Shimano Stella & Diawa Saltiga - WHY?

[spinyeel]

The big expensive spinners are just a "sporting" way of skimping on electric deck winches.Cheapskates!

[reggy]

I get by quite nicely with my Avets for the fishing I do, but if I did a lot of heavy jigging, the one thing this thread would inspire me to do, is to go and buy a Stella.

[GPB]

It's quite ironic really, 20 years ago Penn Spinfishers were one of the go to reels for power and toughness but considered 'overpriced' at $180 .

In 1992 a 850ss cost $190, a Shimano 6500 Baitrunner was $180 and a TLD25 cost $245, in today's money it makes Baitrunners and TLDs a good buy and a Stella at $950 looks very good , IMO the Spinfishers are now just average reels made in China .
Daiwa had a 6BB Spin Reel SS9000 for $295, in today's terms after 15 years of inflation it would now cost about $750

[craftycarp]

IMO the Spinfishers are now just average reels made in China .

I agree the old USA made spinfishers even now are still awesome, my dad has 2 that are 15 years old and he has pulled some monster fish on them (cobes,longtails,sharks,kingies you name it) and NEVER had them serviced. They still go hard and he uses nothing else. I bought a new one made in china and quite frankly its garbage, have had to send it back twice now, which is ok because it got fixed free but it means I dont have the thing for 3 weeks.

[mako101]

I`ve done some research on the stellas etc and even these under stress can physically not stand up, in fact I`ve read about a charter boat owner who loves these reels but handles have snapped right off etc.
He recommends to customise and replace certain parts!!.
I would personally rather pay $300 for a Penn, if it breaks I`ll get another.
Imagine buying a stella and losing it, breaking it or even scratching it.

Having said that the shimano 10000 and 20000 can be bought any day of the week on ebay for au$700 from US sellers.

[mattooty]

Mako, you can pick them up for cheaper if you know where to look...
While charter businesses seem the biggest reviewer of these reels, you have gotta remember that the reels that have supposedly broken under stress are usually treated like absolute trash by inexperienced users, dropped etc, and are fighitng fish nearly every day of XOS quality. For the average user who would use a saltiga/stella maybe, once a week, or month (depending on the goddam weather), i wouldnt imagine you would have any problems in regular use on XOS fish.

[johnlikes2fish]

37kg of drag and 80lb braid barely sounds like fishing more like skull dragging doesnt seem to have to much of a skill component once the fish is hooked if i took this approach to bream fishing 1 would be using 20lb braid and 6kg of drag to pull a 1kg bream out of an oyster lease. I know you arent going to land 20kg of kingie on 12lb gear but fishing 50-80lb braid (breaking strain probably 100-200lb) on lock up seems to remove the need for drag on fishing reel anyway and turns it into more of a strength thing and less of an angling thing.

[Roo]

37kg of drag and 80lb braid barely sounds like fishing more like skull dragging doesnt seem to have to much of a skill component once the fish is hooked if i took this approach to bream fishing 1 would be using 20lb braid and 6kg of drag to pull a 1kg bream out of an oyster lease. I know you arent going to land 20kg of kingie on 12lb gear but fishing 50-80lb braid (breaking strain probably 100-200lb) on lock up seems to remove the need for drag on fishing reel anyway and turns it into more of a strength thing and less of an angling thing.

There's still a weak link in the chain.......the monkey holding the rod. He still has to fight the fish 1 on 1. a few people get dragged over the side in these tussles so I'd still call it angling.You gotta remember they are targeting 30+kg fish in rugged country or down deep so it isn't all beer and skittles.

[Noelm]

mind you, brute force is not the ONLY way to catch big fish in rough Country a "softly softly" appoach will work as well, I think there might have been an artical way back by Ron Calcut that recomended that technique and it does work! but of course there are some times/fish that probably nothing short of a 4X4 winch would subdue, but not always!

[GPB]

Spot on Noelm, after catching Kingies and AJs to 35kg off Mooloolaba my mate had trouble with big kingies in NZ in 18m of water, using the same gear [Stella & 80lb braid] he was getting busted around the harbour marker buoys the kingies frequented. Then he tried the softly softly approach, instead of getting stuck into the fish on hookup he slowly motored away from the buoy gently leading the kingie, once he was at a safe distance he struck hard, fought hard and won.

