Okuma...part II
OK, I think I may have to eat some crow. I have said earlier that the Okuma reels (have 2, a small spinning and a very large bait runner spinning) were pretty nice and a great value. Well this evening I had my first very negative experience with the big one. First off I have to say the reel is nearly brand new and I still think it is one of the smoothest reels I own. Handle is outstanding. To me it feels like I am cranking a 6/0 Finor.really nice. The drag is also excellent. (Better then any penn spin reel I own) BUT the ******* bail sucks. I have the reel mounted on my heaviest surf stick. The rod you take out on days like today...when it is blowing 35 in your face and you are throwing 3.5oz plugs with all you got. In 50 casts (or so) the bail flipped (during the cast) about 10 times. I have to say once you hook up with the fish it is a great experience but my big stick has to be able to handle big plugs and be thrown very hard. The bail can't flip...ever. I lost 2 plugs (THANK GOD not my new Tattoos) but it made me gun shy to fish hard and I had to walk back to my truck and re-load equipment.
Tomorrow I am taking the reel back to the B&T shop and asking for him to either:
A) Fix it on the spot
B) Take it back towards a big Penn or Shimanno.
I don't think it is a "tuning adjustment" It looks to me that the bail needs to rotate further then it does. It is not as stable in the open position as my penn or shimanno. I still think it is a great value reel and the small one works great (I have used that a lot) and caught many bonito, albies and blues with it and never had a problem with the bail...but you are not whaling on a 12# test rig. IMO a big reel with 25-30# test line should be able to take the hardest cast you can muster. I can’t have failures at in the middle of the night in some remote place miles from my truck.
Again I love some of the features but the bail has to function perfectly or it is not useable for the big stick.
|
Threaded Mode