Daiwa Experts SOS! Bought a JDM Steez CT SV TW700 and think I made a mistake. USDM differences?

Reels are the hottest topic for TackleTour. Everyone wants to know what the latest and greatest is and how they compare to the old guard. What's the best for light stuff, or what's your suggestion for heavy cover. Do we really need different retrieve ratios? It's all in here.
DirtyD64
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Re: Daiwa Experts SOS! Bought a JDM Steez CT SV TW700 and think I made a mistake. USDM differences?

Post by DirtyD64 » Fri May 26, 2023 10:12 am

Thenewrick wrote:
Fri May 26, 2023 9:30 am
The vendor was willing to change my order to the 700H lower gear ratio version without penalty fee. I'll give it a shot. No hyperdrive gears. Oh well.

I just hope it fishes well and the Aliexpress handle fits and feels good. I'll know in a couple weeks I reckon.
You're good, I was just wondering. What threw me off was that the small spool and 6 ratio account for like the speed of a regular 5 ratio reel or the retrieve rate of an old round reel. 23.2" per turn is really slow. You will have great torque though and generally lower gears last longer.
I understand completely about not liking high speeds. I changed out a Zillion TWS 9.1 (which is a big strong reel) because it always felt like riding a bike uphill in high gear. Tiny fish felt heavy, heavier lures retrieved odd, and the gears themselves felt rougher than the 7.3 set I added.

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Re: Daiwa Experts SOS! Bought a JDM Steez CT SV TW700 and think I made a mistake. USDM differences?

Post by Thenewrick » Fri May 26, 2023 11:13 am

Yea exactly. I felt like I was always putting in so much effort to reel in finesse lures with a tiny bit of grass on them. Having an actual big fish on felt like I was battling a whale with a bb gun.

6:1 is still not even super slow I don't think. I've heard old school anglers considered that high speed back in the day.

I guess I feel like as long as the fish is moving up and towards me rather than down and into cover it's moving in the right direction and isn't as like to get tangled as it would be if it's overwhelming my high gear ratio light setup and burying itself. Then I'm stuck trying to winch it out with an ultra high gear and I'm actually fighting the fish even though I'm a big guy.

Maybe some guys just like that "fight" feeling. I just like effortless torque and smooth power. "fighting" a fish makes me feel nervous like I'm going to break a rod or reel or grind the gears or something. It felt like I didn't have as much control with a high speed reel. The Curado DC which is 8.5:1

DirtyD64
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Re: Daiwa Experts SOS! Bought a JDM Steez CT SV TW700 and think I made a mistake. USDM differences?

Post by DirtyD64 » Fri May 26, 2023 11:49 am

Thenewrick wrote:
Fri May 26, 2023 11:13 am
Yea exactly. I felt like I was always putting in so much effort to reel in finesse lures with a tiny bit of grass on them. Having an actual big fish on felt like I was battling a whale with a bb gun.

6:1 is still not even super slow I don't think. I've heard old school anglers considered that high speed back in the day.

I guess I feel like as long as the fish is moving up and towards me rather than down and into cover it's moving in the right direction and isn't as like to get tangled as it would be if it's overwhelming my high gear ratio light setup and burying itself. Then I'm stuck trying to winch it out with an ultra high gear and I'm actually fighting the fish even though I'm a big guy.

Maybe some guys just like that "fight" feeling. I just like effortless torque and smooth power. "fighting" a fish makes me feel nervous like I'm going to break a rod or reel or grind the gears or something. It felt like I didn't have as much control with a high speed reel. The Curado DC which is 8.5:1
You are correct, 6 ratios aren't that slow, but spool diameter changes that. With the 30mm Steez/Millionaire/Alphas CT spool, inches per turn are drastically reduced. My Millionaire is a 7.2 but recovers line the same as most low 6 ratios, right around 26" per turn. I love it for moving finesse swimbaits and dropshots, but it can be a bit slow for shaky heads or bottom fishing. On the other end, a reel like the old Zillion TWS had a 36mm spool, so the 7 ratio was closer to a high 8 ratio's retrieval. The 6.3 Steez CT is closer in retrieve rate to the Steez A crazy cranker than it is the 6.3 Steez SVTW 1016 (34mm spool).

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Re: Daiwa Experts SOS! Bought a JDM Steez CT SV TW700 and think I made a mistake. USDM differences?

Post by Thenewrick » Fri May 26, 2023 12:36 pm

I have read that people like quick retrieves for deep water.

My lakes are probably 5-6 feet deep max. Extremely shallow. The fastest lure I have is probably a spinning lure and I don't really like using it much anyways. I don't like the constant cast and retrieve of it. I tend to like stuff that I have some type of twitch or walk or hop or something more interesting.

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