Opinions on gear

[tc808]

With the boat almost on its way (should depart on or about the 18th) it time to start thinking about gear.  Basically it'll  break down into 2 types:

Near shore medium heavy spinning gear to make bait or fish the reefs either with bait or lures, 20 - 30 lbs class rig braid with mono top shot.   For the money hard to beat the Penn battle 2 & suitable 7-9 foot rod.  Others?

Trolling 50 - 60 lbs line class looking for a lever drag & 2 speeds.  Lots or really pretty, really expensive reels in this class;  Makaira, Avet, Accurate, Tiagra, Inernationals & Torques (Penn), I'm leaning towards the penn fathom, torque internals (albeit Chinese made) in a cast aluminum body vs billet aluminum body, but it has the same drag, stainless steel gears and a thrust bearing design that only a couple of other much more expensive feels seem to have.

Would love to hear what others are doing.

[GregE]

PM Peddler, he's a Quantum, Fin Nor dealer and pays attention to other brands. 

I got a Fin Nor 30 at a good price ($89)  last year and it is solid.  Shop around and be ready.  My smaller Avets do well with Albis,  probably not up for Ono though.

[Threeweight]

Bang for the buck spinning reels in the size you need, hard to beat the Penn Battle's.  That's all we use for similar sized albacore.  The new Penn Spinfishers are nicer, but more $$.

For your troll reels... personally, my choice would be Avet, Avet, and Avet.

[Tj805]

I can't comment on spinning rigs.
But for conventional medium side stuff up to 30 pounds
I've have great  luck with shimano toriums.
I also own two avet Mxl that worked fine.
I'm shying away from avet because the reels won't hold up for me.
For trolling I use penn international 16 s two speeds
They are amazing and solid reels.
You can get used ones for around 300 bucks.

[Threeweight]

Curious what went south on your Avets? 

[Tj805]

The pinion bearings always go out for me.
I had one reel half a season and it went out.
The other made noise new out of the box.
Avets are smooth reels and I like the lever drag system.
I've also had a lot of problems with there customer service.
I was at the Fred hall this year and went and told them I was disappointed.
They said they had a bad batch of bearings from China and the people that helped me in the past
Have since been fired form avet.
The new service manager seems nice and was sorry for all the problems I had.
He gave me his direct line and said just call him direct.
Avet is on thin ice with me. Let's hope there customer service is different now.
I really like the reels a lot.

[croaker stroker]

I like Shimano. Have you looked at the Talica reels ?

[tc808]

Regarding the bearings on the Avet's & LD reels in general, I've read over at Alan Tani's that lever drag reels can have bearing issues at higher drag settings that affect the life and performance of the reel (felt as resistance when cranking) this is inherent in the design, if Avet got a bad batch of bearings that would only exacerbate the issue.  If you google Alan Tani, thrust bearing, lever drag the information pops up.

Okuma, with their Makaira line were the first to go to a "thrust bearing" type of design that accounts for the "side load" on the bearings in a LD setup.  Penn followed with their own version of this in the Torque series of reels.  Both the Makaira's and the Torques are beautiful reels machined out of billet aluminum and anodized, they are also expensive at over $500 a pop, when trolling out here boats usually run a 3 - 5 line spread so doing the math it gets spendy quickly. 

That's why my interest in the fathom, it's essentially a Chinese made Torque with a die cast aluminum housing for half the  price.  I would love to buy American but $520 vs $240 is a lot coin, you still get the stainless steel gear set, dura drag and same mechanicals.

[tc808]

I like Shimano. Have you looked at the Talica reels ?

Croaker,

Yes the Talica's are beautiful, even more expensive though!

[Threeweight]

In between the guys I fish Tuna! with, we have a couple dozen Avets.  None of them have ever had a failure beyond the usual drag maintenance needs.  We are not targeting big game with them (mostly albacore and halibut), but no issues for us. 

