Stella Blowing Up

[Pistol_P]

Nomad Sportfishing are all Stella. Saltigas don't cut it long term. I reckon that is saying something.

Also one of my regular jigging charter guys had a notchy Dogfight or Expedition there at one stage.

Hi Smithy,

I think you will find the reason for Nomad Sportfishing using Stella's and a heap of other Shimano gear is because Shimano Service leaves Daiwa's service for Dead.
Shimano are excellent to deal with.

The Saltiga's do cut it long term and they are fantastic reels as are the Stella's.
My Saltiga's have copped some heavy treatment with big fish and I have never experienced any problems.However I did replace my drag washers with Carbontex and with the older model Saltiga's this is necessary.

Phantomboy....The info you were given in the shop is absolute rubbish.

Pete

[Jigsrule]

Thanks pete. I am now more confident that whichever reel i choose, i cant go wrong.

[Lovey80]

One thing that puzzles me about this story come from my own experience in Fiji last year. While I am not a big bloke I can safely say that my Stella 18000SW has more smooth drag than I had handle ( keeping the rod upright). I have no idea what drag pressures I was using but on at least 2 occasions big GTs had me using the side of the boat as leverage (on my rod) and the drag was flowing freely. 80lb main line to 80lb twisted leader was broken off a fair few times. Stella performed fantastic. Unless you were cranking XOS fish while rod was in a solid rod holder and using reel as a winch would I imagine a Stella or Saltiga blowing up. Maybe some issues after hundreds of big busters if not serviced regularly

[sleepygreg]

worked my arse off doing 70 hour weeks to save up for my two inters, built my own jig rods from JS980X blanks, and fished out of my Quinnie Fishabout 4.3 with a 35hp johnno, also using a paper graph furuno sounder and landmarks to find the 'spots'. The peak, gunsight, bandit, montague etc were all prime areas. back up outfits were the usual 113 senators and 450H Sealines. But needed the Inters for the Y/F. (eventually a mate got a 570 Easyrider half cab with a Mercruiser....the lap of luxury).

[Noelm]

yep, know the feeling well, my old 113H Senator got stolen after a robbery in my garage, I would give anything to get that old reel back, not that it was a great reel or anything, I would just like to have it back "because" we jigged the humps off Shellharbour and down at the Banks for hours on end back then, I also saved and saved to buy a Furuno paper sounder (I still have it stored away) best King on a jig was (wait for it) 39KG cleaned! kind of doubt that was bettered for a very very long time.

[vertico]

Depends on who you talk to mate, its all personal preference these days...

[Pistol_P]

worked my arse off doing 70 hour weeks to save up for my two inters, built my own jig rods from JS980X blanks, and fished out of my Quinnie Fishabout 4.3 with a 35hp johnno, also using a paper graph furuno sounder and landmarks to find the 'spots'. The peak, gunsight, bandit, montague etc were all prime areas. back up outfits were the usual 113 senators and 450H Sealines. But needed the Inters for the Y/F. (eventually a mate got a 570 Easyrider half cab with a Mercruiser....the lap of luxury).

You got some nice easy classical music on in the background behind you there sleepy....Do you still talk to your friends via the string and paper cup..???

Pete

[Dave_H]

best King on a jig was (wait for it) 39KG cleaned! kind of doubt that was bettered for a very very long time.

That's a cracker of a fish on a jig in anyone's language!

[Noelm]

sure was, I have a dodgey photo of it at home, I will see if I can scan it and post it tomorrow, at the time I had no idea of any records, the all tackle world record was not much more than that, and mine was cleaned!

[reggy]

worked my arse off doing 70 hour weeks to save up for my two inters, built my own jig rods from JS980X blanks, and fished out of my Quinnie Fishabout 4.3 with a 35hp johnno, also using a paper graph furuno sounder and landmarks to find the 'spots'. The peak, gunsight, bandit, montague etc were all prime areas. back up outfits were the usual 113 senators and 450H Sealines. But needed the Inters for the Y/F. (eventually a mate got a 570 Easyrider half cab with a Mercruiser....the lap of luxury).

My JS980, which has since been rebuilt, wore a 6:1 SEASCAPE and 30lb mono with 60cm of wire to a TAIPAN lure. High speed spinning for spanish macs was the game and pinion gears didn`t last long.

[Noelm]

haha, a seascape, forgot about them, I had one for spinning off the rocks too, gears were weak as p!ss, almost any modern reel would be better than them, let alone a Stella! most threadline spinning was done with big Daiwas or Mitchels back then, some people could afford a DAM Quick perhaps, my favorite was a 499 Mitchel modified (by me) to fit a bearing to the spool to prevent chatter on a big fish, drag was about as simple as you could get on them, you just tightened the knob, that forced the spool against a big fibre washer, not washers inside the spool, but the spool itself was forced against the washer, worked a treat really.

[Noelm]

back to the original question, I purchased one Stella some time ago, the handle buggered up and the anti reverse stuffed up in a few weeks with almost no use, I fixed it and sold it and vowed to never buy another, and I haven't. May have been bad luck? who knows?