bulldog1935

At the cost-effective end, the latest Lew's Speed Spool LFS, is a big design step in durability with the P2 pinion. That gives the spool a separate spool bearing from the drive bearing, and allows you to upgrade to a very light spool bearing without sacrificing drive strength. Other than end-cap bearings plus spool bearing, there aren't too many upgrades for either of your reels - no one that I know offers spools for them, and I agree if you found it, would cost more than the reel, making a new reel a better option. I upgraded the 3 bearings on my older Lew's LFS Super Duty G - unshielded hybrid ceramic HD bearings - and it fishes better for it. The 3 bearings cost $23 from HPRbearings, but I don't see them listed that way now. You don't have to buy Boca, check HPRbearings and SDScustom on ebay. HPRbearings is in Florida, and you might have an easier conversation with him than our friend in Ukraine. You have to oil your unshielded bearings, but that's part of what makes them racy.

this is my buddy's catch on a fly rod with Sneaky Pete

@Bankbeater The difference you found is all about rod taper. The traditional spinning rod back to Shakespeare and Harnell is para taper. The 6' UL is going to fit the mold. The entire rod length flexes to load for casting, but that gives the rod a skinny butt section, narrow lure weight range, and no help on big fish. The longer Japanese tradition XUL rods are based on progressive taper - actual fly rod tapers. With increasing weight, a band in the rod progressively loads down the rod length, until you get to a stout butt section that doesn't load. This gives you a wider range in lure weights, from nothing to 1/4 oz and more, and a stout, fish-turning rod butt.

While this is true to some extent, spinning reel mass is perfectly centered in your rod grip hand, with the weight underneath, so reel weight is less of a factor as long as you're in the correct reel size range. I fish 4 finesse spinning rods with reels from 5.0 to 7.4 ounces, Vanquish C2000S to Tica Libra SX1500 on the weight extremes, with Stradic C1000S in the middle. I don't notice a difference on the reel weight. The rods are 2.6 oz to 3.5 oz. While it seems natural to have the lightest Vanquish on the lightest Yamaga Blanks rod, the middle weight rods with the heaviest Tica, and the heaviest Black Hole rod with the mid-weight Stradic work just as well, and I have caught the most fish on the latter. What I think matters most for finesse spin fishing is having low gearing - IPS below 30", and especially, good balance over the handle rotation - I've gone to all counter-balanced or lightweight double handles. Of course, you have to go to JDM to get low gearing (except for the 4.6-geared Tica). This Stradic C1000S with cobbled double handle is my finesse champ.

Howdy Neighbor, south Texas and the hill country is well represented on the forum. I'm from Bulverde, another here from Schertz - several from Austin, but they always break themselves out as Central Texas. Grew up fishing the deep clear waters of LBJ, Canyon, and Travis, though now I most often wade the hill country limestone creeks with a fly rod, or kayak the coast flats.

The Stradic FK is the '15 model with shorter stroke spool. Vanford is simply the new name for the former Stradic CI4+ in the series. However, the reel series introduced since '18 Stella is different inside, with larger, fine-toothed gears, and the '18 Stella roller-bearing clutch. Something I left out above, the spindle was made stiffer for the longer stroke, and the new gears are better able to handle higher contact loads by increasing the total contact area in the gear teeth.

gotta wonder how many attys were involved in some of these photos

you won't get this Fujichrome until you zoom it up to see the texture this one's easier to get

with a fly rod it's called a roll cast

the parts interchange The JDM Vanquish is the one I can tell the difference, because it's so low inertia. But unless you have the Vanquish and Stradic side-by-side, you won't notice that difference. The Stella, Vanquish and Twin Power are all bench-finished in Japan, with parts matching for extra smoothness - the other reels in the series come from the Malaysia line. all reels in the series are based on the Stella over-designed roller-bearing clutch, large, fine-toothed gearing, and long-stroke worm drive. The Stella is magnesium body and rotor, with stainless steel drive and many titanium parts. The Vanquish is magnesium body, CI4+ rotor, alloy drive, many titanium parts. The Twin Power is aluminum body and rotor with alloy drive. The Vanford is CI4+ body and rotor. The Stradic is aluminum body and CI4+ rotor. When it was introduced, Tackle Advisors dubbed the Stradic FL, "The Best $400 Reel You Can Buy" - and it's a $200 reel. Between Stradic and Vanford, it's a choice between aluminum body and lighter composite plastic body, silver finish and black finish. Shimano spinning reels not in this series have fans - I'm not among them. For less money and tough durability, I would go for Tica or Daiwa, though Shimano out-smooths all others into the price basement.

yeah, if you're going to give yourself room for $250, Shimano Stradic FL is the way to go - - it's the '18 Stella rebuilt with cost-effective materials, and the workhorse of this reel series excepting the much pricier Twin Power.

do you have to keep those in the freezer?

