This reel has me interested. Shimano tranx is a curado trini hybrid reel. They look like a giant curado and are made to fish the new big daddy waxwings. A bigger version of the waxwing lure. It looks like a cool system for our kingi fishery.
New TAS for some.

When do you think we will aee them on the shelves kezza? $599 U.S. I guess they will be round $699 here. Have you got your hands on any of those big waxwings??

hopefully they bring out left hand options. Even in video you can see them casting then changing hands over

htpp://alantani.com/index.php?topic=3093.0  this is worth a look at .

ps - that tranx reel is hot!  Hopefully get to look @ one in the flesh soon

check the size of the waxwings cause the biggest you get in nz is 115mm could be wrong  the biggest in US is 138 mm  the smallest in US is 68mm  4 dif sizes and you can get 16 colors 

looks like an abu toro......

I had mine delivered today - an PG model from E-bay, with free shipping, and a free spool full of 80lb braid.
I quickly PR'd a lump of 100ld fluro on it and had a few casts with it attached to my Shakespear Uglystick - fantastic!
I tried three different weighted poppers and ended up managing a consistent 55 meters with a 150gm lure without any backlashing. I'm 64 and not a big guy at 70kgs, so I was delighted with that.
It's quite critical to make sure you match the cast control for the lure weight though.
Took me a few casts to realise how important that was, but once mastered and understood, the thing was a delight to throw.
The level wind doesn't engage on casting so if you want to centralise it in the middle of the spool before casting, wind up the lure to the desired distance from the rod end, loosen the drag right off and crank the handle to bring it in to the middle. 

The fact that you can instantly retreive line as soon as the lure plops down, and not have to worry about thumbing to lay the line, is just a huge plus for this reel.

It feels nice and compact in the hand, and yet powerful, and solid.
Beautifully made, and lovely to look at, it gets a big thumbs up from me.

Three lure weights all easily handled




 



 

Kezza wrote: they are awesome reels and the PG model will be in stores in the not to distant future and uploaded on our site - when trying them in store make sure you bolt them on to a rod - the ergonomics in hand change dramatically. The Tranx 500PG are going to be hot ticket items and very versatile with massive capacity these puppies won't only be suited to topwater pursuits.....deepwater soft baiting, medium jigging, slow jigging and bottom bouncing....matched to a Terez 30-80lb OH - awesomeness personified!

I'm picking that's what you gearing up for?

Might have to follow ya

Here's a look at the guts of an HG courtesy of Alan Tani's website