23 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

@volzfan59 - here's 1/4-oz plug cast consistently to 200' on a bench small-frame Ambassadeur CT, mag-brake only. Probably more impressive, the 7'8" para 4-axis carbon rod struck the fish 180' away.

That’s great, good for you

6 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

I ain’t looking to modify a reel for super light lures, just trying to see what’s out there in a little better quality than the Daiwa CR80 and Abu Black Max I currently use.

Yeah it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to modify inexpensive reels. The cost and trouble makes stepping up more logical and reasonable so I am with ya on that count- unless its just a spool swap to make casting those lighter lures further. I've been waiting for images of spools so drilled out there is not much spool left. lol

Have you looked at the Shimano SLX? They can give you a true free spinning spool, and fine adjustment braking all the way up to full on.

I saw on one website this reel starts at around $115.00 and the DC version is only $225.

If the abu black max is $55, then the SLX at $115 is right at the next step up but switching off heavier magnets, and onto lighter centrifugal brakes as primary difference, and much tighter more precision tolerances as well that Shimano is known for.

When I worked for a Shimano warranty repair facility, every reel was peer reviewed before being approved as being "finished" and one of the things they always checked for was tightness of tolerances. It was a huge deal and made the difference between approval or do it again and do it right next time type of thing.

I read comments here yesterday where one person said their abu's felt loose to them. I don't think you'd have this problem with the SLX or any Shimano. Tight tolerances is in part what drives their reputation as well as not having a ton of please help threads about broken reels. So that alone is worth the extra dough in my opinion. Something to consider moving forward.

Down here in Florida us Stradic lovers have found a new love called Florida Fishing Products. They make some good reels and we really enjoy using them. But they are more of a midline to upper midline company. Like two steps up from the Black Max but worth a look. I have not tried their baitcast reels yet, but we love their spinning reels.

Lews is probably the best of the bunch of the Doyo/Banax/other OEM club.

Shimano SLX XT at $145 is where SVS Infinity starts.

Tatula 100 at $180 was good, still good at $200.

If you can still find a Tatula 80 at a discounted price, I paid $135 new for one last year and I love it.

Magforce-Z is still "the best" braking system around.

@Bazoo Im going to double down on the Okuma suggestion for no other reason than what you said about the lure range is exactly what the reel excels at. As stated I’ve thrown a 1/4 ounce plug then switched over to a 1/2 ounce Colorado bladed spinner bait with zero issues and of course on appropriate rods.

On 6/15/2026 at 9:33 PM, Eric 26 said:

I’m going to throw out the Okuma Hakai reel from Tackle Warehouse in that price range and I see a couple places offering it for less. I have 2 Dream Tackle versions which are basically just a different color and I find it can really sling a Strike King 1.0 square bill which is a 1/4 ounce with zero issues. Tackle Warehouse says it’s a centrifugal brake system but the Okuma site says magnetic which both of my DT reels are magnetic brakes only.

They have it correct in the bullet points as a magnetic reel, but not in the description.

The description is all over the place. They describe the Velocity Control System as "anglers can alternate lure weights on the fly to find the perfect balance for casting and employ a wide range of fishing techniques."

VCS is their version of a standard 6 pin centrifugal braking system. As we all know so well, those systems are anything but adjustable on the fly. Before VCS some of those same reels had a dial on the side of the spool to control the release of the centrifugal brakes. Worked fine as a braking system, but what a pain to adjust on the water.

6 hours ago, VTFan said:

The first baitcaster I ever owned was a Daiwa Procaster that I bought back in the early 80's and it had no centrifugal breaks, only the spool tension knob. I fished it on a 5' 6" Ugly Stik rod with a pistol grip handle. Yeah!!! That was an interesting thing to cast with really light lures and especially into the wind. I still have that reel.

I have a later model Procaster 100HN purchased for a whopping $30 on closeout somewhere in the 2009-2012 area. Spooled with 15# mono. Older Magforce braking system. Definitely wouldn't bother going below 3/8 oz. with this reel. It's this reel but listed for $10 more at the time of my purchase than the price in the review.

https://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwaprocaster.html