Morning All

New to the forum and just getting back into cap fishing again after taking 7 years out. Wow much has changed. As the title suggests I'm after replacing my Wychwood SPD Maximisers Rods and shimano biomasters xta Reels with something lighter and better balanced. I have £600 for a 2 rod and reel setup

Could you please offer some advise on what I should be looking at don't mind looking at the second hand market either

Thanks

Mark

In reply to Post #1
Free spirit E class gold with Shimano xtd 5500/14000

Or jump on the 10ft boat

In reply to Post #2
Thanks 12ft rods are my fave this 10ft stuff don't work for me

In reply to Post #1
Greys rods and Penn reels balance very well and are both very good quality.

In reply to Post #1
If you could find another £80 - £100, daiwa emblem scw 45 paired daiwa longbows are well worth looking at.

If you cant stretch to that id still go for the daiwa emblem scw45 reels and find rods to suit

In reply to Post #5
Thanks all for the advise, certainly been looking at the Daiwa Emblems they seem to have solid reviews was looking at the Shimano Ultegra also but wasn't sure as there seems to be a lot for sale on eBay which suggests that people cannot get on with them

May look at the longbows the Greys rods also look interesting especially the Aircurves

Thanks

In reply to Post #6
I'd be looking at the penn 7000 reels on your budget, the emblems look great but they feel a bit flimsy in use.

In reply to Post #7
I wouldnt say they are flimsy at all, they feel tight and quite solid, but i havent ever laid hands on a penn reel for comparison. My basias on the other hand could possibly be said to feel flimsy ish, but thats due to the lack of weight in them, they are actually solid reels.

In reply to Post #8
I've had the penns and have the emblems, both nice reels but the penns are the better of the 2. The line lay is better and they are just smoother in general

In reply to Post #8
I had the same feeling in reverse as when I went from 5500 ultegras to entohs, the ultegras seemed to flex under load and it took a fair bit of rod pumping to lift heavy line from distance whereas with the entohs I could just lift the rod and wind generally with mono. Going from entohs to emblem 45s I notice the flex and the lesser cranking power.
I'll probably get rid at some point, I'm kind of hoping the popularity gets daiwa to bring the tournies out in that colour scheme

In reply to Post #10
If they redo the tournies, again, they need to improve the feeling of them, no reel in this day and age should feel that jerky and rickety. Wouldnt be too hard for them to just sort that out without affecting the reliability of them. I have a love hate relationship with mine. Love that i can just use them with no concern for reliabilty and drag them through bushes or generally mistreat them, not that i do, bit i hate using them, wvery turn of the handle makes me wish id taken the basias

In reply to Post #11
I know what you mean, I don't really notice it in use when they're under load. I'm sure I could tighten them up with a bit of thought. The smoothness of the emblems goes the other way under load

In reply to Post #9
I better add the Penns to the list of potential reels. So Penns or Emblems it is

Thanks

In reply to Post #11
Or just get them serviced.

In reply to Post #14
A service stops all the movement in the handles does it?

In reply to Post #15
One last question - am I being dumb but I don't see a switch on the emblems that lets you back wind is that correct?

Thanks

In reply to Post #16
Underneath mate, just behind the rotor

In reply to Post #17
Cheers Heff..... Star!

In reply to Post #15
Mine are as good as my ISOs now that I've had my ISOs serviced as
well otherwise they where better.

In reply to Post #19
So the anti back wind is infinite now and doesnt clunk about? The spool rubbers dont screech? Rose tinted glasses is a term that comes to mind

In reply to Post #18
No worries mate. Whatever you get make sure you have a little play with them first, and your happy with them, nothing worse than buying the wrong thing for you.

In reply to Post #21
Thanks again I like the idea of the emblems with the longbows, that's what I'm going to get I think 3lb TC should do the job

Cheers

In reply to Post #20
The lack of infinite anti reverse and s reaching spool rubbers should have been sorted years ago but daiwa must see it as character. The spool rubber screach is easily fixed with a regular application of silicon lube, however if daiwa designed these minor issues out and made the black edition paint finish more robust they would probably have the best all round UK carp reel on the market.

In reply to Post #20
Thinking these things are essential maybe rose tinted ideal hardly necessary imho, a nice touch but doesn't cause me to think reels without are inferior.

In reply to Post #23
I actually think the line guards on the emblem has been the best design followed by the noisy tournies which I appreciate people have issue with as did I when I first upgraded from emblems to the point of finding them a distraction and caused me to question them however having swapped back to an emblem X caused me to realise the good aspects that the tournies offered then getting a set of ISOs I actually felt the tournies where better until I had my ISOs serviced which I do think are superb reels, if only they had a better line guards, my old Shimano 8000 specials had the same design and they where annoying.

In reply to Post #1
Anyway back on topic, what tc are your maximisers as they are a great blank and were highly rated by some good custom rod builders.

In reply to Post #26
I have 2 X 2.75lb and 1 X 3lb they are really nice rods but the reels makes them feel really heavy. If I could pickup another 3lb TC rod I would probably keep them and just buy the Emblems

Thanks

Mark

In reply to Post #9
I wouldn't agree with this. I have got both the Penn 7000 Ltd (wooden handle) and the emblem 45s and I think they are equally as smooth.

The emblem is a light reel the bale arm is a lot thinner than the Penn but feel solid. They feel really good in the hand being light.

In reply to Post #28
Well I pulled the trigger and got the Emblems. I'm gonna see how they workout with the SPD Maximisers before deciding on whether to buy new rods

In reply to Post #29
Good choice. Im so tempted to sell my tournaments and get a set of the emblems, but i leave the rods loose and tie them the the landing net with shoe laces cause its quite and light, and wouldnt really want to do that with the emblems cause theyre too nice to get scratched

In reply to Post #30
Thanks for all the advise..... I'm looking forward to using them with the SPD maximisers.... your not the first person to say the SPD Maximisers are excellent rods

Ta

Mark

In reply to Post #31
Fair play. Did just see the Greys Xcelerates are on offer at Total Fishing for £140 a pop which is a very good deal, assuming the Xcelerates are as good as the Aircurves they replaced