Poseidon 400R

[Bryan Young]

Very interesting write up.  Thanks for sharing.

[fishingjack]

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.

[huxpat]

    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.

   jigging 400R for grouper

    500R on 135 lb marlin

[Jamie D]

Has Anyone found a good parts supplier for these reels online ? I am keen to find a source for services