# Wearing out gears



## Guest (Feb 16, 2014)

I wore out the gears of two $200 reels in about a year (very heavy use, not reel flaw). Both died within a week of each other  While one is having its gears replaced, the other is beyond reasonable repair. It is time to think about replacements.

Shimano Saragosa 5000 was recommended by a supplier as a tough reel at a reasonable price. The gearing ratio indicates it has good cranking power and is waterproof but it looks to be too heavy (when not used on the yak it will do a lot of work tossing plugs from the beach).

I need: 
- tough
- light
- waterproof (enough to survive upside-downing in a yak and standing belly deep on sandbars being splashed by waves or an occasional slight dunk when forced to swim to shore through surf with a fish on)
- about 85-100cm line retrieved per handle crank to avoid wearing out my arm and raising blisters/callouses.
- capacity around Shimano 4000 or 5000 size 
- not terribly expensive to buy or service.

So far, that seems to rule out all reels. Apart from the weight, the Shimano Saragosa seems OK. What other reels might come close?


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## avayak (May 23, 2007)

Van Staal or an Alvey. There does not seem to be anything in between with the waterproofness that you are after.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2014)

avayak said:


> Van Staal or an Alvey. There does not seem to be anything in between with the waterproofness that you are after.


I drooled over a Van Stall and prefer the no bail arm design to a regular spinning reel but with the amount of fishing I do, a Van Stall seems to become prohibitively expensive to service if you follow their recommendation (two or three times a year for heavy use) or am I missing the $89 service kit being good for more than one use?

I have a three Alveys and like their robust cranking power and bullet-proof design but would not use one to spin.


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2014)

If a Stradic, I presume FJ which is listed as a saltwater reel?


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## billpatt (Apr 12, 2010)

I like the sedonas with a dose of salt away after dunkings. Mine have lasted going on two years now.


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2014)

Bertros said:


> I love my two Saragosas (5000) and don't find them too heavy from the yak given the heavier setup... They also did ok flinging poppers around for a couple of days on the reefs in Kandavu, Fiji. Is the weight differential really that much of a worry?


If it was just for the yak, the decision would be easy. However, I am uncommonly fond of walking beaches spinning(and running if a school is in sight). The table below shows a strange weight progression from model to model. From 4000 to 5000 is a significant jump, yet the 4000 is lighter than the 3000 and there's not much difference between the 5000 and 1000. While I could use the more robust gear set apparently installed in the 5000 to 10000 models, I could do without the 230 grams.

Someone else must make some worthy reels. Is there anything from Daiwa, Penn, Pflueger etc that goes close?


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Ok I'll bite - how did you wear out the gears?


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2014)

anselmo said:


> Ok I'll bite


There's no lure to bite on.

One was a very light reel and was not up to the task but was used on the occasions the other was in for repair under warranty. That reel was bought for fishing light from the yak and is the one that had a couple of baths in surf break. The second had gears go due to volume of work - I fish heavy most days of the year. Strong rips produce a lot of pressure on 80 meters of line with a 50 gram slug attached. So it often worked hard without a fish on. It handled a lot of hooked fish (not as many landed :? ). Me using a little less cranking power might help but that's part of what I find I need to do to control a salmon in the shore break (not always successfully). More TLC would not go astray. While I know how to strip a reel, I tend to take the lazy way and spray Lanox once in a while.

Hmmm, Thinking about service led me to wonder whether the reel that should have been up to the work was re-assembled with full attention to detail when it went away to the manufacturer to have warranty replacement of snapped feet - both feet cracked off when I sand-spiked the rod one day. This also, was due to heavy use - I could not even begin to estimate the number of times the rod was spiked with that reel on, often into the incredibly dense sand at my favourite fishing location. It would number in the thousands rather than hundreds. After the repair, I bought a rod with rubber-capped butt to avoid the temptation to spike.

Anyone inclined to lend me a reel for a couple of months. I promise to treat it like it was my own :twisted: :lol: :twisted: :lol:


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## Guest (Feb 18, 2014)

Wandered in to check whether my reel was ready today. Its not. While there I looked at a Saragosa 5000. "You can have that for {very competitive price}". Its heavier than I wanted for the spin stick but I decided to test myself and if it doesn't work out, it becomes at yak and rock reel. Meanwhile, still on the hunt for a lighter robust reel.

EDIT: That should have read 'Saragosa SW' 5000. The SW model is the one that has the seals. 5000 is the smallest Shimano makes in that model.


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

You will most likely find with the Saragosa there are only 3 bodies in the range and just the spool sizes change adding a little more weight for extra capacity.
Rob


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

Weights for the Salina 3 are as follows.
SA3-4000 0.63 Kg
SA3-5000 0.66 Kg
SA3-10000 0.86 Kg
SA3-16000 0.9 Kg

Sourced from http://******************.com/articles/ ... hing-reels
(Link doesn't seem to work but if you search on there for Salina 3 reels its in the discussion below the review)


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## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

What about the lightest Penn Spinfisher V @ 364gm & rated to 9kg drag?

Quote: Water Tight Design   A total of 6 seals (9 seals on the live liner models) are used to create the new Water Tight Design used in the Spinfisher V. Whether you dunk the reel in the surf, or let it ride in the spray all the way home, you don't have to worry about saltwater getting into the gearbox or drag system.

http://pennfishing.com.au/product/spinfisher-v/


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2014)

SharkNett said:


> Weights for the Salina 3 are as follows.
> SA3-4000 0.63 Kg
> SA3-5000 0.66 Kg
> SA3-10000 0.86 Kg
> ...


I needed to doctor out the spaces in 'modern kayak fishing.com...' in the link to make it work. I tried to create a modified link but in preview mode, the spaces were back again. Why this would happen defeats me but if anyone else has the same issue, remove the sets of '%20' in your browser address bar.

http://******************.com/articles/news/558-okuma-salina-3-fishing-reels

One the web page, after ten minutes I gave up looking for the weights. I Could not work out where to find the information! The only comment I could find with Salina in it was:


> XDCAMMER: Mmmmmmm just picked up my Salina 3 16000 high speed, spooled with 365m of 24kg Dog Tooth 8 ply, should do the business on the Godzilla I reckon&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.&#8230;Whoo Whoo!


Scrolling down produced nothing more. Presumably, you are subscribed and see additional information.


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2014)

Marty75 said:


> What about the lightest Penn Spinfisher V @ 364gm & rated to 9kg drag?
> 
> Quote: Water Tight Design   A total of 6 seals (9 seals on the live liner models) are used to create the new Water Tight Design used in the Spinfisher V. Whether you dunk the reel in the surf, or let it ride in the spray all the way home, you don't have to worry about saltwater getting into the gearbox or drag system.
> 
> http://pennfishing.com.au/product/spinfisher-v/


Thank you. A quick search of Australian sites found one for $160. At that price it seems a good budget reel. Its the first reel added to my list list of contenders for a backup reel.


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## Guest (Feb 20, 2014)

Reel blooded off the sand today. It performed very well. Weight didn't cause any major concerns - I suspect it creates a better balance on my 10' Starlo Surf rod and this offsets the extra weight. However, it lacks mojo. Only 14 fish landed on its first outing ;-)


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## Guest (Feb 21, 2014)

Mixed bag. Half salmon, half tailor. Better number of salmon today and a few less drops as the reel becomes more familiar. Testing it in the yak was tempting until I heard a spotter plane sighted three GWS in company with salmon almost in spitting distance of where I've been catching :shock:


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