Bigbox99

Lews Hank Parker 610M for the lower end of your price range.

It's happened before with the Daiwa Flip and Pitch Tatula being a recent example. It's just not that common with bass reels. You will see specially "bay jigging" or "jigging" reels and hard rock fish variants like the Daiwa HRF and Shimano Engetsu reels.

Not a fan but I used to be. You can get aluminum frame reels for what Abu wants for a black max. When I didn't know any better I thought of them as a good value reel but once I discovered Aliexpress it was game over for $60 plastic reels. I've bought multiple aluminum frame and some even aluminum frame and handle side plate reels for less than $60. My most recent purchase was $37 for an aluminum frame 200 size reel to compare to my Johncoo Ares throwing 1 to 3 oz big baits.

It it passes the smell test its legit. Too much effort in tooling to make knock offs. You'll get plastic reels that sort of look like a Bantam but are called Hunthouse or something. Other times you'll get a normal horrid looking chinease reel and they'll put Shimano on the box or reel because they include Shimano branded fishing gasses as a gift. It's really low effort stuff that you can sniff out from a mile away. It takes a lot of effort to make a knock off and that's not profitable vs just copying a logo or making a rip off logo and playing off ignorance.

Aliexpress and Google.

Of this line the 74H is the standout rod. I use it as a 1 to 3 oz big bait rod. For 610M or a 7MH I prefer the Hank Parker IM8 Speed Sticks. They lighter and better balanced than the IM6 SG1s.

At one point the tackle trap sold them for $45.

How would you like to have hyperdrive gears for your Tatula 150? There is the very real possibility that the hyperdrive gears in the 24 Tatula 150 SV will be backwards compatible with older Tatulas since that reel is based on the Tatula CT which shares gears with the Tatula 150 and 200.

No. It's not a dynamic brake. It a dumb spool smasher if used as a brake. Whatever tension it places on the spool shaft that you give it, then it will hold it. If you are new to baitcast reel then tighten it so that the bait falls to the floor and the spool does not overrun one the bait stops. Leave it that way and use the magnetic dial on the other side of the reel to turn up or down your actual brakes. I would start at maximum setting and work your way down. You will have to track the bait with your eyes on the cast as the bait sails through the air and towards the water. As it nears the water you will apply pressure to the spool to slow and stop the spool once the bait hits the water. Over time you can loosen the spool tension knob to where it should be once you have learned how to cast which should be only enough tension on the spool to eliminate side to side play.

The CT is a narrow frame version of the original Tatula and Tatula HD 150 with a plastic handle side plate from 2016. It used to have paddle knobs like the Tatula 150 but they updated the reel in 2020 with new paint and the new thin knobs. Even though it's a Compat Tough CT reel it's larger than all other modern Tatulas except for the 150 and 200 which are 2013 reels. The Tatula SV TW are old generation 17 Tatula SV and 20 Tatula SV that they sell along side the new 24 Tatula SV. I don't know why they do this. If you want one get the newest 24 Tatula SV Boost. The 100 is just a standard current gen Tatula. The 24 gen was recently released and it's a nice reel for the money. Hyper drive gears and an aluminum handle side plate have trickled down from the Daiwa higher end reels and it makes for an incredibly smooth and solid feeling reel. All can be had for much cheaper than what TW wants for them.

24 Tatula, Fuego SV or just go the budget route and get the FLS for $75.

Top choice would be 24 Tatulas for a little over $100 but they come from Aliexpress and that's a 4 week wait and they will be over budget with tax. That hyper drive and aluminum frame and side plate make for freakishly smooth and solid feeling reels. A bit over budget though. In that case get the Lews LFS for $75 each.

"Let's take a $30 plastic aliexpress reel and sell it for $124.99." Why do we allow them to do this?

Its a 34mm spool reel. Should be SLX 150/Lews LFS/18 Tatula 100 sized. It should be similar to 32mm spool reels like the Curado 150MGL and 24 Tatula 100 but a smidge taller. This is my preferred size for all around use.

If its not the reel above then its unknow to me but from that era of these long low profile reels with flip up hoods. Daiwa, Abu and house brands had them (note the bass master reel). Last pic here is of an old low pro megacast BPS reel. It looks to be from that era with flip up hoods. Maybe your reel was the Extreme of that platform?

I know what reel you are talking about. It was when they were still using Silstar for an OEM before switching to Doyo. I've only seen pictures of a Bionic reel but I'm sure they had Pro Qualifiers and Extremes too. This is this the only pic I can find of one now. The flip up hood was a somewhat common feature on earlier low profile reels to allow better access for threading line or picking out backlashes.