Johnlikes2fish, no one uses anything like 37kg of drag, even 12kg hurts and 15kg is most peoples limit, big fish will still take drag and the idea is to stop getting busted off on structure, whether jigging or popping, even a bream reel that's capable of 6kg of drag doesn't get set more than about 2kg of drag.

[breamnut]

ok plently of guys have caught some awsome fish on spinfishers...
now... were they the american ones or the chinnese ones?
also yes big fish have been pulled on the penns but i bet if u were to go jigging with a stella 20000 and 3 penn spinfishers 950's the stella would last longer then all 3.
also if u cant see the point of getting a stella for $1000 insted of 3 spinfishers why dont you get 3 shimano alvio's for the price of 1 spinfisher???
answer- they cant handle it! that is the point1 the spin fishers cant handle 30kg trevs from a wreak! thats why u need the drag pressure to stop them getting there head back in.
i have a $800 sp outfit and am getting another 1.
i can go and chase bream on my cerate 1500 then go and chase jack and trevally straght after because of the drag capability and quality of the reel.
we have guys come into work bringing the tld 25's back from swains reef absolutly stuffed after the fish they tackle there.
the are a great reel to a certain point but when the fish are near any type of structure they will do anything to get there

[spinyeel]

Have a look at the massive King in the offshore thread.Caught on a TLD25, an inexpensive Penn rod,and mono.Nobody uses big spinners and braid over here for these brutes for one reason,they don't cut the mustard.Braid is a joke when structure is involved.The gentleman that caught this huge fish has caught plenty more Kings on the same outfit.Spinner Shminner. The pic is on another thread but what the hell.

[finding_time]

spiny eel

I think your missing the point mate, yes it much eaiser and COMFORTABLE to catch a big kingy on mono, all the shock is taken out of the fight, just one big rubber band!!!

Jigging is all about shock, the big hit , the big tail shakes the screaming runs and you feel every single one this is why you use braid , it the whole experience.

Yes it sounds brutal and it's ment to be, just jigging the jig stuffs you! But it's what your there for , to be totally smashed!!!!!! And it's this same lack of give in the system that wrecks reels and rods that arn't designed for it , eg spin fishers, hell it even wrecks reels that are designed with jigging in mind, It's not about catching the fish it's about HOW you catch the fish!!! You use 37kg braid but you only use about 1/3 to 1/2 of that on the drag as anymore and you inviting failers, yes the drag will go much higher but would you rather use a reel that was maxing out at 15kg or one that could go the twice that amount if needed, much bigger room for error.

Ian

[spinyeel]

[quote=finding_time;671940]spiny eel

I think your missing the point mate, yes it much eaiser and COMFORTABLE to catch a big kingy on mono, all the shock is taken out of the fight, just one big rubber band!!!

Jigging is all about shock, the big hit , the big tail shakes the screaming runs and you feel every single one this is why you use braid , it the whole experience.

Yes it sounds brutal and it's ment to be, just jigging the jig stuffs you! But it's what your there for , to be totally smashed!!!!!! And it's this same lack of give in the system that wrecks reels and rods that arn't designed for it , eg spin fishers, hell it even wrecks reels that are designed with jigging in mind, It's not about catching the fish it's about HOW you catch the fish!!! You use 37kg braid but you only use about 1/3 to 1/2 of that on the drag as anymore and you inviting failers, yes the drag will go much higher but would you rather use a reel that was maxing out at 15kg or one that could go the twice that amount if needed, much bigger room for error. Ian/quote I think you might be missing the point.Braid + jaggies = bust offs.Why lose the fish of a life time due to an obsession with having the latest trendy braid on your $1000 dollar Spinning reel.The big King's in this particular spot will cause you or anyone else using spinning tackle to look pretty silly.If it is so effective,why do none of our top guys use it?Results speak for themselves.

[metaloid]

Braid is a joke when structure is involved

Spinyel, no offense mate but you're barking at the wrong tree. Reef structure will destroy anything and mono makes no difference. The whole point of fishing with reels that withstand 14Kg of drag is to prevent the fish from reaching the reef in the first place. No one says that you can't do the same thing with a TLD or an Alvey and 70lbs mono but try jigging all day with these reels and you'll soon switch to a Stella or Saltiga. Obviously if jigging is not your stuff then you can save yourself a lot of money!