Don’t know the environment in which you use your reel, but if it were me I’d replace those gears, particularly in view of the cost of a DC reel. The Calcutta DC reel has brass alloy drive/pinion gears, and the parts together are under $20. The bearing supporting the pinion gear is only a few dollar...

Too much lubrication will cause that, maybe shimano did not do a very good job of servicing it. A lot of guys think you need a tone of oil and grease to service a reel, but you only need a small amount. Agreed you can have too much or too little lube. But with my pair of DC's, I clean and lube them...

I have had a Calais 200DC for 4 years and it is a great reel but not as smooth as it was. Would replacing the main/drive gear and pinion gear remedy this? I sent it in to Shimano last year for service and tried to get them to put in new gears but I don't think they did. I used the "free service" co...

MB 110's are terrible suspenders out of the box. And the hooks are frail on them. Sharp, but easy to break. That's because their not suspenders, their slow floats. http://www.megabassusa.com/products/vision-110 MB lists them as Slow Float/Suspend. But I've never seen one suspend w/o a lot of help t...

MB 110's are terrible suspenders out of the box. And the hooks are frail on them. Sharp, but easy to break.

When I put the #6 death traps and the stock STX hooks on my reloading powder scale, they weigh the same.

Did you get a floating STX instead of a suspending model?

What size Death Traps did you use? And are you sure you don't have one of the STX Floating models?

It was most likely water from your fishing line getting into the reel and freezing that caused the issue. I mostly use the oil that comes with the reels (shimano, abu, daiwa) and hotsauce grease and don't have any problems until the water freezes in the line guide and other parts of the reel.

RC STX is the top of the list for sure. A great fish catcher. The Spro McStick works well around here, too. Next would be Ima Flit's.

I'm not sure Stella and cost cutting go together lol.. I think the previous Stella FE may have not been so well received to some because a lot of people considered the spool porting as a downgrade in looks(myself included) to the FD model even though everything else was superior in the FE. Theres j...

very good review. cant wait for the tt review of the t3air so see how your impressions contrast mine. i have one, and its the most amazing reel ive ever fished. That review is now on the TT Home page also. Seems it carries on the tradition of Daiwa "wild child" spool backlashing issues some of thei...

I think the reason for it's loss in value is that it has a well deserved rep for being a hard to control reel. Sure, it's smooth and the spool is very free. And in the right conditions with the right lures, it will cast a mile and put a smile on your face. But it's also very fussy compared to most o...

Some of the daiwa's definitely require extra thumb control because, like dragboat said, they are fast and the spool really is just free-floating. I personally don't like this because I like to concentrate on my fishing, not my control of the spool with my thumb. Well said. I have higher end Shimano...

Shopping new items: I'd recommend a Shimano Core 50MG for a domestic, Great high end reel and well under your budget. Something a bit more exotic and still in the Shimano realm, the JDM Conquest 50 is a must own. With shipping you should be just under your limit. I might recommend the domestic Shim...

Quillback wrote:#2 Split rings and Daiichi #6 Deathtrap trebles.

+1. Great setup.