FrnkNsteen

Agreed... Big fan of Dobyns and have a BUNCH of them ranging from Fury, Sierra, Kaden, Champ XP and Champ extreme. I was just surprised that a Champ 704cb weighed more than a Fury 705cb. A step down in power and 2-3 steps up in product line levels weighed more?? Seemed strange!

There's an old saying about what happens when you "assume",.... Well, I bought a different jerkbait rod from a local startup company to give them some business and try them out, and had been using a Dobyns Champ 704cb. I had a Fury 705cb set up with a 6spd Curado MGL and thought I'd move that reel ro the Champ 704cb thinking it is lighter in weight, lighter in power, and would make a good setup for light flatsided cranks like the OG Tiny 4 and Tiny 7. Out of curiosity, I threw the Fury on the scale and it weighed 4.58oz and thought,.... Well that's not bad. I next put the Champ 704cb on the scale, curious how much lighter it would be. It weighed 4.78oz. I never would have believed a Champion DC 704cb would be heavier than a Fury 705cb! Granted,... Not by much. Now,.... That being said, the Champ 704cb is a full handle rod and the Fury is a split grip. With the full handle, the Champ balances about 1/2" closer to the handle, so it actually feels a tad lighter in your hand, ....so I'm leaving it on there for now. Just goes to show though that you can't assume more expensive means lighter,.... and also that the Fury 705cb is a good crankbait rod and not a huge drop in feel and performance from the higher level crankbait rods. Surprised me though, so I thought I'd share.....

Agreed,... I just bought a clean old Shimano 201E7 for cheap at the local tackle shop swap meet that they had during their annual fishing expo. I got it home and pulled it apart to give it a good cleaning and when reassembling, I noticed the handle was worn and rocked forward and back on the shaft. I order a cheap carbon fiber aftermarket handle that came with the spacer @bulldog1935 showed above and fixed the issue. Put it on a Levante Diablo Spec to throw spinnerbaits and it's awesome now!!

Largemouth Spinnerbait, senko, jig, whopper plopper/choppo, vibrating jig Smallmouth Senko, tube, inline spinner, choppo, paddletail swimbait Maybe sub a crankbait into either somewhere....

I had an instance like that with the Mayflies hatching. Only thing we could get them to bite was a clear Zara Puppy. They went nuts on it. Had a couple literally jump up and catch it right before it hit the water. I only had one of the clear Zara Pups and my friend was ticked. He tried the pearl white one and they wouldn't touch it. I think they just liked the subtle profile of the clear.

I have found the Berkley Fire Line is surprisingly resistent to toothy northerns too. I use it up it up in Canada to throw my inline spinners on spinning rigs loaded with 14lb and 20lb Fireline and rarely get bit off. Something about that fused line that holds up better then mono, flouro, or any kind of regular braided line. It's not better than tieable leader material though, and is is flexible enough that it may get tangled in the hooks of a jerkbait, but thought I'd mention.

The biggest advantage I can see to the Curado MGL is the option of a slower gear ratio. I have a couple Curado 151 MGL in 6.2:1 and like them for crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Beyond that, I agree with you and have more SLX MGLs than the Curado MGLs.

I figured they must be coming out with a new SLX MGL when I saw places starting to drop the prices. I saw in the sale thread that Omnia was selling them for $109, and now ALF selling them for $99. I would be more temped to buy sme more at the $99 than think of upgrading at the higher price. The current SLX MGL 70 is a great reel. I think I have 4 of the left handed 71 models. I've been so happy with the current model that I really have no need to upgrade, but I will definitely check them out! It would have to be some serious upgrades to warrant swapping out what I have though, as I have no complaints about the ones I have.

Thanks @ghost!! Smaller in all directions. Most helpful is the Tat70 comparisons. My wife loves that reel due to the smaller size! Looks like this beats that by a good bit!

LOL! I had completely forgotten about those!

When you say it is small, is it because it sits low and is narrow? It looks long in the pictures, but I'm guessing it is relative to it being low and narrow. I get the same feeling from my Daiwa Alphas, it feels small and palms nice, but is actually as long as other reels which makes it look long.

Agreed.... Keep them in the pack and hang them on a wall next to a picture of him so you see it often and remember.

12#

I use the Spike It dyes too. I've used the bottles and the markers. Bottles are easier when trying to dye the tails of a tube, swim bait, or end of a worm, but are messy as people said. Got tired of worrying about dripping or spilling on the carpet. I have a 4 pack of the markers in the glovebox of the boat now.

I need to find a place to hold one in hand before ordering. ALF had the machining samples when I was there last time. Maybe I need to talk to them and have them let me know when they get some in so I can go check them out.

Agree with above that the MGLs seem to do better with the lighter stuff and DC for the heavier. Also agree on the DC noise! I bought the Curado DC for myself and an SLX DC for my wife because it was a little smaller. Never really liked either and the noise eventually got on my nerves. Recently sold the Curado DC and the SLX DC is sitting on the consignment shelf at the local shop.

Well,.... Like I said,.. I haven't even had a chance to fish it enough to catch a fish with it, so hard to say much about it. I can say it is pretty nicely balanced. I have it loaded with 6lb mono and have thrown some small 1/16 - 1/8oz jigs with small crappie paddletails, small Rapala ultralight crankbaits (1/8oz) and 1/16 - 1/8oz texas rigs with small finesse worms on it and it casts pretty nicely. Not HUGE distances, but enough to do the job!

Mine came today too

I have a Sierra SUF740C that I picked up last year. I have a Tat SV on it with a Rays spool I bought from someone on here, but I haven't even spent enough time with it to catch a fish yet.

The most common method I have seen for removing line twist on the reel is to take your lure off and let the line out to drag behind you out on the water. That will let it untwist. Then you can reel the line back in and the majority of the twist should be gone. Tie your lure back on and go fishing.

I don't have experience with the Cobb series, but I have been happy with Catalyzer, Tharp, and Invoker LE series I have.

I've had one show up from American Legacy that way through the USPS. I hadn't thought about it, but I bet the conveyor got that as well as KP Duty mentioned because it was packed well and in a heavy cardboard tube. Completely snapped in half. No way a person handles it rough enough to do that. American Legacy was awesome. Immediately credited me for it while I sent back the broken handle portion. I just cut the broken tube off clean, put the broken portion back in, and shipped it back using the shipping label ALF sent me. Sucked, but ALF were awesome!

I do mine manually as well. For casting reels, I have a few different stepped dowels with different diameters I choose by line spool inside diameter. I just put the dowel through the spool and clamp in my bench vise so lin is coming off the top of the spool so it runs right back onto the reel sppol with no twist, tie the line to my reel spool and run it on. Spinning reels just get the spool laying on a flat surface with the line coming off the spool in a counterclockwise direction. Start spooling it on. I very rarely get line twist. If I do, I just flip the spool a time or two to get the twist out and finish spooling. Been doing it that way for decades. I will say despooling the line off reels would be MUCH quicker and easier with the setup A-Jay reviewed though!!!

Thanks Ghost..... Here's a picture with the reel removed.

Sure,... I can take one when I get home from work tonight.