I want to preface this by saying it's a very incomplete look, and the reel has a lot of proving itself to be done, but Alan thought I should share it so here goes. Some background to this purchase - my family has used Accurate 197's for deepwater jigging grouper since the early 2000's when my brother and father won a Finest Kind grouper tournament in Florida and put the money to some high quality jigging reels. When you're bouncing 12-20 oz jigs in 300-500' of water, you want the lightest and strongest rod/reel setup you can get. A reel under 16 oz that could easily fish 12-13 lbs of drag with 30 lb braid was what my brother was looking for, and Accurate was the first to build it. He got them upgraded to the dual anti-reverse bearings and is still happily fishing them over a decade later. But Accurate took many twists and turns with those reels, added unnecessary weight, and then discontinued them. They got overly focused on two speeds which we have no use for. The sub-16 oz single speed reel market strong enough for grouper turned into a void - little Avets didn't cut it drag-wise. Accurate's technology and twin drag patents were stolen right and left by companies manufacturing out of China - which there's been plenty of talk about on this board in regards to Blue Heaven/Maxel/Jigging Master- but nothing that interested me was produced. No one tried to emulate the Boss 197 or 270, the only reels that interested me (and the latter by Accurate was always heavier than I wanted). I saw an Ebay listing for a reel I never heard of called the Poseidon 400R being sold out of Malaysia and Thailand. The company Poseidon Reels actually has a surprising number of videos on youtube of it catching big Thai catfish and being tested at a trade show. They actually seemed to be pretending to be something of a company rather than a mere knockoff brand. But they also seemed to be limiting themselves to almost exclusively just marketing in in Thailand and Malaysia so as to avoid problems with Accurate.
Since all these sorts of things are well known YGWYPF, the price point has to be mighty tempting to take a flier on such a reel. Most of these kind of companies sell their reels for so much that it seems, why not get an Accurate or Avet. My brother thought the model I got was a slightly large Boss 197-equivalent, but in fact it was a 270-size. Yet they shaved weight everywhere they could and brought it in at 16oz, as light as the original Boss 197. The handle is really nice, it's a 5:1 gear ratio, and they added two bearings in place of bushings on the Accurate - probably unnecessarily - so it's 7 bearings (Japanese) plus 2 anti-reverse bearings. The price was $198, and if one buys them from a shop in Thailand it seems more like $140-150. Okay, red flags, is anyone really expecting titanium drag plates and carbon fiber washers as they claimed and a well made Accurate-like reel for that? Was definitely a flier. Made in China for all I know at one of the same factories knocking out all those other twin drag reels, except it's a slightly different look both externally and internally than most of them. I had just started catching deepwater grouper where I live in Mexico for the first time, and notched up one IGFA all-tackle world record for a Gulf Coney and also landed a few star-studded grouper above the world record. The make-do setup of using one of my TLD25 trolling reels to do this was driving me crazy with its clunkiness, and my ancient Penn LD25 didn't have the drag power needed. So I ordered the Poseidon, spooled it with 450-500 yards of 50 lb Power Pro, and went out and caught a 28 lb star-studded grouper its first day out, which it handled beautifully. Everything about it was smooth as silk, and though there's no reason for me to need more than 12-13 lbs of drag for jigging grouper, strike drag tested well beyond that with good free spool. Mostly been smaller fish since then, so no great testing of it's capabilities, but a big plus that it at least delivered everything I wanted straight out of the box. I decided this week it was time to look inside, sure I'd find no grease, a quick onset of corrosion, some signs of YGWYPF. I only did a partial breakdown, shown here and also including removing the spool and checking the left spool shaft bearing and clicker which isn't shown here. Will do a full breakdown sometime in future that I'll post when it's seen more use or develops problems.
They include the hex wrench for the side plate screws. Five screws and pop the e-clip on the preset to pull off right side plate as a whole.
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/poseidonreel1.jpg)
Surprisingly adequate grease on main gear, pinion, and on sideplate bearing.
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/poseidonreel2.jpg)
Right side of drag - no way of being sure it's a titanium plate, but inclined to believe them. Grease between it and the outer plate - what Accurate calls the "drag bevel washer".
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/poseidonreel3.jpg)
Though not readily obvious, a touch with a finger confirmed a greased drag washer with a nice sooty black drag grease.
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/poseidonreel4.jpg)
Popped the cam out and it was well lathered in grease.
