This seemed to be the best thread to add this, since so many common ideas are here already.
Just finished up another project, and added a baitcasting niche - 1/16th oz.
Also just got back from my first cast trial with a 2-g jighead.
After 4 clicks on the mag adjustment and one back, found the sweet setting and laid out a dozen casts all bracketed 90 to 100 feet - that's with a 2-g jighead.
They've only recently been adding bait versions of rockfish/ small game shore-fishing rods to match with light-lure BFS casting reels.
When a rod I've been watching for a year showed up in inventory at my favorite Japan vendor, after a couple weeks of hemming and hawing, snagged the last one they had - and the last they'll get for who knows how long. Then set out to spec/buy/build the reel.
The rod is the mid-level Yamaga Blanks 8'2" and, because of a progressive rod taper, able to cast 2 g to 20 g, protect light line, but also with a stout butt for turning big fish.
Since I was buying a 2 g rod, I set out to build a 2 g reel.
Most BFS reels are capable of casting 3 grams, but their target niche is really stream trout fishing in Japan.
Rather than a 26 mm diameter spool, I wanted the largest 34 mm to be able to cast as far as possible. I was looking seriously at JDM Abu LX992Z, Japan Special BF model.
Still, the only spool out there that's rated to throw 2 g is the Roro X, only made for Daiwa SV reels.
After more hemming and hawing, I sprung for Daiwa's flagship Steez SV-TW in the 1016 size.
Here's the stock reel spool next to the Roro X.
The Daiwa G1 spool is published 15 g, it has the moving rotor SV complication, and by the time you add the bearings, it's well over 20 g - still a light spool.
Next to it, the Roro X with fixed brake rotor, weighs in at 6 g.
As skinny as that 2-mm spool depth looks, I calculated on Pattaya Line Calculator that it should hold 100 m of PE#0.8 (0.148 mm = 0.005") braid.
PE#0.8 is the heaviest braid rated for the rod, and in Duel abrasion-resistant X-wire braid, that's 16-lb test.
For my inshore target, still using 10-lb Blue shock tippet plus 8-lb titanium wire trace, both to protect the rod and line against abrasion/teeth.
The spool held the full 100 m, obviously remains very light, and casts a loaded 2-g jighead like a rocketship.
Daiwa's TW system is a neat touch - an idea resurfaced from the earliest LW baitcasters of the ninteen-teens - the falling line guide, like used on Beetzsel, Okeh, and Douglas-patent Supreme. Narrow line guide for retrieve, it falls forward, with a wide-open friction-less loop for casting
Daiwa's SV complication. This is a nice touch for throwing big weights, but my casting trial proved it isn't needed on Extreme-low-inertial spool system throwing light baits.
On Daiwa SV reels, start-cast inertia makes the spool brake rotor walk a ramp outward - deeper into the mag field annulus - a spring retracts it when forces on the rotor and spool equalize. This is a great brake idea to prevent spool start-up overshoot, and is the same result as having both centrifugal + mag brakes.
The deeper, moving-rotor SV spool that came with the reel got 10-lb fluoro, and would fish on any of my inshore rods.
Not having the SV function on the little spool improves it for mid-cast wind backlash - start-up jerk is pretty small, anyway, when you're throwing 2 g.
Compared to casting 1/8 oz on the G1 spool with 10-lb fluoro, my final mag setting on the Roro X spool with braid casting 2 g was two notches less mag.
The two set-ups (double casting weight difference, different spools and different lines) gave me identical cast distance.
Posted: 13 Dec 2020, 21:14 • 
