Bigbox99

They are selling items that are listed for sale in Japan and acting as proxy buyers so they will use the photo of the item on the Japanese site on their ebay listings (I use the site and see the pictures on there) . The ebay sellers do not own the items and if you win the bid they will buy the item and then ship it to you at insane markup. It's a horrible practice since you can buy from the Japanese market yourself or in the case of items that the market won't ship overseas you can use proxy buying services that are all far, far more reasonable. No I will not elaborate on what this used gear Japanese site is or what the proxy buyers are. You all will ruin it. This is something you have to learn from lurking the enthusiast tackle forums for years. There are tiers to tackle buying like an iceberg tier list. Casual surface dwellers are the top of the iceberg buy on eBay or pay retail on Tacklewarehouse. At the bottom schizos use [redacted]'s snipe service to buy reels and rods on tackle[redacted].

I like the 1st get Tatula Type Rs which is still around today as the pre 2025 Tatula 150. I've had this one in service since 2016 when I bought it on clearance. I have added a Ray's Studio SV type spool to it and have spent the past 9 years sending weightless plastic baits under docks and bomb casting with 12# fluoro on a 1st gen Zodias 72M as well as jerkbait and crankbait duties in between. Also changed out the handle shaft to a recessed one from a Zillion TW to use the bolt type nut instead of the normal type as pictured above. It's a subtle thing but part of the treatment high end Daiwas of this era got so I chose to apply it here when the parts fell into my lap. Notice how the handle nut appears to be almost flush with the handle? That is because it is actually a bolt that threads into the handle shaft instead of the usual nut

The only rip off is paying US retail at Tackle Warehouse. Aliexpress prices are fair market value.

Instead of the cranking stick take a look at the carbonlite glidebait.

I used to buy a lot of used reels that were better than new condition in that they would be flawless and have upgrade parts that made then better than new. I'm still in the market for some rarities like an Alphas KTF or Pixy with 2010s BFS parts on it fully upgraded. Not the Ray's Stuido slop I usually put on my reels but real time capsules from that golden era of BFS that will be lost to time. Stuff like ZPI parts, KTF and Cosugi spools. I'm mostly buying new now. I was building a collection of Megabass Daiwas and other desirable older Daiwas and Shimanos (well just the one for now) at a time that new Daiwas and Shimanos were kind off the rails and considered worse than the older offerings. Now they we have reels like the current gen Zillions, Bantams, Met B, 24 Tatula 100, 80, 70 and the current crop of Curados I am starting to take a liking to the new offerings and adding them.

You can also repurpose the Daiwa plastic knob bushing as a spacer if needed. If it's too tall a bit of back and forth on some sand paper can fix that. I've done that before.

Why would you do such a thing? You can sell the entire handle for $50. It's in high demand because it's so well liked and the thin Daiwa knobs are widely hated that anytime you post one for sale it gets snatched up.

At one point in time all the Tatulas had the same knobs as the Fuego CT. They were referred to as "Tatula knobs" because they were ubiquitous to those reels. Here is an early Tatula CT from 2016 with those knobs. In 2020 Daiwa started putting the new style thin knobs on all their new and refreshed reels. They changed up the paint on the Tatula CT in 2020 and it got the new knobs everyone hates. The new 25 HD reels also lose the paddle knobs. If they ever update the Fuego CT it'll lose them too.

That's the handle I'm referencing. Also, what was required to put those Met B knobs on that Tatula? What Bulldog said spooked me a bit. I'm only aware of a small difference in knob shaft length under 1mm that is easy to shim out. Not a 2mm difference.

Correct but he is talking about the 150 SV which is the Tatula CT platform with the deep SV spool from the Coastal 150 SV. They also added hyper gears to it as well. Kind of a Daiwa parts mash up reel but it seems well received and should be exactly what the OP wants. Here is sort of a initials impressions for anglers that have the reel. That fish was caught by one of them using the reel as a swimbait reel. Apparently the BPS Carbon Lite swimbait rod is legit good value too. http://www.tackletour.net/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=88959&start=195

They're all legit. There is no such thing as counterfeit reels on these sites. The amount of time and tooling it takes to make something passable for a reel doesn't lend itself well to making scams. You'll get reels that will copy the shape of a high end reel but made from plastic because you can make injection molds and crap out plastic reels for nothing. They are always honestly branded with some made up name and brand and stated as being made from "carbon fiber" (plastic) or what we call "graphite" (also plastic). You're more likely to encounter someone in real life from Facebook Market place or somewhere similar dishonestly selling a cheap copycat China reel as a brand name than you are from any seller on Aliexpress. They would buy a plastic Metanium B shaped Hunthouse reel for $25 then put it in a Metanium box and sell it to you 2nd hand as a used Metanium or scam Shimano with a return.