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/poseidonreel5.jpg)
The left side, once I took the spool off, was fairly dry so I put some grease around the clicker and screws and on the bearing. At this juncture I'm trusting the bearings are packed. We'll see. Right sideplate bearing is usually the first to fail if not. My rod I have it on is only comfortable at about 12-13 lbs of drag straight up and down so I'm not likely to tax the anti-reverse bearings - the weak link in most jigging reels - too much by going all out with it. Also I only tend to fish 8-12 oz jigs here in Mexico, it's bouncing the 16-20 oz ones with a grouper savagely hitting on the rod's upswing that will really test an anti-reverse's mettle. Anyway, very much a time will tell thing and I'll post further news on it as time goes by and I break it down further. They at least have a Facebook page - where they post a parts diagram - though everyone converses in Thai on it. It remains to be seen whether it would ever be possible to get parts for it. Bearings I'm sure I can get from Boca Bearings. Very much a curiosity in what a total unknown it is outside the Thai/Malay catfishing world, but so far so good. The only similar offering I've seen is the Canyon HS-16 which so far I've seen zero feedback on and costs a good chunk more. Here's the first grouper on the Poseidon.
(http://www.huatulcoadventure.com/Images/Fishing/28boba.jpg)
thanks for posting this. your fame will soon spread far and wide. boxes of reels will soon litter your doorstep. reminds me of an old japanese curse. "may you never run out of reels to fix......". ;D
Alan
Is that what happened to you?
yes, it was so sad. my life was carefree before i started working on fishing reels. i had all the time in the world and would wait on my wife, hand and foot. i was totally devoted to her. they were the happiest days of my life... :'(
soon george's fame will spread throughout the country. total strangers will knock on his door. his life will never be the same. ;D
Nice grouper George! Don't let Alan talk you into locking your wife and dog in the garage to see which one is happy to see you when you let them out. ;D Bob
Ah, you remember that one, huh?
Well, my only dependent is a gecko that lives in the spice cabinet and he doesn't seem to care if I'm here or not as long as there's a good supply of oregano or whatever it is he lives on. Married men glance enviously into my condo passing by, at the rows of rods on the ceiling, the shelves of fishing gear, the coffee table littered with tools, hooks, crimps, epoxy, and reels, and they sigh appreciatively - "Man cave!" So a line of humble local fishermen bringing me their battered old Internationals and Shimano's to fix probably won't change my life much except I'll be well fed as a result of accepting tamales in payment. ;D
how is the mail delivery. reliable?
Doesn't have a reputation as such, but I've gotten everything that's been mailed to me. But I usually don't have people send me anything more than letters/documents - anything of value I don't know. My brother's family sent me an Xmas card only addressed to me and my street address in Santa Cruz Huatulco - no Oaxaca, no postcode, no country - and it got here, so it can't be too bad!
if you need parts, let me know.
Quote from: alantani on February 10, 2013, 06:50:15 AM
Ah, you remember that one, huh?
I sure do. I don't have to try it to know how it would turn out. ;) Bob
First sign of Chinese junk in reel - clicker snapped today, froze up reel from turning and had to handline the line in, luckily no fish on! Cheap pot metal clicker piece just broke in half inside reel.
i rarely use a clicker. personally, i'd yank everything out and be done with it.
As a jigging reel, I have no use for clickers either. But, I do like to leave my reels stored with the drag in free spool and the clicker on to keep the line from unwinding. So I went through the arduous task of making a new one out of 1/8" aluminum bar without any precision equipment to work with, just an angle grinder with cutoff wheel, Dremel tool with cutoff wheel, a drill, and a file. First photo is the broken one. Note that the screw plate is half the thickness of the arrow piece. I had to countersink the screw into the new piece that was full height. Not the prettiest clicker in the world, but very functional.
(http://www.huatulcofishing.com/Images/clicker1.jpg)
(http://www.huatulcofishing.com/Images/clicker2.jpg)
Any updates? And does it click when you turn the handle?
Thinking of trying one. :)
Very interesting write up. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Op,
I fish Thailand a lot and these reels made a recent appearance. I fish at many of the 'fishing parks', stocked lakes with big mekong catfish in them and some Siamese Carp. These fish are strong and would generally be suited to a 7000 size Abu reel. I started out with a 6500 and it handles the fish but more drag is better. It's running around 15lbs drag.
Accurates have always been held in high regard due to their small size and excellent drag. On these small lakes fish can't go far so the small 197 and 270 Boss reels are often used. 400 models in the newer versions. Jigging masters are popular for the same reason, often using PE3 sizes.
