bulldog1935

@newapti5 - I found my reel on ebay, saw it was from Japan, went looking for it on Yahoo, found the same reel/seller listed for $100 less (about half). The reel fits and throws my SV spools just fine. First casting trial was my stock Steez SV spool loaded with 12-lb Tatsu. With my long Lami MTC steelhead rod, 1/4 oz easily lobbed to 120'. I also tried to make it backlash both with jerk and high arcs, and the inductor/magnet match was good enough to prevent that. I have these nice rods that used to fish my Lew's BB-25SW, and I bought this reel to plug in there. _________________________ Swapped back to 1000S SV Boost spool and loaded with 5-lb Ultragreen to get a final mag set casting 3 g on shore micro-jigging rod, but rain this weekend, and I won't get to cast again until Monday. When it's set, spool will get PE#1.5 Varivas Si-X

IMO, his wind result looks like spool tension is too tight. I always make sure my line goes through the two closest guides on the rod.

tough subject to photograph, here's a 25-y-o monobloc Daiwa Millionaire CV-Z that's coming off my bench. The new handle is NS Craft with bakelite knobs. I plan to fish PE#1.5 with 3 to 15 g on my long shore micro-jigging rod, and PE#2 on my older Lami steelhead rods. This reel swaps spools with my other 34-mm Daiwas. .

The smaller diameter spool of Alphas (and Steez CT) does reduce inertia. But it's also a trade-off that the larger diameter Zillion spool doesn't have to spin as fast to achieve the same cast distance. Alphas and Zillion both have free-floating spool design. The full-width-spindle mass of Tatula spool also increases inertia, so the SV brake on Alphas or Zillion doesn't have to apply as much force to eliminate backlash, giving a distance edge.

I get it - we finesse fish hard in the winter. Our 5-year gang of small frame Stradic and Vanquish still fish like new. Go down this page and look at the rotor deflection animation in the middle of the page. https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/finally-shimano-announced-new-20-twin-power-is-tough-style-spinning-reel/ Spinning reel is the most complicated fishing implement ever devised. Stresses on the internal mechanism produced by long levers (spindle and rotor) were not understood before CAD in the last decade - everything before that was built by trial and mostly error. Spinning reels self-destructed with use from their own internal mechanisms. (Spinning reels bottomed-out in the '90s, trying to make them lighter weight, longer spindle, bigger rotor dia.) Even after a decade offshore, the best spinning reel made, Penn, didn't understand the contact loads on their gears that result from spindle and rotor deflection. Brinnelling pinion gear is a short-term overload, but all the smaller damage adds up over time to increase spindle and rotor deflection, and make the reel sloppy. When the reel is laying line in a reverse cone, it's been fished-through.

the whole power vs. finesse argument in Shimano doesn't quite hold. Vanquish is the magnesium-frame upgrade that Vanford wants to be. You can only tell the inertia difference when you're winding Vanquish and Stradic side by side. But you can't go wrong with any worm-drive Shimano, which begins at Stradic and ends at Stella - all reels in that series exchange parts. This is my medium-frame Twin Power, which can be a power reel one day, and a finesse reel when matched with a shallow spool for tiny braid. (happens to be a Vanquish shallow spool).

Shimano can sell smooth in their bottom-end reels. What matters, though is how accurate the reel manages line, and what matters more than how long does it feel smooth is how long does the line management accuracy last. I've fished through older spinning reels on big fish, but when they're worn out is when they will no longer give flat line lay. The only change from Stradic FL to Stradic FM is a slight increase in spool pitch (slightly taller spool, slightly longer spindle). It shows Shimano had so well over-designed FL that they pushed their design a little farther with FM.

Difference between JDM and USM? You can get JDM Zillion SV TW for the same price as USM Tatula SV TW 103, and less than USM Tatula Elite.

I've done the shake in can of solvent - it's less than a trick with less than complete results. No comparison to ultrasonic cleaner, even cheap $5 jewelry cleaner, which is perfect for cleaning reel parts. With the ultrasonic, you actually see the grease leaving the bearing - until the solvent goes completely opaque with dissolved grease - the film can still has clear solvent, so you're not getting the grease out of the bearing. If you also clean bicycle chains, you can justify a $35 ultrasonic cleaner.

Hexane, alcohol, acetone and mineral spirits only dissolve paraffins - oil, grease, wax. I would be hesitant about brake cleaner, which likely contains stronger solvents that dissolve oxidized polar organics, and may attack rubber bearing seals. You can get a small jewelery ultrasonic cleaner for $5 on Amazon. Nice thing about ultrasonic is it moves dissolved grease and oil farther away from the bearings, leaving less residue - works like a tiny toothbrush.

I'll add about my dad. He stepped on rods walking around the boat to find the stringer. Good thing my idle rods were always in the center console rack. But it did make it easy at Christmas and birthdays, replacing his short Falcon rods.

Hi @FrnkNsteen - yes, exactly correct - Z and SV are the inductors. The guys on TackleTour tune their spools by swapping inductors, shims, and springs. One trick is swapping-in a Ray's Studio inductor. Jun Sonada on JapanTackle offers milder springs (e.g for HLC) and different thickness shim washers.