Knob shaft diameters are the same between the two but there can be a + or - .5mm difference in length that will have to be shimmed out. It the shaft is longer than the knob then add shims on top. If it is shorter than the knob then remove some shims from the bottom of the knob to get it to settle down deeper on the shaft. It's not a guarantee but most of times you can put Daiwa knobs on a Shimano or vice versa.

You're going to get spoon fed on this so we have a known solution once and for all for the thin USDM and JDM Daiwa knob complaints. You can see in the pic of aTatula 100 USDM knobs compared to Shimano Curado knobs (on a JDM Zillion) that the Shimano knobs are much larger. Daiwa and Shimano use the same knob shaft size meaning that knobs are compatible between the two. Actually the opposite of this swap was popular for years when guys would put the colored or clear cork Daiwa SLP knobs on their Shimano reels. The new style knobs on all 2020+ Daiwas look very Shimano like in their shape and end caps but are very thin in both the USDM and JDM versions. The solution is to do the opposite of placing Daiwa knobs on a Shimano and put Shimano knobs on a Daiwa. For black end caps you want a Curado K knobs and for a metallic finish end caps you want a Bantam or USDM Met B (mets have bantam knobs for US). All also add that if you want to be super cheap about it and like the Zillion HD style long EVA knobs then this Aliexpress handle is a good $11 option from Artsea.

They're chinease sites that sell individual items the sellers purchase in bulk from Alibaba as well as other vendors (such as Daiwa China). Amazon also sells the same stuff minus the China market Daiwa reels. Temu is the same as Aliexpress except they ran a massive ad campaign in the west to the point that practically everyone has heard of them. Aliexpress is the OG china site and there is some real good stuff on there such as: The same reels sold in the USDM as the CDM but for way cheaper (Curados, Tatulas ect). I'm talking buying JDM like levels of discounts but for reels with 90mm handles and Curados instead of Scorpions. China exclusive reels like the Fuego SV ($100), Slamnduras, Tatula CS ect. Aftermarket tuning and color parts such as spools (ray's studio, KKR and AMO) drag stars, handles, gear sets, drag clicker kits and the list goes on and on. Even niche stuff like the AMO parts for the Ambassadeur reels. Also the "SDS Customs" on eBay is just Ray's Studio Aliexpress parts sold at markup. Cheap chinese market reels that are way better than what is available to US anglers from Amazon or Walmart. Instead of the $50 plastic peice of garbage Black Max everyone recommends for beginners you can find reels like the Seasir Megacuda for $30 with an aluminum frame, dual supported pinion, cone level wind and a power handle. In other cases the exact same reels sold by "reputable brands" on TW for $100+ will be found in its native form in its native market of Aliexpress for $20. Yes, there are numerous brands right now selling cheap Aliexpress reels as their own at INSANE mark up.

I was wondering this too. My guess is that the SLX 70 is not on the chinease market so sellers on AE are importing then from vendors outside china. You see this with the Fuego CT on AE when you can sometimes find a seller with reels going for what the china market Fuego SV CS goes for because they are importing them from the US and paying Daiwa US prices.

If you have good balance you should be able to. I have one of the most stable and easy to stand up in kayaks there is and I can't even get out of the seat to stand without falling over. It's a me problem. I don't like sanding up on things that want to move out from under me. Skateboards, ladders, kayaks ect.

