John G

Seeing this Thread yesterday made me check out the TFO Website. I like the looks of their Mangrove rods. They have dealers in my area and IMHO, they are worth a look for $150.00.

Tackle Tour reviewed a Signature Series rod and they mentioned the line and lure ratings were off. Line rating is for a medium but the lure rating is for a medium heavy. The rod they tested, fished like a medium heavy but it was a medium. They also thought that handle felt cheap. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewtempleforkbass.html

This happened last week. I walked from my garage to my bathroom and just about the time I was going over our wood floors it started coming through the cup. I put it in high gear and put the acetone in the bathroom sink and grabbed a towl to clean up anything on the wood floor. No damage was done and I consider myself very lucky.

Acetone eats right through the red plastic Solo type cups.

Judging from that pic, I'll stick with the old Conquest.

Curado 50E. I wanted 4 ball bearings in the handle so I took out the 2 plastic bushings in the knobs and I added 2 bearings.

15# Big Game or 15# Yo-Zuri Hybrid

Bantam 1 talked about this http://forums.tackletour.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=54048

Well thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you! I just bought a Conquest 50, delivered today. I gave Japan Tackle $457.00 for it and I bought a handle nut retainer. Plus shipping it was close to $500.00 Rakuten has Conquest 50's for $376.87 I want a Antares HG but before I saw Rakuten, I was feeling a little guilt for wanting a $600.00 reel. It looks like my MBR844 will be sporting a Antares HG in a couple of weeks.

I have never even heard of Rakuten. That Site list a Antares HG for $412.20 plus shipping. Is this a reputable place to buy from?

Shipping would only be $3.00 and that's if they charged you.

John Chestnut Sr. Park in Palm Harbor, Fl It is a little county park adjacent to Lake Tarpon. The fishing here is realllllllllllllllllllll slow!

Carry a Thermocell with plenty of refills.

I'd like to. We don't have any of the exotics in West Central Fl. I am just west of Tampa on the coast, Gulf side.

Nice catch! Y'all have a big variety down in South Florida!

The reason that I bought the CTE100GT handle for my 100B is because I think the solid gold colored handle looks very nice with that reel. I have 3 Hawgtech's and Hawgtech's are nice but I wanted the gold. I would not mind a longer handle for the Conquest 100 but if I did that, I would get the Avail swept aluminum handle in gold. My Calcutta 50 is the one that they call the 05' Calcutta. It has the short handle but it also has 4 ball bearings in the knobs. I just bought a 100 05' Calcutta off of ebay this morning and it too looks like it has the short handle. I agree with you that the Conquest 50 is just too purdy as is to mess around with.

I just noticed that my Conquest 100 handle is the same length as my JDM Calcutta 50 handle. Both handles are shorter than the CTE100GT handle.

I thought that you were using the Shimano knobs cause of how great they are. Sorry! LOL

Shimano knobs on a Diawa! Say it isn't so. LOL

My Shimano's consist of 3 Calcutta's, 1 Conquest 100 and a Conquest 50 on the way as I type this, 1 Curado 50E and 2 Citica 200E's. I own a Bantam Mag Plus 250SG from the early 80's and I have had the original Curado, the original Citica and a 100, 200 and a 300 D Model Curado. As long as Shimano keeps on making them like the ones that I mentioned, I absolutely couldn't care less what the other guys are making!

X2. I have an older 6'6" ML/F Clarus for small squarebills and it's a nice little rod for not a lot of money.

I've got a sliver colored JDM Calcutta 50 and it also has a very short handle. It must be the later ones with the short handle.

America is a very expensive place to do business in. I put the onus on the people in charge right now that are doing everything they can do to make businesses not want to do business here.

If more people realized this we would be much better off as a country. Sadly, most people think that an entrepreneur made an investment and started their own business just to provide the masses with a job, health insurance and retirement.

My 100B is a few years old and the handle on it measures just over 3 5/16" center of the post to center of the post. This is without knobs. I replaced my 100B handle with a CTE100GT handle. I went from 0 ball bearings in the knobs to 4 total. The CTE100GT handle is the same size as the 100B. I have a spare gold colored Calcutta handle and it's the same size as the 100B handle. I am not sure what Calcutta it came on cause it came with Power Grip knobs. It has a different screw that holds the knobs on and it doesn't have any bearings either. If bearings are not important to you, you can have it. I just compared the 100B handle to the handle on a 200GTB and they are the same size.