You might want to update your profile with your location, so we have context about where you fish.

I didn't mention earlier, AMO spool will substitute for Ray's Studio, and the price is very good:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000730579813.html
this is likely the same spool sold by a Ukraine ebay vendor with a good reputation.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/254570804024
https://www.ebay.com/itm/254912798539

The only Ray's Studio spools still in stock are 30 mm OD for Alphas and CT, but the vendor to follow is aor_411 on ebay.
He seems to be the Thailand link to Ray's Studio stock.

Roro has stock of their deeper X27 (arbor diameter) spool for Steez/ Zillion SV TW - 34 mm OD
and JapanTackle has stock of both the X27 and X30 Roro spools for Steez/ Zillion SV TW
https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/sp ... daiwa.html

I've only been fishing the baitcaster in my salt XUL niche this year - ok, 2021 - with pretty good success on 3 trips.
Compared to equivalent spinning tackle, it will cast lighter weight farther, and has the advantage of almost never fouling tiny plugs

(A 4th trip, left it at home and could have kicked myself - we found snook stacked in the morning tide pass)
Last month, an 18" snook caught on a tiny 38 mm plug (of course, released).
Plus a whole lot of schoolie specs up to 22"


Two days earlier in the year with short visits to tide passes casting 3 g to 140', picked up my first nursery specs and a rat red.
This fishing will get a lot better winter into spring as both glass minnows and tide passes become more important.
There's a tide I want to catch in 2 weeks if the weather is good...

I have built up a supply of Japan stream trout lures, swapped the tiny FW trebles for salty plug singles.
I got in the habit always rounding out Japan carts with lures.

I've bought Jackson, Ito, Smith, caught a few fish, but the hands-down fish-delivering lure is Duo Spearhead Ryuki S.
50 mm, 45 mm, and astounding 38 mm - they cast great, they turn fish.
Unfortunately, Plat has no stock - they have become an instant legend.

You might want to hunt around - FishingShop,kiwi has great stock, 30% price discount across most of the board, but they charge $40 to ship. So put a big cart together there - they sell hooks, split ring tweezers, split rings also.
never pre-order, only buy in stock - pre-order will lock up your order indefinitely across the language barrier.

Those 3 bait sizes need size 4, 6, and 8 singles, respectively. Owner USA can provide size 4 and 6. The best size 8 are Owner SBL-55M from Japan.
You probably want to pick up some size 1 split rings from Japan, and hunt for split ring tweezers.

next best, less expensive, probably ready to go at least with small salt trebles, Duo Tetra Works Toto 48 mm

These little lures tend to get fouled when you cast them on spinning tackle - but they almost never get fouled on BFS.

Easier find in US is YoZuri sinking Pins minnow - 1/16 oz is 50 mm - the flash works well.

The larger 3/16-oz 70 mm lure will work when specs are slashing into bait balls, but redfish and snook seem really picky about low-effort sipping of single baitfish.

Speaking of max flash, Duo Ryuki S Quattro 70 mm

You're in a choice location to be able to fish on a whim.
It's a 3-hr drive for us, which is nothing for Texas, and we'll make occasional winter day-trips, because you don't need to get out early in the winter.
But our normal drill is haul an RV or at least rent a fishing shack for a couple of nights.

We plan around good tide swings, avoid neap tides, and where we launch is a 2-mi paddle to the best winter tide pass.
This is Mark (ablecane) visiting me at Estes Flats 3 years ago.


The tide I want to fish in 2 weeks looks on paper like it could duplicate this phenomenon last February, both timing and current swing.

Thanks for the report.
6'4" is short to be useful as an inshore rod, and even with my Valleyhill 6'7" all-range BFS bass rod, you get the feeling of needing to refine your accuracy for the rod speed.
However, the distance is still in my reel - swapping in the reel, the bass rod casts toe-to-toe with the YB 82.




The YB, though, is like surf casting in miniature - your cast is a slow lob, even though the reel is screaming fast.
Like every YB rod, the light weight - 73 g - is shocking for the long rod length.
It doesn't feel anything like a bass rod - but like a light spinning rod, or even more like a fly rod.
Very typical of Japanese shore light game rods.

btw, check your board pm - I sent you a note about Plat stock.

