TackleTour

1nutinthewater wrote:Fished the reel hard over the last 4 days- compared to the Ballistic and stradic that were also along for he trip I am disappointed in the tatula. The others are much smoother. I may tear into it for a clean and lube or just sell it.

That's odd, doesn't the Tatula basically mirror the Ballistic internally???

After several trips using this reel I would now say it is comparable to both the stradic and ballistic. I no longer notice any difference between the 3. All are fairly smooth on the retrieve but have a noticeable rubbing feeling during fast retrieval.
I realize that I am super finicky and the calcutta conquest bfs hg has ruined me for life.....

Quick update on my ballistic LTs:

The 4k is butter out of the box, and remains buttery after a dozen surf trips.

The 2500 was not as smooth out of the box, and remained "dry" "raspy" on the retrieve after a dozen freshwater yak trips...nothing terribly significant, but compared to the 4k it's noticeably rougher.

Picked up a 2000 sized tatula LT for the Phenix Feather light, it's a perfect match size wise. Haven't fished it yet, feels somewhere in between the 4k and 2500 ballistic out of the box.

"dry" That is the word I have been looking for when discussing spinning reels- They have that feeling during fast retrieval. Never have opened them up for maintenance as they all are fairly new. Time to give it a try.

Raspy is the word for me. Like the spinning reel has been smoking a pack a day since it was in high school. Only VERY faintly feel that with my Stradic's at high speed retrieve without load. The 2 Abu's I have left are grease loaded so they don't do it. Actually the bad reports I have seen on Abu spinners ($150+) are because grease seems to get into the AR clutch and cause it to spin backwards.

Still in search of a spinning reel that I can say is super smooth and get rid of all the others that I have and am not pleased with.
I really dont want to step up to the Exist/Stella level but tired of wasting $ on reels that I am not satisfied with.

I know most love the stradic and i have 6 at the moment and every year or two have real issues with one and send it back to shimano for repairs but they end up just replacing it with a new model so the cycle continues...

1nutinthewater wrote:Still in search of a spinning reel that I can say is super smooth and get rid of all the others that I have and am not pleased with.
I really dont want to step up to the Exist/Stella level but tired of wasting $ on reels that I am not satisfied with.

I know most love the stradic and i have 6 at the moment and every year or two have real issues with one and send it back to shimano for repairs but they end up just replacing it with a new model so the cycle continues...

Have you considered the Daiwa Luvias? I think they are the best “made in Japan “ reel for the money. I torture tested one for almost 5 years of UL angling 3-5 days a week with only doing drag maintenance just to see how long it would hold up. Still like the day I took it out of the box......I now own 3 Luvias....the 2012 lineup and 2 of the 2015 lineup. My nephew just purchased 3 of the 2015 2004H models and wonders why he waited so long to make the move from the Stradic Ci4+.

Regards

Never tried the Luvias. Might give it a try one day.