kickerfish1

Stunning reel in its stock form. Nice score!

For anyone that doubted about having the reel taken apart this is the reason why. The damage left behind by a simple dunking in water can cause more damage than one thinks. Dam007 ... glad your reel is up an running again and had a pleasant experience with their customers service!

First thing that came to mind was the annoying song "Thrift shop". Now since I have moved passed it, I appreciate the heads up. A good sale for sure!

Nice acquisition. Not discounting a Lexa or any other reel, but whenever something gets upgraded it is hard for me to go back to what I was using before whether it be line, reels, lures, rods, etc. We have about a 2-3 month window where my thumb becomes less educated when the area lakes are locked up for the winter. Spring is a slight adjusting period to thumbing and technique. Summer it tends to get better and by fall I can get it down to just using one break with a fairly loose tension knob.

You should be able to upgrade the gear ratio of the ITO 103 to a 6.3:1 ratio to make it an all purpose reel.

I gotcha. At first glance it reminded me of the limited production pixy rod. Looks like a fun finesse rig!

Nice quit quitlimping! Can you give more info on the Abu rod the pixy is riding on?

I want to try this weightless sometime. The body appears to be quite dense. I really like the baits for the uses noted above but I want to give it a shot weightless for fun. Thinking it may be best to rig it flat vs a more horizontal and natural but I will try both. Very nice baits Big-O. I have purchased between 1-12 packs of every style of bait you have made. Have had tremendous success on all of them. The type of plastic used plus the scent is what separates these baits from others in my opinion. Keep up the good work with R & D, product testing, and quality control!

For bottom contact baits and finesse fishing I opt for a lighter weight reel more times than not. Power techniques like big cranks and spinnerbaits a heavier reel is where I lean. Also like the heavier heavier reels for frogging and tossing swimbaits.

Ok, I got the reel today from TW. This will be a brief "pre NOT having fished the reel" review. When I opened the reel box my initial thoughts were the color scheme of the reel is pretty cool. Similar to the Stradic CI4, bit more of a poor mans version of the reel. After admiring the fairly blinged out reel, I grabbed it and placed it in hand. It feels lighter than the CI4 by a hair but the difference isn't that noticeable. Pickup any other shimano 2500 series reel and the difference is very noticeable. The size of the reel itself is actually smaller than a 2500 series shimano reel. I tried it on cumara 7'2 medium xf drop shot rod. It looked very nice but the balance point shifted a few inches above the forgrip. Not a huge deal but the reel may be too light for a rod of this length. Next I tried it on a Team Daiwa Tony Bean smallmouth series rod (6 foot medium action rod). It balanced much better so this will be its new home for now. I decided to check the retrieve for a preliminary test of the reels smoothness. Like 'The Hooligan' noted it isn't as smooth as the CI4. Part of that may be attributed to the material used to make the reel. My CI4 made similar sounds as the air passed around the spool at higher retrieve speeds but became less apparent with line on it. I wouldn't call it rough by any stretch but just not buttery smooth. The nice thing about the reel is it seems to be very compact, lightweight, stylish, boasts a significant # of drag pounds, plus holds 175 yards of 8# line. I have the RTX 30S model reel for reference. I will withhold any further comments good or bad until I fish it at least a few times but the real teat of performance would be how it holds up over a year or two +. For $85 less a $20 mail in rebate ($65 into it) if it doesn't last I am not out too much here. Hopefully this weekend I can fish it but for sure by months end. Thought I would weigh in with some preliminary thoughts until I fish it.

Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits I fish on older BPS Rick Clunn "spinnerbait series" rod. The specs are 7 foot MH, with baits between 3/8 - 1 1/2 ounces. I also use a Dobyns Savy series 734 rod. I am mostly fishing 3/8 - 1/2 oz plus trailer and both accomplish the task quite well. I would use a 6'9 rod but wouldn't want to go much shorter. I don't think it is necessary to go much over $150 on a rod for this especially with sale prices and closeout prices. Lots of options out there for a rod that will be to your liking...

Lots of options for sure. When he said a max of $400 for each it defidently makes the choices more difficult. More sensitive rod, more blinged out rod, lighter rods and reels, rare reels or rods, JDM gear and the list goes on. The outfit possibilities I noted would get him out for under $600 depending upon the items chosen, if purchased new or used, if bought on sale or full retail. It is a tough call to pick the "right" rod and reel. It will ultimately boil down to what he want to achieve with the outfit or maybe just some have some looks and performance.

Very well said goose52!

It sounds like about $800 total for the outfit, though I am sure he would want to get out for less.

