CaughtMeABiggun

Shimano guys are gonna Shimano, but I will not buy another Metanium and going Zillion going forward. I have a Metanium 100. I unboxed my Metanium at the same time I unboxed a NOS Curado D. I couldn't tell a difference except one was smaller and the design of the side cover on the Metanium is tragic. How come I don't have to worry about my SLX XT side plate coming off but Metanium side plate can take flight? Even the old Curado D kept the side plate attached when adjusting the brakes....

@Columbia Craw I feel it. Believe me.. I'm waiting for one of the Tacticalbassin guys to come after me.. I think that If it is a Shimano Malaysia or a Daiwa Thailand reel they can all go in the same bin. They are not bad, but they all feel similar within their own brand and its really just a matter of how much chrome do you want. And then I pick up my Curado D and say "those were the days.." I have decided to order JDM reels going forward because some of the JDM variants are made in Japan while the USDM ones are not. Example - Daiwa Zillion.

I use everything. I would not go as far as to say that any reel manufacturer does not have the potential to make a crap reel. I'm not sold on Daiwa and Shimano reels that are not made in Japan. Unfortunately there are very few made there now. Only the highest end reels. My Metanium feels just like my Curado D. Both made in Japan. My Curado MGL feels like a Revo or Lews. They are not made in Japan. That's why I use everything because the real difference to me between all the reels are Made in Japan and not Made in Japan. You can rate China, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea in any order that you think but each one of those countries can give you a gem or a rock off the same assembly line.

Am I the only one that thinks the SLX line is Shimano's best reel? I have Shimano reels that are more expensive but I just don't see the performance gains as you go up in price. I will say that Daiwa reels do get better with price. I just don't see that with Shimano. Maybe its a testament that Shimano will not put out crap in any of their price points. It's not a bad thing. I also wouldn't say that the SLX competes with a Steez, but it's a lot closer to a Metanium than it has any right to be. Especially the SLX XT.

@J Francho Yes Daiwa had magnetic external brakes (MagForce). I don't believe they were making externally adjustable centrifugal brakes. But I could be wrong. @Bankbeater Do you remember the if the Gray one was sold with the green ones? What problems did you have with yours? I have no plan on using this reel. Its just for nostalgia.

@Eric 26 I believe it was 1999. I was able to find out that Ryobi released this reel as their Ixorne in 1998 and rebadged it for BPS. I have heard from someone else that they remember a green one of these reels too. If the listing is correct and this is a Johnny Morris edition, this would have to be the very first Johnny Morris reel and would have been higher spec'd than the green one. I would love to find a green one. I am also wondering if the green one was based off a different model and this reel was a version that I didn't even know existed. I do remember that the green one had a hood that opened up like this one. The whole front opens up like a Corvette hood. @Bigbox99 I will take it apart and look at it when I receive the reel. The Ryobi Flying Arm Brake was the first externally adjustable centrifugal braking system. It was introduced on this Ixorne/BPS model. It was a early iteration of what Shimano would develop as their SVS braking system.

Starting a new thread here to update an older thread about a reel that I have spent 20 plus years searching for. I think this was the first Extreme XPS baitcaster that Bass Pro Shops released. It did not last long, was expensive, and I don't think they sold many at all. After years of searching I found one on eBay tonight and immediately purchased it. I don't think it has ever been used. The listing said Johnny Morris reel, but there is nothing Johnny Morris on the reel. Only has Extreme logos. The reel is also gray and not green. I remembered it being green, but I was a kid and it's been 25 years since I saw it in that catalog so it could have been gray. All that aside it is the reel. Now having some pictures from the listing, I was able to piece together why it was so expensive and possibly so rare. The reel was a rebadged Ryobi Ixorne. I am not certain but I think this could be the only reel that was ever produced by Ryobi for BPS. It was made in Japan and featured Ryobi's new Flying Arm Braking system. This was the first externally adjustably centrifugal braking system. From what I understand Shimano's SVS is a evolution of this idea/design.

I just wanted to provide an update on this. After looking for one of these reels for 25 years I stumbled upon one on eBay that appears to have never been used. Strangely enough it appears to be a possible Johnny Morris edition of this Extreme reel. It still has the Extreme logos, but is gray instead of green. But its the reel and if it is a higher end model that I didn't know existed that's even better. The one thing that I never remember seeing in the catalog was the brakes. It has something called a flying arm brake. It has a dial like a magnetic brake, but I don't believe it is magnetic. The reel was made in Japan. If anyone could shed some more light on this braking system I would love to know more.

I know this is kind of old news, but I just found out about all of this in the last week. I sure hope I'm not right about this, but I can't help but wonder if GSM purchased Dobyn's so that their portfolio would look better to the entity that has now purchased GSM. It's almost like GSM was on the market too when they purchased Dobyn's. Everything that Gary was sold as to why GSM was the right company to sell to probably means nothing now.

