21farms

braid is amazing around wood and vegetation but sharp rocks, like the kind they use to rip-rap the levees here, slice through my 30# braid like a hot knife through butter.

in addition to what RW said, here are some more considerations: fluorocarbon: fluoro sinks. helps your lures get down quicker and you'll have less bowing in your line, resulting in more direct contact with your rod. sinking is not good for use with topwater lures however as it will mess up the action of TW lures. braid: braid has zero or almost-zero stretch, giving you instant hookups with less effort. however, you can lose lures if your get a birdsnest midway through a hard cast, snapping off your line. braid is also very thin (50# braid is equivalent to about 12# mono), giving you better casting distance, especially in the wind. the thin diameter and no stretch properties allow braid to slice through weeds, grass and other vegetation...practically a must for ticking rattlebaits in the grass. braid is also soft and supple, making it excellent for use on spinning reels where its suppleness masks line twisting. braid is expensive but it will last many seasons. when one end starts to get worn, reverse it and it'll go another couple of years. mono: inexpensive, ubiquitous, stretchy and forgiving...i hate it

most swept handles between BPS, revos, daiwas, pfluegers and quantums are interchangeable. your JM carbonlite already comes with a lightweight 85mm carbon handle so i don't see the point of replacing the handle unless you want something longer, say 90mm or 95mm. you can upgrade the bearings with hybrid ceramics from boca or hawgtech (both available here from board sponsors). the first-generation carbonlites (the pre-johnny morris gold reels) used a 5x11x4 bearing on the spool shaft and 3x10x4 bearings in the palm sideplate and under the spool tension knob BUT i don't know if the JM carbonlites use the same or not as the two generations of carbonlites were vastly different reels. as for aftermarket spools, not for BPS reels.

fleabay has a listing for new ones...$75 buy-it-now

yes, it's great. regular TW customers can demo up to 4 reels at a time; first-timers can demo up to 2. how else can people fish with a $600 daiwa steez and a $650 calais for a week for only $15 shipping & handling?

back in the 70s when i was a teen, i had two of the lew's BB1s. i loved them but i had continual problems with the pawls either breaking or wearing out and stopped using them. i recently went on a nostalgia kick and picked up a copy of my favorite reel from back in the day: a mint daiwa PL-1000. i'm so used to modern reels that i was shocked by how big, loose and clunky it felt in comparison to even my cheapest modern baitcasters. it had ridiculously short 70mm handles with hard plastic knobs and the drag was stuttery. personally, i think you're better off buying something new. i highly recommend that, whatever you buy, get a reel with a solid, one-piece aluminum frame...that makes the single biggest difference in smoothness and solidarity. when bass pro shop's pro qualifier goes on sale for $80, that's really a good buy.

yeah, i had a lexa pop right off my shimano crucial as i was reeling in a fish...i was shocked but glad i didn't lose the reel. it was then that i discovered that the lexa reel foot is both wider and thicker than those of all my other reels. i test-fitted the lexa on my rods and discovered it fits fine into any fuji reel seat but does not mount into custom reel seats like shimano's and phenix's. here's a pic of the lexa foot compared to a daiwa zillion's: i honestly don't know what daiwa was thinking here. i even contacted daiwa and the tech i talked to was unaware that the lexa's foot was any different. fortunately, i've seen pictures of the tatula and the tatula's foot looks normal.

you can also try contacting pure fishing directly (shakespeare is pure fishing brand, along with abu-garcia, penn and pflueger, among others). i've had good luck in the past ordering abu and pflueger parts by calling them at (712) 336-1520.

if it did, i'd buy it for sure! as it is, however, from the features list, it looks to be an STX with a bigger gear set, a longer handle and burgundy paint for $100 more. the BPS description is a little confusing...it touts "all aluminum construction" but further down it reads that the side plate is C6 carbon [scratching head]

if i were just starting out and could only have three rods, i'd get two casting rods and one spinning rod: casting rod #1: 6'8" to 7'4" length, medium-heavy power, fast action. i bet the vast majority of bass fisherman have at least one 7' MH/F casting rod. this will cover almost anything you want to do, especially bottom contact techniques. if you're willing to go used, i'd recommend picking up a g.loomis MBR-843C GLX...the last one i saw on "that auction site" went for only $165! another good used one would be a shimano cumara 7'2" MH/F. if you want new, check out the *** *** or a phenix recon2 or M1. casting rod #2: 7'0" length, medium to medium-heavy power, moderate to moderate-fast action. use this for crankbaits and other treble-hook lures and some moving baits. my favorites in this category are dobyns 704CB or 705CB although i'm very happy with the abu-garcia veritas winch rod. spinning rod: 6'8" to 7'2" length, medium-light to medium power, fast action. use this for drop-shotting, dartheads, shakey-heads, grubs, and tubes. a dobyns champion or champion extreme 702 would be sweet although the daiwa tatula spinning rods look intriguing to me too.

