Brakes or Magnets?

[Log Catcher]

19 hours ago, Boomstick said:

If you get the chance to try one, it's worth it. They're quite effective.

I guess I have been old school for too long. My first baitcasters were the old red Ambassadeur 5000 reels. All you had were two arms with small pieces of cork for brakes and the spool tension knob. I just never changed other than adjusting centrifugal brakes as need for the conditions with the newer reels.

[bulldog1935]

Tournament casters using Abu CT replace their centrifugal with one of these

Of course most use a full-flange spool with nobby mag brake and adjust it in flight.  They start high, ease it back after release, and turn it off completely on the fall - this is basically what Daiwa Magforce and SV Boost does for you on its own.  

For fishing braid in the surf, I set up my CT's with shallow Avail spools and matching internal mag brake - nothing is more fun to cast. Next closest is a BFS reel.  

  

I'm about to do the same to a 1500C

[Boomstick]

3 hours ago, Log Catcher said:

I guess I have been old school for too long. My first baitcasters were the old red Ambassadeur 5000 reels. All you had were two arms with small pieces of cork for brakes and the spool tension knob. I just never changed other than adjusting centrifugal brakes as need for the conditions with the newer reels.

No harm in that. My oldest son has been using Shimano reels for a while, they're decent. We also have a couple of Pfluegers with centrifugal brakes between myself and the kids (I have a dual braked Patriarch).

 

I got my oldest son a SLX MGL 70 for his birthday for use with unweighted soft plastics and I really like that reel for light baits. So centrifugal brakes work too.

 

I do absolutely love the Daiwa SVs for pitching, skipping and target casting though. I have a Steez SV reel and that thing is absolutely amazing, but the new Tatula SV is pretty light and compact and still a great reel too.

[QED]

In my experience, centrifugal brakes require more frequent maintenance than magnetic brakes, so there's that...

[T-Billy]

I prefer magnetic. I get more distance with my mag reels and they're quick and easy to adjust. 

[bulldog1935]

I just finished tinkering up that 1500C.  

It's on a 5-1/2' UL rod for stream fishing (hill country limestone creeks), and shooting for 3-5-g lures.  

The reel was raced-out by Don Iovino, who removed 1/3 oz from the LW using Avail parts, and delivered with the stock spool.  The stock spool is heavy, and the capacity is also too great for fishing 0.20 mm line, either 5-lb Maxima Ultragreen mono or 10-lb Sufix 832 braid - over 200 yds.  

 

The mass of the stock spool needed centrifugal brake.  @Log Catcher

Casting my target 3 g, right off, the spool mass was goosey, with start-up backclash even on my lightest lure.  Adding 2 centrifugal shoes, I was able to cast to 50' reliably, which is enough to fish any creek.  

 

I swapped in an Avail spool with mag brake.  The spool is only 7 g, 2 mm deep -  loaded with only 40-50 yds of either mono or braid, probably 1/4 of the mass of the stock loaded spool.  

 

 

The internal mag brake will attach to either side - attached to the frame side, it lets you use centrifugal, as well.  

When I tried this light spool with 2 centrifugal shoes and 4 magnets, it wouldn't cast the light lure more than 35'.  It also took a lot of cast effort to get this distance.  

 

I swapped sides on the mag brake, reduced it to 2 magnets, and removed the spool centrifugal and replaced it with the spacer for it that comes with the mag brake.  

Note it's also a lot easier to remove the drive pancake to add or remove magnets than to disassemble the spool from the palm side.  

 

Without centrifugal and with light mag, the result casting 3 g was 80' casts with 100% reliability.  I could throw it fast and near horizontal, or lob it up high to the same distance, and no hint of backlash.  I don't need to fish 80', but the result means low effort fishing with total cast reliability.  

 

Again, when you have big inertia, you need centrifugal.  If you can greatly reduce the inertia, the centrifugal is just in the way, and mag works better.