Ive been checking out these reels, diawa saltiga 4500. fin nor ahab 20 & shimano stella. all of which cost a sh*t load for egg beaters, I was wondering if any one out there has any experience with any of these

i have used a fin-nor game reel and its awesome.havent used one of their spinning reels but would imagine the quality to be great. how much are they?

b.m

I have the 8500ss and its now the only fixed spool I own but I rearly use it. You can cast free spool reals easily with a bit of practice and they will cast a lot further

I have 2 or the Finnor Mega-drag Ahab 20s, I use them for poppering for GTs in the islands.

EXCELLENT reels, way superior in feel and solidness than my Penn 850ss.

Quiet on the retrieve, very smooth, long cast spool, easy spool swap, SOLID as a brick out-house, high speed retrieve, internals are solid and reliable, really, they are the best spin reel I have ever come across. If you are going to be poppering all day every day, then these are awesome reels. Cannot comment on other applications asi have not tried any! :-)

They are a heavy reel though, you certainly do know you have been using them after a few hours.

You will have to get them sent from o'seas, as no-one here in NZ sells them.

Cheers, Stu.

 

I have used the Finnor 20's for pitching baits at Teased sailfish and small blacks and they have worked A1 ,

The Penn spinfisher Iam not sure if they have put a bearing in the line roller now ,but the old model I use to have certainly didnt and it made it an absolutely crap reel . Penn make a few nice reels - Like the 80sw's I run (with 80/130lb line and no dramas) but the Spinfisher to me is just not up to full on spinning

If moneys no object ie $1000 look at a Van staal spinning reel an awsome piece of aerospace engineering .(I have played with but not used though , Iam tempt but $1000 on a spin reel having seen two Stellas that have crumbled ????? using braid on GT'S here)

or in the lower end $200- 300 I have been using a Mitchel 7500VG Nautil (after highjacking from Capt Asp when he was last over ) he had certainly given it a good hiding using braid on GTs (the last fish Capt. caught with was about 40-50lb GT at Exmouth WA) and I have not been much kinder since ....and it still looks and feels like the day it was bought.

No stuart you can not have it back !!!

Hi Lethal,

I havent used the new 8500 , I had the 850 - structurally and corrision wise (mind u all my rods and reels live in doors and are maintaned as though the were a million $ vintage car - much to my wifes disbelief ) they are fine but the lack of a ball bearing in the line roller was really a big let down not only to me but many fisherman in Aust -- so much so that a guy built a business in Perth virtually on converting them to having a ball bearing.

So if the new ones have the roller bearing they probably arent to bad - I havent heard of gear stripping in the spinfisher which is very common with fishing here.
the most common reel for that failure would be the shimano TTS high speed spin

The spinning i mainly do would probably be better suit to an over head ,the lightest line the reels see is 10kg for pitchbaiting.

Then its 50 - 80lb braid on a 24 - 37 landbase game blank built as a spin stick (although they are about to change to purpose built 24 + 37 kg spin sticks -- Capt Asp has one of the new two pc popper blanks --the one Mike Jew is building that fishb8 etc have been admiring they are about to be released in my Signature rod range) chasing our Volkswagon sized GT's , so with this kind of abuse we get to find out pretty quickly what reels are up to the task.

I am with you on that one Lethal.....horses for courses!!!.... ...big difference between catching a feed of snapper and scrapping it out witht he odd kingi than trying for GT's and Sails!!

Mike ,
I will PM you re the rods and on what stores carry our products or alternatly maybe send Capt Asp an email as he got one of the first of these new blanks off the production line just before Xmas , we were at full capaicity building our stand up sticks and unable to build it for him , so I believe Mike Jew has or is building it up for him .

As for the Kingies vs Sails , I would suspect your kingies would be a tougher opponent in 30 to 50lb bracket Most sailies are a relatively easy target on 4-6kg tackle but in the intrests of releasing a healthy fish I prefer 10-15 for them .they are good clean surface fighter and patience is the key , unlike the yellowtail submarines or sambos here on the westcoast that seek out the nearest pylon or piece of sharp coral.

For those of you who sneak up to the solies tonga etc lb for lb how do you rate your kingies vs the GT ?

Hi Mike,
   Some people can't understand why a spinning reel like the Shimano Stella or the Daiwa Saltiga4500(or higher) costs so much money. Some people think Spinning reel can only used it for catching small-medium size fish. Well, the perception is complitely wrong. There is gotta a be a reaso why Stellas or he Saltiga4500 costs so much. I've been playing around with these two reels quite a bit. The Satliga4500 drag is amazing. Alot of Japanese and American anglers have been using these reels for huge(50lB+) GTs and huge dog tooth tunas. The spinning reel is strong, compact and yet versatile. You can troll, jig and cast- just about doing everything.  You can cast poppers for kingins easier with spinning reel. If you're into buying these reels. i suggest you get the Daiwa 4500 or higher or the Ryobi Safari spinning reel intead of the Shimano Stellas.

Stu i found them all in this site

 

  http://www.plat.co.jp/english/english_top.htm

 

Cheers Lethal