Some thoughts on Fathom 25N Star Drag

[basto]

John
Don`t judge all Shimanos by the Torium. Have a look at the gears on TLD series.
Basto

[Brad_hook]

I used to own a shimano Tyrnos 16 single speed in the past & have ran 20lbs of drag all day.

Its a lever drag & needs thumb assistance when casting
but after a bit of practice its easy. can fit 300-400yrds of 60lb braid easily & run a 10yrd 100-150lb wind on leader.

I have had the drag maxed out at 35lb for testing but not used at that pressure.

food for thought, can be picked up cheap in used condition.

[johndtuttle]

John
Don`t judge all Shimanos by the Torium. Have a look at the TLD series.
Basto

Well, the weird thing is I would fish one in a heart beat (I still have 8 Shimanos). But I would never buy a high end Shimano again.

The TLD series has always been excellent....and they have Stainless Internals (or at least did, dunno now).

My real beef with Shimano is not that they make the product they do, but the limited support they offer for it (5 years of parts after the reel is discontinued).

It is ridiculous to think you can spend $500-1000+ for a reel and have no parts after 5 years....This is fine for reels like the Torium that you would be lucky to get 5 years out of to begin with and are $2-300....but unacceptable for a Trinidad A or a Stella SW. Their highest end reels are the most disposable of all.....and that isn't right, particularly when they are using soft gear material so the reel feels great when new but wears quickly. You WILL need new gears for a Stella or Trinidad...but after 5 years its gonna be like hunting for parts on ebay...

Fine for light tackle kicks and grins...not fine for a reel you have $1200 invested.

[Alto Mare]

This one could tame those Kittens:
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=10800.msg103647#msg103647


Sal

Never mind, your question was on a star drag....sorry about that.

[Alto Mare]

John
Don`t judge all Shimanos by the Torium. Have a look at the gears on TLD series.
Basto

Basto, that reel looks awesome on the inside.

Sal

[Rivverrat]

No Sal your fine. I could really care less if a reel is a star drag or lever drag. The most important thing to me is that it work with in the spectrum I'm fishing at the time doing this with a glass smooth drag. Who knows I might end up using 3 old  yesteryear, dilapidated Senators .   In all seriousness I do think I'm leaning a bit toward a lever drag a Makiara to be specific. Just seems to be made for what I'm trying to accomplish on a day to day basis.

[basto]

John
Don`t judge all Shimanos by the Torium. Have a look at the gears on TLD series.
Basto

Basto, that reel looks awesome on the inside.

Sal

Have to agree Sal.

[coastal_dan]

Some really great points being brought up...good read.

Good luck on your quest for the perfect reel!

Also...that guy from River Monsters has caught some insane freshwater/brackish fish.  I can imagine a International 12/16 VSX could come in handy...or an older Int. 12 or 20.

[Rivverrat]

Thanks Dan.
I know I stated else where something to the effect of "Perfect Reel". To rephrase that, I want  reels that last & are dependable for my use. There are 2 that stand out. 

[Rivverrat]

Back to the original topic .....

https://plus.google.com/112286080002171871262/posts/ZFAtEnGXDbV

[steelfish]

awesome free spool time Jeff,

by the time the cast would land (2min) the fish were gone

[Rivverrat]

I have learned a tremendous amount in the short time that has past since I started this thread. The biggest of which is what John was alluding to & that is understanding how things are & accepting it.

I spoke to John about getting rid of my 3 Penn Fathoms for somthing better...... Fact is these star drag 25N's are very good, light weight, durable reels for fishing 40 lb. line. I will be keeping them...Jeff

[coastal_dan]

  Neat, how many fish have you wrestled with on them since you last posted in June? 

I was looking pretty hard at the 25N Fathom but got a deal on a 25N Squall I couldn't pass up ($85 BNIB)...I'm only using the reel about 6-8 times a year on party boats bottom fishing... first change is Alans 3/0 handle that arrived today. 

Please continue to update here on your use and modified expectations of the reel.

John made some points a few months back that are 'the market' in a nut shell, sort of makes you hate hearing the truth, haha.

A great thread for sure.

[Alto Mare]

The 25N Fathom is a nice reel, but as John has mentioned a while back, you need to be realistic on iits capability.
Mine was gifted to me by a friend here, I've played with it a few times and really like it.
I also replaced the gears with the upgraded ss gears, not sure it needed those, but decided to do it anyway.
One thing I noticed form servicing it first time, the threads on the plate screws were too fine to me, one screw hole was actually stripped and that didn't surprise me.
I'm sure Penn has their reason for using those screws, but I went ahead and retapped them to 5-40...if I remember correctly.

Sal
Found the screws that I replaced, I figured if one failed the rest were going to follow, so I replaced all of them.
The one on the right is the replacement screw

I didn't mind the look

This could be the only reel with the issue of a stripped screw hole, I haven't heard anything about others and that's a good thing.

Sal

[Rivverrat]

Neat, how many fish have you wrestled with on them since you last posted in June? .....

I have lost track of how many fish I've caught on these reels. Some time back I wore out the gears in one of the 3 & replaced them with ones from Penn. That reel had a lot of time on it. I really like the gears from Alan / Black Pearl. I have found these reels with very little work can produce a very fishable 15 lbs. of drag. A few I've seen did so out of the box. If there is anything in their size & weight that cast as well I'm unaware of it. For the money you are getting more reel with superior capability with 25N lever drag. However these star drags are keepers & suit my use fine....Jeff