[Shimano baitrunners so dissapointed :(]

The problem hawk is that you have bought the mid/bottom range version which will of course not be as good as the more expensive offering (wouldnt be good marketing if it was). I can vouch for the XTEA which came out at the same time and is the top of the range version of the reels you got. The XTEA is an awesome reel let down only by its price but if you could get second hand I would favour those immensely over the ST RA. I have 2 ST RA's and used to have 2 XTEA's and I know that I would rather have kept the XTEA's but sold them to fund a motorcross bike.

 

For the price the ST RA's, when compared to most modern reels, are very solid and I have never had a problem with mine. The XTEAS were just a world apart though which was reflected in the price at over double the cost of the ST RA.

 

I would imagine that by comparison the expensive reels these days are probably the equivalent value of what your older ones were back in the day. So for example a good bait runner back when you bought your old shimanos would have been bought for a similar amount of money as the XTEA relative to what the pound was worth back then. At £40 the STRA would be considered a cheap mid range reel. Think about the cheap offerings of your youth. I bet they were not very good at all.

 

I have handled many other brands of reel which, including the famous names, have been terrible and felt so cheap and flimsy in particular the cheaper okumas.

 

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with shimano. I just like their reels compared to most other offerings at the moment.

 

 

 

Agree with all of the above but I have found the baitrunner tension a tad lacking in torque when the river is in full flood.Then again you can address this by, bypassing the bait runner facility and resorting to the drag system.Also the oil cap screw gromit thing tends to come loose and could benefit from a rubber O ring.

 

 

But I am still pleased with mine after 3 yrs use ,still smooth as silk and the fact you can oil them yourself is a great plus.

[Any one going to brave the cold this weekend?]

Chris, if you look at the fins on the fish they're bitty and rotted at the ends which was obviously how they where before the fish popped it's cloggs which suggests to me that it was in bad fettle.

 

 

It also lookstoo be a very lean barbel.

[Otter]

New members posts are checked by the mods, until you hit a certain amount of posts. I think it's 15.

 

 

Thanks Dales

[Otter]

Why do your posts take so long to appear?

[Otter]

No hidden agenda from me guys,I am just a fisherman who thinks that culling is not the answer.

 

 

 

 

Jeremt

[Otter]

Hello all,

Interesting debate on a emotive subject,if you care about your fishing and wildlife.As I am sure the people calling for a cull/management or even harvesting of Otters do. We as humans are the Apex predator and can quite easily cull any specie as we have done for millennia.But that does not make it right does it?

 

Or is it that the point Mr Roberts is trying to make that we should cull, because we live in a man made world ,or so we/anglers think.

 

He does have a point about the bad thinking behind the prior release of the Otters i.e. little thought gone into food resources of the areas of reintroduction.But I am sure nature will balance things out and, in the meantime a few fisheries and rivers will see a dip in fish stocks.

 

If we as fishermen cannot accept this then it is a sad day for us.It will be a real home goal if people start culling and the press will hang us out to dry if they ever get any evidence of this happening.

 

Fingers crossed for the future.

 

Jeremy