Any suggestions

[headlight]

Here in the UK I do a lot of what we call "uptiding" this is where with the boat anchored in up to about 100ft depth we cast uptide away from the boat at an angle of around 45"-60 degrees to get the bait away from the "scare" area around the boat.
We use grip weights of 6-10oz & when the weight hits the bottom we let out a big loop of slack line between rod tip & weight.
Bites are normally signalled by the bent rod tip dropping back to straight as the fish hooks itself against the weight then breaks the weight out of the bottom (hope this makes sense).
Up till now I have been using Abu Ambassadeur 7500c3 Hi-Speed level wind reels.
The level wind is really handy for allowing you to quickly retrieve all the slack line without having to worry about laying the line (in my case 30lb braid).
Now good as the 7500 is for this (good casting, 5.3-1 retrieve & reasonable drag) my gripe is that the reel is a star drag.
As I set the drag to slip after casting out this means that I have to wind the drag up before hitting into the fish.
So what I am after is an Abu 7500 sized reel with level wind & lever drag that will cast reasonably well.
I personally don"t rate the Abu 7000c4ld so any suggestions ?
I know that over your side of the pond level winds are not rated but bear in mind that I am catching different types of fish to you, mainly rays up to 25lb, eels to about 40lbs, Cod to 20lbs, & smoothounds (a small toothless shark up to 20lbs).

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[alantani]

Not a big fan of levelwinds under so much load. I have the penn 320 gti's, but it's critical to shim the levelwind pawl.

[headlight]

Not a big fan of levelwinds under so much load. I have the penn 320 gti's, but it's critical to shim the levelwind pawl.

Plenty of level wind reels are used for boat fishing here in the UK Alan (as I said our fish are not as hard fighting as some of the ones you get your side of the pond) with no problems.
The level winds on my 7500"s have never shown a problem nor the level winds on my Charter Specials.
I also have a couple of Okuma Solterra"s with lever drag & level wind that I use when targeting big eels & small sharks.
If the Charter Specials I have had a higher retrieve & would cast ok I would use them for uptiding.
BTW did you manage to get those Charter Special parts sent to me ?
EDIT: Oops just saw the time over there it"s 6.30pm here 

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[Jeri]

Hi Headlight,

I'm familiar with uptiding,  used to practice it a  lot before we moved to Africa.

Appreciate the need to very quickly pick up line after the sinker breaks away, and get in contact with the hooked fish.

There are so few lever drags on the market with a level wind – a suggestion as you are using braid, is to consider a fixed spool reel ('spinner' for our American cousins).

The development of larger fixed spools in the last few years has been amazing, and they no longer suffer from weak drags or gears – as a generalisation, and a lot of models are specifically designed for salt water use and abuse.

I use a Shimano Ultegra 5500 for surf casting with 30lb braid, and it is more than capable of doing what you are looking for – fish and depth wise. The only problem I had was when initially using it, was that the line lay was a little 'top biased', so I stripped off the braid, and added an arbour of about 30m of nylon on the bottom of the spool – shaped at the bottom, so it compensated for the 'top bias'. Then reloaded the 300m of 30lb braid – and got a perfectly straight spool of braid at the top – super casting distance, from a little fine tuning.

The point is also that the ratios in most of the fixed spool reels is quite fast, and very quickly will pick up the loop of spare line when you are uptiding.

Just a thought??

Hope that helps.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[headlight]

Thanks for the reply Jeri.
Personally I would much rather use a multiplier than a fixed spool & if I can"t find new multipliers to suit will continue with the ABU 7500c3"s.
They are pretty spot on & I am probably just being a bit fussy as I have managed fine with the star drags for years it"s just that if I could find a reel that ticked all the boxes it would be nice to have another pair of lever drags.
I have seen the Penn 975ld advertised very cheaply which has level wind & lever drag but don"t know what it casts like & also the retrieve is a little slower than I would like at 4.5-1 as opposed to the Abu"s 5.3-1, although I expect that that would not make a lot of difference.
Unfortunately no dealers locally to me stock it so I cant handle the reel myself to see what I think of it.

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[Jeri]

Hi Headlight,

Can appreciate the wish for a multiplier, and the obvious stigma in UK fishing circles of using a fixed spool on a boat. It is a long standing thing that only multipliers can survive or work in UK boat fishing scene – the fact is that fixed spool reels have advanced tremendously in the last few years. I would think that on a rolling boat, a fixed spool reel used in up tiding would be a more consistent tool.