Not worth the money. Some of the most rough and noisy sounding gears I have fished. Fished it last year and it was tolerable but this year it is to the point where I think I may toss it out. Casts well and is very comfortable in hand. I have 7:1 ratio and have heard some of the lower gear ratios were a bit smoother. On paper a good looking reel but the design and execution of the reel leave much to be desired for reel around $100

Check TW... spools of Tatsu are $10 off their regular prices (looks to be about 20% off roughly). Then just toss a few more items in the cart until you hit $50 for free shipping.

Nice addition! I too have used them this year and they complement jigs/spinnerbaits very well.

Tatsu is the best slackline floro I have used bar none. It is formual is just incredible and all of the properties you look for in a good quality floro are present. For jigs and Texas rigs I really like shooter. Sniper would be my third choice followed by invisix.

Any of the above rod/reel combinations would be fine. Stick to a 3 powered rod with whatever reel you want to match it up with. Throw in some high end floro line to help magnify those slack line senko bites and you are set.

I would say opt for 12# invisix, abrisix, or sunline sniper. With line and lure applied to it before you are ready to fish (typically I will spray the line the night before or the morning of and reapply throughout the day as needed). I personally like sniper first followed by invisix. The sensitivity to me was more noticeable with sniper but the casting distance and line manageability seems a bit better with invisix. Occasionally the sniper will go on sale. I picked up some this past winter during a buy one get one free special. Depending upon size of reel used you should be able to get 2-3 reels spooled with backing which helps justify the cost.

What type of rods and reels have you or do fish currently? Reason being if you fish mostly budget rods and reels ($100 each), the jump to anything you mentioned should be significant. When you say jigs and t-rigs this doesn't help much unfortunately. If you are talking about finesse jigs and smaller t-rigs under 1/4 oz or if you are tossing big football jigs large soft plastics with a 1/2 oz sinker you are looking at different rods and maybe different reels. Here are few examples of some rod/reel pairings assuming you are looking for medium heavy 3 powered rod for reference. 1. Core 50 mg7 with a new or previous generation cumara 7'2 medium xf or medium heavy fast. They will match perfectly and be pretty lightweight. You should be able to put this combo together for around $500 or less if you hit the sales right. 2. Curado 50e or scorpion 1000xt (they appear for sale one eBay and like places in good shape fairly regularly) with dobyns champion extreme 743 or 703 depending upon preference. Both with match the rod very well and balance well. You can probably score this for around $480. 3. Daiwa TDZ or previous Gen steeze with a megabass xx Tour Versatile rod. This would give you a true 100% JDM outfit with the only downside being the 3 year warranty on the rod. Your price for this will be dictated by the reel you choose here. Probably looking at over $500 with a steeze and under with the tdz. 4. Loomis 893 with any reel of your choice. You could go with a steeze, an Alphas, a shimano 50 sized reel even one of their DC series reels. This will be about as good of rod as you can buy but will also cost the most. With an $800 budget your options are pretty endless, including about 90% of what is out there to buy. Most rods and reels over $200-300 a piece are great performers. I really don't think you can make a bad buy. I guess the only word of caution I have is that Daiwa reels can be fussy compared to other manufacturers if you don't have alot of experience with casting reels. However like anything else your mileage may vary. Also I only included better quality shimano and Daiwa reels because I don't have experience with also of $200+ reels from other manufacturers, so I didn't include any of them.

Vanish ranks up there as one of the worst floro lines I have used. I am sorry your first experience with floro was bad but like others have eluded to you get what you pay for. The only cheaper floro I have heard good things about is Red Label. You really have to drop $20 a spool to get anything good in my opinion.

You shouldn't have much issue going down to a 3 power rod in the dobyns lineup. I use a champion extreme 703 for jigs/t-rigs in that weight range. Their 744 or 743 would also be good choices. Any of the brands you listed would be great choices.

TW has their own brand of reel covers that sell for $4.99. Available in left or right hand. Less expensive compared to say the Daiwa or Shimano brand covers and many think highly of them. I use them on all reels I want to protect. Easy to take on / off a reel.

It is a tough question to answer. As you probably already know there aren't any industry standards on what constitutes a Heavy vs a Medium Heavy. There can be variation in the amount of power company A's medium heavy has vs company B's medium heavy. The shimano cumara 7'2 MH xf rod for example is just a beast of a rod. Feels more like a heavy from Loomis say there 844 (7' heavy rod). Back to your question... the weights listed on the rod blank may be the best determining factor to consider when you question getting a Heavy vs Medium Heavy rod. If the smallest jig you will throw is ocassionally a 3/8 oz jig plus trailer, but find yourself fishing 1/2 + jigs plus trailer the heavy may be better. Me personally I typically fish the 3/8 variety and ocassionally the 1/2 oz plus trailer and bigger in certain conditions. I toggle back and fourth between medium heavy and heavy but majority of the time it is a medium heavy. I too call the waters of the Midwest home and feel the need to have both handy especially this time of year when weed growth runs rampant. Let the weight of the jig dictate when to make the jump.