New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Freddie » Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:40 pm

Although I was using the Gekkabijin for light duty bass BFS fishing today(and it did REALLY well, my Aldebaran is a bit afraid right now)...my true purpose for this reel is casting micro jigs, trout magnets, micro spoons, and other such baits in the 1-3g weights for river perch, rock bass, and panfish. After all, the Gekkabijin was designed for long casts on the surf. Up to now the AATW filled this role quite well with 2-4# mono but I'm interested to see if the Gekkabijin will....1) give me a bit more casting distance with the light baits... 2) give me a bit more sensitivity with the PE line for those light biting river pirates

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Fri Oct 29, 2021 1:12 am

Freddie wrote:
Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:40 pm
Although I was using the Gekkabijin for light duty bass BFS fishing today(and it did REALLY well, my Aldebaran is a bit afraid right now)...my true purpose for this reel is casting micro jigs, trout magnets, micro spoons, and other such baits in the 1-3g weights for river perch, rock bass, and panfish. After all, the Gekkabijin was designed for long casts on the surf. Up to now the AATW filled this role quite well with 2-4# mono but I'm interested to see if the Gekkabijin will....1) give me a bit more casting distance with the light baits... 2) give me a bit more sensitivity with the PE line for those light biting river pirates
Nice! I can't wait to get mine GekkaBijin...
Hoping and believing that it will be just perfect for my stream fishing (Usually I use streamlined ~4 g inline spinners).
And if it don't work, I think sv style Chinese manufactured spool, which I bought earlier, will work.

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Dalleinf » Fri Oct 29, 2021 2:09 am

jvelth74 wrote:
Fri Oct 29, 2021 1:12 am
Freddie wrote:
Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:40 pm
Although I was using the Gekkabijin for light duty bass BFS fishing today(and it did REALLY well, my Aldebaran is a bit afraid right now)...my true purpose for this reel is casting micro jigs, trout magnets, micro spoons, and other such baits in the 1-3g weights for river perch, rock bass, and panfish. After all, the Gekkabijin was designed for long casts on the surf. Up to now the AATW filled this role quite well with 2-4# mono but I'm interested to see if the Gekkabijin will....1) give me a bit more casting distance with the light baits... 2) give me a bit more sensitivity with the PE line for those light biting river pirates
Nice! I can't wait to get mine GekkaBijin...
Hoping and believing that it will be just perfect for my stream fishing (Usually I use streamlined ~4 g inline spinners).
And if it don't work, I think sv style Chinese manufactured spool, which I bought earlier, will work.
Jvelth, ~4g inline spinners is what I have used my Gekkabijin for targeting trout in streams.
It has been perfect for that.
I have mostly used it with good headspace and therefore mostly overhead casting, making long casts, but also some close quarter precison casts .

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Hobie-Wan Kenobi » Fri Oct 29, 2021 11:47 am

I also found that the brakes are a great balance of control and distance. I found very slight reduction in distance than the Alphas AIR TW but, a decent jump in control. That will be great to be able to cast a decent distance at night with low visibility. You would normally have to turn your brakes up more to prevent backlashes in the dark.

For the small increase in price, it is worth getting the Gekkabijin AIR TW over the Alphas AIR TW if bass fishing or casting for distance in open water. I didn't care for the spool too much casting in streams. Alphas AIR TW spool was much better in those situations where close range casting is needed.
IG @hobie_wan_kenobi_fishing

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Sun Oct 31, 2021 10:15 pm

My reel arrived on Friday. Or actually I went to Airfield to receive my reel, because otherwise I should be waiting to Monday – Tuesday to get the reel…

I fished with it on lake from a boat on Saturday and at stream on Sunday. Reel is real small and light and feel solid. I had a few backlashes, but those was human errors. I used mainly 4 g inline spinners. At lake I was using 7,5 feet Kuying Superlite Ajing and at stream 4,5 feet Tsurinoya Trout master. Magforce ‘4’ was usually good setting for my fishing. Casting distances might be a little better than Alphas ct, and GekkaBijin felt a little better in many way. Which was a little disappoint, at least in case of casting distance...I excepted some more. But then I realized that I’m comparing to Made in Japan reel, which is equipped with expensive K.T.F. spool and tuning bearings, and in this comparison GekkaBijin is actually reasonable priced :D And it's very good if more affortable reel is better in basically every aspect...Very good reel GekkaBijin it is. Line capacity naturally is limited, but that wasn't surprise. Ergonomics feels somehow a lot of better in GekkaBijin, because I found myself thumb braking, which I usually have not performed in BFS. And it's nice if I turn back to thumb braking in BFS :)

