Saragosa - anyone used it yet?

[woody]

Gday guys, just after a bit of info on the the new Saragosa? Over here in Australia we wont get it till May sometime, and while its look the goods on paper I'd like to hear from people who have bought one and fished with it, particulary the 18000.
Over here its very common to get a Spheros 14000 and add the xtra bearing and change the drag washers for carbontex ones, and then use it for popping and jigging.

It seems shimano has done the work for us with this model.

A local tackle shop owner has seen one and his first comment was that its drag washer was very small compared to the spheros?? Anyone confirm this? That would be a worry if it is...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Woody

[tess113]

Anyone that wants to replace the drag washers,with smoothies,and dont want to wait,you can use the same ones I got from Dawn.I just drilled out the hole in center,slightly larger.....took about a minute....I held all the drag washers between the SS washers,and lightly clamped,and then drilled it out.
The diameter,is 11/16 inch.Here is a pic.

[woody]

Hi guys, anyone got any feedback on the Saragosas? Interested to see how the drag system performs.

Cheers

Woody

[rtran]

for the price, its well worth it and looks good too.

[BretABaker]

woody - check out kilsong's review of it when he jigged AJs in NC. I'm going to do the exact same thing in May, so I'll post my experience (though i think it will be the same).

[JerseyBrian]

Originally Posted by BretABaker

woody - check out kilsong's review of it when he jigged AJs in NC. I'm going to do the exact same thing in May, so I'll post my experience (though i think it will be the same).

And then I will follow suit, shortly Are you going to be switching out the drag for the carbontex Bret? This will be my main jigging reel.

[BretABaker]

no, i'll keep it the same. I'll use my stella as the main reel most likely. the reason i don't plan on changing anything is that if Shimano claims this can do 44lbs of drag, but its sticky at 28lbs....then that is a problem they should know about, and fix themselves.

[JerseyBrian]

^Amen

[ksong]

Originally Posted by woody

Hi guys, anyone got any feedback on the Saragosas? Interested to see how the drag system performs.

Cheers

Woody

I caught over a dozen of 40 - 70 lbs AJ on Saragoda reel out of box and I don't see any damage of the reel. I used about 23 - 25 lbs drag.
I am going to test the reel again on Monday.

[SpecialK]

If it can handle a big dog AJ like that it should be a winner when it comes to most of the school size tuna IMO.
I like my saragosa. I have not had a chance to catchanything other than a 25lb black drum with it though.

[JerseyBrian]

Originally Posted by ksong

I am going to test the reel again on Monday.

Where to now Kil?