2 hours ago, FishTank said:

 

I took it out twice, once for some pond fishing and once out on my kayak. I fished it for about 2 hours at a local pond and caught a few dinks on it but my day out on the water I caught several on it (maybe 10-12). This is my second Kasumi Six Eleven and it's just as good as the other one. The Mg-Ti Elite did ok. No complaints so far. It's super smooth, casting is ok with light lures, and it can bring in the fish. I have some 8lb Invizx on it and I was throwing nothing heavier than 3/16oz. I do need to try some heavier lures on it.  If the weather holds out and the ice melts, I am hoping to hit the water the day after Christmas and fish it some more. 

Yeah I saw the reel test video and was surprised he didn’t really say much negative about it. Not sure if I would ever spend that much on a kastking but it’s definitely interesting. 

Bought a Kistler Big Country swimbait rod. 

Way way upside surprised at the action on this rod. Enough tip to not cast like a broomstick, transitions fast enough to be just fine setting a beast hook. 

 

Just showed up today.  Just in time for Christmas lol.    Rod is mint.   The handle was sticky (the description mentioned that).  Nothing a little goo gone couldn’t fix.   For $40cdn, I’m happy with my purchase.  Plan to use a PX-R with the finesse special spool. 

On 12/23/2025 at 3:54 PM, Brycecover said:

Yeah I saw the reel test video and was surprised he didn’t really say much negative about it. Not sure if I would ever spend that much on a kastking but it’s definitely interesting. 

 

 It's not exactly worth the $300 price tag but with a coupon, it's not bad. Should I have invested in something different? Maybe. I need to beat it up for a year and see how it does.  

 

I was able to get on the water today for about three hours. I caught eight with it but only one of those was a keeper. I was throwing a 3/16oz Megabass X-Nanahan. It does an ok job of casting it. I was surprised to find fish in shallow water with portions of the lake still filled with ice. The water temps were all over the place. It varied from 39-48 degrees. In all, I caught eleven. The other three were on a crankbait. I couldn't get bit on any bottom contact baits (jig, free rig, wacky senko, etc.)

28 minutes ago, FishTank said:

 

 It's not exactly worth the $300 price tag but with a coupon, it's not bad. Should I have invested in something different? Maybe. I need to beat it up for a year and see how it does.  

 

I was able to get on the water today for about three hours. I caught eight with it but only one of those was a keeper. I was throwing a 3/16oz Megabass X-Nanahan. It does an ok job of casting it. I was surprised to find fish in shallow water with portions of the lake still filled with ice. The water temps were all over the place. It varied from 39-48 degrees. In all, I caught eleven. The other three were on a crankbait. I couldn't get bit on any bottom contact baits (jig, free rig, wacky senko, etc.)

Yeah for sure. Sounds like a good day of fishing even if it was just one keeper. Need to get out there I haven’t really much this winter. 

Guys it been some times that I want to get roro BFS spool for my curado but despite the discount, it will cost about $120 with shipping from their website. Any suggestions if we can find it cheaper somewhere?

@ATA

Check ebay - there are a few examples already in US, and there's SDS Customs in Ukraine, who I believe gets a bye on aluminum-derivative tariff.  

That said, if I wanted Roro or AMO Daiwa spool, wouldn't hesitate to spend $120.  

It's crazy how expensive they're selling these now. I remember they were like ~$75canadian when first released. You know it doesn't cost them anything to make em in China, so the profits margins must be sweet.

Newest acquisition 

 

JDM Zillion 1000H paired to a Zodias ZDC72MHA. 

 

Temps are in the mid 60s with light winds and overcast conditions. Might just go throw a spinner bait…

After fishing this zillion for the last 30 mins, all of my USDM reels are now on sale…😂😂

2 hours ago, Smirak said:

Newest acquisition 

 

JDM Zillion 1000H paired to a Zodias ZDC72MHA. 

 

Temps are in the mid 60s with light winds and overcast conditions. Might just go throw a spinner bait…

Love the red headed stepchild combo's I have some too.

FM

Can get worse - there's red trim that fits Ryoga (and Zillion)

 

50 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Can get worse - there's red trim that fits Ryoga (and Zillion)

 

Dang you scuba Steve…

Completed one more project to show.  I was impressed with Reply Badger from Japan, which perfectly dialed into 3" weightless senko niche.  When it became clear this reel was the same platform as Sabre sold on A/E for $50, I started up a new project to move around my Kuramochi Synapse L/ML rod blade, which is a surprising para-distance taper in a short, light package.  .  

Ordered the reel, JH100, and a CDZ grip blank from A/E - they sent me a silver-finish grip blank instead of the gunmetal I ordered....  Still, nice grip, machined from barstock, very light, and an upgrade from Aioushi grip.  

 

Didn't like the offset weight and length of the alloy handle, threw in ArtSea 85-mm carbon handle, and SiN spool bearings.  Neat about this reel, floating spool only needed two bearings, and the drive pancake mostly copies Daiwa, though I found the drag star and clicker were right off Revo.  

 

Japan orders included Bright River 16-cm cork, IOS sealed salt knobs, Varivas line, and back-ups of my favorate Imakatsu suspend baits.  Not a great photo, but you get the idea.  I swapped the heavy alloy drag star for the original that came on my ZPI Alcance.  

 I'll primarily fish this for salt L/ML in winter channels, throwing my favorite 7-8-g Ima K-Ta and Koume to seatrout, and maybe surprise winter pompano.  

