bulldog1935

Mick, BFS-mod is the reason I went to Steez and Zillion - because of the range of aftermarket spools made for these reels. (otherwise, I was perfectly happy fishing Lew's). Loaded spool mass and spool bearing inertia are the last words on light lure distance. Alphas and Zillion are basically the same reels - Alphas is the compact frame version. I've never looked past Steez and Zillion, and have a gang of 34-mm-spool reels that everything swaps. Shore-fishing distance was always primary for me, and I've never had the compact frame bug. @FryDog62 mentioned '23 SS Air TW https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Bait-Reel-Finesse-AIR/dp/B0BY89LJKJ/ref=sr_1_1 SS-Air brake is the latest version of MagForce, with the lightest inductor yet. Daiwa blurb reads the configuration makes the reel a bit more compact than Alphas. There is a general agreement the smaller-diameter spools in compact frame can give you greater cast reliability, easier brake adjustment, etc.

@F14A-B they also make shrink tube grip with different patterns https://www.amazon.com/stores/Accering/page/4EF858D8-F48B-4F40-AA58-BA2F71F8B1BA Here's fish-scale pattern on my 8' surf-lure rod

What @Eric 26 is talking about is X-shrink (X-wrap shrink tube, X-tube), and I'm a major fan. Can't imagine it hasn't come up yet, especially with other suggestions that I would run from. https://www.amazon.com/Greatfishing-Fishing-Bulding-Waterproof-Insulation/dp/B07H81DBHJ/ref=sr_1_4 X-shrink over EVA is the standard grip on high-quality offshore rods. Kingfish rods above, slow jigging rod and my 14' surf rod below I have 2 versions of a favorite JDM finesse rod (Abu Prototype) that the grip was too small for human hands - maybe just right for Japanese hands. The rear ridge was intended to split 3rd and 4th fingers, but split my 2nd-3rd fingers, and split them wide. On both rods, I reshaped the grip with cork tape and covered in X-shrink, and love the result. another happy 2-hand grip - I didn't like the EVA quality, and the butt needed some grip help for hand-off long casting. It has a lot of other uses - repairing a split foam grip on 15-y-o stake out pole I put indexed-position hand grips on my straight-shaft kayak paddle by rolling on closed-cell foam and covering in X-shrink. Also added bump-stops to keep my paddle leash in check. It's very easy to apply. Buy the diameter that's close, but easy to slip over your grip. Use a boiling tea kettle, and pour from the middle to each end. If you don't like the result, it's cheap to cut-off and start over.

Mick, you might want to review this thread. Tatula 70 SV TW is the right package in USM reels for fishing mono. If threadline braid is ever in your sights, you might like the JDM Alphas, giving you more, lighter spool options. Note, you can get the Alphas Air ready to go for the same price in RH. https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Alpha-7-1R-Baitcasting-Reel/dp/B09LQYMTB7/ref=sr_1_5

yeah, typo - I've been busy

The range shows it's a para-taper rod - in bass rod, that wouldn't be MH.

Especially in salt tackle, you see big variance in ratings vs. purpose My surf 8' surf ML is rated 1/4 to 1 oz - this would be MH in a bass rod. My near-offshore 7' rods are even wider, e.g. MH rated 1 to 4 oz.. Very similar for inshore rods, a couple rated ML that are closer closer to M or MH in bass rods. What you would expect in the OPs's example, two different makers are probably represented. It would be very unlikely for one maker the rate his two rods as marked. The lighter-line-rating + heavier lures is also probably a faster taper.

@LonnieP and @Maverick2017 probably have the answers you're looking for - 2nd best in USM. @FishTank nailed it for USM products, and R18 is essentially the same product packaged for JDM. The one JDM fluoro I've tried that stands above all isn't the answer you're looking for, but I've found Toray ExThread to combine both limpness and low-memory, which are normally competing properties in fluorocarbon. Toray states each diameter/test is formulated separately to achieve this.

The only rods that require indoor storage are cane, to avoid mildew and dry rot. Stored indoors, they last a long time (the rod below was made in 1914). Plastic rods will weather fine in outdoor storage. The resins begin to break down about 140 degrees, so storage in a car in hot summer can be a problem.