I wanted to put together the cheapest around $100 rod and reel combos for jigs, worm, punch and frog and another for heavier moving baits like chatterbaits, ploppers, buzzbaits and 6 inch magdrafts ect. I wanted to get as much quality as I could while still only paying cheap pre-built combo reel/rod prices. Those God awful plastic reels on wimpy but heavy cheap rods are a plague in the big box stores. Everyone makes a combo and they are pretty awful compared to what someone with some know how can put together so I wanted to try my hand at it to get some familiarity with the gear to recommend it to newer angers looking at these cheap $80 to $129 combos that I personally find to be rip offs. 2 years later and now I can give my impressions on these two. I don't use them every outing but I rotated them into my normally higher end stuff as a direct replacement for one of the higher end combos and fish it. The jig, worm, frog and punching combo: Rod: This is silver Lews Hank Parker rod with a Piscifun Alloy M. Both can be found for around $53 at times. My rod is the older silver color but the current rods are the same blank. The rod has very stiff and slow loading tip for a MH that gives it a tremendous amount of hook setting power for a MH and fishes like a 7' H flipping stick. I've punched 1 oz tungsten with it with no issues and it is absolutely capable of 1/2 jigs. It's a very light and well balanced rod too. It feels and balances out better in hand than my last gen Tatula Elite 73MH. Its not as versatile or sensitive as the Tatula Elite but it balances out great and feels really good pitching jigs to cover and sticking fish. The low end rating of 1/4 oz is nonsense since it can't even cast a 3/8 oz 5" senko well. It's a stiff rod. If you want to get into jig fishing and want a cheap rod to try it out I recommend this one. Reel: This is the Piscifun Alloy M. It's an aluminum frame compact 32mm spool reel with a lighter weight spool and a long 100+ handle on it. I run no spool tension on my reels and this one is a little fast but still an adequate caster with braid. I didn't like the way it handled unconditioned fluorocarbon line with no spool tension but it's good with braid. I have no problem pitching to cover and then turning around and making a longer cast. It's best attributes are it's compact, good paming shape, long handle and light weight. Heavier bait moving bait combo: Rod: This is the 7 foot MH Lightning Rod. It's an interesting rod. It's pretty powerful and rated only down to 1/2 oz which I believe is accurate. I use it for 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz chatterbaits, buzzbaits, plopper 110, buzzplugs and cullshads with 1/4 oz of nail weights added. This makes it a 1/2 oz to 1 and 1/4 oz bait rod and it's been pretty good. Like the Lews MH it's also a stiffer MH that really isn't an "all around" but compared to the Lews it's softer and able to do treble hook and single hook moving bait work. It think it's a lower modulus or cheaper graphite rod than the Lews but it's pretty forgiving for a powerful graphite rod probably thanks to that cheaper graphite so I'm not complaining. It's not as well balanced or light weight as the Lews but it's a tip down and wind rod so I don't care. I've been using 15# Big Game for line. Reel: this is the last gen 34mm spool Histar Black Mamba. There is a newer one out with a 32mm spool and longer handle that also has an aluminum frame and handle side plate with a double supported pinion. The old reel is still sold along side the new reel with both sometimes being as low as $50. It's a solid reeling aluminum frame reel with an aluminum handle side plate. You can wind in high resistance baits and it doesn't have loss of winding power under load like you get with the cheap plastic frame reels. It's a very solid feeling and nice casting reel. The conical level wind is quite far out in front of the reel giving it a Tatula or Fuego CT like palming shape. The smoothness is average to below average. It was nice out of the box but after 2 years mine has a gritty feeling that I am sure is one of the pinion bearings. Not a big deal if you know how to size bearings, service reels ect. These run as low as $50 on Aliexpress but the Tatula 150 is as low as $100 there as is the 24 Tatula. Both of those are also aluminum frame reels with aluminum handle side plates to put things into perspective. In conclusion both rods are great. If you want a cheap jig and flipping stick then get the Lews HP if you don't mind a 7 foot rod. Forget that it says MH on it. The Alloy M is a decent reel to pair to it for under $60 too. The 7 foot MH Lightning Rod is a good cheap rod for chatterbaits, buzzbaits ect and can even fish 6 inch magdrafts. Maybe it is because I am a reel snob when it comes to moving baits and winding under load but would encourage up moving to a Fuego CT or Tatula. The Histar Black Mamba is functional but not nice enough for me. That's just me because I know people that fish spinnerbaits on plastic Royal Legends with spool tension that would make me vomit after one crank so your mileage may vary.

I picked up a 2nd Cull Shad in a different color after being impressed with my 1st one. I usually use two 1/8 oz tungsten nail weights with the bait but only had one and a lead 1/8 oz nail weight. No biggie, right? Wrong. The bait ran all screwed up and wanted to turn on its side when retrieving. I have heard of this issue but I hadn't encountered it until now. I went to a single tungsten weight and all was well. I think because the lead weight is so much longer and is inserted far deeper into the body that it upsets the center of mass. The tungsten weights are far shorter and when inserted to only be flush with the body the weight is much more centered around the belly of the bait. My long lead weight was in the front hole and the short tungsten was in the middle or last hole. Just a cool observation that may help someone else with this issue.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801679093787.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.785d79bf6sO87s&browser_id=774bb3b91d6e47af860e5c451c635dc5&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=avhgxkahscaakixk190842ca4d3199f2c6c839b1e5&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!11.00!3.00!!!11.00!3.00!%4021032e4e17202044366758095ec642!12000021979873913!sea!US!0!AB&algo_pvid=f2fa11e2-2664-4a34-b210-9276477b332e&search_p4p_id=202407051133569009066076961400004741880_3 You want the 95mm length for 8X5mm Daiwa/industry standard shaft

That rod has a softer tip that makes it more versatile. Sweep the rod and lean into your hooksets. If the Abu rod was an old Veritas then those were broom handles with stiff slow loading tips.

It's a Tatula BFS that appears to be unique to the US market. For what TW wants for it you can get an Alphas Air. You could also spend less than $100 for the Tatula 80 and then get a Ray's BFS spool or KKR spool for cheap or you could step up to something like the SS Air.

It feels like the knobs on the Zillion HD and Tatula Flip and Pitch. Weight wise I'd say it's a bit lighter than the stock handle and knobs on a Tatula.

Does the new rod have a softer and faster tip? Is an XF rod?

It's also that cheap on Aliexpress priced in USD.

I like these $11 Artsea 95mm handles. They have knobs like the Zillion HD.