The War of
Middleweights
No holds
barred extreme field testing of four 4000 sized spinning reel against the
tackle busting Mekong Giant Catfish.
When you go to war, no matter how prepared you
are, you are not bullet-proof. So, this is the report of an abuse: four 4000
sized spinning reel, with cranked down drags, loaded with 50lbs braid ready to
fight one of the most powerful freshwater fish: the Mekong Giant Catfish. These
reels were paired with a 2pcs. Bass Pro Shops Inshore Extreme spinning rod
(2013 “blue” model), up to 3oz. of casting power. When I first took it to an inshore
fishing trip in Cuba, everyone was making fun of it, but after the first landed
tuna, this rod got its deserved respect; same here in Thailand, when the guides
saw it, they jockingly said that it was a bass rod, but after the first big
Mekong Giant Catfish they learnt to respect it. I have seen rods with a tip the
size of a finger being broken by this tenacious fighters, but not the BPS
Inshore Extreme. After a 65lbs Yellowfin Tuna and a 70lbs Cubera Snapper
(another very strong fighter), I just love this rod: my travel rod of choice.
 |
| A guy whose rod was just broken by a Mekong Giant Catfish that was running along the pier. |
The scenario of this war is the famous lake of
Bangkok: the Bangsamram park. Many people search info on the net regarding this
monsters filled lake and how to fish it. This is the best advice on fishing it:
get a guide, because the frequency of casting is no less than one cast every
three minutes and fighting the fish is already tiring enough.
The Mekong Giant Catfish is a powerful son of a
bitch. The first run of the first MGC I hooked (a 66lbs fellow) reminded me of
a same size Yellowfin Tuna I hooked with the same rod (but a bigger spinning reel).
The speed was not the same, but the MGC is certainly the strongest freshwater
fish I have ever hooked, and comparable to the Cubera Snapper yet with more
stamina. The first fights were about 20 to 25 minutes long, but as I learned
that I could use pretty high drag settings, then lasted between 10 and 15
minutes of brutal intensity. I am a well trained individual, and such high drag
settings are not for everyone, especially if you happen to hook three fish, one
after the other. That’s a pretty tiring experience.
That’s all for the fishing technique part, now
we go to our main subject, how the reels performed.
ABU GARCIA REVO INSHORE 40
It was definitely the most pleasurable reel to
fish, except for the small handle. Love the look and finish. One of its strong
points is its Carbon Matrix drag strength and smoothness; so strong that the
body could not actually handle it, as I painfully found out with the last fish
of the trip. The drag is easily adjustable during the fight although a bit hard
to turn, the ramp is nicely progressive. Unfortunately the body stem, despite
the “Nano-technology”, flexes with high drag settings and it finally gave up
with the last fish. The handle is small and the knob got unscrew during a
couple of fights, while the handle itself overscrewed during one fight with
very high drag setting, slowing down the reel. The gears are excellent, they
kept going strong and smooth despite five very hard fights at high drag
settings. The line lay is perfect and sweetly matches the great drag. The spool
is stable under pressure, thanks to the ball bearing that inserts underneath it
(I put a ball bearing in place of the plastic bushing). As I learnt too late,
the Orra SX is actually the heavy duty boy of the ABU spinning reel family,
sporting an aluminium alloy frame (X-Craftic), not as sexy, but probably more
functional. Better yet, give me an Inshore 50 with aluminium body!
PENN BATTLE 4000
A favourite of the locals in the size 5000 and
6000, there was an American expatriate that was swearing over his Battle 5000
that had helped him land “around 50 mekong and still going strong”. Well, that
is not the case with the Battle 4000. Great drag, very smooth, easily
adjustable, predictable ramp, HT100 rulez! The improved line lay over the old
Penns exalts the great drag. The spool is stable under pressure, thanks to the
large ball bearing underneath it and the large sleeve that inserts into it. The
body is rigid and does not flex under pressure, the handle is long and the knob
has a good fit. The gears are very precise, with no plays whatsoever. Problem
is.. the gears got shot after the first fish. After landing that single fish,
by spinning the handle you could clearly hear the gears and when slowing down,
the gear sound turned into a growling. Give me a hardened gears Battle 4000 and
I would fish it any day. Till then.. it is out of the game.
OKUMA RAW II 40
Okuma gets mixed feedback, mostly because they
have been having a high number of cheapo models in their line-up, while its
flagship models, which still remains in the mid range price, are often compared
to much more expensive reels. The Okuma Salina usually gets good reviews, and I
have had good experiences with it, too, except for the gears that have a
tendency to growl pretty fast with heavy duty usage. That was not the case with
the RAW II which is based on the Salina. Maybe because the RAW II actually has
“high density gears” while the Salina only has them on the box of the reel? Who
knows.. Nevertheless, the RAW II was the best performer of the pack. The dual
surface drag, coupled with a perfect line lay, is outstanding: smooth,
progressive, easily adjustable and predictable, powerful. The body is rigid,
and does not flex even under high drag settings. I can tell you from
experimental experience that at full drag it would be the bail arm to go, but
that would be a drag pressure that nobody would use with 40 size reels for
practical fishing. The original handle was small, with a small knob, so I used
a Okuma VS 40 handle, which was just perfect: longer with a fatter knob. The
gearing was still going strong after several Mekong Giant Catfish. The gearing,
though, is neither very precise, nor very smooth.
QUANTUM CATALYST INSHORE 40
The Quantum Catalyst feels very solid.
Unfortunately the drag is not up to par with the rest of the pack. Still a good
drag: powerful (I even substituted the felt washers with carbon ones), pretty
smooth, it is a bit penalized by a less than perfect line lay and the spool
instability (it inclines toward the line pull with high drag settings); the
spool also has a lot of transverse plane play, but that seems not to affect
neither the drag performance, nor the health of the internal gears. Not sure
that would be the case in the long term. Yet, the worst aspect of the Catalyst’s
drag, for my taste, is its adjustability and ramp: it starts too progressive
and then ramps up too rapidly, making the drag adjustments too unpredictable.
And it is not the first case, in my experience, with Quantum’s spinning reels.
The body is rigid and strong, while the handle is a bit short and with a small
knob. The gearing is strong and precise,
feels like it could handle endless number of Mekong Giant Catfish, great job
PTGears! Looking forward to using the new Quantum Cabo 40 PTd with improved
dual surface drag.
Reels
|
Abu Garcia
Revo Inshore Spinning 40
|
Penn
Battle 4000
|
Okuma
Raw II 40
|
Quantum
Catalyst PT 40
|
Drag
|
||||
Smoothness
|
*****
|
*****
|
*****
|
****
|
Adjustability and Ramp
|
****
|
****
|
*****
|
***
|
Body
|
||||
Rigidity
|
-*****
|
*****
|
*****
|
*****
|
Handle
|
**
|
*****
|
*****
|
****
|
Gearing
|
||||
Resiliency
|
*****
|
-*****
|
*****
|
*****
|
Precision
|
*****
|
****
|
***
|
*****
|
Line Lay
|
*****
|
****
|
*****
|
***
|
Spool Stabiity Under Pressure
|
*****
|
*****
|
*****
|
***
|
Score
|
37
|
36
|
48
|
37
|