jd96, hootie was joking... i think you must've missed the '' lol''.

can you tell me where you got them from? i've been frustrated as i have not found them listed anywhere for sale and they're not even on the abu website.

i'd say $160 is about par for a new curado 50E. you're right that the chronarch 50E is essentially the same reel but it has a composite drag star instead of an aluminum (downgrade), has a carbon drag disc plus a dartanium one versus two dartaniums in the curado E (not sure how much difference that makes) but larger septon power grip knobs (and upgrade IMHO). up to you...i personally didn't care for the green color and went with the chronarch 50E. FWIW, you can also get a japanese domestic market scorpion 1000XT for about $210...essentially the same reel as the other two but with slightly-better bearings and a nice burgandy paint.

be sure your line is wound on tightly on the spool, initially and on every retrieve. otherwise, the reel makes a difference too. i've noticed that braid line digging is a bigger problem on my reels with narrower spools than on my reels with wider spools because i think reels with wider spools lay down line at broader angles and, thus, are less prone to letting the line dig into itself. is by any chance your reel a revo?

here's a snippet from the seaguar website: 5) What are the differences between Seaguar fluorocarbon Leaders and Seaguar fluorocarbon Lines? Strength – While both are strong and will withstand the lb test listed, leader and tippet are stronger over shorter lengths and are not designed to be a long, main line product. The main lines are designed to take the impact load over a much longer distance, transferred throughout the line. Double Structure Technology – Our FC, FP, GM, and FX are all Double Structure, (2 to 80 lb), a Seaguar exclusive process that injects two different molten resins through a special die. The resins are extruded as one solid piece. The harder, inside resin contributes to the Tensile Strength, while the softer, outside resin creates greater Knot Strength. Our current main lines are single structure. Price – Leaders and Tippets are more difficult to produce because of double structure and the resins involved, therefore line is less expensive and leader/tippets cost more. Resins – Since Seaguar is the only fluorocarbon brand in the world that makes its own resins, different exclusive resins are used for all of our products. The resins in our line are different than the resins in our leaders. basically, main lines and leaders are constructed differently. seaguar confirms that this also applies to red label main line and red label leader material. only seaguar tatsu is a main line that is constructed like leader material and can be used as such. that being said, i use red label main line as leader material with no problems.

the real problem with lightweight gear is that it is disproportionately more expensive...not that it necessarily costs more to manufacture but that people are willing to pay extra for the weight savings.

get this!! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-90mm-Carbon-Handle-for-Shimano-Green-Bait-Casting-Reel-/190875634954?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c71130d0a is this from semper-fi's ebay store

i had two of the tournament pros...they're not green. rather, they are a charcoal color. the TP's sideplates are not aluminum (some sort of plastic or graphite composite) so i don't know how well they'd take to baking.

at least one person has already gotten theirs. TW says 9/16 for them.

the 200Es were out for quite awhile before the 50-size came out. many guys probably cut their teeth on the 200E and didn't even think about the 50Es.

the gears are not weaker or stronger but the available ratios are different. the 200s are rated by shimano at 11 lbs. of drag versus 10 lbs. for the 50s. the handles, however, are slightly different in length though: 84mm on the 200s and only 80mm on the 50s. i think people just naturally associate smaller with "not as powerful" or "finesse" but that doesn't really apply here except that i put on 90mm handles on mine and swapped out the gear set to 7:1.

weight is 6.7 ounces. very good reels but should not be confused with the prolite finesse which was built on an 05-sized frame whereas the carbonlites use 10-size frames.

my beef is with unlicensed/copycat chinese products, not 'made in china'-products legitimately manufactured for another company under contract. when a company doesn't invest money in costly research & development to create their own products and simply steal others' intellectual property, of course they can sell their stuff for significantly less.

tuning spools are pricey, that's for sure....about $85 to $200. the big three each make tuning spools: shimano (through yumeya), daiwa (through iz'e), and abu-garcia. the only third-party spool manufacturer i'm aware of is a japanese company called 'avail' but i have only seen spools from them for shimano, daiwa and abu-garcia, not lew's.

here's what i've done to mine: SO FAR 1) professional tune (bearing flush and internal polish) 2) upgraded bearings to ABEC9s hybrids 3) replaced one bushing under each knob with ABEC3s 4) replaced 80mm OEM handle with 84mm chronarch E handle (rendering #3 above moot) 5) replaced OEM spool with yumeya 32mm BFS shallow spool 6) replaced OEM 6.4:1 gear set (main and pinion gears) with 7:1 core50 gears my next steps: 7) upgrade handle (again) to the brand new semper-fi carbon fiber 90mm swept handle 8) replace OEM drag washers with carbontex i'm actually very happy with the stock drag so i only plan to replace the drag discs with carbontex only after the OEMs wear out. out of all the things i've done to my scorpion XT, my favorite is switching to the shallow spool...that made the single biggest difference in my pitching/casting performance. good luck!