Bigbox99

You can put Zillion gears in the Alphas.

This is normal.

All my reels from all brands are like that. It's a normal part of the clutch activation.

This remains the best looking new Zillion I have seen. Not the reel itself but that build in particular although I am partial to the blue ZPI spool.

Haibo is an OEM. They design and manufacture reels and sell them to companies to rebrand such as Ardent and others. I high doubt some fishing rod company designed a fishing reel. They almost certainly ordered the Arise considering it has been out longer than any of the Ark reels have been on the market. Also the 4 position inductor seen on the Arise and Gravity reels predates both and was 1st sold on a Ray's Studio (Haibo) spool 1st seen in 2018.

I'd go Zillion. I don't like fluorocarbon lines in that diameter with centrifugal brake reels. You will almost certainly have to run some spool tension to slow the spool which defeates the purpose of getting a centrifugal reel in the 1st place. It also stiffens up the reel retrieve and puts unecessary wear on the brass shims under the palm plate spool bearing and handle side plate causing dimpling. Also the Zillion can skip. Kind of a big deal for a bottom contact rod to me.

There are different generations of black max. We are on gen 4. This is a gen 3 which I have. In mine I have a finesse spool that let's me cast UL baits

The Royal Legend II has a heavier spool. I have that reel in both graphite (plastic) and aluminum. My Aluminum frame one actually came with 3 spools. Of the 3 the shallow spool is the only one I would consider worthy of 1/4 oz baits and its still quite heavy. Heavy spools will negatively impact your ability to cast lighter weight baits. I'd recommend an MGL reel or the 24 Tatula 100. Also loosen your spool tension to just eliminate side to side play on your reels. I've owned or currently own the reels you are referencing and you don't need to use the spool smasher once you have figured out how to use a baitcast reel. I'll also add that if you want to turn on of your reels into a finesse caster, you can get shallow BFS spools for the gen 3 and 4 Black Max for cheap. I have also done this with my gen 3.

I match my line size to my rods and my rods and reels to my baits. For 1/4 total weight I would want a lighter powered M or a ML from brands that run a little stiffer like a Shimano ML. The 1/4 oz caster of my cheap reel collection is a Lews Hank Parker 610M and a Piscifun Carbon XCS spooled with 8 pound Big Game. The lighter powered medium rod and 10 gram spool really does a good job as a spinning reel replacent for a cheap combo.

These have been around for ages under different brands using the same mold. I picked up a pack of them branded as BPS baits on clearance recently and like them as a punching bait. I have problems keeping the hook point from poking through other punching baits and catching moss on the hook point. With these I just insert the hook into the cavity and problem solved.

Both. I use a 1/16 oz weedless head with stiffer slower falling worms like BPS Stick-Os to increase the fall rate and trigger the wiggling. They will actually wiggle harder than a Senko but you have to get the fall rate up. I also use weighted heads on skinny low weight worms like BPS Flickin Shimmy or floating worms for a weedless but slow wacky worm fall thats actually castable/skipable. Pretty much, if I'm not using a Senko then I use a 1/16 oz weighted head. Natural senko fall? I don't know why bass eat these things but I assume writhing action of the bait as it slowly falls to the bottom and remains motionless is part of the appeal. I would rather it not fall end 1st to the bottom like a dart. That's why I don't Texas rig them.

You can get the Fuego SV for under $100 too.

Good price https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805889777071.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.2e6f223aZ6J6Fu&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190e25fc4756dba5740835c520&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!71.10!34.06!!!515.60!247.00!%402101c5ac17217848435825101e7eb6!12000035617094415!sea!US!2504224830!&algo_pvid=17f05ff2-014a-4fdb-8253-1cc488e296be OK price (got mine for $48 also remember this is a huge 300 size reel) https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802026845041.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.77bf1ca75QeBWw&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190e2608aa023d9fdee021b408&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!59.82!59.82!!!59.82!59.82!%402101dedf17217848961385725e0492!12000021258262632!sea!US!2504224830!X&algo_pvid=cd585295-7d0e-4bc6-aae6-e0c53d13d8d7 OK price for a gen 1 Black Mamba (I've see $53) https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805931721217.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.d5cb6cechlSFqQ&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190e261a83b34b5159613bb601&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!120.66!60.33!!!874.98!437.49!%402103297517217849692502010ef22f!12000035834835859!sea!US!2504224830!&algo_pvid=1a21a5b3-a95d-47f3-9838-43cc7a657a57 Gen 2 Black Mamba (no 1st hand experience) https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806075050842.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.d5cb6cec7mSNSR&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190e261a83b34b5159613bb601&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!119.07!59.53!!!863.47!431.73!%402103297517217849692502010ef22f!12000036512099269!sea!US!2504224830!&algo_pvid=1a21a5b3-a95d-47f3-9838-43cc7a657a57 Bad price. I've seen them in the $40s. Last gen Lews LFS are going for $75. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802260271730.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.4c6f2153B6q5t5&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190e263c850b5262033d2dde03&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!137.24!69.99!!!137.24!69.99!%402103247917217851085353119e6d1b!12000020690756168!sea!US!2504224830!X&algo_pvid=b64497a5-a7a2-47e5-b320-15451dc50c86