I took the handle and side plate off and started watching what the reel was doing. When I saw that the lever arm connected to the thumb bar would sometimes hang on the top of the tooth of the ratchet plate, I knew that it needed to wear in to allow the arm not to catch there. That arm moves forward and down to advance the ratchet plate to the next tooth and seat in the notch after it. When it has advance the ratchet plate you will see the reel handle slightly turn when pressing the thumb bar down. Sometimes it is aligned correctly and you won't see the handle move. After observing this, I then disassembled the drivetrain and put it back together making sure that the lever arm was in a place that meshed good with the ratchet plate. Once I got it back together I noticed it seemed to be a litttle better and I started pushing the thumb bar and clicking the handle over and over. It continued to get better. I took it out fishing today. It worked great and even caught a decent largemouth with it.

After my inspection and re assembly I was able to get the reel working properly. There is zero play now. It looks like it just needed to wear in. Definitely some poor QC. Seems to be a Tatula thing. They are dry, noisy, or clunky. I'm not a hater but there are better options depending on your needs. The one thing they do well is throw lighter baits. That is why I have two. The handle should not turn 30 to 40 degrees before it starts to engage. Maybe a 1980s reel but not any quality reel made in the last 25 years. After you press the thumb bar and make a cast the reel's internals should be in a position to click and engage the drivetrain. They are designed to do so. You should not have to make the reel "find home" on the ratchet plate before it will start the engagement. Yes the handle does turn during the engagement, but shouldn't be noticeable reel turn before you feel the pressure and click of the engagement. Obviously the handle turns through the engagement. I recommend taking the side plate off of these reels and watch them work. It is very clear on the Tatula what the intended design is and how it is engineered to work. I just purchased 4 new Curado MGL reels. They all have zero play. In case I have not communicated this clearly about the "play" I am talking about. This is not the movement of the handle when engaging the reel. This is before that. Between pressing the thumb bar and the engagement of the reel. Having to move the handle to get it to a point where I can turn the handle to engage the reel.

I have over 60 baitcast reels from MGL Curados to Piscifun to anything else. This is the first modern reel I have ever had this issue with. I do my own reel maintenance. I decided to take the reel apart again. (1st time was to put a little reel grease on those bone dry Tatula gears) I was able to watch the thumb bar and t wing actuation and saw what is happening. I think that the teeth on the main shaft ratchet plate are a hair too sharp. By design the arm that is attached to the thumb bar should slide into place between the ratchet plate teeth each time the thumb is pressed. If you notice on a Tatula the handle will rotate forward when you press the thumb bar sometimes. This is the arm sliding into place. If it is working properly, the arm will drop into place and will pop properly off of the next tooth to engage the reel handle and reset the thumb bar. If a couple of the teeth on the ratchet plate are a bit too pointy or the angle of the notch isn't quite right it will prevent the arm from sliding into the notch between the teeth on the ratchet place. The arm will hang on the top of the tooth and that is where the issue is. My other Tatula is spot on every time. I think this reel will wear in because the the more I do it the better it is getting. I have old Shimano Black Magnums that have slop that needs to be taken out first before the handle engages. Modern reels are not supposed to do that anymore. If you have a modern reel built by a reputable brand this is not normal. I have a second gen Castaic that doesn't do it because instigage can't work if there is play in the mechanism. That reel is going on 20 plus years old. The old Curado B reels from the 90s do not do this. I would say that there "shouldn't" be a Shimano or Daiwa that came off the assembly line in the last 20 years that should act like this becuase with good QC these reels have had that engineered out of them. The engineering is the reason we aren't all still using Black Magnums or BW2 Procasters. I am going to chalk it up to the spotty QC of the Tatula 100s.

I guess I'm having a hard time explaining what it is doing. When I press the thumb bar and then click the handle the reel randomly has 1/4 inch of play like it's not connected to anything and then it will click to engage. Every other baitcasting reel I have ever owned the handle immediately clicks and engages when turning the handle. There is no slack to take up in the handle before the reel clicks to engage.

The reel engages after pressing the thumb bar, but randomly it acts like the old anti reverse reels did before infinite anti reverse, except the handle isn't moving backwards. The handle has to rotate about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch forward and then will engage. It's like it has to pick up the slack. My other tatula doesn't act like this at all.

I just got my second Tatula 100. The first one is great but as soon as I pulled this one out of the box I noticed that every few handle engagements after depressing the thumb bar the and turning the handle to engage the reel, the handle turns a bit before the engagement happens. It's almost like there is a random slip in engagement. Has anyone seen this on their T-Wing Daiwas?