bulldog1935

1 to 7 g is a typical range for a short stream baitfinesse rod. Fish these in hill country limestone creeks for endemic bass - "Texas brook trout," which occupy the same niche in warmwater that trout do in cold. Can also get by with really light rods for shore fishing, which I just returned from 2 nights of my favorite shore finesse fishing under dock nite-lites along a navigation channel in the Texas tropics. Note, this longer progressive rod has a much wider lure range, which denotes fish-turning power in the rod butt - though the long tip on this (spendy) rod is too goosey to risk taking out on a kayak, where a redfish may run wide under your boat. In river kayak, I'll give up the extreme light end to stop a bass at the boat, and S-glass shines here. I have this very similar 5'4" 1-power IM6, intended for bass, that doesn't have a lure-weight rating, and while it will cast 2 g, the rod comes alive at 3. While the S-glass rod above is rated 5 g at the low end, it fishes 3 g - even skip casts - like a champ. Here's my all-around reservoir baitfinesse rod, which fishes the full-rated range, 1/16 to 5/8 oz, and fishes it all well.

@shackman Amazon stocks them - prime one-day delivery

The issue is backlash. The rod should be doing so much work casting 1 oz, that you should make a smooth cast. With heavy weights, mid-cast backlash should be nonexistent, and the backlash concern is start-up jerk. The 1 oz is going to jerk the spool start-up pretty hard. This is where a good centrifugal brake (or MagForce) helps. You should not be adding jerk to the rod.

There was a time when everyone (except maybe Zane Grey) had only one rod. I grew up with Mitchell 300 on a 7' Berkley TriSport, that I fished jetties, inshore, and bass. Going back, especially to the 50s, everyone had one rod for everything. Pretty sure Theodore Gordon dunked worms with his fly rod. If you lived near trout, it was a fly rod - if you lived in Colorado, probably also had a Colorado reel to also fish newfangled mono with it.

For spinning reels, I have done the option of laying the spool on the ground label-up, and putting my weight on top of the spool. This still results in a small amount of twist because of the diameter difference between spinning spool and source spool. Also w/ spinning, fish a micro swivel, and twist will disappear. The easiest way is hang the spool on an axle, e.g., in a vise, and take off the bottom of the spool for spinning, and off the top of the spool for baitcaster. I always have my reel on rod in rod holder, run the line through the 2 closest guides, and also run the line through phone book with weight for adjustable tension.

I have fished 2-oz spider weights + meat with 7'6" inshore rod and 8'6" steelhead rod, but not on the east coast. In general, shorter rods are better for throwing lures in the surf. I'm not familiar with the Daiwa rod, but the rod I would take for this chore is 11' Tsunami Airwave Elite 1102H. Between the 2 rods you listed, I would choose the 10' for 4 oz spider weights + meat. However, if you foresee using the rod later for throwing lures in the surf, the 9' rod would be more desirable there, and could get the surf-bait job done, also.

@jdr99a The TFO Traveler is a good rod. I snagged the Cabelas version built on the same blank, closing out for $57. It's normally in my kayak bow hold (along with a TackleDirect Silver Hook spinning rod), and it finished a great long-weekend trip for me when a redfish and I together broke my first 13Fishing Omen Green on a surface snag and high-stick set at my feet. @new2BC4bass - it wasn't too sad - like I said, finished a great weekend. When I called 13Fishing asking about their discount replacement, told them my story - my fault, bad reaction, right when the redfish exploded. They said fishing break is warranty. I cut out the rod label section and mailed it in, had a new rod in 10 days.

What's dig?

I fished 25 years on my BB-1NG, and another on my BB-25SW btw @Eric 26 - these are the same shape as @JediAmoeba's BB-1N @DaveT63 Shimano-built Lew's was BB-1L (and -LM - the first Lew's I bought for my dad) I can go older on the 304 This is 4th model CAP, 1949

Never keep anything in vehicle. But I have fly rod, stream trout (endemic bass), and 5-pc bass rod that fit in a bike half-frame bag. Um, of course they're all Japanese the big front bag fits wading boots....or, a 15-l ice mule and a 6-pack

You should Always use manual bail technique with braid. You should always use it anyway, but is Essential with braid. Good ball bearing line roller is essential with braid. It's also a good idea to always fish a micro swivel on spinning tackle. Braided line in the past decade advanced with better fibers, weave, and FEP (teflon) coatings. Sufix 832 is a big step over older braid. Japan braids made a bigger step in 2018, doubling braid strength at the same diameter, and new coatings are also improving. You have a neighbor that sells very good braid - try Florida Fishing Products.

I can think of 7 niches where I can make do with only one rod, but it's a different rod for each of those niches. And only one of those niches where more than one rod is a chore. Normal kayak drill is 3 rods to have the different presentations handy and correctly matched. Shore fishing this coming weekend, I will have 6 rigged rods handy for change-up.

You could be right - maybe I've been reading google-translated Japanese for too long.

