ksbasser

Deep, I'm a hard core revo user. I bought 8 stx reels when they first came out. I bought an Sx and swapped the gears from a winch to get my own SX in a 5:1.1 ratio. Before I bought all the STX reels, I had a full set of Curado SF reels and a couple of Chronarchs. I was instantly able to get longer casts with less effort, but my over run occurrences went way up. At first I thought I had lost my touch. I did some research and found that you set them up a little different and I tried that. It helped a lot, but I still got more over runs than I used to. I almost decided to sell them all, but I stuck with it. I learned that I had to use a little more tension and a little more thumb, but I always knew that although they were smooth as silk, they were more prone to over run. The Sx on the other hand worked a lot better for me. It doesn't have the 2 part spool shaft and after it was cleaned and tuned, it casts great with hardly any over run problems. Last year I had almost decided to sell all the STX reels and replace them with SX reels. I heard that the 2010 STX reels would have dual brakes so I waited to check them out. The first time I tried one I knew I had found my reel. The dual brakes cover the start and the end of the cast and I can cast virtually thumb free now. I sold all the pre 2010 STX reels on ebay for around $130 each. I found an ebay dealer that had the new 2010 as a buy it now for $164 I bought a couple and then saw that he was also running some on auction. I replaced the rest from the auction and got some of them for $130 to $140. I had a good reason to stay with the revos. I liked the size, the shape, the quality and the drag power comes in handy when I fish for wipers and stripers. If you keep the pre 2010 STX, you will always have to use more thumb than you use with your other reels, that's just the way it is, but you can learn to use it with a minimum of over runs.

Thats why the 2010 revos have dual brakes. I sold all my pre 2010 revos. I liked the reel, but I have to admit that you could back lash the heck out of it if you didn't stay right on top of things. One thing thats important to remember, they don't set up quite the same as a centrifugal reel. To start with, you should always turn the mag dial to zero before you set the fall rate the the weight of the bait. If you have the mags set while you do the cast cap tension, then the mags will be to light when you cast. So, mags at zero, then set cast cap tension to almost no fall, then set mags back to desired setting. If you can't get it, sell it for a profit on ebay and buy the 2010.

I use small glass jars that contacts come in. They work great for small bearings. I use a small baby food jar for bigger bearings. I use medicine dropper to suck up a small amount of acetone and squirt in the jar. I then set the jar in the sonic cleaner with the fluid level lower than the cap on the jar. It only takes a minute or two for the the acetone to get very dirty on the first pass. Dump the acetone and refill with fresh acetone. Repeat the process until the acetone stays clear. This usually takes 3 times for most bearings. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes to have completly clean bearings. As bilgerat said, make sure you don't have rubber or plastic seals or shields. Those bearings can be cleaned the same way with diluted simple green, but it takes longer.

I won a contest for a new rod from Airrus rods. I get my pick of any rod from the line up. I could really use a good spinning rod for small shaky head jigs. I can't decide between their Copperhead series or the Ultra XL series, and then I still don't know which spinning rod in those lines would be the best for shaky head fishing. If anyone has any experience with these rods, or if you just want to check them out on the website and give me your opinions with reasons for the pick, it would be helpful Thanks

I would add a pro : you can upgrade drags with revo drag washers. You can always upgrade bearings if you feel the need, but they use good bearings, and with the JM Gold, the titanium finish would be a nice benefit. Con, I have not seen the JM gold on sale yet, but it's already a good price. Con, I was able to buy brand new 2010 Revo STX for $160 from an ebay dealer. Thats the only reason I didn't get the JM gold for myself.

A lot of anglers like it, myself included. As for the color, I use the green. Flouro is not invisible, that's a false notion. It's supposed to be less visible underwater because of the refractive index. That simply means that light doesn't reflect off of it differently than water. That may help it to be less visible in very clear water, but mostly it helps to keep it from glaring with light reflection. I use fluoro for it's other properties such as sensitivity and the fact that it sinks instead of floating. I use the green because it blends in with vegetation and the color of the water I fish in most.

