Hi,

Why do you say that Josh? I am thinking of getting a spin reel with enough drag to stop kingis. I have the talisman, the saltist 6500, fin nor offshore 5500 or a Okuma V55a on my list, but I have not been phyically seen any of them yet. I want a reliable reel that won't die after only a few fish.

The Tica has a huge amount of drag (33kg), but I have gone for the proven reliabilty of the Diawa 6500H.

Reel Magic wrote: Why do you say that Josh? I am thinking of getting a spin reel with enough drag to stop kingis. I have the talisman, the saltist 6500, fin nor offshore 5500 or a Okuma V55a on my list, but I have not been phyically seen any of them yet. I want a reliable reel that won't die after only a few fish.

If you want something that wont die after a few fish then get a saltiga dogfight or expedition.

How much $$ do they go for?

Used the talisman in Norfolk just recently.... I am really impressed. I can't really show you any pics of it with huge fish, mainly because every fish over winch-able size we caught that took more than about a minute to get into the boat got eaten by packs of sharks.
However, here are a couple of pics...

(trying to look amused at having a poxy shark eat yet another fish!)
This was loaded up on a big shark....I know, coz I watched the flamin' thing eat the fish...a kingie and my jig... before heading for places elsewhere. This was on a Van Staal 500gm rod, VERY nice rod, thoroughly impressed I am .... and by this stage I had stopped pussy-footing with light 15kg drag settings, and had dialled it up to the point where I was unable to pull line from the spool (Later measured at over 25kg drag) without cheese-wiring me fingers.
The reel was loaded with 80lb whiplash. This is the same demo reel Steve Tapp has been trialling as well, he loaded it with the heavy braid.
Although the drag was set very high, it was still flawless. smooth, no jerkiness, solid as, great grip on the handle,I am truly impressed.
This is the hardest workout I have given the talismans yet on several of these big whaler sharks. Absolutely delighted with it. I had used them in the sollies, where they were great, apart from the teething issues common with new-design reels (nothing to do with drag or retrieve speeds, handles or solidity)...to the point where I was begging them to give me one of the trial reels they were going to scrap after making the required modifications to the largely cosmetic features.
It is interesting the Daiwa should be mentioned here.... Dave has the Saltiga he uses for himself. He would prefer the talisman now, having seen it in operation, especially as he could buy several of the Talismans for one of the Daiwas! Makes more sense to him.
One thing, the reel does not have the automatic bale trip. Don't know if the otehr reels do, but the Talisman in a manual close bale arm. Makes no diff to me though, I pretty much always manually close the bale arms myself anyhow. I like it being manual, as it follows my preference for the KISS theory in spinning reel design.
It is certainy a nicer, more user friendly reel to the fin-nor 6500, but then again, horses for courses. KISS and rugged solidity rules in the fin-nor design. The Talisman has a little more sophistication than that.

The rods though... the Van Staals are VERY nice! Not expensive, but very sweet to use. I have the popper rod, 2pce 8ft, very cool rod, but the jig-spin sticks I found especially nice to use... the 500gm one is a short little brute, but I was really taken with the 275gm version, longer, probably more suited to 30lb line I reckon, it is a really nice rod to use....



I had the rod fitted with a Penn Conquer 5000 loaded with 30lb braid. It certainly was Adriennes pick of the rods we had there.

So, in short, do I like the Talisman? VERY MUCH!!!
Is it competition for the Stellas and Saltigas? Perhaps, can't say. However, being able to have three of them for the one Saltiga/Stella... well......
Cheers all,
Stu.

Thanks Jonny... although, honestly, I think it is very flattering you should consider me to be eye candy.
Spooky. Slightly weird. But still, flattering in a spookily slightly weird way.... :-)

Guess you'd have to put a sea-anchor out at least... :-)

Hi,

$650