Phil77

Academy used to sell 500yd spools of vicious fluoro for around $20. It worked well for me but haven't seen it in a while. I've been using Berkley 100% and Vanish this year because it's easy to find local and does ok. I only use fluoro for t rigs, football jigs, and senkos. P line cxx and cheap braid for most everything else.

Watched a guy in my old yak tournament club absolutely smoke everyone with those ugly white and orange Walmart lews combos last year. He still uses them after all the money and higher end hear he won last year. It's your money, there are worse ways to spend it so keep feeding the bait/gear monkey.

The SLX DC is a good starting point if you want to try a DC reel without breaking the bank, plus it sounds cool. The Mojo Bass rods are good rods, my daughter has three of them and I have tossed them around a bit. The 7'1 MH Jigs/Baits rod she has for jigs and senkos does a great job, I've watched her pick apart docks with it over the last couple of years with no troubles. She has the 7 ft plastics M rod she uses for t-rigs but I think it might be good for spinnerbaits with the softer tip. Shimano and St Croix have been around a long time and are both good choices in my book.

Loomis has the better warranty, think megabass is only a year.

Strange, I've not had any QC problems from Lew's. They don't charge for parts either, I got spare spools for my pro ti and custom lite free of charge. The only problem I've had was a stripped handle nut and they sent a new one free. I fished nothing but Shimano for almost twenty years, everything from the Calais to the Met20 and and would still be using them if they had a braking system like the ACB Lew's has. The SVS is ok, I preferred the VBS but they had to find a way to appeal to the younger crowd who don't like to thumb spools. The Met20 is an outstanding reel but I can do the same thing with any of my ACB Lew's reels and adjust them much easier by only turning the dial and not having to mess with spool blocks. Still the only two brands you'll see on my boat and yak though.

Hopefully they bring back a flagship reel with the old VBS style brakes. Some people didn't like having to open the side plate to adjust the brakes but it never bothered me.

Get a Scorpion DC it has the I-DC5 brake system which to me is better than the I-DC4 on the Curado. Probably not much difference in price if you shop around.

Yup, had that same problem, or the hook bending and losing fish. I ordered a blank, I was going to cast a mold from a stock rocket shad and try using hook 455 or 253 to start.

I can bomb a weightless senko with two brakes on and the dial at three with a wrist flick. You shouldn't have to put in much effort to get distance, make sure to oil the brake collar. Google shimano SVS maintenance and there is a shimano rep with a video showing how to oil the system. If that doesnt work then you have a defective reel. When the external dial is at 6 that is the highest brake setting, working down in the numbers reduces the braking force applied. Is this your first SVS reel?

Turn all four brakes on and put the dial on six and you shouldn't even have to thumb it. If it still blows up on that setting then the brakes aren't working properly.

Already looked there, guess I'll just buy a couple of blanks and make my own.

I've had a lot of good fish the last couple of years caught on a strike king rocket shad 1/2oz. The problem is after a few fish or one good snag the bait is ruined because of the double hook and skirt keeper design of the bait. Anyone know if there is a pre-made mold for a spinnerbait this size or will I have to get a blank and machine it myself? I would like it to have a traditional spinnerbait hook rather than the rocket shad double hook.

For price range, I don’t want to go over the $250 mark (kayak = lost gear) If you don't want a lanyard they make rod floats that work well or you can make your own out of a skinny pool noodle. I tipped one years ago and lost everything, even my ten dollar crappie zebco underspin has a rod float now. The curado mgl would be my choice.

If that spring isn't the issue hopefully you can return them. I agree that a $400 reel should be flawless out of the box. I fished mostly shimano for eighteen years before switching to lew's and never had an issue with any of their reels except for the met. I am willing to admit it was my fault and not shimano's for the troubles I had. I still think shimano are the best reels manufactured today but prefer the ergonomics of the lews slp reels.

Mine worked great until the day i jammed the spool back in in a hurry, forgot to mention it happened in my kayak. I was trying to get a bear of a birds nest picked out, keep the yak in place cause I forgot my anchor, and keep an eye out for cottonmouths so I was a tad bit stressed at that moment. I didn't have to mess with the spring at all, I never even knew it was there at that time so I just removed the spool and put it back in. It wasn't till the second time it happened that I noticed I didn't have any wiggle in the spool, I never had to mess with the spring just simply pulled the spool out and gently put it back together. I'm no expert but I think the spring is part of the silent tune feature of the reel and is an unintended point of failure when the spool isn't put in correctly. I've fished mine hard for over a year and besides the two times it's happened to me which were both my fault for jamming it back together it has been an excellent reel.

Pretty sure it's the bearing pressure spring giving you problems. The spool will fit but not move side to side no matter how far you loosen the cap. Here is a pic from the schematic. Try working the spring then put it back in. If that doesn't fix it you truly have a lemon. Sorry for the small pic, had to resize to fit. That spring is behind the bearing and bushing on the spool. I had the same problem a few months after I bought the reel and was about to throw it in the lake out of frustration. I went from being able to bomb a weightless trick worm to no distance at all after having to remove the spool due to a backlash. Just an FYI that reel when dialed in can do long distance with a wrist flick, no need to horse it on the cast hence why I backlashed it.

Trust me it will look like it's in there right but won't have any side to side play when you loosen the knob. These reels have tight tolerances, mine is hard to remove the spool. Its just been my personal experience and it has happened twice so now I would bet that's it especially if you dont have any side to side play.

Get the spool seated properly and I bet your troubles will be gone. Its only happened to me a couple of times when I had to remove the spool to pick out a backlash and didn't seat the spool right.

Does the spool have side to side play when you loosen the knob? I've had that happen a few times and once its properly seated it works as normal. If that doesn't fix it hope you can exchange/return them.

I have two blocks on and the dial set around 3 or 4 and get great distance and control. The blocks need to be pushed in towards the spool pin to be off, leaving them folded or unsecured is the on position. If you have all four clicked in then you are in freespool and unless you have a bionic thumb it will backlash no matter what.

Oil the centrifugal brake ring or plate. Should be a bronze colored plate inside the palm side cover. Just use one drop and spread it around, hope that helps.

You might be able to find a lake ready boat on marketplace or CL for that price. I've seen a bunch of V-bottoms and John boats with trailer working trolling motor and outboard for that price around me. Not the fanciest but the fish don't care how nice your boat looks.

Can't speak for the rod but that reel will do a great job at that gear ratio for the baits you're throwing.

BFS with casing reels peaked my interest for a bit but I settled for a daiwa regal and a BPS Pro Crappie rod. Crappie and Bluegill feel like 2-3lb bass on my rig and it was under a hundred bucks. If youre wanting to do the casting route check out youtube, theres a dude on there who demo's all of it from the high dollar to the dirt cheap rigs.

Any body use the snaps that you can pinch together to swap lures quickly? I've only ever used them for trout spoons to change colors quickly, been wondering if they would work for bass. I've been using the loop knot for two decades but would like a rapid change snap to switch between walkers and ploppers when needed.