The fishing parks are generally fished by the wealthy and upper middle classes. To fish a day can maybe add up to near $40 with the ticket to fish, beer, food, bait etc. Minimum wage is still $9 a day in Thailand. Typical salaries for the upper middle classes can be around $900 a month from what I hear but I can't confirm that. So an accurate or a JM costs a fair whack. This seems to have made some of the clones of these reels popular. The Poseidon is the closest thing to an accurate that I've seen. Ajiking's also appear similar with their new Sealine but they don't have the distinctive cast control on the side.
The 400R models seems to be about $127 in Thailand and $145 for the 2 speed. I myself got an Ajiking pro jigger as it looked identical to an Accurate SX. It looked great. The selling point for me was the 15kg (33lbs) drag it claimed. I was new to multipliers at the time. Only using Abu Garcias. My Abu has 15lbs drag, 33lbs sounded great. Well straight away after testing it managed 8lbs out of the box, 12lbs with some tweaking. Funnily enough around about what the Avet SX gets! It is a carbon copy so it figures. Reliability wise it has been fine.
I'd be extremely skeptical therefore of the claimed drag on the Poseidon. Stated at 66lbs!
Following another misadventure with an Ajiking Samson-z which broke 5 mins out of the box I decided to just invest in a top quality reel. The Samson claimed 110lbs of drag, equivalent to something like an Avet T-RX. I never got to test it. The reel I bought was an Alutecnos Gorilla 12. It claims a massive 40lbs drag. The reel is well engineered and as solid as a tank! It's proven on bluefin. I can't imagine a Poseidon coming close to it. While the reel costs substantially more, I wont be replacing it anywhere near as often as I imagine I'd replace the Poseidon. It also gives me faith that I have a proven reel when I hook a really big fish. So far I have pulled in the catfish with no bother and barely pushing the reel, but I've also put 7ft bullsharks away with it.
The Poseidon reels are cheap but I suspect you get what you pay for. That has been my experience of reels from Asia.
I never followed up much on my experiences with this reel, but it held up quite well for me within the limits it should have been fished. I tested the 300R and the 500R as well since then, and the 500R's have been the most problem-free, being beefier 23 oz reels in the single speed model and equivalent to the old Accurate 870. The twin stainless AR bearings have never failed yet on any of the reels, AR bearings usually a weak spot in tiny jigging reels, and something Accurate struggled with for years. Poseidon supposedly has added a backup dog since 2014, but I can't seem to get any more product out of them to test. Where my original 400R finally ended up dismantled in pieces to be used for spare parts was due to a fight with a 150-160 lb striped marlin, where the novice angler torqued the reel handle too hard when we had it near the boat (I had put an Ultimate Jigging Handle on it to replace the smaller original), and it snapped the screw that clamps the handle lever arm on to the driveshaft. Then I discovered the square insert on the lever arm that locks on to the driveshaft had worn round, so even when I replaced the screw, the handle still rotated freely around the driveshaft under pressure. Cheap Chinese stainless in both cases failed, which is where I expected the reel to fail. The Japanese stainless bearings in the reel have been problem-free. But the 300 and 400R's are 16oz reels that were never meant to fish marlin, so I can't complain too much. They fished tenspine grouper very effectively again last season.
i fought a 300 lb blue marlin for about 20 minutes on the 300R, and I was mostly amazed the reel didn't melt during the first run. The marlin bill-wrapped the leader and cut through the braid ahead of the leader before I could put it through the paces any more. The reel has been a little grind-y winding under pressure for awhile, I'm not sure from that fight or it had already been happening. I theorize the spool shaft may be slightly bent, causing the pinion and main gear to grind. Replaced the pinion bearing without it making a difference.
I've caught two striped marlin 135 and 145 lbs on the 500R's without any trouble. Of course the max drag listing of 66 lbs on the reels is farcical, but I rarely pay it attention on any reel. The 500R's have been happily fished up to 18 lbs on marlin without problem, with good free spool. Since very few people are strong enough to fish a lugless reel sans harness with more than 16 lbs of drag for any period of time (that aren't rail fishing), that's all the reel really needs to achieve.
Anyway, here are a couple of videos of the reels in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rab64wn5cBg jigging 400R for grouper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYAj0CU_t8 500R on 135 lb marlin
Has Anyone found a good parts supplier for these reels online ? I am keen to find a source for services