Thoughts about the Diawa Fuego Baitcaster?

[RussBert]

.ghoti.

Have you modified any of your Fuego"s. If so, how so?

and if anyone's interested, Fuego's are for sale at the TackleTour forums

http://www.tackletour.net/TTForums/

[.ghoti.]

.ghoti.

Have you modified any of your Fuego"s. If so, how so?

and if anyone's interested, Fuego's are for sale at the TackleTour forums

http://www.tackletour.net/TTForums/

I've put the Dremel to work on all of my reels.

Polished all the moving parts / contact points in the spool engage/disengage mechanism.

Polished the ends of the pinion gear. NOT the gear teeth.

Polished the spool ends.

And, (the best thing you can do for any reel ) polished the metal drag washers. Polishing the metal drag washers is a better improvement than switching to Carbontex drag washers. Doing both is better yet.

I installed ABEC7 stainless bearings in two Fuegos, and just between you and me, there's not a heck of a lot of difference.

Stock spools in all. I just can't justify what a different spool costs.

I've ordered carbon fiber handles from Pfleuger three times now, only to have them back-ordered each time. I wanted the handles from the Patriarch XT. I'm more interested in a four bearing handle than in carbon fiber. But that particular handle looked like a bargain.

I tried a handle off a 153 HSTA, and liked it. Those are four bearing handles, and are very smooth. I may end up ordering some of those instead of the XT handles.

I have TD-Z handles on all of my Millionaires, and really like those. But they're very hard to find these days.

[RussBert]

.ghoti., thanks for the reply

I have done all that "stuff" to my Fuego's as well. I agree about getting the drag washers flat, parallel and polished. Very smooth drag with no stutter.

I'm with you about the abec 7's, and have received a lot of flak for it!

I did install HLC spools along with HTSA 90mm handles and modified the drag star to clear the swept handles

[roadwarrior]

.ghoti.

Have you modified any of your Fuego"s. If so, how so?

and if anyone's interested, Fuego's are for sale at the TackleTour forums

http://www.tackletour.net/TTForums/

I've put the Dremel to work on all of my reels.

Polished all the moving parts / contact points in the spool engage/disengage mechanism.

Polished the ends of the pinion gear. NOT the gear teeth.

Polished the spool ends.

And, (the best thing you can do for any reel ) polished the metal drag washers. Polishing the metal drag washers is a better improvement than switching to Carbontex drag washers. Doing both is better yet.

I installed ABEC7 stainless bearings in two Fuegos, and just between you and me, there's not a heck of a lot of difference.

Stock spools in all. I just can't justify what a different spool costs.

I've ordered carbon fiber handles from Pfleuger three times now, only to have them back-ordered each time. I wanted the handles from the Patriarch XT. I'm more interested in a four bearing handle than in carbon fiber. But that particular handle looked like a bargain.

I tried a handle off a 153 HSTA, and liked it. Those are four bearing handles, and are very smooth. I may end up ordering some of those instead of the XT handles.

I have TD-Z handles on all of my Millionaires, and really like those. But they're very hard to find these days.

Great work!

Another $200 and 60 hours of hard labor and

you will have turned that thing into a Shimano!

:

Just kidding...I loved your reel.

;D ;D ;D

[.ghoti.]

Kent, you owe me. I just had coffee come out my nose, all over a brand new shirt.

Just in case you want to make good on this, I'll take a Columbia Bonehead shirt, 2XT size, in yellow.

Russbert, what did you pay for the HSTA handles?

[RussBert]

Russbert, what did you pay for the HSTA handles?

H20-6801 Handle assembly, $50.50

040-3206 handle nut plate (red) $3.60

G79-3302 handle nut (LH) $4.30

353-8301 handle nut plate screw $0.50

These prices were as of August 15th 2010

[.ghoti.]

Thanks Russ. That's in the same ballpark as the Pfleuger XT handle.

I'm going to try once more to get the XT. It's straight, and I won't have to change out or modify the drag star. I's also much lighter, and has EVA knobs. I tried the whole reel, and like those knobs, so it's my first choice.

But, if that gets back-ordered again, I'll go with the HSTA handles.

On that note, I really don't see any advantage to the swept handle design. I used an HSTA handle on one Fuego for a couple of weeks, and have an Alphas R type with a carbon fiber swept handle. Don't hate it, don't love it, don't really care, one way or the other.

Rather like the ABEC 7 bearings. If you've spent a bunch of money upgrading to these, and the swept handles, you can probably convince yourself that the benefits are worth the cost.

[RussBert]

Rather like the ABEC 7 bearings. If you've spent a bunch of money upgrading to these, and the swept handles, you can probably convince yourself that the benefits are worth the cost.

It was more of an exercise in tuning, but I do try to tell myself how much more-awesomer these reels are!   ;D