High Line Capacity Baitcaster

[Hweebe]

Looking for reviews of high capacity baitcaster for inshore jigging / micro jigging.

Anybody with experience with the Daiwa Lexa, Shimano Tranx or Citica?

Not sure what Abu Garcia also offer As their website doesn’t make it easy to see line capacity.

Working off the manufacturer websites is a pain when looking at spool line capacity. (Each One uses a different braid/mono strength) so u can’t directly compare without some maths conversions.

Spin reels have spool sizes but there isn’t the same thing for baitcasters...go figure

 

 

 

[Andrew_P]

Abu is called the Revo saltwater I think. How much line do you need? Have a look at the quantum smoke inshore reels too

As a guide, the heavier the weight of the reel the bigger it is and the more line it will take. Look for reels that say the are for saltwater use too. They tend to quote heavier breaking strain lines on bigger models too. 
 

In my opinion you cant go wrong with Shimano And their 10 year warranty. 

[Jimmyjack]

Yep and sometimes you'll find the low profile reels carry less than the others. Also for jigging some of the reels don't have the level wind which annoys the hell out of me but some love it, so watch for that. You also need to consider whether it will be used only for dropping or whether you want to cross over with it to do some casting as well, as some reels just won't cast at all well.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Hweebe

I don't have much experience with baitcasters (I used to use my Dads twenty year old Barra reel before it crapped itself after a service), but I'll reiterate what has been said above about the Abu Garcia Revo - it's the first thing that comes up when you search 'high line capacity baitcaster' so you might want to check that one out. 

Cheers Hamish  

[jred1]

Ive got a fin nor lethal ltc20 - 16 would probably do what you need re: jigging inshore etc holds about 450m of 50lb

[Hweebe]

9 hours ago, Jimmyjack said:

Yep and sometimes you'll find the low profile reels carry less than the others. Also for jigging some of the reels don't have the level wind which annoys the hell out of me but some love it, so watch for that. You also need to consider whether it will be used only for dropping or whether you want to cross over with it to do some casting as well, as some reels just won't cast at all well.

I will be using it as a crossover hence i haven't gone done the path of an overhead reel where line capacity isn't an issue.

[Hweebe]

18 hours ago, Andrew_P said:

Abu is called the Revo saltwater I think. How much line do you need? Have a look at the quantum smoke inshore reels too

 

Most of the baitcaster I've found have about 20lb / 150m line capacity.

Looking at the Lexa, TranxA or Citica they will push about 220m. They come with drags in the 8kg-10kg so this this will hopefully be enough stopping power for most fish I come across inside the bay.

 

 

[Hweebe]

9 hours ago, jred1 said:

Ive got a fin nor lethal ltc20 - 16 would probably do what you need re: jigging inshore etc holds about 450m of 50lb

Thanks JRED1 - I'm looking at the lower profile baitcasters rather then an overhead like the fin nor. I do realise the smaller capacity overheads do start overlapping with high capacity bait casters.

I'm going with a baitcaster profile because:

1) I like how they feel in hand. - Better for all day fishing / jigging

2) More versatility to also cast out.

3) In general lighter for full day fishing

4) I don't need huge line capacity ie 300m+ because most of my fishing is inshore in 15m - 20m of water. If the fish i hook onto can reel off 200m of line then so be it

 

[Ed.]

In the big 4 brands you could look at:

1) Daiwa Lexa 400HD (3 different ratio models)

2) Abu Garcia Revo Beast REVO T2 BST60

3) Shimano Tranx TRX400AHG, there may be a 500 model as well.

4) Okuma Komodo KDS-463LX

Undoubtedly there are more but these are the ones that grabbed my attention when I was considering getting one last year but never ended up doing so, instead I ended up with a Tica Uzio  which I got from New Zealand for less than a 1/3 of the price than the above 4. There is now also a Tica Titan but not sure what the difference is between that and the Uzio. Only thing I don't like about  the Uzio is that it only has  centrifugal brakes and I prefer the magnetic. Having said that it has never given me a birds nest. For me, my preference would have been in the order I numbered them and in the highest gear ratio available.

[Ed.]

Hweebe: Forgot to mention, if you are local to me (Caboolture area) you're welcome to come and try it out.