For that price you want an aluminum frame. Histar Black Mamba Max gen 1 and 2, Piscifun Alloy M and Seasir Megacuda can all be had at times within that price range. I bought the Seasir Megacuda recently for $37 from Aliexpress. I haven't fished it yet but it seems nice for the price. Like a big Tatula 80. I also have the Piscifun Alloy M and Histar Black Mamba Max gen 1. Both are really good aluminum frame reels for under $60 when the price allows. The Black Mamba even has an aluminum handle side plate to go along with the frame. On the 300 reel size of things I like the Johoncoo Ares as a budget big bait reel. You're going to have to keep an eye out on Aliexpress to find these cheapies. Also, keep an eye out on name brand reels there too as they will be way cheaper than paying MSRP on Tackle Warehouse like Hank Hill.

If you think it's cool then get one. We don't do this for a living. It's a hobby and we do it to entertain ourselves. Get the cool thing.

Curados and other centrifugal reels still have their place IMO. I'm mostly Daiwa but an SVS centrifugal reel with braid and a lipless of other contact long casting bait just gets after it in the distance department.

Interesting. Can you elaborate? I don't even consider the two reels mentioned to be cross shopped since one is SVS centrifugal and the other an SV. They are about as far apart in braking profile and associated use case as possible. All of this could be understood without even handing each reel. What about the reels in hand made the difference for you?

The Zillion offers 2x the functionality for me. It can skip and I really struggled with that with the LFS I had and all my other non Daiwas. I fish a lot if docks and cover. If a real can't skip that basically makes it it a speciality reel to me and not an all arounder. For others this is a non issue. It really depends on the user and their use case.

I've seen reviews with pictures of the 150 SV spool in Tatula CTs and old 100s on Aliexpress under the listing for that spool. This would confirm fitment but I haven't heard any reports on performance. I imagine it's just a higher capacity 17 or 20 Tatula SV spool.

Aliexpress is another one to consider. They have prices as cheap as JDM reel but are USDM like the Tatula Elite, Tatula HD ect. Shipping time can be atrocious.

Assuming you have the last gen Tatula 100, the SV spools won't fit but you can get the Elite, Flip and Pitch as well as the Coastal 150 SV from The Tackle Trap or various spools from Aliexpress such as this Amo fixed inductor or SV brake Ray's spool in shallow and shallower.

These are based on the Haibo Arise and the Ark markup is very modest. You also don't have to wait a bazillion years for it to show up in the mail from Aliexpress and you have a US company to work with if you have any issues. This is OEM reels done right. Nothing wrong with a rebrand as long as the markup is fair and the reel pricing isn't being treated like a dogcoin with 3x plus multiples of price increase.

It's actually the gears they are referring to. The aluminum side plate is part of their armed housed concept or what we used to call normal back in the day.

Knobs, drag star material and spool tension cap are superficial. Especially the spool tension since that should be set and forget on both reels. They are nice touches and I do appreciate them on reels for niceness reasons. With Daiwas these parts being metal are usually reserved for higher end reels since it doesn't actually do anything other than add nice tactile feel at the cost of weight. As far as construction goes, the aluminum handle side plate and hyperdrive gears are the best "sturdy" features of the 24 Tatula. I wish the Curado or Scorpion 200 had these and I say this as someone looking to get the Curado 200M this fall. Not a fan of plastic handle side plates on reels I do a lot of cast and wind power fishing. But yeah, capacity wise the 32mm 24 Tatula 100 is on the smaller size and more comparable to an SLX or Curado 150.

Got to thumb the spool as the bait enters the water. You don't have to stop it outright but bring it to a slow rotation.