Shimano Saragosa - 8000 F

[piemma]

[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

[HowieGee]

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.