I think the OP's question is more about aspiration than possession. It deserves better than pragmatic answers. Something along the lines of function and form complimenting each other in a way that exceeds their sum. If you have something like that, or simply dream about it, it belongs here. Photos make it better for the rest of us. (my surf lure reel, built around a hens' teeth barstock frame)

While I prefer fishing braid, I always set up my mag brakes casting bulk mono, or more often, 6-lb YZH, which is thick line (and IGFA-rated 11.9-lb breaking strength). Though they may list it lower, a 2-mm-deep spool even on compact frame will give you working capacity with 5-lb Ultragreen mono. This reel, 30-mm dia, 2-mm deep, was casting 2 g to 100' w/ 5-lb UG - that was on a 5'4" rod - and couldn't see bottom. 5-mm-deep spools will let you fish 12-lb mono/fluoro.

Based on description, Samuari braid is probably made by Izanas. I did find made in Japan on a label, and this is Daiwa's higher-grade braid. What they describe sounds like finer fibers, tighter weave, and hard coating.

@Kev-mo The best line capacity calculator, starting with given capacity: https://www.pattayafishing.net/fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/

@FishTank that's probably do-able if you can find Mr. Ito. The whole purpose of a Japan broker, like Masamichi at noppin.com is to solve the language barrier, payment issues, and shipping across the big pond. Eighteen years ago, he baby-sat a custom inshore fly rod for me, rolled from scratch on order. Our friend @redmeansdistortion hasn't played on the forum for awhile. I know he's in constant communication with Simon Shimomura about new Ambassadeur upgrade parts in the pike. I would love to hear his answer to the OP question.

I can see one advantage to mesh rod covers - keeps rigged lines from wrapping adjacent rod guides when you pick up multiple rods in a single hand. Second choice is don't do that. I totally understand multipiece rods in socks in hard travel tubes, lashed into p/u bed - even the long plano tube for 1-pc rods treated the same. Since I'm usually in a kayak, don't travel often with more than 3 rods, and have a few secure options, kayak bow bungee and even p/u bed-rail bike holder doubles for multiple rod holders. Neoprene reel covers are a priority for me. Both for protecting reels during travel, and keeping dust off reels stored on rods in rod stand.

gotta hope they've improved in 17 years.

@WRB @casts_by_fly What makes mid-frame round reels nice are the offset-grip rods the Japanese still make to match them. Also, when you set these up with shallow spool, full-BB-LW, internal mag + centrifugal, they cast as reliably as any modern LP reel with modern brake system. speaking of Japanese rods and rod blades, following my own embedded link, just stumbled on this Kuramochi effort - US flags woven into the rod wrap. These arrived and sold out since the last time I visited Headhunters Lure Shop website. The "Japan Underground" market is all small batch, and you have to keep up to snag exactly what you want.

I'm not a fan of Daiwa's stock spools, even their BFS spools - aftermarket spools really improve their Air and PE Special reels. If you prefer centrifugal and can set up a Shimano the way you want with Avail spool, I'd try that route first. My small frame reels are Ambassadeur and Isuzu. I targeted 34-mm Daiwa for my salt finesse niches, and delighted with my results using aftermarket spools. Had my Steez on the bench today - heading back to my favorite finesse shore fishing next weekend.

@KeepinItBassy Rorolure.com is slow-boat post, inexpensive and about 3 weeks. Hedgehog Studio is the fastest out the door, and I've had delivery in 40 hours. If they have to recover stock, e.g., Avail, it takes an extra day. KTF requires using a Japan broker, e.g., noppin.com. But if you take the broker route, you can add a couple of handmade wood plugs. Normally, e.g., when I'm in a reel project, I'll have a noppin cache building that may include Hedgehog parts ordered through the broker - Haneda Craft, various lure shops, Yahoo, Tailwalk reel cover from Rakuten - to take advantage of piling small orders together for a single courier charge. Another vendor that's good about doing this is Plat.jp - they will order anything from Japan to add to your order with them.

um, you're not going to post Megabass Monobloc photos (MSRP $950) so we can stare at them, too? How about a Pagani drive by?

I don't know enough about Shimano to answer the question, but Jun Sonada does. https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/shimano.html If he rates a spool capable of casting 1.5 g, you can take it to the bank. Avail doesn't make Daiwa spools, and Jun stocks and rates Roro-X spools to match with Daiwa. https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/daiwa.html The other spools that are worth looking at for Daiwa are from AMO Store on Express website, and Ray's Studio SV spools from the ebay Thailand supplier (where Ray's Studio is made). The Ray's spools keep the moving SV inductor function, and are very versatile for casting wide weight range. Gomexus also makes a very light BFS spool for Tatula 80. The Roro X30 spool that sent me first to Steez is no longer made, but this is a 2-g-capable reel, and is my light-end distance champ. The Steez 145-g weight, made 15 g lighter yet by spool and handle swap, matches perfectly on my long Yamaga Blanks shore-casting finesse rod (8'2", 73 g rod weight), and 34-mm spool is a distance advantage. Likewise, the AMO 34-mm spool that I have matched with Silver Wolf will cast extreme light to extreme distance. The extreme-BFS spools for Daiwa are 2-3-mm deep, 4-5 g spool weight, and fixed inductor. Not many Tatula spools are below 7 g, because of the full-width spindle, and that's a good target for a Tatula spool.