spookybaits wrote:*a little back story (feel free to skip down to photos).
Alot of reels have come & gone over the years, But my favorite design of all time is the old Daiwa procasters. They made a few different lines using this body. The last series (and best imo) is the procaster tournament 33 series (PT33). Daiwa made a PT33p(pitching 5:1), a PT33sh (super hi speed 7:1) and the PT33c (super hi power cranking 3.8:1).
These reels were little tanks. They were big by today's standards, heavy, boxy, squared off design that actually resembles a tank. And to my eyes they're absolutely beautiful
About 4 years ago after reading TT threads for some time, i got the idea to trick these out and bring em up to date with various mods & upgrades. I found a reel tuner(he's not one of the TT locals, but i wont mention his name) & sent him a nib PT33c & PR. When i got the reels back they didn't cast for sh#t, and full of metal dust/shavings. It felt like sand when you cranked the handle. So those reels became parts reels. Awesome.
Fast forward to last winter, i was talking to Patrick(pobigred) on the phone about tuning reels. Told him about my experience with tuning, and he gave me e_bassfisher's contact info and guaranteed me he's the best guy for the job.
I sent ian an email & he called me the next day to talk about the reels. He said not only could he do em up, but that he was excited to crack those old reels open and see what he could do to em.
What he send back was an absolute work of art.
He:
- Upgraded all bearings to abec 7 ceramics.
- Re-did the drag system with carbonex.
- Completely dissembled, cleaned all parts, full lube everything.
- Full supertuning, polished internals & spool.
- Retrofited a pixy drag star with a series of oddball washers to allow for swept handle!
- The pt33c got a 100mm rcs swept cf handle, the pt33sh got a 90mm zillion type-R cf handle. (2 bb per knob, both handles).
- And probably some other things i forgot or don't know about.
I spooled it with 12lb sufix mono, strapped it on a deep cranking rod, tied a dd22 on and took it to the lake for a spin. I set the magforce to 5 and let that dd22 rip. Holy sh*t can that thing cast! It just went & went & went.
When i turned the handle & started retrieving I felt nothing. Zero resistance from the DD22.
Like i had broke off and was just reeling slack line back. It wasn't until the lure made contact with the bottom that I realized it was still there.
I don't know what exactly Ian did to make it so smooth, but it felt like the gears were made of ice. Smoother than my calais's & chronarch D's.
The smoothness, combined with the brute power of the big 3.8:1 gears... It's a beast.
It punks my Daiwa Z200.
It thinks the crazy cranker's 4.9:1 gears are 'cute'.
It's main gear weighs almost a half ounce.
It makes no apologies for it's boxy, square ergonomics.
It is- THE ULTIMATE DAIWA CRANKING REEL!
Now for some pics-
The inductor is as thick as a penny and looks like it's made of stainless steel lol
