TackleTour

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:I've always said I could replace pretty much all of my reels with Alphas/SV105's. Just about perfect. Would lose my mind if they released that reel with a G1 spool, bigger handle, knobs, etc. Best thing is that you can pretty much add all of that if you want. I really like the levelwind tracking back and forth while drag is pulled too.

I'm ready to see how the Steez A compares to the Alphas in size. Have been told it was small by a few people, going to be hard to beat the Alpha's ergonomics though, so far it is easily the best, followed by the SS/SV (older Steez) style frame. Never owned a Bantam or Curado 70 but they fit the hands really well too.

Were the old 50 series Shimano's comparable to their new small reels???

The Steez A frame fits right between the Alphas and OG Steez - size wise. While it's a larger footprint than the Alphas, the ergonomics makes it close to being equally comfortable to palm. My newest toy is the Alphas Air with the G1 spool from the SV light limited. It's just joyful

I got very close to ordering the Alphas Air and just using my current SV105 where my Steez A will go. Was going to use the Air on a ML casting rod with 10lb Sufix 832. How much lighter is the Air spool from the SV Light over the Alphas Air??? Or is the Alphas Air lighter because it is a shallower spool??? I forgot that the SV Light is a semi-BFS reel.

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:I've always said I could replace pretty much all of my reels with Alphas/SV105's. Just about perfect. Would lose my mind if they released that reel with a G1 spool, bigger handle, knobs, etc. Best thing is that you can pretty much add all of that if you want. I really like the levelwind tracking back and forth while drag is pulled too.

I'm ready to see how the Steez A compares to the Alphas in size. Have been told it was small by a few people, going to be hard to beat the Alpha's ergonomics though, so far it is easily the best, followed by the SS/SV (older Steez) style frame. Never owned a Bantam or Curado 70 but they fit the hands really well too.

Were the old 50 series Shimano's comparable to their new small reels???

The Steez A frame fits right between the Alphas and OG Steez - size wise. While it's a larger footprint than the Alphas, the ergonomics makes it close to being equally comfortable to palm. My newest toy is the Alphas Air with the G1 spool from the SV light limited. It's just joyful

I got very close to ordering the Alphas Air and just using my current SV105 where my Steez A will go. Was going to use the Air on a ML casting rod with 10lb Sufix 832. How much lighter is the Air spool from the SV Light over the Alphas Air??? Or is the Alphas Air lighter because it is a shallower spool??? I forgot that the SV Light is a semi-BFS reel.

I would assume the Alphas Air spool is lighter, but I didn't weigh them. Specs might be listed on Hedgehog. I wasn't a fan of the Alphas Air spool in the Alphas. Seemed to choke off too fast, but I guess it keeps you from dumping the spool, which wouldn't be hard to do. However, the Alphas Air spool in the SV light was much better. As was the SV light spool in the Alphas. Less restricted, longer casts without fear of only leaving 5 yards of line on the spool. As far as bfs, they were very similar. Both can go pretty light, and the Alphas Air spool only won on the lightest of baits by a small margin. The SV light spool will cast lighter than my Zpi Nrc001-m in my Steez SV TW, but once you get roughly around 3/16 oz total weight, the Zpi takes it to another level, and will out class the other with ease.

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:I've always said I could replace pretty much all of my reels with Alphas/SV105's. Just about perfect. Would lose my mind if they released that reel with a G1 spool, bigger handle, knobs, etc. Best thing is that you can pretty much add all of that if you want. I really like the levelwind tracking back and forth while drag is pulled too.

I'm ready to see how the Steez A compares to the Alphas in size. Have been told it was small by a few people, going to be hard to beat the Alpha's ergonomics though, so far it is easily the best, followed by the SS/SV (older Steez) style frame. Never owned a Bantam or Curado 70 but they fit the hands really well too.

Were the old 50 series Shimano's comparable to their new small reels???

The Steez A frame fits right between the Alphas and OG Steez - size wise. While it's a larger footprint than the Alphas, the ergonomics makes it close to being equally comfortable to palm. My newest toy is the Alphas Air with the G1 spool from the SV light limited. It's just joyful

I got very close to ordering the Alphas Air and just using my current SV105 where my Steez A will go. Was going to use the Air on a ML casting rod with 10lb Sufix 832. How much lighter is the Air spool from the SV Light over the Alphas Air??? Or is the Alphas Air lighter because it is a shallower spool??? I forgot that the SV Light is a semi-BFS reel.

