Small reels for swimbaits

[jp_midwest]

Hey what’s up guys, so recently When im on instagram I see a lot of Japanese guys on my explorer page and most of them are guys that throw swimbaits and I have noticed something about the reels that they use, they are using small reels, like today I saw a guy throwing a TK on a SLX dc 70 and I see a lot of guys using bantams and zillions. and KZ from Kaziki_KZ_hotta on IG used to use a tatula 100 CT as a small glide reel and I talked to him a bit about it a while back. But I just wanted to know like what are your beliefs of them and like do people on here use them. 

[Good Year 71]

Should get some interesting responses on this. I tend to downsize things myself, but there are limits. 100 class casters are not built to throw beyond maybe 3-3.5oz or so. Then you’re moving up to 150/200 throwing maybe 6-7oz max and that’s it. These are extremes by the way, and both assuming you only throw braid or forget about it.

[t_huff99]

I throw a majority of my sub 3 ounce baits on a 200 Tatula because of line capacity. I could see going down to a 150 size if it had the capacity. My main problem with smaller reels is having enough line to not constantly reline the reel every couple months.

[GnarShred]

TK is a pretty light bait you can use any reel. A standard swimbait reel like a tranx 300 is insane overkill for a tk. For that size bait i like the DC200 but i have also thrown it on a standard curado dc and it works just fine.

[chevro1et]

I believe that many smaller, less robust reels will not stand up over time when used to throw bigger baits regularly. My Zillion HD is a tank, but it's built right.

[Ceaser]

100-200 sizes handle most duties these days. Only reason I go up these days is for line cap. 200 can handle 6ozs all day if it’s a quality reel. Heck I’d throw my DRT Ghost which is 8.8oz on my 200 coastal really but that small of a reel doesn’t balance out on the heavy rods used to throw it. 

[B_larkin3]

2 hours ago, Ceaser said:

100-200 sizes handle most duties these days. Only reason I go up these days is for line cap. 200 can handle 6ozs all day if it’s a quality reel. Heck I’d throw my DRT Ghost which is 8.8oz on my 200 coastal really but that small of a reel doesn’t balance out on the heavy rods used to throw it. 

Coastal 200 is a beast, I own a bunch. Reel can do pretty much anything

[jp_midwest]

7 hours ago, chevro1et said:

I believe that many smaller, less robust reels will not stand up over time when used to throw bigger baits regularly. My Zillion HD is a tank, but it's built right.

yeah that’s what I mean like are people not scared it’s going to break or the internals wearing down. But I mean whatever they want to do. And we’ll yeah me my self have been eyeing a zillion HD for a while now. But the only reason why I would be fine throwing 4-6 ounce baits on that would be because it’s built just for that and it’s all beefed up in all ways. 

[rwp]

Short of something like a major backlash with a heavy lure damaging bearings or bending a spool shaft, the reel doesn't care how heavy the bait is.

Retrieving high resistance baits will wear out a smaller reel faster for sure though.

[Mossypumpkin]

I fish 7 days a week, 8 months of the year. Fish a 3oz bait on a 100 reel that much and it lasts about a season. I did it multiple times when I started fishing swimbaits. 

[Bassmann86]

The smaller reels make it more comfortable to fish swims all day long. I fish the new 21 conquest 200 and 20 conquest DC 200 in the fresh. I also fish a bantam in the salt chucking 2-3.5oz A-rigs and MB big m’s for saltwater bass. The only issue I see is line capacity, even with braid when I launch a big m into the next county the line capacity is so low with 65lbs braid the ipt suffers greatly. I would feel comfortable fishing baits up to the 5oz mark on the smaller reels but then jump up to a Z2020 or a 300 size reel for the 5oz and up

Nice vid the Geoffrey did that explains the reel size and applications  

 

[SoCalBassBum]

I use a Abu revo x on my ninja fishing rod for citizens and TiK's, If I have to dump the rod im not out big $ and the reels seems to be holding up better than I ever expected.

[chefchris]

One thing I’ve noticed besides this small reels as these guys are casting like 20 yards, pitching to the shore or structure. So line capacity on a 100 size reel isn’t an issue. 

they’re not for the most part bombing casts as far as they can (the drt guys are usually) but even satan from balam is pitching that 300 balam short distances. 

once you take line capacity out of the equation you really throw whatever you want, will the reel last, will it hold up, will it fail? In time. 

one advantage is a lot of the smaller size reels are cheaper so maybe it doesn’t matter 

for me I throw 200-400 size reels. Tatula 200 for baits 3oz and under and then conquest 300 & 400s for everything else. I don’t want to be worried about failures while I’m out on the water. I’d rather have stouter gear that can handle the abuse then being sitting in the boat with a broken reel 

[Jon P]

4 hours ago, chefchris said:

One thing I’ve noticed besides this small reels as these guys are casting like 20 yards, pitching to the shore or structure.

I've been binge watching videos of guys fishing lake Ikehara and I've noticed that as well. Always super close to the cover they're fishing doing short repetitive casts. It drives me nuts and makes me wonder if fishing Ikehara would whoop my ass or if I would be great at it since my approach to fishing that sort of cover is the exact opposite.

[6Deuce]

Great info here. I’m just starting and was not sure which reels I wanted to bring out.