X2 I was thinking the same thing. I wonder why it is that so many of us have such differing experiences with the same products. I have been using trilene 100% for 3 years now. I mostly use the 15 lb and I have only had a break off when I should have retied . Like any line, if you let it get nicked up all day and don't cut and re tie it, it will eventually break. But I have pulled in snagged limbs crawled across rocks etc, etc. I think it's one of the best for casting reels. I hate it for spinning reels though. I found Seaguar invisx seems to work a lot better for spinning reels. I use 6lb with that and have very little problems. I also hate braid and just cant understand how so many guys can love it to the point of using it most of their rigs. I was down to only using it for very thick weeds and my C rig rod for the no stretch factor. I now have 20 lb trilene on those because I just hated using braid. I need to try a few of the lines you guys have mentioned here, but it still seems very strange that so many have such different opinions on them.

I have to agree with the first post. There is no best. It's all opinions. I have used some cheap walmart rods that were very sensitive and I have tried some expensive rods that seemed a little lame in that area. I know of several inexpensive reels that if properly cared for will last a very long time. I have seen very expensive reels that had problems way before they should have. There is nothing wrong with wanting or owning nice equipment, but there is something wrong with making others feel like their equipment is inferior. We should be telling new anglers that the most important thing they can do is to get out and fish, learn to use whatever equipment they can afford to the best of their ability. The flip side to that is there is nothing wrong with owning and using multiple rigs or expensive rigs. If you can afford them, then there are some advantages to having rigs setup for several situations instead of just one or two multi purpose rigs. Just remember, it's not about who has the nicest stuff, it's about enjoying the sport and passing it on. Lets not ruin the experience for someone by suggesting that they need expensive equipment or dozens of rigs.

I don't have a recomendation for a certain bearing. I use boca bearings. I get some from VXB and I have tried a few of the more expensive brands of hybrids such as rockets and some of the japan imports. My opinion is that different reels respond differently to each bearing. I put boca OS 7 bearings in my own Revo STX. The reel was uncontrolable with those bearings. The best bearing I found for a Revo is the stock bearing after it's been flushed or any quality brand of a 3 or 5 rating, as long as it's recomended for fishing reels. Boca does a good job of listing bearings as being suitable for that purpose. You really need to know what you are looking for to get bearings from some other sources. I know several guys that have put the OS 7 bearings in old and new curados. They seem to work very good in those reels, but so would a good abec 5 from a top brand. I prefer open bearings and I love the shimano ARB bearings. They are an abec 3 by the way. I have compared the ARB and the boca OS 7 side by side a few times. I get a few seconds more free spin time from the boca when they are both dry. Casts made with the same reel alternating between those 2 bearings were so similar that I could not tell much difference. That was in a curado 200. Before someone spends a bunch of money on fancy bearings, they should talk to someone that has used those bearings in the same reel or visit with Mike of Delaware valley. He is a boca dealer and should be able to tell you what the best bearing for your reel would be.

but the statement that the tighter tolerance means there is more resistance in the bearing which is not true. I see what you are saying. I think didn't do a good job of explaining what I meant. Here is the original statement Bearings with very tight tolerances will generally have more resistance than a bearing that's loose. Instead of stating this as fact, i should have stated it as an observation. I sell bearings in my on line store. I also replace a lot of bearings in my customers reels. I've tried bearings from every source I can find and in every abec rating. I've found that a lot of the higher rated bearings from some companies are actually very stiff. My conclusion is that although they are very precise in rating they were not designed to spin easy. Therefore, you could buy 2 abec 7 bearings from 2 different companies and find that one might spin very easy and free while the other might only spin a second or two before it stops. If the manufacturer lists it as a fishing reel bearing, then odds are that it's suited to that purpose, but very few if any bearings are designed exclusively to be fishing reel bearings. This could be the reason you often hear from people that had their bearings upgraded, but didn't see any difference or even preferred the stock bearings. I recently tried a set of abec 9 bearings and found that they didn't have as much free spin time as a set of abec 5 bearings from the same company. In their defense though, the bearings in question are not advertised as a fishing reel bearing. I'm not arguing what anyone has said here, I simply want everyone to understand that the abec rating is not an indicater of how free the bearing will spin, there is no rating in use that governs that.

