Rod gurus...

[tacklejunkie]

uh, ok dude.
haha.

I don't give a crap Diawa or Shimano.
I pick what I like (hopefully according to suitable use) and modify, return or sell it off from there if it's no good for me. I've found problems with Daiwa and Shimano products. I think those problems might even vary according to user depending on how they use them.

My Daiwa spinning drag is pretty good after a proper lubing.. need a few more solid fish to confirm but so far so good.
My Sol drag is one of the smoothest I've felt. No startup or stop jerks. Very consistent. Enough so for my noobness to land 8lb toad leapin' bass on wimpy little stock crankbait hooks.

About to click the pay now on the upgrade bearings, carbontex and Cal's now for the heck of it. Could only make it better!

[tacklejunkie]

Put some of the Shimano Star Drag Grease into my Megaforce baitcaster.
Completely changed the reel. You can see in the pics before the drag disk was pretty much just stuck to the main gear. I used some alcohol to clean the crap off the gear and lubed with the drag grease and the difference is simple "unreel"..

I don't think I'll ever be able to use a reel now without first rebuilding the drag.


nekid levelwind


Crunchy drag Fixed that right up.


Back together smoother than ever.


This is my jig reel. Not so much for the twitching bar but can't buy a better one at the moment and don't fish big jigs much anyways. Adding that drag grease made an amazing difference! If anyone has one of these reels, better get to it for sure.

[Skyler]

uh, ok dude.
haha.

I don't give a crap Diawa or Shimano.
I pick what I like

Ha ha ha! Exactly. 6 to one, half-a-dozen to the other. Though I do find myself running Shimano rods usually with Diawa reels. The other way around never really balances right for me. Diawa's rods are usually heavier, and their reels are lighter. And Shimanos rods are generally lighter, and their reels are heavier, lol. Both companies have their strong and weak suits. Bearing count vs. bearing quality, smoothness vs. reliability, good drag vs. acceptable drag, etc. Lately I've diverged into okuma and penn offerings, just cause I'm tired of hearing all these diawa vs. shimano arguments, lol!

[That Dang Guy]

I love working on my reels too. To be honest, I love working on anything fishing related.

I forgot to respond to Ultralight. I just recently started building rods, but as with everything else I start i tend to obsess and do quite a bit of research. I'm just saying for the budget, it's pretty hard to hit those numbers.

[tacklejunkie]

Check it.
Got my Carbontex washer and ceramic spool bearings for El Sol today!
Looks like Cal's drag grease is about the same as the Shimano Star Drag Grease. Now I have plenty! lol Quick and very cheap shipping too! ($1.35?!)
Thanks Dawn!


Now the Sol needs a new handle, a new lightened spool and some solid paint and I'd considered it done..

Also,
Lacing the megaforce permanently to a Berkeley Tactix Medium Heavy spinnerbait/jig rod. About $120 combo total. I'll report how the rod works out. I don't really need a $500 med-heavy jig/c-rig/spinnerbait setup so this should do. Specially now with the smoooooth drag.