 

Lining and setting it up, it's a joy to cast the light-in-hand combo.  The Sabre reel does not have the bench tuning of Blue Badger.  It won't cast lighter than 3 g at max mag brake, and the drag number is good, but nothing smooth and over-qualified like Blue Badger drag.  But the short rod combo was casting 3g past 120', and 1/8-oz loaded jighead would have gone into neighbor's back-acre with effort. .  

I can always improve the low-end with stronger/thicker magnets, but works great as is for my niche.  

The little para-pocket-rocket rod is pretty amazing, rated 1/8 to 1 oz.  

On 12/26/2025 at 2:24 PM, Smirak said:

After fishing this zillion for the last 30 mins, all of my USDM reels are now on sale…😂😂

The zillion is really nice for sure. Are you actually interested in selling your reels? I need a new 150-200 size reel that’s a little heavier than what I have now to balance out my frog rod. 

My 5th BFS rod combo, which I absolutely needed 😁, I paired that with a brand new Curado BFS reel with 18lb Seaguar JDM braid and 7lb Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader material. Ready to use.

8 hours ago, Brycecover said:

The zillion is really nice for sure. Are you actually interested in selling your reels? I need a new 150-200 size reel that’s a little heavier than what I have now to balance out my frog rod. 

Haha - honestly haven’t thought about it. Lemme see what I got. I know I do t have anything 200 sized because to round out my “arsenal”, I really did “need” a 200 sized reel, but I just don’t want to buy one…

On 12/24/2025 at 6:09 PM, FishTank said:

I was throwing a 3/16oz Megabass X-Nanahan. It does an ok job of casting it.

 

Am I missing something. . . . like an X-Nanahan I don't yet have. . . . because I would remediate that issue postehaste. The only X-Nanahan jerkbaits I know of all weigh 1/4 oz. 

 

============================

I have been trying to figure out the intent of the KastKing Mg-Ti Elite. I say this as a fan of KastKing. They (KK) talk about it's ability to throw baits as light as 1/16 oz, but the spool capacity is listed as 100 yds of 12 lbs mono or 85 yards of 14 lbs mono (so the spool is relatively cavernous compared to true BFS reels), and it has a drag capacity of 18 lbs. 

 

In these times of highly specialized reels, this comes off as trying to be many things to many people. On paper, it seems like it would be a great reel for baits solidly in the wheelhouse of the "medium" rod power range or maybe medium light with baits from 1/4 oz to 5/8 oz on 8 lbs to 12 lbs mono with it's purportedly strong 6.5g spool and 18 lbs drag capacity.

 

KastKing already makes at least three (maybe four or five) BFS reels with lighter spools (as light as 4g) with large arbor diameters.

 

Once again, could I be missing something here?

 

4 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Explains why he sent Tom's old Langly back to me.  I'll have to send it to Tom to experience the mag break mod now that he on the BFS train. 

 

In case you were unaware, Tom passed away last week.

Had to hide several replies. No warnings sent, yet, but there's going to be warnings and timeouts real quick if we can't learn to get along. If you think I might be talking to you, I probably am. 

1 hour ago, Big Hands said:

 

Am I missing something. . . . like an X-Nanahan I don yet have. . . . because I would remediate that issue postehaste. The only X-Nanahan jerkbaits I know of all weigh 1/4 oz. 

 

============================

I have been trying to figure out the intent of the KastKing Mg-Ti Elite. I say this as a fan of KastKing. They (KK) talk about it's ability to throw baits as light as 1/16 oz, but the spool capacity is listed as 100 yds of 12 lbs mono or 85 yards of 14 lbs mono (so the spool is relatively cavernous compared to true BFS reels), and it has a drag capacity of 18 lbs. 

 

In these times of highly specialized reels, this comes off as trying to be many things to many people. On paper, it seems like it would be a great reel for baits solidly in the wheelhouse of the "medium" rod power range or maybe medium light with baits from 1/4 oz to 5/8 oz on 8 lbs to 12 lbs mono with it's purportedly strong 6.5g spool and 18 lbs drag capacity.

 

KastKing already makes at least three (maybe four or five) BFS reels with lighter spools (as light as 4g) with large arbor diameters.

 

Once again, could I be missing something here?

 

 

In case you were unaware, Tom passed away last week.

 

When I weighed the X-Nanahan it came up just a fuzz over 3/16. The +1 came in at exactly 1/4. Maybe I should check my scale. 

 

In any case, I was skeptical about it but I have thrown the Tiny Macbeth on it and it is an 1/8oz. It did ok but a regular BFS reel would do better.  I haven't thrown anything heavier than the X-Nanahan yet. 

 

I think the intention was to build a reel that can do pretty much anything and make it light weight. I held one at a local shop and it sparked my curiosity.  The guy that owned it used it for 1/2oz jigs. So far, mine has been really smooth and it does a good job of bringing in fish. 

2 hours ago, Big Hands said:

In case you were unaware, Tom passed away last week.

 

Also, sorry to hear about Tom. He was a wealth of knowledge and one of those guys that has seen it and lived it. 

Ray's sv spool knockoff? Anyone put mitts on one of these?

 

My new reel arrived today... 

 

4 hours ago, Bass Rutten said:

Ray's sv spool knockoff? Anyone put mitts on one of these?

 

Looks like an SV Boost knock off.  The Ray's spools are already a knock off of the Daiwa Air spools which are a knock off and/or collaboration with KTF.  This spool is the 1st aliexpress spool I have seen with the dual rate spring similar to what is found in SV Boost spools.  I'm all for it if it means knock off SV Boost spools can be found for Daiwa platforms that haven't or may never receive SV Boost spools.  

3 hours ago, swhit140 said:

My new reel arrived today... 

 

Let me know how you like it