Again, thanks for the rod reports - and photos. Glad the Mojo Glass found a home.
I normally don't think about fishing sloughs in winter or summer, because our sloughs are normally dry in winter, and oxygen depleted in summer. Ours fish well on big spring and fall tides.
I've been considering a shorter ML rod for sloughs, though that's exactly why I bought CGR 7/8 for a kayak sit-down fly rod.

Instead, most recently bought a flats MH for the other side of winter fishing - big mullet imitations -
- up to 1 oz lures like 5" neutral-density Corky's.

My Christmas rod was a newly introduced solid tip boat rockfish MHS from Valleyhill - casts 1/4-oz with aplomb.
Neutral-density TSL Grasswalker - bread and butter for balance-of-year finger mullet imitation.

The Valleyhill "Hard Rockfish" boat has microguides, Ti-SiC, the solid tip gives the light lure end and has the glass feel, and the rod is very light-in-hand compared to my IM6 Crowder MM.
I still think I would take this rod or my YB 82 into sloughs for accurate short casts, even though 140' casts are the dial-in for both rods.

I'm closely watching YB and expecting him to introduce a 1-pc bait rod to fill the niche of the Triceptor 3-pc line - he currently offers a 1-pc spinning ML that weighs a shocking 75 g - would like to see a bait rod like that.

didn't know that Bob, thanks for the heads-up.
That's a good vendor - I've bought some lures there.

Just got a package from Bait Finesse Empire today. Fast shipping. Got two of the Duo hardbaits to try out

I bought the jeweler's split ring pliers before finding the Smith tweezers - they're good to about #2,
but nothing works on Everything like the split-ring tweezers.
The Bait Finesse Empire on-shore inventory of the Smith tweezers should be considered a boon by anyone with an interest here.

top to bottom, Smith, jeweler, TTF

ps - our good tide last weekend crapped out for the weather and long NNW blow - everyone bailed one-by-one, deciding not to make the trip.
Good thing - the water level was 6 inches lower than our trip with Donny last Feb.
__________________________________________

While I'm here, new lures to show off - these are all handmade wood lures from Japan.
The Heddon Zaragossas are made by Smith, along with the Hutley's Mercury.
Mostly topwater, the propeller lure is Haneda Craft Barrel II.
Those are not finesse lures, 1/2 oz, but will fish with the 4600C and Falcon Glass.



The tiny lures, also wood, are for limestone creek endemic bass (Texas brook trout) on my finesse 1500C and Troutia rod.
The Lure Rep on the left floats, the Ito Craft Bowie and smaller Lure Rep both sink - small trebles will get single plug hooks.

Yes, Daiwa plus Roro-X makes the very best light-lure baitcaster extant, and the one that is able to cast 2 grams past 100'
Again, I bought mine because I first bought the 2-g-capable bait rod, and wanted the reel to match that low end.
First post on this page, I don't worry about casting mine in the dark.
Sufix 832 is also a great choice, and the best-behaved braid on baitcaster.

I'm jealous of your ability to take it out and fish whenever you choose - give us a report when you can.

I added some salt lures also, some of these just backing-up my favorite Ryuki small sizes, glow for night-lite dock-fishing,
and the other winter bait - big mullet (MH combo). Tackle House K-Ten floating minnows on top.
After I do some hook swapping, I'll take some good detail photos.
The little Yuri stick-bait shrimp is gorgeous, and what I read, its best attribute is swimming on the fall.
Might be a good choice for sight-casting big reds in sloughs.



The camera doesn't do justice to the colors of the Ima B-Ta (lower left). Blue on top, fading into purple, dark on bottom, and translucent purple - perfect mullet sheen.
The Blazeye Evoroots, lower right, is a neutral-density wakebait for low-angle morning sun.

ok, here's the Jungle Gym Yuri stick bait with Vanfook plug drift hooks (#6 - big enough to hook a redfish).
Remember, the way to fish this is snap the rod and let it fall. The apparent double-ended design is actually pretty smart. Shrimp swim slowly head-first using their legs, and they evade with a snap of their tail, shooting backwards. Most shrimp lures and, especially, flies duplicate the look of a static shrimp - gotta love lures and flies that duplicate the action of a live shrimp.
Middle is Duo Tetra Works Ebikko glow shrimp with a micro lip
Bottom is Jackson Bottom Magic, which only purpose is making mudballs (also good in sloughs and passes)

