TackleTour

The other day,I decided to try my pixy+diy spool, on a different rod,and put one of my xf50s on the ol 4'6" micro series noodle whipper. I haven't tried the pixy on the other rod yet,but I just got done throwing some things around with the xf50 on noodle whipper,and have discovered some fun abilities I am able to do with the setup,and have trouble doing with the pixy. The xf50 seems to have better break control,and casts like a normal baitcaster even with light stuff,instead of the "flick of the wrist" business. Some guys on youtube with expensive gear,are whipping their rods around,sending their lures flying,accurately,with no overruns,like it's child's play. They are putting their baits into tight spots too.

The xf50 is allowing me to whip the noodle whipper rod around, just like that,sending baits flying without nasty backlashes! Just whirl it around above my head to load the rod up,come forward, and release! Makes me think of lassoing cattle or something. I cast a bitsy pond minnow with no hardware,and the lip broken off;2 grams,a twin tail beetle spin body on a siwash hook t-rigged;1.4 grams,trout magnet on a 1/32 oz(I think it was 1/32,might have been lighter) head,trout magnet on 1/64 oz head. The last 2 were a bit tricky,and didn't cast that well,or far,but with practice,can be done easier. The bitsy pond minnow,was so much fun to just throw around! It seems so easy! For awhile I was wondering why I was having trouble casting like this with the pixy,even with a noodle whippy rod. I was starting to think maybe I needed a special rod that was even more limber,and noodle whippy to do it,but total epiphany for me,with this rod and reel combo today! I just really need to work on being accurate with it. I recorded a short video of me casting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2T6jZNgCU

The DIY spools are great and all but I don't like them for the UL stuff. I prefer a fixed inductor linear mag brake over the Air Brake and paper thin inductors of the DIYs. I fixed my inductor into the extended position one of my DIY 103 spools for more control with UL baits and it is still faster than my Zonda BFS spool or Momo Black Max 3 spool.

Is there any negative thing about fixing the inductor in the extended position? I may consider it,if it will give me more control,and usability with my reels,without any negative consequences to casting.

Bxn7-62 wrote:Is there any negative thing about fixing the inductor in the extended position? I may consider it,if it will give me more control,and usability with my reels,without any negative consequences to casting.

Not for UL baits. The best Daiwa UL spools have been fixed inductor. Presso, Megabass BFS, Air Stream ect. For regular casting weights they can be over brake and choke off distance compared to Magforce Z and Air Brake spools. There are exceptions though such as the long casting ZPI fixed inductor spools and the more choked off Air Brake SV spools like the SS SV.

Could you tell me more about this mod? I didn't realize the Diy Pixy spool was compatible with the XF-50.

coelaecanth wrote:Could you tell me more about this mod? I didn't realize the Diy Pixy spool was compatible with the XF-50.

It is not. It was more of a comparison between the braking profile of a linear mag brake reel like the XF50 and the Pixy Presso which is also linear mag brake due to the fixed inductor. I have a DIY 103 spool that I have fixed the inductor into the extended position to turn it into a linear mag brake spool for the UL stuff. I and many others (Daiwa too) have found that when it comes to the really light stuff fixed inductors seem to be the way to go. The really light weight baits seem to struggle a bit to get the MagZ or Air Brake going to brake enough and the fixed inductors seem to solve this problem.

Last night I super glued the inductor in the extended position on my pixy diy spool. Today I did some casting a few min ago, in the yard , and it's so much better ! I can whip the pixy around just like the xf50 now! I'm going to do this for the tatula ct diy spool as well. Thanks for the the tip,about the inductor .

Bxn7-62 wrote:Last night I super glued the inductor in the extended position on my pixy diy spool. Today I did some casting a few min ago, in the yard , and it's so much better ! I can whip the pixy around just like the xf50 now! I'm going to do this for the tatula ct diy spool as well. Thanks for the the tip,about the inductor .

I did the same thing to a while ago to an older 103 DIY I had. Super glue did the trick and it is in an SS SV on Volkey UL BFS now. It has been a year or two and glue is still holding.

Bxn7-62 wrote:Last night I super glued the inductor in the extended position on my pixy diy spool. Today I did some casting a few min ago, in the yard , and it's so much better ! I can whip the pixy around just like the xf50 now! I'm going to do this for the tatula ct diy spool as well. Thanks for the the tip,about the inductor .

The mod I did to my 103 spool was to tame a wild spool that was almost unusable. You are the 1st person to have fixed the inductor on a healthy DIY to my knowledge. At what weight range and bait types do you find the fixed inductor DIY to be an improvement over the braking profile of the unmodded DIY? If you could chime in on the differences in braking profile between stock and fixed in the DIY spool mega thread in the Maintenance and Super Tune sub forum after some time on the water then that would be great. It helps to have all the info in one thread. I am genuinely curious is how the spool performs after the mod and it would be a shame for that info to be buried in an XF50 thread.

The diy spool was usable before I glued the inductor outward. I just had to be more gentle with my casting or the spool would blow up, because it was spinning so fast. I couldn't use strong, quick casts. With it being glued I can pretty much whip it around as I please with enough control. I did end up having to glue it again, the glue didn't stay. So I put a bit more glue the 2nd time. I haven't used the reel in quite awhile since I re glued it. I didn't try a whole lot of different lure weights with it glued either . A small homemade popper somewhere under 3 grams, a broken bitsy pond minnow without hooks or splitrings around 2 grams, and Maybe some 1/32 or 1/16 jigheads with 2" curl tails. One thing I did notice after gluing it the 2nd time, was If I fully tighten down the side plate, it hinders the spool from moving. So it possible that the inductor is extended more than it should be. That said, So long as the side plate is not tightened down too much it still works. I can always re do the glue I think. Sorry to take forever to get back to you on this. I haven't checked here in awhile.

I bought an XF-50 a while back. It needed help out of the box, but with a spool bearing upgrade, drag upgrade and a complete teardown/clean/tune it's surprisingly a capable little reel, actually a bit beyond my expectations. I've caught about a dozen bass on it over the course of a few trips, the biggest being approximately 2.5 lbs and it handled them fine. The braking and casting are reliably consistent throughout many bait weight ranges. It's early in it's life, we'll have to see how it fares as time goes on but so far no complaints.