[Tj805]

I don't know what to think as far as avets go.
I treat mine really nice.
I put reel covers on them on the way to the fishing grounds
I clean and lube them just as avet recommends.
I don't abuse them at all.
And both mine broke 
My fishing partner drops his on the ground
Never rinses them off. Like going on 5 years now.
Basically just trashes them and his work flipping perfect all the time.
the only thing that explains it was bad bearings out of the batch.
The service manager at avet said they buy over 20,000 bearings at one time.
They can't all be perfect.

[croaker stroker]

The Daiwa Saltist is also a pretty good lever drag reel....And reasonably priced.

I don't care for the colors. I've got a couple of the smaller single speed LD20H's in black. They have a very nice smooth drag. And work good for Yellowtail and tuna 20 to 40 pounds. I suppose you could beat a bigger fish on them, but I just haven't caught a big fish since owning them.


http://daiwa.shptron.com/c/daiwa-reels_saltwater-conventional-reels_saltist-ld-2-speed-conventional

[tc808]

I'm not sure how big an issue the bearings would be most of the time based on the way I envision fishing, but there is always the possibility out here that you will hook into something that will require pretty heavy drag pressure, at least I hope so

3wt I would consider a nice sized Hali pretty big game depending on reel size, so if the Avet's hold up that says something. You and your boys using lever drag models or star drags?

TJ, sometimes there is no justice in fishing, are you using lever drags also?

[croaker stroker]

I am spoiled now. I probably won't buy another Star drag reel for Saltwater.

[Tj805]

Tc808
Yea most of my gear is lever drags
I prefer them because when fighting a fish it's easier to give more drag and let drag off quicker than a star drag.
I still have a few star drag reels but those are just the toriums
And a few penn sqidders and 500's.

[GregE]

....  but there is always the possibility out here that you will hook into something that will require pretty heavy drag pressure, at least I hope so

Yep,  looking forward to the story and pictures...   :arms:

[croaker stroker]

Before now, I have been using the old "decommissioned" Speedmaster 2's (Still $100+ on EBAY)

They have what they call a "fightin' star" which works similar to a lever drag with an adjustment like a lever drag, a limit to how much you can tighten it, like a lever, and a detent in the middle.

[tc808]

Appreciate the input everyone.  Really trying to find the best functionality for the money and not get seduced by the bling, but it's easier said than done!

[BestBoats]

I have two Avets and really like them. They are made very well and have functioned well. The tolerances seem to be very good for the money. I will be getting more as time goes on as they make the most sense to me for our long fin Tuna...and I like them for salmon as well. That being said I also have a penn gold international...yes...yes please...if money was no object of course. There are a lot of nice reels!
FYI Charkbait.com has the best deals on quality reels that I have found.

[croaker stroker]

Charkbait is near one of the launch ramps I use. Just a tiny little shop in a strip mall.

[Tj805]

Yea like croaker said the speed master 2's
Are a bullet prof reel as well.
A lot of my commercial fishing friends use them and
Penn senators.
They seem to catch better fish than me.

[Kimbrey]

I have several FinNor reels for trolling & bait. 1 30, 20's & 15's for the bait. I've had them through for a couple seasons, haven't touched them for maintenance yet, just washed them off with fresh water and the drags are still butter smooth. No zing, zing, zing when a fish is on. It just peels smoothly out.

[Threeweight]

Re: Avets and halibut, all are lever drags.  Most of our hali fishing is done w/ the 2 speeds.  Oregon halibut are not as big (typically) as what we get into up at Neah Bay... biggest fish these Avets have seen is maybe 40#.  Still, reeling up a 2-3# ball of lead from 800'-1000' of water over, and over, and over again will chew the guts out of a cheaply made reel.  These have held up great.

[GregE]

Daiwa Saltigas have a good reputation.  I have two Saltist- less $$ and seem to hold up well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daiwa-Saltiga-Lever-Drag-Hyper-Speed-Conventional-Saltwater-Reel-SALD20HS/281875614348?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D35851%26meid%3D42f2ba098c19457da5ecf473b3037990%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D401084001296


Don't overlook the Penn Senator / Tiburon conversions.  Stiffening up the frame gives them some pretty sound stability.

[Threeweight]

Good deal on a single speedPenn International 50W on Ifish... $225.  I know nothing about the reel other than what is in the add.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?p=12056898