New 2010 Shimano Trinidad A & Thunnus CI4 Baitrunners

[Brent_P]

The new Trinidad A star drag reels will be available in the US in mid September. The problems of the old Trinidads, in the smaller sizes, seem to have been fixed - all sizes now feature a twin pawl anti-reverse, Carbontex-like drag washers, higher drag capabilities, and the clutch lever is now metal (I never liked the crappy plastic-feeling lever on my Trinidad).

http://www.meltontackle.com/products/shimano-trinidad-a-reels.html

The bodies of the new Thunnus CI4 baitrunners are the same shape as the recently released Baitrunner D's, but are made of a carbon fibre which is much more rigid than standard graphite (but not as rigid as aluminium). The gears are harder and more durable, apparently. They are lighter, and have two more ball bearings, than the Baitrunner D's. They also have aluminium side plates.

The Thunnus CI4 4000 & 8000 are available in the US now.

http://www.meltontackle.com/products/shimano-thunnus-ci4-spinning-reels.html

[reggy]

Hi Brent

Well, just like the Talica 2 speeds, the twin pawls on the new Trinidad A only have the Ambassadeur style ears that caused the failures on the Toriums and Trinidads.
Like I said, some people just have to have a silent reel, and don`t care if it is inferior.
I was just reading Alan Tani`s thoughts on this new Trinidad and he says if they had springs on the pawls, it would dramaticly increase RELIABILITY and PERFORMANCE of the anti reverse system.

You should start reading Bloody Decks forum Brent., or just get an Avet, as you did say, you prefer lever drags.

[Brent_P]

I read this on Alan Tani's site a three or four days ago. I think I'll post a link to it now (second post).

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=238.0

I knew that the Avet's were a popular and often highly regarded reel, especially in the US where they're made, so I was surprised to read this.

I did research Avet reels a bit, when I was first looking for a dedicated jigging reel, but I was put off by the backward movement of the handle, the low max. drag, and the "binding" issue. Apparently, at higher drag settings, the reel begins to lose freespool and the handle becomes harder to wind.

I found this on Bloody Decks -
"All lever drags will see a reduction in freespool and increase in handle resistance when the drag pressure is set too high. Unfortunately, the "too high" setting on Avets is much lower than other lever drag reels."

From what I've read, the Avet JX begins binding at 15lbs drag. That's fine if you like using mono or low drag settings. However, if you're jigging for kingfish over a very reefy bottom, and the fish are over 8kg, you'll be cut off on the bottom almost every single time. I know this from personal experience, and watching others.

I own two reels with clicking anti-reverses - a TLD20 and a Tyrnos 20 single speed. The Tyrnos is a great reel, built like a tank. It was the first reel I jigged with, on a 7ft 15-24kg Wilson Live Fibre. In fact, I caught the 11.5kg kingfish in my photo on it (and many other smaller fish), on a 400g River2Sea Knife jig. I then decided to buy a more lightweight setup, and a reel with a handle that did not clunk backwards every time I whipped the rod up, and I've found the lighter gear definitely more enjoyable to fight fish with.

You might want to buy one of the new Avet Raptors, Reggy. Apparently, Avet have addressed the problems of the older Avets (like the JX), by putting a dual drag in the new reels. They are quite a lot more expensive though (and more expensive than the Talica's), but the handles still move backwards a bit.

I think the best idea would be if you post on Ausfish any links to any internet reports of any total anti-reverse failures of the Shimano Torsa, Talica, Talica II, or Trinidad 40, 40N, or 50 (which have twin pawl anti-reverses). We all already know about the failures of the Toriums and the smaller single-pawl Trinidads.

Here's a link to a US forum, where they're discussing the new Avet Raptors -

http://www.360tuna.com/forum/f76/avet-jx-raptor-jigging-tuna-11661/

Brent.

[reggy]

All the best to you Brent. I hope you catch many more big kings, wouldn`t mind boating one of them myself.
Thanks for the lively debate.
Reggy