My back acre is 150' wide, and one path across the middle is a perfect casting range, also bracketed with structure at convenient distances.
I set up all my baitcasters here - I may have to make a wind adjustment at the coast, never more than one or two more clicks on the mag brake.
You set the mag brake with the lightest thing you're going to throw, to eliminate mid-cast wind backlash. Everything heavier, the lure will cover it for you.
Again, Roro-X will have an upper weight limit for start-up backlash, which you won't find with an SV moving-rotor spool.

If you're getting start-up backlash with heavier weights, there's no help there on the Roro spool (strictly linear mag), and your best approach is remove all jerk from your cast stroke, and concentrate on smooth start up. Jerk on spinning tackle may load the rod heavier and get more start-up speed. Jerk on baitcaster has to be taken out by centrifugal brake, anyway, and the Roro spool gets its start speed from smooth acceleration in your cast.
The literal couple of casts that caused start up jerk and incipient backlash fishing Arroyo dock in the dark, I simply told myself, don't try so hard, and the next cast with less effort was out of sight.

I posted on a BR thread, lures for multi-species fishing, that Spearhead Ryuki S may prove to be the crankbait equivalent of cats whisker on Teeny line.

The small braids are pretty much totally limp. I fish PE#0.8 on my Roro-X30 (34 mm OD).
Duel X-Wire has excellent abrasion resistance, and remarkable strength in PE#1 and #1.2, (Duel and YoZuri are the same company)
These are all smaller diameter than 10-lb 832, so you may not want to make this move.
I fish the PE#1.2 full-time on my salt ML, Ray's Studio SV spool, astounded with the performance, and never had a backlash.

I definitely like X-wire over YGK braids on baitcaster (YGK braids are over the top on shallow-spool spinning reels - Bornrush is the absolute limp and slickest line I've ever handled - beauty Allbright knots)

The cost-effective Yamatoyo Resin Sheller hardcoat, which meets all of Jun Sonada's recommendations for baitcaster, has a little more stiffness,
but just from tying Allbright knots to leader, I can tell it doesn't have the abrasion resistance of X-wire.
It casts beautifully in PE#1.2 on baitcaster.


btw, a very handy tool, this Pataya line capacity calculator for different line diameters is flawless
https://www.pattayafishing.net/fishing- ... estimator/
It links to the advanced version for stacking different diameters.
One thing I've noticed, though, 832 is always slightly larger diameter than reported, and YGK and Duel are both smaller diameter than reported. The Yamatoyo appears to be spot-on its reported diameter, and so is Varivas.
I haven't tried Varivas on a baitcaster, but on a couple of spinning spools, and it seems to be very tough and abrasion resistant.
Varivas also leans to salt application, and I believed they provided the very good lines to Florida Fishing Products (OOS).
FFP was the first X-braid I stumbled onto with my inshore Stradic

https://www.raytune.com/products/details/6
I wouldn't consider these salty, but check out this line of gorgeous baits from Japan.

you'd be proud to hold their parr-marked trout in you hand for a photo.

There are just a couple of ebay vendors selling Raytune lures - none of the tackle shops that ship offshore stock them.
These are resin lures that duplicate the action of balsa, and certainly look like they'd stand close inspection by any game fish.
They're also priced the same as handmade balsa lures, and with pretty good reason.
The designer of these lures passed away recently. https://www.raytune.com/about/2014/09/a ... ne-him.php

I don’t do well with any over head cast with shorter rods. Big hitch in my shoulder from old surgeries. Or poor technique.
With the bfs stuff, you have to harness the how light can you cast with that big lever I always try and do a “looping” or circular cast to keep the line tight. A pause that induces slack line pickup is not your friend. I rarely ever touch the spool tension, adjust it to barely allow any side to side movement and forget it. Everything else comes from the brakes.

If you are bringing too much heat early or getting a jerk in the line, brakes won’t help you much. To me, baitcasters are like the flyrod, start slow and easy and then accelerate to flick it the direction you want it to go. The 11g should be able to sail with just a flick.

Good luck and welcome