OnthePotomac

I also tape on my backing and then tie on the primary line. It results in a little bity knot. I only fish for bass, but I have never even come close to spooling my line with a fish "running away".

I also clean and polish my own reels and I have never heard of using Mobil 1 in reel bearings with all of the fine bearing oils out there. They have to be spinning pretty slow at that viscosity.

Medium rods are normally used for crank baits and MH for plastics. I put my new Curado on a BPS 7' MH Carbonlite bait caster ($99 on sale) and it is an unbelievable comfortable combo with to fish plastics all day. It just depends on how you will use the rod.

The 50E will hold 70 yds of 14lb mono .015 in in diameter, and that is 210 feet of line. I have backing on mine and spooled it with XPS Flouro 14lb, which is .013 inches in diameter. I use 50yds of flouro, but that is 150ft of line and a heck of a lot of line with which to cast.

Yep, in Shimano fashion, I just finished soaking the oil out of the spool bearings on my new Curado I and re-oiling with a tiny drop of Yellow Rocket Fuel. I was pleasantly surprised with the spin time of the stock bearings. Grease in gears should not impact casting and should only result in a smooth retrieve, so I don't bother with cleaning gears until end of season cleaning time. If a new worm gear has grease on it, I just add a couple of drops of Reel X to the worm gear, run it back and forth a few times, then run a Q tip over the gear to remove the excess.

Two brakes on on all of my Shimanos and it works great. They have been like that forever.

I am not Mike, but I removed the orange seals from my Boca bearings. They work great without the orange seals and are easier to maintain. With regard to the comment above questioning the advantage of ceramic bearings, I am inclined to agree. My quality SS ABEC7 bearings are comparable in performance as far as I can tell. Some may already know this, but Bantam1, the Shimano customer rep, still maintains that anything over ABEC 5 is overkill as a result of bait caster RPMs.

There are several high speed bearing oils on the market, but I have been using Oust Met Oil on my ceramics and it works well. Any hobby store selling remote race cars will usually sell Oust Met Oil for the little car's wheel bearings. Just a touch will quiet down the ceramics and have a minor effect on their speed. Ceramics will require more frequent oil drops than SS bearings on which I use Yellow Rocket Fuel, and is a touch too heavy for ceramics for me.

Another thing that works is cutting the toe off an old sock. Cut off enough to cover the reel.

Here is the difference in Reel Magic and KVD L&L Conditioner. KVD Line & Lure is a special polymer blend that becomes part of the fishing line it is applied to. Other line treatments you find on the market are primarily silicone oil and solvents. Silicone oil only temporarily coats the line and solvents can damage line. Silicone oil rapidly comes off the line (on your hands and in the water), requiring re-treatment of the line after just a few casts. The special polymers in Line & Lure are hydrophobic (water repelling) and very slippery. It doesn't allow water to draw back on to the reel spool, which eliminates the line drag that a "wet" spool has. It also protects the line from wearing out as quickly as un-treated line because it resists the abrasion that wears line out. It contains no oils or solvents as in Reel Magic that can build up and collect dirt like silicone/oil treatments will. I agree on the greasiness of Reel Butter. I ends up all over the reel and your hands.

This may help. http://pages.infinit.net/fishing/bait101.htm

I bought a Carrot Stick Wild three years ago from Gander on sale for $85 and it is still going strong.

Here is why KVD L&L is so good: KVD Line & Lure is a special polymer blend that becomes part of the fishing line it is applied to. Other line treatments you find on the market are primarily silicone oil and solvents. Silicone oil only temporarily coats the line and solvents can damage line. Silicone oil rapidly comes off the line (on your hands and in the water), requiring re-treatment of the line after just a few casts. The special polymers in Line & Lure are hydrophobic (water repelling) and very slippery. It doesn't allow water to draw back on to the reel spool, which eliminates the line drag that a "wet" spool has. It also protects the line from wearing out as quickly as un-treated line because it resists the abrasion that wears line out. It contains no oils or solvents as in Reel Magic that can build up and collect dirt like silicone/oil treatments will.

The Shimano facility in Malaysia has been in operation for quite some time. I bought two Citica 200D's (an incredible reel) eight years ago and Malaysia was stamped on the bottom. According to the Shimano rep (Bantam1), the Malaysian facility is staffed with Shimano trained personnel and it is simply more cost effective for the company to produce some models there.

This was sent to me years ago by the guy who developed KVD Line and Lure Conditioner. Good info. Line & Lure is a special polymer blend that becomes part of the fishing line it is applied to. Other line treatments you find on the market are primarily silicone oil and solvents. Silicone oil only temporarily coats the line and solvents can damage line. Silicone oil rapidly comes off the line (on your hands and in the water), requiring re-treatment of the line after just a few casts. The special polymers in Line & Lure are hydrophobic (water repelling) and very slippery. It doesn't allow water to draw back on to the reel spool, which eliminates the line drag that a "wet" spool has. It also protects the line from wearing out as quickly as un-treated line because it resists the abrasion that wears line out. It contains no oils or solvents as in Reel Magic that can build up and collect dirt like silicone/oil treatments will.

I do not have a need for it, but have read on numerous sites that Corrosion X is the ticket for salt/brackish water anglers.

My Shimano reels come with the spool bearings heavily oiled, so all I do is clean the spool bearings, relube and go fishing. It only takes a few minutes to do this and it speeds up the spool a great deal.

I do mine at the end of the season, unless I have really used the tar out of one. I can only comment on Shimano reels, which are usually over oiled and greased out of the box. I am less concerned about the grease, but I always remove the spool bearing, clean them well and oil with a tiny drop of oil. I use Yellow Rocket Fuel, but there are other quality bearing oils out there. It does make a difference in the bearing performance (much faster).

For what it is worth, I am still using BPS Excel 20lb mono line from a jumbo spool I bought 14 years ago this summer and it works just fine. It hangs in its box on the peg board over my fishing bench in the basement. I use it for plastic swimbaits.

Holy cow!! 10lb Power Pro on a baitcaster would be like casting heavy sewing thread.

Shimano is known for delivering their reels with excessive grease and oil in them. I have always found that removing the spool bearings and cleaning them well by soaking in plain lighter fluid (I never tinker with the shields) and oiling them with a quality reel oil (I use Yellow Rocket Fuel) right out of the box improves performance considerably. This will not negate any warranty. Be aware that the new Curado has two bearings under the cast control cap. This is the new Shimano "X Ship" feature in the new Chronarch and Curado for improved spool shaft stability. In addition to the removable cover bearing, you only need to clean and oil the top bearing under the cast control cap though because that one is the main spool bearing.

Here you go. Start with this one, then view the others in sequence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLpO74dWuoE

I have always used 10lb mono backing for everything, regardless of what goes on top of it. No problems.

I don't know about the new XPS flouro, but I am cashing in on the white box product for half the price right now. I have been using it in 10,14 and 17lb for 10 years now and like it a great deal. Never a problem.

I recommend BigGreenFish.com for really nice top of the line SS ABEC 7 bearings. I have several of them.