I'll add some detail about the rods and lures. Bought my first XUL and UL rockfish rods a dozen years ago. Here's the XUL, 7'6", very soft short solid tip, long fast mid, and butt section reinforced with a graphite weave layer. It's rated 0.3 to 5 g, 2-4-lb test The UL tubular-tip rod is 7'9", 0.6 to 6 g, 2.5-6-lb test. I landed one slot (25") snook on this combo w/ 4-lb test, several under 20", and of course broke off a couple of bigger bruiser snook on both rods below. Been fishing those 12 years, and have since added these two longer spinning rods, this inexpensive, but very good 8' Korean Dark Horse UL Rockfish, that I'm brave enough to take out on the kayak to do glass minnows in winter tide pases - note it will fish 10-lb braid. And this spendy Yamaga Blanks flagship model, 8'3", that out-casts everything by 20-30%, and definitely won't take out on the kayak. I match these rods with Shimano C1000 to C2000 for inshore. Because of the heavier butt section, as these progressive-taper rods get longer, the max lure weight rating goes way up. Waiting on Fed-Ex to deliver my first bait version, the newer mid-range Yamaga Blanks Blue Current III 82/B, 8'2", I'm aiming for 2 g on the low end with a raced out Daiwa SV. Here are some of the lures. 2" swim shad +a titanium-wire stinger-hook variant - if you tie this pair as a tandem, have to put the stinger in back 38- to 50-mm sinking plugs and a glow spoon - a 75-mm 3/16-oz sinking Pins minnow on the bottom for size.

Hardy Bougle MkIV bought on closeout from Harrissportsmail in UK, $230. S/N 034 Here, swinging streamers to check for summer rainbow holdovers, but 2 surprise stripers instead on the 5-wt. (ate them, too - hey, they eat our rainbows) Fished the reel for 5 years and sold for $625 (full disclosure, including the photo above) This was after Hardy moved production from England to Korea for Mk V, VI, and VII, driving up demand for the 1000 MkIVs out there, and every older Hardy reel that said England. Made $395 profit in addition to initially saving $395 This isn't the most dollar profit I made on a reel that I also fished - that belongs to a 1917 Hardy St. George I fished 4 years and sold for just above double what I paid - but the 180% profit is noteworthy, making the Bougle purchase an absolute steal - definitely answering our OP's question. Several other nice benchmade fly reels, Ted Godfrey, Peerless, Kusse Leonard-Mills, I fished and later sold for $200-500 profit, either because the maker doubled their bench prices or stopped making and demand took over. I'm not dumb, if it's burning a hole in my pocket, I sell it. Speculating and repairing antique reels is another story. and yes, turned all that into other tackle. A few years later, Hardy USA complained about Harrissportsmail prices, and Alnwick forced them to raise their prices if they wanted to continue selling Hardy. Hardy has also since moved production of a few reel models back to England from Korea to strengthen their market value. I haven't played the game in a long time, because it takes up too much time to do it well, but if you want to see what's out there, Lang's Auction is this weekend.

We have a standing new moon winter trip to dock fish the nite-lights in Arroyo Colorado barge canal in the Texas tropics. XUL tackle and change-up pays off big - we're stocking up on spotted seatrout for fish tacos, but the bycatch includes snook, redfish, ladyfish, mangrove snapper and the occasional desirable flounder. Lures are 2" swim shad, small twichbaits, UL spoons and plugs, and live shrimp on weightless cigar-cork rig. Also fly rod with size 6 whistlers. The bait are balls of tiny glass minnows, and earlier in the fall, can fish larger lures (3" swim shad) for finger mullet. Rods are long Japanese rockfish rods, to reach the fish sign at the edge of the lights. We spend a lot of time sitting on the dock talking and smoking cigars, waiting on fish sign to stand, cast, and hook up. Stealth is also important, because the schooling gamefish have several miles of dock lights to choose between. Tandem rigs will get you quite a few doubles, multi-species doubles. Need a big long-reach net to lift your catch at the dock. btw, these are all male schoolies 17-22" that travel 25 mi/day to find enough food, and serious sport on UL. The larger females stake out a breeding turf in Laguna Madre.