[Hweebe]

14 hours ago, Ed. said:

In the big 4 brands you could look at:

1) Daiwa Lexa 400HD (3 different ratio models)

2) Abu Garcia Revo Beast REVO T2 BST60

3) Shimano Tranx TRX400AHG, there may be a 500 model as well.

4) Okuma Komodo KDS-463LX

Undoubtedly there are more but these are the ones that grabbed my attention when I was considering getting one last year but never ended up doing so, instead I ended up with a Tica Uzio  which I got from New Zealand for less than a 1/3 of the price than the above 4. There is now also a Tica Titan but not sure what the difference is between that and the Uzio. Only thing I don't like about  the Uzio is that it only has  centrifugal brakes and I prefer the magnetic. Having said that it has never given me a birds nest. For me, my preference would have been in the order I numbered them and in the highest gear ratio available.

Thanks for the info @Ed.looks like you researched it extensively. I haven't heard of the Tica Uzio or the Tica brand at all but i think for 1/3 of the price of the reels you looked into its worth a try. Had you used Tica reels before?

I'm not attached to any brand so will keep a lookout of the 4 reels listed, will probably just come to best value / price that I can find. Was hoping there were some End of Financial Year sales but nothing really popped Up

[Ed.]

Hi Hweebe, I had a tough choice to make as I had to justify this reel to the missus, she said I had already had too many reels as it was, as well as having  to justify this one to myself as I had to consider how much use I was intending to give it. So price was an issue as I didn't want too spend too much for a reel that was going to spend 99.99% of it's life on a rod in a rod rack.

As for the Tica brand, there is a distributor in Australia but they only sell a limited number of models and they hadn't even heard of the Uzio model when I asked, the brand is quite big in New Zealand and I think as well in the US. but they don't do as much advertising as they should, they do have a small range in the lever drag game reels, but it seems that over the years their range has been slowly "consolidating" to just a few models. Probably can't or don't want to compete against the bigger 4. In the fishing sales market, advertising is King and unless you have a decent budget your product isn't going to be known so you will sell less, then hard to justify a higher budget, ect, ect.. It's a bit like the Okuma Metaloid 5, I was looking at a 2 speed model and the Aust. Distributor didn't bring it in, as they said their wasn't a market for the 2 speed model in Australia, my view is if you don't have it you can't sell it, so I bought 3 Penn Fathoms 2 speeds instead. I have  bought a couple of Tica  reels before and only just sold a smallish game reel about a month ago, (ST-458) as it was mainly a spare reel for guests on my boat and I think that it was only used once in all the years I owned it.

And as I said, the missus was starting to count the number of  rods and reels I had, so if I wanted to upgrade then some had to go. So after selling a couple, I was looking for a replacement for my very old  Daiwa PMF-57H which I have had for about 40 years, it has good line capacity, but a poor 5kg drag, no ARB and just a single dawg anti-reverse so quite sloppy in the handle. I still have it and keep it for sentimental value as I did catch quite a few nice GT's (about 12-15Kg's) on it in W.A.

Anyway I started to do the research and my preference would have been the Daiwa Lexa but at the time they were about $450 and the Tica Uzio was about AU$150 and I think that was delivered to Australia, so whilst I really would have liked the Mag control, the Daiwa was 3 times the price so I settled on the Uzio.

I just checked and the price has gone up to about AU$192 + delivery, so I must have got it on special or the Aussie dollar has dropped compared to the NZ$. It looks like the Tica Titanclaw is the same reel just with a lower gear ratio.  They are both 300 sized reels.

https://www.actionoutdoors.kiwi/Tica-Uzio-GCB300-731-RH-Baitcast-Reel-1
https://www.actionoutdoors.kiwi/epages/shop.sf/en_NZ/?ObjectPath=/Shops/ActionFishing/Products/TICTC300

The Daiwa Lexa HD in the 400 size is about AU$430 (EBay) the 300 size about the AU$380 plus there are a couple of other variations in the Lexa models.

Good luck finding these sized reels in stores as most won't carry the larger bait casters in stock  to look at. Apparently no demand!

 

 

 

[Ed.]

Here is a link to a Youtube Video which compares  the Shimano, Daiwa and Abu reels and has a look at the way they are made, it goes for about 54 minutes so you may want to get some pop corn.

[Hweebe]

Did you mean this one?

 

[Ed.]

My bad, I forgot to put the link in, but yes that is the one.