I have been using this reel for 18 months now and have found the following. 1. Heavy but utterly smooth in operation for Giant Trevally popper fishing which I do just about every weekend here in Fiji. 2. The retrieve rate is a bit slow and I would advise buyers to pick a SW10000HG which has 6:1 gear ratio as opposed to a 4.4:1 on the SW20000PG. 3. The drag is unbelievable straight out of the box and for those used to Penn Spinfishers, Daiwa BG 90 etc like I was it takes a bit of getting used to as it will pull you over the boat if you have it on too tight. Incredible. One notable failure. Bail arm wire popped out of the bail arm but was fixed with loctite and no drama since. The reel comes with a spare spool and maintenance lubes as well as spare drag washers. I would summarise by saying if you want to do heavy duty popper fishing for trophy class fish you really cannot walk past the Stella 10000 or 20000. No wonder it is so highly regarded by world reknown popper fishing specialists.
Been using the Stella for over a year and a half. The reel has yet to fail one time. It is one great reel.
i have a pg and just ordered and fa for the cinco. it is awesome, but then again, it is the only spinner i have used for big water fishing. you can horse em a bit, unless they are tailwrapped(lol), then just sit back and enjoy the sweat
Excellent reel. I have a 20000 and an old style 16000, both very smooth but I prefer the older style for some unknown reason! Maybe because it's my lucky reel
All sizes of the Stella series are excellent reels. They are expensive but worth the price. The only difference of the two large ones (20K and 10K) is the gear ratio and spool capacity. Since we don't have GT's in the Gulf of Mexico I prefer the 20K with the lower gear ratio. Watch out for the drag handling capabilities on these reels. They can handle 65 pounds. I once saw a guy loose a 20K while bring up an AJ. The fish seemed to had given up about midway and the angler gave two or more rotations on the drag so he could horse the fish up. Bad mistake. The fish came to life when he saw the boat and the 60 pounds of drag ripped the rod right out of his hands.
I have laid in a collection for future use (too busy now to do much) of 20K, 8K, 5K, 2.5K, and 1K, all with extra spools. I have only extensively used the 1000 and the 2500 on FW farm ponds for captive-audience bass up to 4 pounds or so and they are dynamite. I fished the little guy with 10 pound Power Pro on Randy's Smith LTD KGS 510L rod with about 4-5 pounds of drag and it was phenomenal. Even though that rod is relatively small, it is intended for very light offshore use, and the little 1000 looked like a flea hanging off of it. But it behaved like a much larger reel. On the other reels, 5K and up, I have only tested drag in the garage, and pulled on various rods with them. But if they fish anything like their tiny little brother, I will be in love with them. Russ