Here's your homework, and the photo that dropped out If you look at inertia, acceleration (force) and jerk at spool start, it takes force to start a spool spinning, and less force to keep it spinning - the extra energy after spool start needs to be removed by brake force to prevent start-up backlash. Jerk is closer to impact, and you can look at it as magnifying acceleration-force by 4 to 10 times. If you try to absorb both jerk and acceleration energy with a single "medium" spring, that spring is a trade-off between being able to remove all the jerk energy (especially casting heavy weights), and removing too much acceleration energy (doesn't let the spool spin up all the way) for maximum cast distance. You can look at the stiffer spring and softer spring of Boost as separate springs for jerk and acceleration. The stiffer spring only moves the inductor deeper with jerk and retracts quickly. The softer spring engages the inductor half-way and gets you through acceleration over-shoot with minimal energy subtracted from the spinning spool. Lenz brake force is proportional to inductor mass. I would look at MagZ with greater inductor mass as a stronger brake for more total spool + line mass and casting heavier weights, and SV as a slightly weaker brake for less total spool + line mass and casting somewhat lighter weights. note in this photo how the purple-anodize inductor is both thicker and deeper than orange-anodize inductor on SV spools.

Yes, this is exactly correct, MagForce/Z/SV are progressions of the very same brake system. SV is characterized by the lightest-mass inductor, essentially providing a lighter brake, offset by the return spring rate, and less total spool weight to give it better light-end performance. Boost provides two different spring rates for retracting the inductor, intended to get more cast distance in the back-half of the cast using a wider range of lure weights.

I guarantee you there's at least one rod configuration and niche where each MOC out-performs every other MOC. Easiest to demonstrate with fly rods, which may not exactly fit the topic. To be all the way on topic, the one generalization for glass to composite to graphite is they're lighter in hand for the same taper result as you move from all glass to all graphite. Where this falls apart is you can't duplicate all tapers in every MOC. It gets more complicated, that there are 2 different specific modulus values for glass fibers, and 9 different specific modulus values for graphite fibers. Traditional rods were made using linear fibers, a scrim wrap, and resin. Modern rods add helical wraps and nano-resins, so you can get "the same" taper result even lighter, by having both a lower resin and fiber content in the rod. I can think of more than one place where I'd rather have a glass rod - and it's definitely short rods for close fishing and skip casting There's another traditional style IM6 (graphite-II) scrim and resin rod I'm not able to replace with a newer lighter rod, because I can count the numbers of fish the older moderate taper takes over the newer lighter rod - Legend Glass fits in this same jerkbait niche. And yet another BFS niche where the best rod I own is weightless helical wrap and nano-resin. Normally, this is the construction you'd want on XH/XF rod just so you can pick it up and, especially, keep the tip weight down in longer rods.

@BassSteve My drags range from this .......... to this............................. ........only in surf, replace that C3 carbontex stack with blue alumina abrasive. The best HanedaCraft fiber drag will reach about 3 lbs - the blue alumina C3 stack easily gets 20. I never pull on line - that's for fish - except when I'm using a spring balance to set my drag - 1/4 weakest link - most often 1/4 of leader test, though sometimes, weakest link is 1/4 of rod max line rating - especially when I over-size leader for extra abrasion. My small BFS reels with Haneda Craft fiber drag are set to 2-1/2 lbs for 10-lb leader My surf Ambassadeurs are set to 5, 7 or 8 lbs, for lure fishing shorter surf rods, or meat-fishing a big 14' stake-out rod. Normal drag set for inshore fishing on my Daiwas is 3 lbs for 12- or 15-lb leader, and it's a lot more drag than any one would guess if they don't set accurate drag. From light end to heavy end, it will be the fish taking line, almost never a lot of drag pay, and you know when the reel is paying drag from the slight rod relaxation.

I've always said one good reel is better than 3 bad ones. https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-Gillion-1000H-Right-Handle/dp/B08NP3F5MV/ref=sr_1_2

@little giant is onto something here. I have two friends who can't load a rod for boo. While both swing their arm/rod back, they always stop and let the rod unload completely (even turn around and look at it), then snap their wrists hard for forward cast stroke. Their rod acceleration is only one half of a normal cast, and they make up for it with severe wrist jerk. This gets a working cast result with spinning tackle. If they tried this with linear-mag-brake baitcaster, they'd get bad start-up backlash. If they tried this with MagForce/Z/SV baitcaster, they'd only get half a cast, because the brake design is doing its job, subtracting all that jerk at start-up.

