Just purchased a Shimano Saragosa 8000 F for a traveling four piece 9' surf rod. Taking it to Costa Rica with me to do some exploring while not on the boat.

Great looking reel. Took off the bail, made it manual, and loaded it with 40 pound braid. Should make an excellent light tackle surf stick to add to my arsenal for the local stripers, which is my full time deal.

Any feedback on these reels is appreciated. Must say, the drag feels great and the reel is so smooth and quite, just like the very high end reels of today. Wonder if anyone has fished these reels long enough to give a good review??

Pretty good reel for the price. And inside, it's the simplest Shimano reel I've ever seen--piece of cake to take it apart and clean it.

The main gear is cold forged aluminum, but it's digitally made and it's coated with some super hard black nitride substance. Pinion gear is brass, as I recall. The Stella has the same gear material

Seriously--real easy reel to work on--it has 5-6 moving parts inside--certainly much simpler than a Stella--or even a Stradic.

This is the first Shimano Spinning reel I ever bought. I have been extremely impressed with their offshore conventional reels.....the TLDs. They beat my Penn Internationals Hands Down and cost a third the price.

Hopefully their workmanship in their spinning reels compares to their conventional reels. It is the smoothest reel I ever wound....with absolutely no resistance, which I really like because you dont have to fight the reel to feel the plug swimming.

Did not want to go for the Van Staal nor a Zeebaas due to the high cost....PLUS I do not fish underwater and I do maintain my tackle and clean and grease them all the time. I have had Penns, Luxors and Cracks for over thirty years and they all still kick butt.

I'd take a Spheros over any other reel.Best bang for the buck by far.

I have both a Saragosa and a Stradic FI.Performance wise the Stradic wins hands down and the spare spool doesn't hurt.But like Mike said the Saragosa is simple,and its very functional.

I would avoid the bailess kit.....its junk.

In the end if you want to spend the least for the most than the Spheros is the way to go.

[QUOTE=HowieGee;743179]This is the first Shimano Spinning reel I ever bought. I have been extremely impressed with their offshore conventional reels.....the TLDs. They beat my Penn Internationals Hands Down and cost a third the price.


The charter guys in West Palm all use TLD 25s for Sailfish. I fish off Tony Risso's 46 Hatteras and took 3 Sails, one estimated at close to 100#. We never weighed any as the rules are the fish never comes out of the water. The mate gets the fish to the leader and it's considered a catch.

In any event, I too, was impressed with the reels. I fish Calcutta 400 in the surf and on my boat but this was my first experience with the TLDs

Had a set of TLD 20s on 30# graphite rods on my boat. Loaded them both with 80# braid. Cranked up the drags to 20#s. Great light weight outfits for chunking. Also used them for flat lining deep diving hard bodies in the typical canyon spread.

These reels took a real beating. Great when chunking as they were as light weight as a baitcasting outfit. And on the troll, they always were in the action because the fish love those deep down hard bodies.

Never had to send them back for service like I had to with the Penn Internations even though they were not rated for the 20#s of drag. These were the best reels for the money for sure.

If I were to build another canyon spread I would use TLD 25s instead, and never purchase a Penn 30 wide again. Just wish they made them larger to knock out the 50 and 80 class reels.