well I do 70% of my snapper fishing with a shimano bait runner 3500b its perfect for staylineing I find it hard to use drum reels for straylineing as I have one good hand the over is average at best.... also 90% of my fishing in the past 5 years has been on the kaipara harbour straylineing in the shallows (on sand) and catching fish from 350mm upto 500mm as a norm with some bigger ones thrown in (my pb for the kaipara is 6.1kg) which I love and will continue to do as much as possible

I've got an OC 4000 and a thunnus 4000 both are good reels but you can feel the extra quality of the thunnus over the OC. Have caught legal kings and decent snaps on both in the rough stuff so don't get to put off by the smaller sizes they can still do the damage. I did win a penn liveliner awhile back and that was ok but I passed it on to a mate and as far as i'm aware its still going fine for him.

Good article. Not too sure if I would want him to cook roast lamb for me, though !

We have both Shimano and okuma   Wife prefers the okumas I dont mind have / use both
Personally I think a lot of reliability like most things, depends on good care and maintenance

The new penn liveliners have a sealed gear box and very good grease from the factory, highly recommend these for stray lining

Darren why don't you look at a low profile baitcaster. That's what I've using. I little more maintenance but you can't beat them for stray lining. Thumb on the spool then crank the handle when the fish runs.

I also use a shimano 4000D with 6kg braid and about 10 metres of 10kg mono.

Kandrew wrote: Darren why don't you look at a low profile baitcaster. That's what I've using. I little more maintenance but you can't beat them for stray lining. Thumb on the spool then crank the handle when the fish runs. I also use a shimano 4000D with 6kg braid and about 10 metres of 10kg mono.

smudge wrote: Darryn, I have two Thunnus reels. Rather expensive I guess but they are very nice. If I had a criticism of them it is that they have more drag capacity than they really need. That is pretty much true of most modern spin reels IMO.

Had the same dilemma. Have the old shimano 10Kg 4500? set up and its never failed me and Ive been a total pig in the way I have treated it, its my "go to" rod in NZ.I had a requirement for a "go to" rod in the tropics for game trolling, bottom bouncing, popping and micro jigging etc etc. Due to my favourable experience with shimano over the past 15 years I yesterday bought the 12000D bait runner with 15kg braid and a Tica 15KG 4 piece travel light game rod. Ill tell you how it performs next weekend around outer reefs etc. On paper it was the perfect match and Im fizzing at the bung hole to give it some action. Couple that with my new FG knot I just learnt THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN STOP ME! yes Im pretty transparent ...two very deep drams have hit the spot.

CoastalStan wrote: I have a spare Thunnus 8000 spooled with 10kg Momoi that's hardly been used, happy to let it go for $300