Last month, I was fishing my new SLPW Zillion side-by-side with my 4-year '21 Zillion SVTW. The new SLPW has brass main gear, the '21 SVTW has hard-anodized alloy. I noticed the SLPW Z, based on '22 Zillion TWHD with brass main gear, was smoother - not a big difference, but enough to notice setting one down and picking up the other. If you want to swap gears, you can order them from Plat.jp and pick a new set of HD brass gears - go through the models (-L, -H, -SH, etc.) to match your gear ratio. https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/optionparts/language/en/manufacturers/1/siries/80/page/2 If you're going to this effort, grabbing spare small parts like the palm-cap spool shims, bearing retainer springs, spool bearing sleeve, etc. should be a no-brainer.

The mass of the loaded spool may be the most important factor. I'm not really a Shimano guy, and I have specific targets/niches for my Daiwas, but a shallower/ lighter spool per @F14A-B on a Shimano may be the solution you're looking for.

Something's wrong with your mag number set-up if you're not getting effortless 100+' casting 3/8 oz. I have the advantage of a metered casting range in the back acre to works things out. Maybe check your rod rating to make sure the weight properly loads the rod. @softwateronly - first off, don't do that - always open zero adjust before you open the palm plate latch - before you fasten the latch, put the reel in freespool and make sure you have spool side play - and always re-set zero as the very last thing you do. If the spool spindle is too long for closing, you can damage the latch, you can deform/indent the palm plate spindle shims, which can affect pinion alignment on main gear, and you can buckle/bow the spool spindle.

I never cast my Zillion with stock Boost SV spool with less than 1/8 oz for a test-cast, but I was getting 90' with mag set at about 4 - stock spool w/ 12-lb fluoro. My real target was to fish this same lure on PE#1.2 braid, and I've fished it 4 years matched with Ray's Honeycomb SV spool, and it has never backlashed. Normal mag set here is 6-7 Daiwa over-builds their stock spools to make sure they will never be damaged by mono/fluoro stretch/ relaxation. Here's the Ray's spool next to Dawia PE special that comes on Silver Wolf. The PE Special spool will hold a working charge of 10-lb fluoro, holding more line than Daiwa rates, and I bet it would fill your weightless senko niche just fine. But casting weightless, you don't really need the moving-SV function, because start-up backlash isn't a concern (unless you snap your wrist). You can get 30+% more distance swapping to a fixed-rotor (braid only) BFS spool, such as Roro-X. Mag gets set even higher, and I run this about 10-12. The biggest part of this mag need, the spool only weighs 4 g, and the fixed inductor mass is also much lower than the SV inductor mass in the spools above. Another spool to consider for casting weightless and PE line is the new fixed-inductor BFS spool from Avail.

There are 2 plastic shims, p/n 17 and 18 in the palm cap, that shim the spool and the alignment of the pinion gear on the main gear. Not saying you did this, but if you operate the Zero Adjust as a casting brake, the spool spindle will indent these parts and move the pinion away from proper alignment on the main gear. From what you described, restoring proper shim spacing here, combined with proper Zero set, should solve the problem.

@Columbia Craw very nice rods - they're actually Shimano - Gary Loomis hasn't been involved in his company for 40 years.

This may help https://lurelore.com/freds/abu.html#section4 As far as I can tell, there are 2 choices for no serial or frame number - the frame may be a replacement part, or if the reel was delivered that way, it should mean you have one of the first 50,000 reels beginning with 1954 introduction - it should also say Record on the tailplate, and possibly, Model SG.

One thing nice about having a gang of reels from the same series - e.g., all '18 Stella series, or all '22 Stella series) - within the series and same frame size, the spools interchange, and you can keep one spare spool for every reel in that size. All of mine are '18, and spools are still available. This is my mid-frame Twin Power, with stock spool and PE#1.2 (0.18 mm, 24-lb), and with a finesse-braid shallow Vanquish spool (PE#0.6 - 0.13 mm, 12-lb) I bought just for this match. As far as differences between Stradic and Vanford - internally, they are identical - externally, Vanford has composite body and lighter, cut-out composite rotor. The body also has a shorter stem, moving the reel closer to the rod - a few folks have complained about their hand fit.

For'22 Stella and the following Shimano worm-drive models, the only change is a slight increase in spool pitch - slightly longer spools and spindles.

If you only knew what you could do with those... @MN Fisher you made my point - you can't do that with ^^this^^ one Not casting 3 g - not casting 20 g.