Poseidon 400R

Started by huxpat, February 09, 2013, 11:42:02 PM

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huxpat

    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.

Surprisingly adequate grease on main gear, pinion, and on sideplate bearing.

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".

Though not readily obvious, a touch with a finger confirmed a greased drag washer with a nice sooty black drag grease.

Popped the cam out and it was well lathered in grease.


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.

alantani

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
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

bluefish69

Alan

Is that what happened to you?
I have not failed.  I just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

alantani

#3
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
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Cone

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
"Quemadmoeum gladuis neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." (A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands.)
   -    Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 4 BC – 65 AD

alantani

Ah, you remember that one, huh?
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

huxpat

   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

alantani

how is the mail delivery.  reliable?
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

huxpat

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!

alantani

if you need parts, let me know.
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

Cone

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
"Quemadmoeum gladuis neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." (A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands.)
   -    Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 4 BC – 65 AD

huxpat

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.

alantani

i rarely use a clicker.  personally, i'd yank everything out and be done with it. 
send me an email at alantani@yahoo.com for questions!

huxpat

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.



makomania

Any updates? And does it click when you turn the handle?

Thinking of trying one. :)