With proper casting brake set-up, you should only need thumb to release and stop the spool (adjust final distance) - that's kinda the point, for brakes to take the place of your thumb modulating start and mid-cast. But there's more to a proper cast, which is how you load the rod. The bad habit brought from spinning tackle is wrist snap, which is rewarded in a spinning cast with extra distance. In a bait cast, this added jerk has to be subtracted by brake force to eliminate start-up backlash, so it adds Zero to a bait cast. If you only have linear mag brake (fixed-inductor BFS spool), wrist snap is start-up backlash (in a fly cast, wrist snap is a tailing loop). Maximum cast distance comes from smooth acceleration and wrist follow-through without adding jerk. In the early 80s, I was fishing Ambassadeur weightless, and could out-distance guides with their weightless spinning tackle. I made a forward-spiral centrifugal cast, which is completely without jerk, and also effectively lengthens the rod (tricky thumb, feeding line during cast stroke). I PO'd two guides who tutored me on what was wrong with my cast, then we compared, and I doubled their cast distance. It's ok, I made them both look good back at the dock. @FrnkNsteen those two anodize colors in my spool photos above are the stock inductors for all Z and SV brakes. Daiwa tunes those inductors on individual spools by shimming the inductor depth in the mag field (see white washer in SV photo above), and changing return-spring rates. Also Note with Daiwa brake - leave the spool tension out of it. Only adjust mag brake scalar to prevent mid-cast backlash throwing the lightest thing you plan to throw. If you're facing the wind, add 2 mag notches. Thumb - if you want to become a thumb master, take one of these to the back acre. Meek and Talbot NLW reels from the ninteen-teens held all world distance-casting records until Ambassadeur CT arrived in the '70s.

Denatured alcohol (iso-ethanol) - lighter MW - it doesn't suck as much water from the air as iso-propanol, so it flashes drier, and flashes quicker.

Only one, and I blame the redfish. If it hadn't followed my lure out of the water (right at my knee), I wouldn't have reacted with a high-stick set at the exact moment the redfish reacted with its flight lunge. When I called looking for replacement discount, 13Fishing gave me a warranty replacement.

you'll find links here that give the physics of backlash and casting brakes, shows the difference between MagForceZ and SV brake inductors, and describes the dual inductor return springs in Boost. The changes between MagForce/V/Z/SV and SSAir relate initially to the strength of the magnets, improving with magnet technology, and evolution to lower-mass inductors, with SSAir having the lowest-mass inductor yet, 25% lighter than SV. The reasonable assumption is MagForceZ is tuned to heavy line and casting weights, and SSAir is tuned to the BFS end. In these photos, note the Z inductor is thicker and heavier than the SV inductor, etc. With good cast habits, you can adjust either to be close-enough to backlash-proof, by setting to the lightest thing you plan to throw.

I keep my sports camera on a tripod at my bench. Also, my old eyes need my Ott magnifier and lamp, and the lamp is perfect photo-temperature daylight. I take breadcrumb photos when taking down a reel, and have them to refer to later. Electrons are cheap.

I would assume the Penn grease viscosity is wrong - too low - you need higher viscosity grease on the gears. I apply grease to main gear using a square-ended sable art brush. Too much over-flow will find its way to your spool bearings. (obviously not Daiwa) e.g. - https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/4633 Not suggesting you run out and buy this, but I keep -B and -SW kinda ML and MH viscosity for fresh and salt reels, respectively. SLP 300 is Daiwa recommended for baitcast drive gears.

@Jsher19038 - that's Ambassadeur 4600C, 5-mm-deep BFS-mod spool to fish PE#2 (45-lb) X-braid. The reel is set up to fish 1/8 oz to 1 oz - tiny frog plugs to big topwaters. I enjoy the bench time finding ex-condition bargains, then building them into custom reels. I think you'd do fine with the Tatula SV that's on sale now, and a longer rod is usually a shore-fishing advantage.

@Reel has done you right. Any rule against kayaks in your lily pads? Kayak is a little different - I like my 6' MH for fishing close and possible overhang.

The trick with fishing threadline braid is filling your spool (see BFS). One way to fish 20-lb braid on normal deep-spool baitcaster is backing the braid with 20 to 25 yds of 20- to 25-lb mono (not fluoro). You mostly fill the spool with the backing, giving you working braid capacity of about 100 yds. The large-dia. backing stacks inefficiently, keeps loaded spool mass down, makes casting reliable, and prevents line dig. That said, I wouldn't consider braid on baitcaster until backlash is a distant memory. For your learning curve, I would begin with 10- to 12-lb mono/fluoro.

You left out that you like line memory. Since your braid makes noise, you've never tried good braid. My fastest boat does 5 kts.

You're beginning to understannd why all my reels, from stream to surf, are technically BFS. The only reason to fish more than 30-lb braid is because you need the diameter to fill your deep spool. Beat the rush and fish a shallow tuning spool.

While people use BFS to mean whatever they want, it's the reel, the combination of shallow. lightweight spool, low-inertia spool bearings, and threadline. Bait Finesse System was coined in print in 2000 by Hiroyuki Motoyama, but the practice goes back to 1985 and tuning parts made in Japan for small frame Ambassadeur (also made in Japan by Ebisu). Before it had a name, it was simply called "reel tuning" https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/finesse-101.html The progressive-taper rods employed are best termed baitfinesse or BF rods.

Round reels are gorgeous with offset-grip glass rods.