What reels do you all use?

[Seahog]

:lol: ... it would be hard to stop a habit that has lasted for so many years

 

 

It would be hard to stop a habit that has lasted for so many years

 

Listed are the ones I use! .... even amongst that list there are multiples of certain reels.

 

But I do use them, fishing a full weekend away on the boat, I would possibly use 6/8 different reels, if I was beach fishing I might use 4 reels. If I go casting I would take at least 4/5 reels.

 

I have a lot more reels than that list

 

I find it interesting to read about other people’s opinions of reels, some people highly rate a reel while I personally might not rate it as highly, each to their own. One such reel is the TLD 5 … I’ve had quite a few, they are good reels, but some people highly praise them, me I think they are just good and no more.

 

Some people think the ABU 6600 L/D are ok or poor, me I think they are a nice reel to use taking into account its size and cost, though they do corrode.

 

Some people rate a reel by how long it has lasted, others by its performance there is no hard and fast rule to rate a reel. Suppose it’s a mixture of a few, ability, reliability, cost, maintenance etc.

 

Some one could have had a reel fail whilst using it and from then on in they dislike it, whether it turned out too be an unusual failure with regards to that type of reel make no difference their opinion is made up, they dislike it, fair enough! … some fail through miss-use and incorrect selection of reel for the type of fishing … but it’s the reels fault.

 

I sell quite a few reels every week, and I see trends of specific reels being returned with faults from time too time, and it’s usually with the same couple of faults. It’s obviously a factory design and or manufacturing production fault. I then could read a thread and read nothing but praise for the same reel. Some reels are virtually bomb proof, some are quite frail. Some of the very expensive Big Game series reels have problems and their initial cost could be many hundreds of pounds. Some are big named reels the ones that are often used for big game fishing and least expected to give problems. Undoubtedly engineered well initially but nevertheless not exempt from mechanical failure, even taking in to account poor maintenance and that is the main failure with Big Game reels (bearing/clutch failures due to salt deposit).

 

I personally believe brand loyalty plays a big part in reel selection, and if someone believes that brand XYZ is best, irrelevant of anything else, brand XYZ is best, that’s what they will buy ... that's ok.

 

Me I have no brand loyalty! … I did many years ago but not now. I use what I personally want too and basically that’s no difference than someone deciding what reel they want even if it is brand XYZ.

 

I have found out through using a great number of different reels what are good and bad, in my opinion I should add! … And there are some reels that I have read in books for instance that don’t get much of a write up, too later on use and find out that they are a very good reel. Later to find out that the person that said what they did are sponsored by a specific reel/fish tackle company, can you blame them though? … would we be any different in all honesty?

[Norm B]

Snip

I find it interesting to read about other people’s opinions of reels, some people highly rate a reel while I personally might not rate it as highly, each to their own. One such reel is the TLD 5 … I’ve had quite a few, they are good reels, but some people highly praise them, me I think they are just good and no more.

 

Snip Personally I have the TLD's from 5 to 20 and I like them and think it's a shame Shimano discontinued the 5+10 but there are others that take their place. My personal preference is for the Accurate reels, beautifully made with quality components and they do them from SL20SH size up to

130 / 2 speed size, plus fixed spools. There are probably cheaper, almost as effective reels on the market

but we all have different tastes. I remember when I first started doing reviews for the SAN, I did a review on a reel from a well know manufacturer that was OK but way overpriced and had a couple of minor "faults" that could have been sorted for about 50p per reel, or less. I faxed my review and they came back with, "If you're going to say this about our reel we don't want it printed and we're not going to advertise with you. ******** name deleted, has reviewed it and say it's a good entry level reel suitable for medium boat fishing and heavy shore fishing. Well, it had no brakes so I suppose you could have put heavy oil in the reel and screwed down on the side play nut for casting. I asked them how much they were spending on advertising with *********, they said £15,000 a year but that had nothing to do with the review.

Within a year, my local tackle shops had all the reels back under guarantee for one or both of the 2 small problems I had exposed and the RRP had been cut by 50% or buy one get one free. The same year I went to a trade show and saw the same reel with a different badge on it. I had a look at it and stripped it down and both "faults" had been corrected and it was half the previous price. When I mentioned my previous review and that the faults had been corrected I was told, "It's nothing to do with your review, we operate a programme of continuous developement and improvement. I offered to review the "improved reel" as it was now a value for money reel and they declined. I still have a little smile to myself when I see it under various "badges", cheap, reliable and popular, all for 50p.

[Holmesy]

I have 4 mag elites and a shimano fs. All good reels but for fishing pleasure for me personally its the mag elites every time.