Thats Daiwa US. Don't believe anything they say. They aren't real Daiwa. They get whatever Daiwa Japan says they can have and they make up their own sales jargon without any real understanding of what was done and why. Their hot take on Zaion being totally not plastic with carbon in it and actually carbon fiber is in direct opposition to what real Daiwa has been saying for over 10 years. This is not to mention the time they got the description of Magforce Z completely backwards or when they stated that the 20 Tatula CT had Magforce (it has Magforce Z). The changes where almost certainly made to save costs and/or move the Air Bail into an exclusive of their high end platforms. Daiwa Japan mentions Air Bail as part of their Air Drive Concept so its probably the latter. This may sound egregious but they have done things like this in the past. We are only now getting back to aluminum frame, handle side plate and set plate with the Armed Housing Concept. Something that you used to just get on bog standard Daiwas 20 years ago. It's not just Daiwa. A lot of this has been going on over the years with the removal of features sold to you as a new and improved.

I'd be inclined to belive that the missing paint is from the bladed jigs he was using and not from the line. Some of these bladed jigs like the Fogy use a split ring to attach the blade and when paired with a long trailer can cause the blade to twist upside-down and wedge itself against the head of the bait and scrape off some paint. It will do it in either direction. So you will see two spots with missing paint. The bait will also veer left or right in a classic hunting action when this happens and then resume wobbling and tracking straight. This also triggers fish and absolutely clean house with one of these baits. I fish these baits a lot this way and slow and speed up my retrieve to encourage the hunting. Later in the year I switch to L bill cranks to get the same hunting action from deflection off of weeds.

Early April for me is when my 1st fish of the year comes. I've tried March after ice out but the fish are stuck in their winter pattern without electronics. I'll be throwing lipless crankbaits and flat side crankbaits back in the shallow flats on a sunny day on some of my smaller bodies of water from a kayak. For my bigger shad based system I'm going to crawl a yellow perch 68 special rof 12, long pause jerkbaits and bottom bounce lipless on points at the mouth of bays with spawning grounds trying to catch fish positioning on the point to move up later. I'll burn a flatside like a OG 7 on the shallower portions of the point just to see if I can get a reaction out of a sun bathing fish. I'll try an umbrella rig for the 1st time in my life this season too deeper on the points.

Max drag as tested by TT was 11.5 for the Alphas SV105. Thats the same platform as all the other non TWS Alphas and Pixy meaning they should all reach that same max drag with the appropriate parts. The TWS Alphas is rated for 10 lbs so I would imagine all reels on that platform should be able to reach that drag pressure with an Alphas 800 drag stack. Gears are alsp swappable between the Zillion 1000 and Alphas 800 so would wager you could potentially swap the drag stack and main gear of a Zillon 1000 into any Alphas TWS platform for up to 13 lbs of drag if someone was really compelled to do so.

The air stream custom is a pixy/alphas and the silver creek is a tw alphas and both platforms have the ability to increase drag. Both are special UL stream fishing variants of their base platform. I don't know which one you have but drag can definitely be increased to normal non UL bass fishing levels.

It's also possible that the spring washers have deformed over time and you have lost the ability to apply high drag pressures. I have a Steez LTD that did this from not using it for a few years with the drag set to a medium setting. I now have to max the drag to get an acceptable light drag for jerkbaits. It just needs new spring washers. Here is a fun fact: you can remove the spring washers and replace them with a stack flat washers (or one thick one) and your drag will be on or off with on being max drag pressure on lockdown. The advantage here is that most issues that stem from drags on baitcast reels that get weaker over time is from the deformation of the spring washers. Most people don't back the drag off after every trip and experience a loss of max drag pressure over time. If you lock down your drag you would benefit from replacing the washers with flat washers. Some reels have even been made from the factory like this such as the Deps DR-100ZX Zillion and recently some sort of Kastking thing but you can do this with any reel. https://jdmfishing.com/vault/deps-dr-100zx-limited-edition/

I recommend the Megacuda for $30 ish dollars as a pairing. It's magnetic but very free casting like centrifugal. Spool it with braid and then go try out beast hooks paddle tails and swimbaits up to and over 2 oz. I've thrown 2 oz baits and it handed them so well I will be testing it as an ultra budget Hudd rod for the 68 special rof 12.

Report back on that Amo please. I have been eying that one for a while. It also fits Fuego CT, Tatula CT and 19 Tatula 100.

Breaking the rod casting a bait too heavy isn't really a concern. The issue is that the casting distance and accuracy is so poor when you really exceed the top end of the rod by a lot that you are probably better off throwing it by hand. Rod breakages come from tip breaks from high sticking or shattering the blank hoisting a fish into the boat with the rod.