Help me choose a new offshore bobbin reel!

[ThePinkPanther]

I do a lot of off shore fishing in depths from 20 to 90 metres and whilst my old Penn Senator is a trusty and unbreakable reel, it's also bloody heavy winching up fish and those wretched big snapper sinkers on a 40 lb line!

I'm think of getting a decent bobbin reel that will take several hundred metres of Sneider 30 lb line - if that's possible!

I've got stacks of rods and I don't mind lashing out on a decent reel within the limits of common sense, certainly not the new Shimano's worth $1500.00 + ..................

Any advice appreciated from guys with experience on this type of fishing!

[honda900]

Saragosa.

Regards
Honda.

[scottar]

What sized snapper leads are you running? For anything less than a pound these days I have gone back to heavy spin tackle - in my case a Saragosa 25000 but for weights of a pound and upwards, I still go for my overhead which is a modified Tyrnos 30. The Tyrnos 20 would be more than adequate as well - the secret lies in an extended handle shank to give you more leverage. Your Penn could probably benefit from the same. I can quite happily winch 32 ounce snapper sinkers with mine - put the kidney harness and gimbal belt on and it's almost no effort at all.

[Dignity]

What sized snapper leads are you running? For anything less than a pound these days I have gone back to heavy spin tackle - in my case a Saragosa 25000 but for weights of a pound and upwards, I still go for my overhead which is a modified Tyrnos 30. The Tyrnos 20 would be more than adequate as well - the secret lies in an extended handle shank to give you more leverage. Your Penn could probably benefit from the same. I can quite happily winch 32 ounce snapper sinkers with mine - put the kidney harness and gimbal belt on and it's almost no effort at all.

or plug it in and allow the electric reel to do all the work. BCF have the 25000SW at $327 for club members at the moment

[scottar]

and plug it in and allow the electric reel to do all the work.

Not yet mate. Still doing it old school. Give it time though . I'll get me one of those whiting electrics like Rob first methinks.

[ThePinkPanther]

What sized snapper leads are you running? For anything less than a pound these days I have gone back to heavy spin tackle - in my case a Saragosa 25000 but for weights of a pound and upwards, I still go for my overhead which is a modified Tyrnos 30. The Tyrnos 20 would be more than adequate as well - the secret lies in an extended handle shank to give you more leverage. Your Penn could probably benefit from the same. I can quite happily winch 32 ounce snapper sinkers with mine - put the kidney harness and gimbal belt on and it's almost no effort at all.

Ummmmm, big ones I think?

Never bothered to weigh them but they're around 8-10 cm long and maybe 20 wide, typical pointy end and moulded loop for the line, doubt they would be a kilo!

I've got an extended handle for my Penn but the bloody thing weighs a ton and after 8 hours up down up down it gets pretty tiring .................

Might catch the odd big guy but generally they range up to 10 kgs max, more in the 2-5 kg class, pan size!

Those Saragosa look pretty good but would your 25000 be a bit heavy for my type of bottom bashing?

Thanks for reply!

[Dignity]

Not yet mate. Still doing it old school. Give it time though . I'll get me one of those whiting electrics like Rob first methinks.

Rob has upgraded his as he reckons the flathead pull too hard but wait there's more..... he's now upgrading again

PP I edited my post and you may have missed it BCF have them at $327 which now makes me want to go out and buy one tomorrow.

[Dignity]

Or if you aren't already a Dinga member Join and they will give you a $25 voucher off your first purchase and they have them at $328 with free postage. Bargain if less 25

[scottar]

Ummmmm, big ones I think?

Never bothered to weigh them but they're around 8-10 cm long and maybe 20 wide, typical pointy end and moulded loop for the line, doubt they would be a kilo!

I've got an extended handle for my Penn but the bloody thing weighs a ton and after 8 hours up down up down it gets pretty tiring .................

Might catch the odd big guy but generally they range up to 10 kgs max, more in the 2-5 kg class, pan size!

Those Saragosa look pretty good but would your 25000 be a bit heavy for my type of bottom bashing?

Thanks for reply!

Snapper leads sometimes have a number moulded into them indicating their weight in ounces. At 8-10 cm long they sound like 8's or 12's - only babies - about 4 to the kilo. The "Gosa" 25000 is a big spin reel but I went that big for gearing and line capacity. I fish 50lb braid on it. If you go smaller, not only do you run into gear ratio issues making unladen retrieval harder once you start running a bit or weight ( I hate having to pump and wind to simply retrieve a sinker) , but the smaller spool means your retrieval rate is slower - even more so once it's half empty of line. It also means that one decent bust off where you lose a bit of line and you almost need to respool. I have also upgraded the gosa's handle to a T-bar set up. If you are looking to keep your reel weight down, you may be better off going to braid rather than mono and looking at things like Daiwa Saltist overheads or Shimano Toriums or the Penn equivalents - just bear in mind if you do need to fish heavier you will be better off with the Senator. The other thing to take into account with the spin gear is that the weight of the reel doesn't fight you as much - one of the main reasons I changed over - due to a wrist injury. It's not trying to turn over all the time. What size is your Penn?