I would assume the Alphas Air spool is lighter, but I didn't weigh them. Specs might be listed on Hedgehog. I wasn't a fan of the Alphas Air spool in the Alphas. Seemed to choke off too fast, but I guess it keeps you from dumping the spool, which wouldn't be hard to do. However, the Alphas Air spool in the SV light was much better. As was the SV light spool in the Alphas. Less restricted, longer casts without fear of only leaving 5 yards of line on the spool. As far as bfs, they were very similar. Both can go pretty light, and the Alphas Air spool only won on the lightest of baits by a small margin. The SV light spool will cast lighter than my Zpi Nrc001-m in my Steez SV TW, but once you get roughly around 3/16 oz total weight, the Zpi takes it to another level, and will out class the other with ease.

Thanks and you indirectly answered another question for me. I'm waiting on a Steez A and still contemplating an RCS G1 1012 SV or a shallow ZPI. The linear mag braking was a little odd but you aren't the first to say those ZPI's will absolutely bomb. Most of the lures I cast weigh around 3/16 to 1/4+ total so that should be great.

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:I've always said I could replace pretty much all of my reels with Alphas/SV105's. Just about perfect. Would lose my mind if they released that reel with a G1 spool, bigger handle, knobs, etc. Best thing is that you can pretty much add all of that if you want. I really like the levelwind tracking back and forth while drag is pulled too.

I'm ready to see how the Steez A compares to the Alphas in size. Have been told it was small by a few people, going to be hard to beat the Alpha's ergonomics though, so far it is easily the best, followed by the SS/SV (older Steez) style frame. Never owned a Bantam or Curado 70 but they fit the hands really well too.

Were the old 50 series Shimano's comparable to their new small reels???

The Steez A frame fits right between the Alphas and OG Steez - size wise. While it's a larger footprint than the Alphas, the ergonomics makes it close to being equally comfortable to palm. My newest toy is the Alphas Air with the G1 spool from the SV light limited. It's just joyful

I got very close to ordering the Alphas Air and just using my current SV105 where my Steez A will go. Was going to use the Air on a ML casting rod with 10lb Sufix 832. How much lighter is the Air spool from the SV Light over the Alphas Air??? Or is the Alphas Air lighter because it is a shallower spool??? I forgot that the SV Light is a semi-BFS reel.

I would assume the Alphas Air spool is lighter, but I didn't weigh them. Specs might be listed on Hedgehog. I wasn't a fan of the Alphas Air spool in the Alphas. Seemed to choke off too fast, but I guess it keeps you from dumping the spool, which wouldn't be hard to do. However, the Alphas Air spool in the SV light was much better. As was the SV light spool in the Alphas. Less restricted, longer casts without fear of only leaving 5 yards of line on the spool. As far as bfs, they were very similar. Both can go pretty light, and the Alphas Air spool only won on the lightest of baits by a small margin. The SV light spool will cast lighter than my Zpi Nrc001-m in my Steez SV TW, but once you get roughly around 3/16 oz total weight, the Zpi takes it to another level, and will out class the other with ease.

Thanks and you indirectly answered another question for me. I'm waiting on a Steez A and still contemplating an RCS G1 1012 SV or a shallow ZPI. The linear mag braking was a little odd but you aren't the first to say those ZPI's will absolutely bomb. Most of the lures I cast weigh around 3/16 to 1/4+ total so that should be great.

I'm still floored every time I make a cast with that spool in this platform. I mostly throw right around a quarter ounce - give or take a smidge, and it's impressive. I think I keep the brake dial between 8 and 10. Even a gentle side flick yields eye popping results. These spools blow away any SV spool, and I'm pretty sure I've tried them all

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:

DirtyD64 wrote:

Hogsticker2 wrote:
I'm still floored every time I make a cast with that spool in this platform. I mostly throw right around a quarter ounce - give or take a smidge, and it's impressive. I think I keep the brake dial between 8 and 10. Even a gentle side flick yields eye popping results. These spools blow away any SV spool, and I'm pretty sure I've tried them all

I am sure the ZPI would impress me then. The Zillion TWS DIY spool had me smiling over just how far it would toss 3/8 poppers and 1/2 spook style lures, so I am sure a higher quality spool would really roll. I really like the thought of a 1012 SV G1, but some have said the gap between the Steez SV TW 1012, Steez SV TW 1016, and 1016 Zillion aren't that different and therefore not worth the $60 gap. I plan on filling my Zillion SV TW spool with a good bit of braid backing to keep the weight lower and I am not sure if I'd have room for backing on the shallow 1012 SV G1, so if I filled the 1012 with straight fluoro wouldn't that potentially negate the few grams saved???

