JustJames

He might not come here often enough to see your question, if you are interested in his invention visit crappie.com under spoonminnow. BTW he wrap, I think 24 gauge wire just below jig eyes with that bended part to hold plastic in place. My way a little bit different but still better than traditional plastic keeper that often year after a few fish.

Does it matter, NO. Preferably, YES. Made in Japan reel doesn’t mean all parts are made in Japan, right? Yes I trust assembly lines of Japan more than other countries but if one part is bad all things would become not working properly. I got zillion made in Japan with imperfection finish as well as Alphas made in Thailand.

If you wanna learn more about panfish both bluegill and crappies, crappie.com is forum that you can get a lot of knowledge at. A lot of them fish for fun and even more fish for fun and food. Majority of them use plastic, hair jig or lures to catch them, less than 10% from what I see using live bait. There are also tons more info about gears, rods reels, Ultra light, Super Ultralight, JDM etc that bass fishermen might not even know of. Most panfish are prolific fish meaning they lay a lot more eggs than others, to keep them as food is not so bad if ones follow the rule and limit.

2009 https://japantackle.com/shimano-conquestdc09.html 2003 https://japantackle.com/shimano-conquestdc.html?SID=c0bkotdo5n79sefohnlunnc3u2 2020 https://www.tackletour.com/reviewshimano20conquest101hgdcpg2.html Do you mean whole assembly handle or just a knob? You can install any Shimano knob on Shimano handle (none rivet)

Try T8 torx.

You will be surprised a lot of finesse tactics work good at night. If you can get them with moving lure like chatterbait spinnerbait, try Neko rig or Ned rig, light Texas rig. The key is to move them slowly.

Yes it won’t be auto closing anymore but now your bail will close on mid cast in every position. That lever is the one make contact to friction ring.

I don’t wanna say it is a bad Shimano design of that problematic friction ring and yes it happens with my Shimanos too. Most people don’t have problem because the bail design to be open to the right as Tom said roller at 12 o’clock and that make the metal piece fully engaged to friction ring. Daiwa I open either to the right on downward, if open wrong way it would feel some resistance but no matter what the bail doesn’t close on mid cast. Kudos to Daiwa.

Maybe because TWing guide that make your line escape that small hole and jump up to the top. If you can pinch the line with your finer in front of the reel, and move left to right along with line guide, that might help.

You can do a few things here, also depends on how deep you wanna fish from hook to bobbers. Try to leave gap between your split shot and hook as short as possible. Use jig head weight instead of hook+splitshot. Fish it slip bobber style, you can use same bobber just add two bobber stopper, one on bottom one on top ( maximum deep 3-4 feet) switch to bead and bobbers knot and you can fish as deep as you want. All these still not gonna eliminate line tangle 100% because of that topper would catch on anything that come across it pass. Ultimately you can DIY bobbers and got two benefit at one, by getting rid of that topper and turn your bobber to lighted one. this is not me, thanks to original YouTubeer.

Does it really matter which Shimano I own, to prove that I’m wrong? This is forum to share opinions base on experiences no right or wrong. Same if someone started Shimano cast further than Daiwa we would get a lot of commend some on Shimano side some on Daiwa and of course those Abu and lews would jump in that their reel cast further or even better and cheaper (😔😔😔😔). Casting distance is not just about reel but Rod and technique is importance, same as smoothness, it is preference and feel of each individual. I can sit at home spin the handle of any reels and call them super smooth. Shimano smooth? Yes but not to the point that can call buttery smooth like Daiwa (in real life fishing not on the couch). Shimano smooth but pronounced more of connection of gear teeth crushing or even frame bearing. There might be nothing wrong but a lot translates into gears or bearing problem. now to answer you that I’m not one of those that never own any of Shimano or Daiwa reels but still love to share comments. sold for whatever reason but smoothness is one of them curado d 100 chornarch 50e Aldebaran MG7 Core 50MG Scorpion 1000XT brenius culcatta 50 Stephano 100XG 2 Curado 70 scorpion 70 curado 200K SLX MGL 2 SLX 70 DC XT Bantam 150MGL 2014 Conquest 100 vanford 2000 might be some more that I forgot still own but hardly used conquest 50 conquest 101 DC curado 70 curado 200iPG SLX 150 SLX 151 XT

Totally agree, Daiwa is smoother than Shimano on every price point, doesn’t even have to be new cut Digigear. My smoothest reel would be Daiwa alphas SV105 the zillion is super smooth and very quiet when cast. We are talking smoothness of the reel not about one is better than another.

For Daiwa I recommend order directly from Daiwa. You pay a little more but you would get quality and trustable bearing, beside that Daiwa spool bearing often time come in different size depends on model. for worm gear mostly use the same size as knob bearings unless older model. I would order from any RC place, I also ordered with TRB RC before and they work just fine. I would pay a little more for stainless steel instead of chrome steel bearings.

You need clutch lever m06-6101 from zillion G100 if order directly from Daiwa 15-20 plus 4 dollars shipping. Difficulty level I give it a 7 out of 10 since you have to take lots of parts out especially the plate under pinion yoke. It is also easier if you take main shaft out because the connection of T-wing system. the easiest way is to contact tackle trap to replace it.

Your buddy is right. I’m still lucky to fish in private 400 acres lake. The past two-three years I see more and more ppl crappie fishing to keep. They keep everything big and small and often time over limit. Being in private lake we don’t have waders to check very often. I still remembered the day, the guy yell at me “is that a crappie” i released him as quick as possible but still the guy saw it. After that I see the whole family too often on spot. I stop fishing in day light just so that they don’t know or see where and when I pull the big ones, they will figure it out though. I also stop posting much in local forum or Facebook since quite a bit of ppl in community know me even call me Mr. Crappie ???? Just to prolong these ppl, I lost ability to get a good picture of big slab in daylight and using all my casting gears. Now I don’t care if they keep bass but I will try as much as possible to preserve those big slab. I admit I do keep some each year but only 11-13” bigger and smaller get released no matter how much I want to eat them ????.