[blacklab]

What size Penn senator are you using ?
I have a 4/0 kitted out with Tiburon one piece frame and t bar handle, can hold huge amounts of braid or even 30-40 lb mono, thats my go too for those depths, bullet proof. would pull up a 10kg fish or repeated wind ups with just the sinker with ease. I too have a few Saragosa's and fish them as well, but cant go past The 4/0 for that sort of work,,, will also take on anything up to 80-90 lb. Maybe I'm just old school, and I admit I'm a Penn buff and trick all my senators out, but even mates that fish with me grab the extra 4/0's as well. If your bottom bashing with a senator any bigger than a 4/0, then yep, to heavy........
This one has had all the internals swapped out for stainless steel parts and a 7+1 upgraded drag system, it will pull 25lb of drag easily.
The total cost of the rebuild from standard was about $350, pretty hard to beat compared to whats available in comparison.
Breath some life into some of your old Senators and come over to the dark side !
Col

[ThePinkPanther]

Thanks for all the great advice guys,much appreciated!

I went down to my local BCF and got onto a young guy who was all over the various reels knowledge wise and I finished up getting a SARAGOSA 20000.

Kind of influenced by the "on sale" special and down from $449 to $289 on the day whereas the Penn Slammer III 8500 was still around $450.00.

Capacity of 35 lb Sneider Mono is 300 metres vs the Penn of 210, big difference - yeh and I hate braid, can't feel the buggers biting!

The Penn has a slightly higher recovery rate of 5.1 vs about 4.5 but not a big deal for what I am after being bottom bashing!

So, hoping for great weather next Sunday on Big Cat Charters out of Raby Bay Brisbane.

My old Penn owes me nothing being around 35 years old and has skull dragged in literally hundreds and hundreds of fish - before bag limits obviously!

Thanks again for advices!

[paullee]

Hi I would be interested to hear if you have more issues with line twist moving from an overhead to an egg beater. Used to hate the line twist issues years ago when bottom bashing paternoster rigs.
cheers..Paul

[scottar]

Thanks for all the great advice guys,much appreciated!

I went down to my local BCF and got onto a young guy who was all over the various reels knowledge wise and I finished up getting a SARAGOSA 20000.

Kind of influenced by the "on sale" special and down from $449 to $289 on the day whereas the Penn Slammer III 8500 was still around $450.00.

Capacity of 35 lb Sneider Mono is 300 metres vs the Penn of 210, big difference - yeh and I hate braid, can't feel the buggers biting!

The Penn has a slightly higher recovery rate of 5.1 vs about 4.5 but not a big deal for what I am after being bottom bashing!

So, hoping for great weather next Sunday on Big Cat Charters out of Raby Bay Brisbane.

My old Penn owes me nothing being around 35 years old and has skull dragged in literally hundreds and hundreds of fish - before bag limits obviously!

Thanks again for advices!

Good stuff. The other thing I became fond of that I forgot to mention is the ability to flick the bail arm over with the rod in the holder and throw the snapper led and rig away from the boat and then just keep an eye on it while doing other things - no need to thumb it down to stop over runs.

[ThePinkPanther]

Hi I would be interested to hear if you have more issues with line twist moving from an overhead to an egg beater. Used to hate the line twist issues years ago when bottom bashing paternoster rigs.
cheers..Paul

I've had a few smallish egg beater reels and always trailed a hundred or so metres out the back of the boat on the way home from fishing - bit of a problem if you don't have a boat I will admit!

Surprisingly enough you don't need a sinker or any weight on the line as it just flops along happily and seems to get the twisty bit out.......

On my Penn the biggest moan I have is that when fishing in 80+ metres of water with a bit of current running, the instant the snapper sinker hits the bottom the bloody thing keeps unspooling no matter how fast you are with your thumb!

Every drop, you say, I won't do that again after having untangled a squillion overruns on the reel ........ but you do, or rather I do anyway! The ratchet works OK but the other guys on the boat get thoroughly pissed off with the noise!

[BigE]

FinNor lethal 100, excellent budget reel for fishing less than 80m with 8 or 12 oz leads , has a good write up from Alan Hawk as well.

I got one as a present ...... now i have 3 under $200 bucks ( I got one for $99)

BigE