here are some links to some good true info about bearings and abec ratings. In my own experience, I have found that many bearings with high abec ratings don't have very long free spin times. I have also found some low rated bearings that very long free spin times. After researching articles such as these and talking with the reps from the bearing distributors that I use, I have concluded that design of the races and shields has much more impact on free spin than the abec rating. http://www.planetseafishing.com/features/read/battle-of-the-bearings/ http://www.bassfishingandcatching.com/fishing-reel-bearings.html http://www.seskate.com/ABEC.html http://www.arkansasstripers.com/garcia-ambassadeur-C4-casting-reels.htm One thing all of these articles have in common is that they all agree that design and materials are much more important for a fishing reel than the abec rating. You should also keep in mind that most high quality reels have very good bearings. Cleaning , tuning and the use of a high quality oil will make most of them perform better than most of us are capable of using them. If you need to set several brakes and tighten the cast control, then it's already spinning easier than you can use it. If your bearings are worn and need replaced or if your reel isn't of the highest quality, then it may make good sense to replace the bearings and upgrade them to a better designed bearing. If you just like to personalize your gear and want to know that you have the best designed and highest quality bearings, then that's fine also, but you may find that doing that to some reels will make them spin to easy to be able to use them without back lashing. I should also point out that most new bearings should be cleaned thoroughly and then oiled before use. Some will have a residue that that will hinder the performance if it's not cleaned first.

the design of the bearing has way more impact on performance than the abec rating. Ahiger abec rating means that the bearing has tighter tolerances. Fishing reels don't need tight tolerances in the bearing, they need bearings that spin easy with very little resistance. Bearings with very tight tolerances will generally have more resistance than a bearing thats loose. If you want to upgrade your reels performance with bearings, then you need to use bearings that have very little resistance. The easisest way to do that is with open sided, un-sheilded bearings. Shimano recognized this when they introduced the open sided ARB bearings that they use in many of the top end casting reels. The retail price of ARB bearings is quite expensive. A better solution would be to get Boca Orange seaal bearings and then remove the rubber seals. You can remoe the seals by prying them out with a needle. Using open bearings also makes it much easier to keep the bearings clean. Boca orange seals don't need any oil on the balls, they spin the besy dry, but the cage and race are stainless steel and will corrode if not protected. I use a very this oil, rocket fuel tournament grade, to protect boca orange seal bearings. I remove the seals, put one tiy drop in the bearing and spin it to fling as much off as posible and then use my fingers to smear the outside with a thin film of oil. The rocket fuel tournament grade is almost thinner than water. It won't slow the bearing down.

If the side doesn't lift off easily, then you probably missed a screw. Most reels have hidden screws. Take the brake side off first, remove the spool. You will probably see a screw on the back side that was hidden by the spool. There also may be a full length screw across the front of the reel that you get to with the brake side off also. Even though you only used a drop of oil, if it was kinda thick and it got on the spool shaft and then in the pinion gear, that could slow it all down. Wipe the shaft off and then peel a little cotton off a Q-tip until it's small enough to slide in the pinion gear. wipe the gear out and put it back together.

It could be that your spinning reel has a stronger drag. All reels are different. Some have multiple discs and plates, some only have a couple. Any new stock reel should be just fine for it's intended purpose. As Micro stated, if you used the same size line you might be able to pull it off the spinning reel also. If you put light line on the casting reel, it might break at your tightest setting.

I didn't make any claims as it being a scientific test or even that it is the same way the factory tests the drag. I simply tested the straight from the reel pull out. If I test the carbontex washers in the same manor, the difference will be fact. I would still welcome any actual results from those of you that have an E reel. Test it any way you want to, but tell us how you tested it.