Raul

Yup .... very seriously and casting that 60+ dollars hard swimbait all day long and come out empty handed. Not quite ...... you may catch fish that otherwise you would not have. I know it, most of my lures are Rapala and when they don 't wanna bite it 's time to take out those expensive baits to do the job.

I 'm far from being "rich".

Nope, nobody in the US carries them for what I know, Plat carries them. 8,600 yens for a 1 piece rod by FEDEX or UPS 2 piece rods are shipped by EMS ( Japanese post service ), around 15-20 dollars.

Who ? :-? me ?!? :-/ Nah !!!!

Very nice ! too bad them reels have the handle on the wrong side. :-/

Not all JDM rods are obscenely expensive, the Major Craft Slicer series ( straight and split handle ) cost around 120 + 15 dollars shipping by EMS. And no, they are not 2 pc at the handle, actually, very few are two piece at the handle.

And if you like righties, Delo 's Custom Tackle bargain of $165 plus free shipping for a Curado 100D is hard to resist.

Yeah, I know what you mean Matt, haven 't caught anything really good with a spinnerbait in all these years, and excuse us guys but Matt knows what I mean when I say something really good ( 9 and a half pounds doesn 't qualify as "really good" : ), caught my first 10 pounder with a Rapala minnow and my PB ( 13.86 ) with a Rapala Shad Rap but cranks are also not big bass baits for me ( I 's say I simply lucked out with those two ) but the jig .... oh boy that 's another story . I 'm pretty shure the reason why sb8s haven 't worked for me is a matter of population, there 's always a bunch of those 1-3 lb suicidal fish with s*t for brains that are ready to pounce on them like a friggin kamikaze and that 's what I catch most of the time with swimbaits. >

Matt, the jig is still to be dethrowned by the swimbait, too new vs to many years, it may happen in the future, been swimbaiting for what ? a couple of years, actually I first started with your bluegills, but still haven 't landed a real big momma with a swimbait, the closest one was according to the eyeballmeter between 9 and 11 and thanks to my partner ( : , how come when you got a really goodun your partner lacks of any experience with the net ? one of those mysteries yet to be solved ), but been jigging for over a couple of decades and most of them biguns came with the old reliable. Many are in my position, most probably it will happen, personally I think it 's not a matter of it will happen but when, the SB8 will become the big momma catcher of all times. Somehow I believe that catching biguns with jigs is an art that not many are able to master. Got a Spanish buddy that does his biguns massacre in Spain ( and they only have northern strain ) but with swimbaits, he also hasn 't caught any whopper with a jig and when I told him that most of my biguns were caught with a jig he thought I was bsing him, he has mastered the art of catching biguns with sb8s, so far I 'm still stuck with the jig.

The phenomena is anything but new, lemme see: 1980 's Sluggos, tubes 1990 's Spider jigs 2000 's Senkos, Sweet Beavers, Chatterbaits and now the Paddletails. Every now and then a bait suddenly becomes the absolute "must have" and there will always be people ready to unfold their wallet eager for somebody to take away their money ..... yet still, the No 1 Bass catcher of all times is the lowly plastic worm in all it 's forms and variations and until swimbaits prove otherwise the No 1 Big Bass catcher of all times is the jig n 'trailer. This proves that: 1.- Bass are the same now than they were 40-50-60 years ago 2.- There will always be customers for the newest & hottest bait out there The magic is right where it has always been and where it will always be, behind the rod handle. Catching fish is between your ears and not between the folds of your wallet. And that comes from someone who is the prime example of BaitMonkeyitis.

The only limit on how a soft plastic bait should be rigged and fished is your own creativity.

Be careful with the finish of the Alphas Itö, that polished aluminum finish is touchy, it gets stained. If you want to keep it like new always you need to buff it up with a flanel after you fish with it.

And leave the testing for the guys with more money than brains .... just like me ? :-?

They weight less ( 1.2-1.4 oz ) and come with cold forged handle, the Type F comes with 2 extra bearings u der the knobs.

JDM Monkey is Hard to Resist No s*t ?

Wanna hear some advice from an old fart ? Put your spook in the tacklebox you have for those baits that you will never use again, like I said, being an old fart I fished the spook for many years, it took me quite a while of practice and time before I could make it walk right. A Sammy will shorten 10 times all that time it takes to make the spook walk right, in no time you 'll be walking the dog like a champ with a Sammy.

Been doing that for a while, not because they are cheaper, before the shakey head craze I did fish with what now could be called shakey heads or oversize hook size jigheads. Simply I could not find jigheads in 1/16 and 1/8 oz with a 3,4 or 5/0 hook so this made me the proud owner of a bunch of 90° jihead hooks in those sizes, a melting pot and a couple of Do-it jighead molds so I could pour my own shakey heads. BTW, if you happen to go on your own on pouring oversized hook jigheads for shakey rigging let me tell you that you need to "doctor" the mold, just a little caving with a drill bit on where the hook eye is supposed to go is necessary to make the hook eye fit in the cavity, otherwise when you close the mold it creates a gap and you end up with a jighead with a very much needed lead shaving.

You need professional help ? yes you do Cuz if you are collecting tackle instead of fishing with it there 's something really wrong, purchasing tackle is just part of the fun.

Most definately NOT. Well I ain 't David but he 's going to say the same, NO, WD-40 is an excellent solvent hardly a lubricant and not a very good one for long term use, yes your reel will feel silky smooth immediately, 3 weeks later there 's no WD-40 left to lubricate anything. Once again: Good quality low viscosity oil in spool supporting bearins, worm gear should be oiled with a higher viscosity oil and grase for the gearing and any place that has friction.

From those two I would go for the All Star, why ? just because it has a straight handle, I hate hump grips.

Mag Force V is found in all V spool Daiwas, Mag Force Z and Magforfce is found in U spool Daiwas. Magforce Z is a little bit more efficient than Magforce V, like Avid mentioned, Mag V is a little bit more finicky but the reason why you find Mag Z in U spool Daiwas ( Fuego, Viento ) U spools have more line capacity therefore when full they weight more so they need a more powerful braking. Within different reels is hard to tell the why but there 's a good example, the JDM Steez is available in two models: 103 H/HL and 100 H/HL; the 103H/HL is a V spool reel with Mag V braking, the 100H/HL is a U spool reel with Mag Z.

Well I guess he can trade them in for this one: or this one

In a mano a mano I always outfish any of my partners, but that 's hardly the case because most of my partners are people with not the same level of skill and knowledge I posses, so instead of me fishing I 'm out there me teaching so I hardly fish at all ( reason why I want to catch fish I usually go on my own ). I don 't mind teaching, I get a lot of gratification doing so.

There has been a great ammount of discussion about which one is better and after a long debate the best overall for pitching, flipping, preventing backlashes and the most gain in cast distance is Daiwa 's Mag V which you only find in Daiwa 's V spool reels ( Sol, TDZ, Steez 103 ); in second place comes the 4x4 SVS which you only find in two reels, Shimano 's Scorpion 1000/1001 and Scorpion Mg, in third place comes the conventional VBS ( or SVS as it 's called in JDM reels ) found in all Shimanos with it ( from the Citica and up ). Digital cast control is not considered as "conventional". Basically my question is, is it worth taking the cover off for the VBS style system, is it that much better? I really don 't understand what you are asking :-?, I suppose you mean if removing the side cover to tweak with the brake settings if needed is it worth it, well, like in any other BC part of the spool rotation control is in the brakes, but most of it is where it has always been ----> in the thumb. I seldomly have to reset the braking settings in any of my reels wether they are magnetic or centrifugal.