I'm avid whitewater & mountainous river anglers who love to catch Hampala & Mahseer in interior mountainous parts of Borneo (900~1200 ft above sea level). It's require me to casting & river trekking, river crossing to find good spot where fishes usually hangout to ambush & look for their food. In this process (casting & river trekking), sometime i'm stumble, lost my balance and fallen to the ground as there are plenty of big & slippy rocks along the river and sometimes it hard to avoid scratch on my reel, it's simply rough handling on all equipment due to rough environment. every after trip I have to polish my reel to remove those scratches and luckily so far it's works as it's not deep enough (on my zillion sv tw) except 1 dot on my T3 MX which is too deep to polish and sanding with fine grit sandpaper.

And for this reason, I come with Idea to find used condition reel with scratches body (but maintain excellent internal working condition) so I won't feel frustrating and won't have to be extra careful to avoid this reel hit/rubbing the rocks whenever I stumble & fallen along the river. go to ebay and found this old TD-Z 105H which I think fit my requirement, received the package on 8AUG2018, take it out of the box and do some cleaning & service straight away.









another reason I choose this reel is because it's same platform as T3 & zillion svtw, all same size spool and also I have 2 ray's studio microcast spool which I can use on all 3 reels.



once I put it back together, I do spin test and turning the handle to see how it's work and to my surprise, it's even smoother than my t3mx & zillionsvtw (which I bought new back in 2017). Do some field test and I said to myself, I just hit jackpot!

this TD-Z will be my prime reel for whitewater/mountainous river casting from now on.

some pictures from my previous trip

Well Done Sir!!

You can get more reel for the money with older used reels where newer versions aren't really any better. For example you can find used TDZ R+ or Ito reels for allot less than a new Steez and get a pretty comparable reel.

Also shape and ergonomics can be a big factor. The newer magnesium reels are all made to be as small as possible but for me with bigger hands the TDZ platform with its taller frame fits much better in hand for me on most rods than the Steez or Steez TW that replaced it. Other old reels have not been replaced with anything comparable, like the Millionare / Monoblock reels.

Technology hasn’t changed all the much and like previously said with upgrade parts and so much you can do with older reels it’s a no brainer

I feel dumb for not buying an older Daiwa Zillion at a local store. They also had a Chronarch E50 and 200E7. They have made me some great deals, I am sure I could have gotten them down. Then a few years back after thinking about asking, ALL were gone.

while technology may have improved, the cost cutting measures companies are employing, then selling "snake oil" to cover up the lack of quality.

higher gear ratio's, stupid colours, super light weight, and overall poor quality, is how reels have gone today.

Shimano's best Curado (for those who ACTUALLY FISH hard, not once a month), is the "D" series.

We have a small group of hard core fisherman who use our stuff MUCH HARDER than any "shimano pro staffer" does. Dollar for Dollar, reels were made substantially better 5-8 years ago than they are now.

You'll find those who are pumping new stuff as being the best are either 1) paid to be doing so, or 2) buy into the fallacy that lighter and higher gear ratio somehow equals better. (and I guess, if you spend enough, you absolutely MUST convince yourself that it actually is).

Rods on the other hand, they are much better than the past.

Reels, not so.

Posted my Curado 100B a 10/10 on another site and it was gone in less than 2 minutes. Buyer said it looks like new, box and papers.

SteveSchmelzle wrote:while technology may have improved, the cost cutting measures companies are employing, then selling "snake oil" to cover up the lack of quality.

Reels, not so.

Which means prices should continue dropping.....IMO!

I gave my Curado BSF to a buddy who had one of those horrible G series Curados.

He can't believe the BSF is 8 years (or so) older than the G.

The G stinks to high heaven and the BSF is still going strong.

Caveat: My BSF went to Ian for a super tuning, so I'm sure that goes into the reason. But the BSF and Ian super tuning combined was still cheaper than shimano sold the G for.