bulldog1935

@TnRiver46 The Japanese still bench-make direct drive reels, which they call revolvers. They point out the rush of catching a bass on a reel with no A/R, no drag - just you and your thumb. This example is full ball bearing LW, drive and spool (6 BB total), for a serious rush.

The important thing here is set your reel drag to no more than 1/4 of the max line rating (= 6 lbs) - to avoid breaking your rod on a set and/or a fish reaction.

@bgaviator - my Steez is 6.3, I have it tuned to the lightest salt finesse w/ Roro-X spool, and that retrieve is perfect there w/ a short handle. Think light lures, but still big fish. 7.1 (my most recent SLPW-Zillion) is pretty much all-around, and I like the stock-length handle there. My Silver Wolf was only available in 8.5, along with my first '21 Zillion SV TW - on both of those, I like longer handles for both lure finesse and cranking power.

maybe you should be and that was a $205 7.1-geared gift horse. I paid $300 for mine the week it came out from Asian Portal. Going into 4th hard year, never backlashed, and had to thumb the spool to keep it out of my friends across the tide pass. From this side of the pass, I was dropping off the same shelf Tony's fishing. 4th hard year, and at this price, you can always change the trim. ______________________ A thought about SV cast distance. If you snap your wrist at the end of your cast, that's adding jerk, the time-derative of acceleration. SV is going to do its job and subtract energy from your spool to prevent start-up backlash. If you follow-through your wrist with smooth acceleration, SV will subtract less energy with brake, and more of your cast energy will go into distance.

Out of the box w/ 12-lb fluoro, all my 34-mm Daiwas cast 1/8 oz to 100' If you mess with them, they'll cast 2 g to 130'

@bgaviator We just went through this exercise a couple of weeks ago. Amazon $205 shipped, 7.1 gear. https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Gileon-1000HL-Handle-Model/dp/B08NP3DZQJ/ref=sr_1_2 I hope this thing is on.

Can I give @MiceNReets 2 likes for the Right Answer?

I believe the OP's question relates to the value of the provenance to a Zebco collector, specifically for the new boxed reel kept in its package. Does Bill Dance have a fan club that someone might want to own this memento, etc. As all things that may become collectible, it won't have a short-term value spike. But serial No. 0001 combined with the signed provenance makes it a singular item. Signature-model rods and reels come up enough on this forum page, some here place a value on them.

The "formula" is 4th grade algebra. The significant digits matter in a NASA trajectory. They don't matter in a crankbait retrieve. Yes, they were teaching algebra in 4th grade - you just didn't know it. I can also guarantee they used the algebra and not the calculus to report IPT for reel models (otherwise, they would report it as formula for line diameter)

R = Gear ratio is how many times the spool turns for one turn of the handle (it's the number of teeth on the main gear divided by the pinion gear teeth). I = Pi-times-spool-diameter (inches) is how much line one turn of the spool picks up. Multiply R X I = IPT = inches of line picked up by one turn of the handle.

Except for Ambassadeur, 60s baitcasters didn't have freespool - there were still some mainstream reels, Langley Target, without level wind - these were the only baitcasters intended to fish less than 3/8 oz.

Shimano copied Lew's design in 1975, after 2 years of building Lew's design for Lew. Took Lew a few more years to set up with Ryobi and start up BB-1N production. I'm not answering any more dumb questions on this thread.

MagForce/Z/SV will become as ubiquitous as Marhoff's LW and Douglas' pinion-lift-freespool (Abu resurfaced in 1954 along w/ their centrifugal). Daiwa's brake design is too brilliantly simple and brilliantly effective to not become universal. Patent rights last 18 years from date awarded. If Lew had patented his ubiquitous LW/spool separation, Shimano wouldn't have made a baitcaster with their name on it before 1993. Instead, he hired Shimano to build his reels and steal his design. Something else you can take to the bank. No reel design that uses a computer chip will ever become more than a novelty.

My freshwater tackle choices might as well be from another planet. I don't get all the backlash priority on BR - to me, backlash is something you search for its onset when you're setting up brakes. But even if the reel has no brakes and requires 100% thumb, no problem, I can cast it and fish it. I also don't get the dozen different reels with a dozen different brake systems. If you have something that works, stick with it, learn how it works, and how to tune it for whatever you want to do with it. OK, all my 34-mm Daiwas are in salt. Three Zillion and a Steez. I have never seen a more reliable or versatile reel - they all swap spools and can be set up to fish 2g or 2 oz. I've said this before, when Daiwa's patents expire, every reel made will use this brake system. Shimano's current variable mag, SVS, doesn't have an accidental name - it's simply that they can claim Daiwa's brake system was their idea when they begin to copy it.

my bud Jimbo keeps one of those under his hat

I always bought Seaguar bulk spools on ebay - there are so many garage-inventory sellers w/o overhead. I use so little fluorocarbon now, I go to Japan for Toray ExThread mainline spool charges, and YGK leader.