never - gets washed inside and out every trip - of course, most every trip is salt (cam-strapped to drain) easy to back in and slide it on my sawhorse stands. The dribbles of water that remain are easily sponged through the hatches

On TKF forum, there's a small group of Houston attys who call themselves the Hobie Navy. They prefer night fishing in the lighted canals, always go to their favorite spots in spite of weather predictions and prevailing wind. They often find themselves fighting a gale to get home in the dark. I always use the weather links to plan, always choose the spot so I can paddle upwind first, and will never drift downwind away from home. When my buddy Josh took us to an opposing wind spot in Feb, after the first drift and fight to get back up, I staked out and let them have it, watching them on my binoculars - until they gave up and came back in. You can't always count on the weather prediction - this was predicted 16-kt gusts, and when we checked again after getting home, it was gusting to 28-kt. Another day, NOAA/NWS prediction was NE 16-kt when we launched, diminishing to E 10-kt within 2 hours, and that would have been our perfect ticket home. (Did catch some nice fish.) Unfortunately, 2 fronts reinforced each other and the NE built to 28-kt over the morning and never diminished through the day. We had to retreat on a beam reach, and my buddy's Hobie Revo couldn't overcome the windcock, with reaching waves turtle-ing him twice. But we were only in 3' of water. Know your limitations, and your boat's limitations. Plan your outings in detail against the weather information, and better not to go out alone. This was actually a fun ride - with drift sock deployed to stern, we rode out a 35-kt gale when a wall cloud squall rolled through. Without the drift sock, it would be Instant windcock and turtle.

Simple research to answer the OP's question can find what its value is in 2021. Digging a little deeper can let you speculate and turn a few pieces of old tackle into many more new tackle pieces. @new2BC4bass I'll raise you 100-y-o Talbot Niangua, first model Pflueger Supreme, and Shakespeare B. (never did get the elusive Beetzel, and wasn't trying that hard) In today's money, this was a $650 reel in 1914, and is still worth that today. Tackle values can be fickle from year to year, brand/model prices can be affected by interest from collectors in Japan that can go on for several years then suddenly the demand disappears... But overall, '20 and '21 have been the strongest years ever - we all see the empty tackle shelves. funny thing, after 100 yrs, the box and papers are worth more than the item itself.

ebay search only for Sold listings shows two Team Daiwa Gold sold together for $41 after 10 bids. The one that appears to sell high is Team Daiwa 103HSDF, which has a silver body and several sold examples from $135 to $145. Consider we've been in a seller's market for 2 years now. Need box and papers to get top dollar.

wouldn't we be bad influences if you bought bad tackle because of us? But if you buy good tackle...

I have 3 Lew's low profile reels, two LPS and one SLP (SP). Each reel is dialed into its niche just right. The Super Duty (without P2 pinion) is the oldest, and has worked hardest. My drives are silky, and all work pretty hard, so I've never understood the noisy gears thing that many of you have reported.

In our cold tailwater, if you're catching redhorse, you're matching the hatch. This one took a swinging caddis during a hatch. And yes, they have shoulders - we call them Guadalupe redfish. It was Gary Borger, referring to some form of fish psychologists, reported that trout have an IQ of 6, but cyprinids have an IQ of 12. It was in Gary's stealth talk, illustrating his quote, big fish aren't smart, big fish are cowards. By natural selection, brave and inquisitive fish become fodder.

even javelina is good after a day on the smoker (this is venison flanks and backstrap)

Their warranty is excellent. I have 2 Envy Green inshore, ML bait (7'1") and ML spinning (7'7"). And back to their warranty. The only rod I've ever broken in 50 years of fishing is the Envy Green bait, and it was my fault - a redfish grabbed the lure beside my kayak as I was taking it out of the water, and I high-sticked a set just as he exploded. I was expecting to get a discount replacement, but they said that counts as full-warranty fishing break. I had to cut the rod-label portion of the blank and mail it back to them, and had a new rod in hand 10 days later.

I will add, just this Feb, I lost my first fish and lure from the TA clip. But redfish have crushers in the back of their throat, which may have contributed. Aside from that, released 20 of them this day, all about this size, and kept 2 slot fish for dinner. adding, I remove split rings from plugs even if, on small plugs, I have to clip them with angled cutters. On spinning tackle, I always use a micro swivel - there are different ways to do it, but I most often use titanium-wire micro traces.