I didn’t have suitable diameter line at my home, so I spooled as backing 53 m of Nanobraid 0.05 mm and for main line 19 m of Spiderwire 0.13 mm.
- Empty spool weights 8.6 grams.
- Spool + backing weights 9.1 grams.
- Spool + backing + main line weights 10.0 grams.
- So 53 m of 0.05 mm Nanobraid weights 0.5 grams (0.0094 g/m).
- 19 m of Spiderwire 0.13 mm weights 0.9 grams (0.047 g/m).
Spool was really full with these lines. But still lines get spooled as should. Spool shoulders work as should, keeping line spooled where it should be. Only 1 time line got spooled to top of spool shoulder. I cast it off by a slow cast.
I must buy thinner main line. Maybe 0.12 mm Morethan, which is actually much thinner than '0.13 mm' Spiderwire.
Lines and line weights.JPG
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Chameleon spool is significantly lighter, because it weights 6.8 g loaded with some amount of nylon, and tape. That spool I haven’t yet tested in GekkaBijin.

EDIT: Spooled braided lines to Chameleon. It weights 7.5 grams full of braid, so it's 'significantly' lighter. And line space is a little bigger than in original spool, or at least same. I'm actually not sure, because I used some 'line ends' which was pretty much useless, but now I test with those. Added 1 m of red 'marker' also to original spool, to remember where goes limit of strong line to weak line. Lines in spools are not final ones, but can be fished and tested...I already ordered 0.12 mm Morethan, because ordering was cheaper than driving to shopping.

Some said, that Daiwa truly loves black reels with red accents. Well, it’s not bad combination in my mind either:
Black and red Daiwa reels.JPG
Black and red Daiwa reels.JPG (45.71 KiB) Viewed 4329 times

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by trevor60 » Tue Nov 02, 2021 1:43 pm

Nice review
jvelth74 wrote:
Sun Oct 31, 2021 10:15 pm
Appreciate the differences in lure weights and experiences. To add to the topic I received my Ray's HLC spool, it fit nicely with no unexpected rubbing or problems. I spooled it with the Yozuri Superbraid 20lb that was on the OEM spool. The line lay was compact and even with no build up on any side; (There is no step in this spool) sadly no testing.

I did manage to get out smallmouth fishing with good results, the reel held up well to all of the fighting, jumping and drag pulling of the SMBs. Caught one at the end of the cast using a pointer 100; topped off the weekend with a 2+ lb walleye, nothing but pull and the reel is no worse for wear.


Cheers
Trevor

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:11 am

Fished with GekkaBijin & Chamelleon spool, short trips on Saturday and Sunday.

Conditions were hard: stream was flooding and weather was cold and rainy, sometimes wet snow. But I purchased full rain clothes including sydvest rainhat, and and used suitable warm clothes, weather wasn’t actually bad and there wasn’t other fisherman at stream.

But because of conditions, hard to precisely evaluate, but actually original spool felt a little better. I think there is hybrid ceramic bearing in Chamelleon and due to that it rattles a little. In my opinion Challeon doesn’t cast longer than original spool. Chamelleon might be better in short casts, but I didn’t need those now. Also with very light lures Chamelleon might be a little better, but this time I wasn't casting those. But there might be not so good line in Chamelleon either. Actually very close to each other those spools.

Not got fish. 3 g seemed a little too light for micro jig to reach bottom properly. But I decided not to change to 5 g, because I wanted to avoid issues of stuck jig.

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Hobie-Wan Kenobi » Mon Nov 08, 2021 1:21 pm

jvelth74 wrote:
Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:11 am
Fished with GekkaBijin & Chamelleon spool, short trips on Saturday and Sunday.

Conditions were hard: stream was flooding and weather was cold and rainy, sometimes wet snow. But I purchased full rain clothes including sydvest rainhat, and and used suitable warm clothes, weather wasn’t actually bad and there wasn’t other fisherman at stream.

But because of conditions, hard to precisely evaluate, but actually original spool felt a little better. I think there is hybrid ceramic bearing in Chamelleon and due to that it rattles a little. In my opinion Challeon doesn’t cast longer than original spool. Chamelleon might be better in short casts, but I didn’t need those now. Also with very light lures Chamelleon might be a little better, but this time I wasn't casting those. But there might be not so good line in Chamelleon either. Actually very close to each other those spools.