A lure that shouldn't be overlooked for shore casting salt is a basic gold spoon, Kastmaster, Johnson's Sprite. They cast like a bullet, flash, and act like baitfish. The flash will often double for a bait ball, and fish may take a larger lure when they're eating smaller bait. Johnson Silver Minnow spoon (esp black nickel) imitates a crab as they flutter to the bottom. My dad's bread-and-butter saltwater lure was Spec Rig, a pre-tied hair-jig tandem, and he's caught every possible inshore mixed double on them. A couple of soft-plastic recommendations, Z-man Texas-Eye jighead for 3" shad bodies, and TSL Grasswalker on weighted swimbait hook. You can also tie your own killer tandems on (2"or) 3" swim shad, such as Tsunami SS3 and WildEye shad - use 20-lb fluoro leader and tie a double-surgeon's loop for the unequal legs. Best night combo is glow in front and blue in back. 15-lb fluoro is plenty. Since you probably want to fish a spoon on a swivel, best choice is fish this with a stainless or titanium wire leader - toothy fish like blues and mackerel can't bite through them. If you consider yourself backlash-proof, you can get more distance casting braid, and add a short fluoro shock leader. But you should be thinking 20-lb braid (832). To load this on a deep spool, fill it halfway with 20-25 yds 20-25-lb mono backing, and load your working braid on top. A good low-profile leader knot for braid to backing (improved Allbright) will pass through your LW guide. Fluoro is always a better mainline and leader choice than mono in salt, because it's denser and sinks, while mono floats. Of course, I'm not suggesting you run out and buy all of this, but you know how you like to fish, and giving you ideas of what works routinely. Think about rock jetties for fishing in the day, and lighted piers for fishing at night. The idea here is get farther away from the beach, and access deeper water. Jetty structure provides bait focus, and pier nite-lites draw bait.

@Greenback Hunter you can get the same lure presentation finesse in a high-geared reel by adding a longer handle. Simply, you're moving your hand farther to complete a rotation.

@FrnkNsteen I've discovered I fish walking baits best with moderate retrieve (just by keeping score), though a moderate IM6 rod is more important - that's going to be a very personal technique thing.

I love catching redfish on light tackle. also love eating grill-blackened half-shell redfish fillets But when the light take grows shoulders on the first run, and the first broach shows the black tail of a sow speckled trout, it all changes from fun to pandemonium excitement.

When I was 14, fishing the jetties with my dad and neighbor - neighbor handed me his Ambassadeur and said try this. I was so embarrassed by the result, it has never happened since. I did get one on a single tip wrap in 2018 - swapped in spare reel and fished a great morning. Didn't mess with the other one, just cut it out and switched to braid.

@ATA All the Japan X-braids are made by Izanas, and at the same diameter, their breaking strength doubles 832. Each Japanese brand specs their own FEP-based coatings. Duel and YGK coatings have held up well for me. Seaguar and Yamatoyo have not. Varivas coatings seem to run extra tough, and is easiest to find, because they have both US website and Amazon store. If you're adding to a JDM cart, you can usually get better prices. My freshwater finesse reels have Super Trout Advance #1. Varivas lines labeled "Casting" also have extra-hard FEP coating, intended to help prevent line dig. My frogger has YGK Oddport #2, which, with updated version YGK Sinji, stands above the herd for both extra strength and tough coating, and priced accordingly (and you gotta admit 100-m pentagram colors finishes sharp on this spool). As I get around to replacing braid (about 3-yr life), adding reels and BFS spools, I'm working my salt reels over to Varivas Seabass Si-X, because it has the toughest coating on any braid I've tried, and I fished them all hard. These happen to be more round reels, but I have two Daiwa Zillion w/ Ray's spools also charged with #1 and #1.2 Si-X.

deja vu

So far, we have on topic facts, and off topic bad recommendations. And what do I know. take up fly fishing, slap the water, 10 years from now, maybe you can do this

I went to salt finesse because blind-fishing a fly rod is obstinate, unless you're working moving water or on a phenomenon that concentrates bait and gamefish. e.g., my best fly rod blind fishing was 50 white bass on consecutive casts (seemed like a good place to stop), and another day with 40 small flounder on consecutive casts (could have caught more, but it was a cold December day, and a 15-mi boat ride home) - it was all about right place and right time (ok, good technique). This tackle can even make fly-rod sight-fishing obsolete, and will cast a 2-g jighead or micro-plug past 130'