The retrieve issue is a big one, we pretty much only use anything with at least a 6:1 ratio multipliers down here for all the obvious reasons.

That said, fixed spool reels are making big in roads to the local surf scene, especially with some of the bigger sharks that we catch – two of  the more recent rods that I built for shark surf anglers were deliberate fixed spool rods – and both anglers have sent photos of the rods with Bronzies (Copper sharks) over 100kgs (220lbs) – so the rods work as well as the fixed spools, and both were loaded with 50lb braid.

Ultimately, we all make a choice of equipment that suits our local conditions, as well as our personal desires.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[headlight]

Hi Jeri, I have used plenty of fixed spools back in the day when I used to do a lot of freshwater fishing & also use one in the sea now for casting lures for Bass.
The reason I prefer a multiplier is I just find that they feel more comfortable in use especially when bringing larger fish to the boat.

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[fIsHsTiiCkS]

My suggestion would be a Penn 330LD. Gear ratio is 3.7:1 which seems a little slow for you. I can cast pretty well with the GTI star series so the LD should be no different.

[headlight]

My suggestion would be a Penn 330LD. Gear ratio is 3.7:1 which seems a little slow for you. I can cast pretty well with the GTI star series so the LD should be no different.

I have looked at the specs for 320 & 330ld"s but unfortunately the retrieve is to slow for my needs.
I have seen 975ld"s advertised on ebay from Malaysia for just 275 US dollars & am tempted but am not sure if they are genuine reels as in Europe genuine reels are closer to 600 US dollars ?
The 975ld is the closest reel I can find to what I am looking for is there any way I can confirm that these Malaysian 975"s are genuine & not cheap copies (I know that the last of the 975"s were probably made in China) as although they are cheap i do not want to spend $275 on a fake reel.

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[fIsHsTiiCkS]

My suggestion would be a Penn 330LD. Gear ratio is 3.7:1 which seems a little slow for you. I can cast pretty well with the GTI star series so the LD should be no different.

I have looked at the specs for 320 & 330ld"s but unfortunately the retrieve is to slow for my needs.
I have seen 975ld"s advertised on ebay from Malaysia for just 275 US dollars & am tempted but am not sure if they are genuine reels as in Europe genuine reels are closer to 600 US dollars ?
The 975ld is the closest reel I can find to what I am looking for is there any way I can confirm that these Malaysian 975"s are genuine & not cheap copies (I know that the last of the 975"s were probably made in China) as although they are cheap i do not want to spend $275 on a fake reel.

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If that is in your price range the 975ld Is an excellent reel for what you ate looking for. The USA made ones go for about 200-250 on eBay with a lot of sellers doin international shipping. Would be a great place to look.

[headlight]

These 975ld"s advertised in Malaysia are brand new reels & are less than half the price of a European advertised new 975ld which is what is worrying me.
Is that 200-250 USD for a new or used reel ?

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[headlight]

Also does anybody know if it is possible to increase the gear ratio on these 975ld"s from the stock 4.5-1 to around 6-1 or there abouts ?

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[FatTuna]

I feel like if you are looking for a reel that is both fast and powerful you should get something larger. The 975 wouldn't be my first choice to haul in a 40lb fish. It also only has 10-12lbs of drag. If you did up the gear ratio it would be even harder to bring up a heavy fish.

The gear ratio doesn't really specify how fast the reel is. The line retrieve per crank is the important number.

I'm going to google a video of your technique. It sounds interesting.

So you are looking for a reel that is fast, has a level wind, is decent to cast with, and has a lever drag? That's a tough one. The 330ld is the closest thing that I can think of too. A calcutta 700 might work but it doesn't have a lever drag. Avets are really nice reels and have a lever drag but no level wind.

[Tightlines667]

You might want to take a close look at the lightweight, economical Shimano Charter Special.  It has plenty of line capacity, good retrieval rate, and should give you plenty of drag (ESP.  If you upgrade the drag material w/HT-100 from Dawn, and a thicker set of Bellevilles from Shimano).

Here's Alan's tutorial:

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=12.0

[FatTuna]

I watched a video on uptiding the other night. Very interesting. Your bass looks very similar to our striped bass.

Do you cast away from the boat because the boat makes noise in the water which scares the fish? I do a bit of cod fishing here in New England. This technique might work well here too.