Not got fish. 3 g seemed a little too light for micro jig to reach bottom properly. But I decided not to change to 5 g, because I wanted to avoid issues of stuck jig.
I prefer my Roro AX24 for the Gekkabijin. The stock spool is great for 3gr and open water
IG @hobie_wan_kenobi_fishing

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Thu Nov 11, 2021 3:23 am

Can anybody advice how does GekkaBijin spool compare to Alphas Air spool? Is Air spool worth of purchasing?

I think Air spool is bigger on volume and actually a little lighter. How does it perform in casting vs. GekkaBijin spool?

(Chamelleon spool has been a little disappointment so far. And I haven't liked too much my fixed inductor spools those I have purchased earlier...)

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by LowRange » Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:12 am

I have a chameleon spool in my old Tatula SV and while it bests my Pixy spools, other than maybe the Ray's Pixy spool, it does feel a bit overbraked at the end of the cast and is prone to a sticky inductor. It could benefit from a stiffer spring. I'm going to leave mine stock for now and try finesse skipping with it.

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Thu Nov 11, 2021 5:35 am

It was that hard (cold and wet) conditions last week that impossible to say accurately, but I didn't like Chamelleon that much than I liked original spool. But I really didn't have any issues with Chamelleon. Main thing that made me not like it very much, it just didn't felt high quality product because of noise. It could be better than original spool when casting sub 3 g, but I haven't tried. There is that much water in a stream that 3 g is actually too less...

I think inductor of mine Chamelleon works as should, but maybe I have to think some inductor or spring swap to it.

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Hobie-Wan Kenobi » Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:21 am

jvelth74 wrote:
Thu Nov 11, 2021 3:23 am
Can anybody advice how does GekkaBijin spool compare to Alphas Air spool? Is Air spool worth of purchasing?

I think Air spool is bigger on volume and actually a little lighter. How does it perform in casting vs. GekkaBijin spool?

(Chamelleon spool has been a little disappointment so far. And I haven't liked too much my fixed inductor spools those I have purchased earlier...)
Both spools hold about the same amount of line. Alphas AIR TW spool is better for short range casting. Gekkabijin AIR TW spool is great for long casting
IG @hobie_wan_kenobi_fishing

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by DrPerf » Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:29 am

Purchased my GekkaBijin this week and paired it with a Daiwa Steez Compile X ‘Moving Bait Versatile’ for use with flukes, weightless/lightly weighted plastics, smaller paddletails with 1/8 oz. jig heads, and jerkbaits. Spooled 70 meters of 14# YGK G-Soul Sinking Braid (diameter: 0.185mm) with a couple of rotations of 65# braid for backing to achieve the best line ‘fill’ for my use.

I did not have time to do my usual maintenance/tuning “process”, which is done for all purchased reels (new and previously owned), since the combination was “on deck” for yesterday’s tournament pre-fishing. So, I flushed the spool bearings and reoiled them with ZPI F-0 Extra Long Cast Oil and headed out to my “casting park” on Wednesday to ‘dial-in’ the combination before Thursday’s pre-fishing.

Casts with 1/4 oz. (7.08g), which is the lightest that will be used, were consistently 115-120 feet. Casts with 3/8 oz. (10.63g) were consistently 145-150 feet. This was with a one-hand, moderate effort casting motion without a “snap” at the end of the cast. Distances and targets were measured with a laser range finder.

“On the water” yesterday, casting was just as smooth as at the park. Caught two smallies and two largemouth with the combination in the 2-3 lb. range. Fish handling with the reel was excellent and it will be in my regular rotation.

Regards,
Doc
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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by jvelth74 » Sat Nov 13, 2021 2:32 am

DrPerf wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:29 am
I did not have time to do my usual maintenance/tuning “process”, which is done for all purchased reels (new and previously owned)
Thank you for sharing your's supetuning prescription :shock: and sharing knowledge... I had to Google what is the Jeweller's Rouge... :)

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Re: New 2021 Daiwa 月下美人 “Alphas” Air TW PE Special

Post by Hobie-Wan Kenobi » Sat Nov 13, 2021 5:37 am

I find the Gekkabijin AIR TW to be a BFS reel that can also cast those lures on the heavier side of BFS great as well. Definitely a distance caster but, it skips very well too.
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