 lb flouro leader. This is on a kistler klx ML. Also have SLX bfs but gives me issues...

I would never use dish soap or lighter fluid. Use isopropyl or wd40. Wd40 is a great degreaser and won't harm plastic. Soak bearings in isopropyl for 15-20 minutes and allow to air dry. Isopropyl evaporates fast. Use soft toothbrush to clean main gear and pinion.