Tica ST-558 Gold - trolling reel

[nelz]

I got my reel, yippee! $64 delivered with a spool full of what looks like new 30lb braid. It's a beauty, looks unused, high quality black finish like Penn's, and it's finished on the inside as well.

I bought this with the intention of learning about lever drag reels and last night it came apart. A few parts fell out without my seeing where they came from, slight panic set in, lol. Eventually I got it all back together without any "leftover" parts, phew! Here's what I found:

Lots of high-end features for a cheap reel, like dual roller bearings plus a spring-loaded backup dog, high quality finish, awesome dual-disk carbon fiber drag (confirmed it Alan), lots of shielded bearings, stainless gears, wow.

Unfortunately, there is bad news as well. Free spool is lost way too soon before reaching a decent drag setting, too bad because the drag is capable of much more. But the worse part is that this reel has a major design flaw. I noticed during testing that free-spool would slowly improve the more I reeled. Then I noticed that the drag decreased as well! What was happening is that the drag control knob was slowly creeping backwards as I reeled.

This creeping is caused by the spool axel rotating on top of the metal plate that applies drag pressure. This plate sits directly in line with the drag knob, (which is very loose, btw). The rotation basically slowly unscrews the knob.

So I rigged up a fix for this by adding an old drag disk under the drag knob, making it very tight so it doesn't slip nearly as much. This worked for up to Max drag, but under extended reeling at Full, it still creeps back a little eventually, but I can live with that.

Anyway, mixed feelings about this reel. It's an awesome looking reel, very smooth, quality build and features. But without the "fix" it's unacceptable regardless of the good features. I just can't believe they would overlook something this basic! Luckily I did manage the fix though, and now I can't wait to test it out on a biggun' !!!

[Mr.Grinta]

I got my reel, yippee! $64 delivered with a spool full of what looks like new 30lb braid. It's a beauty, looks unused, high quality black finish like Penn's, and it's finished on the inside as well.

I bought this with the intention of learning about lever drag reels and last night it came apart. A few parts fell out without my seeing where they came from, slight panic set in, lol. Eventually I got it all back together without any "leftover" parts, phew! Here's what I found:

Lots of high-end features for a cheap reel, like dual roller bearings plus a spring-loaded backup dog, high quality finish, awesome dual-disk carbon fiber drag (confirmed it Alan), lots of shielded bearings, stainless gears, wow.

Unfortunately, there is bad news as well. Free spool is lost way too soon before reaching a decent drag setting, too bad because the drag is capable of much more. But the worse part is that this reel has a major design flaw. I noticed during testing that free-spool would slowly improve the more I reeled. Then I noticed that the drag decreased as well! What was happening is that the drag control knob was slowly creeping backwards as I reeled.

This creeping is caused by the spool axel rotating on top of the metal plate that applies drag pressure. This plate sits directly in line with the drag knob, (which is very loose, btw). The rotation basically slowly unscrews the knob.

So I rigged up a fix for this by adding an old drag disk under the drag knob, making it very tight so it doesn't slip nearly as much. This worked for up to Max drag, but under extended reeling at Full, it still creeps back a little eventually, but I can live with that.

Anyway, mixed feelings about this reel. It's an awesome looking reel, very smooth, quality build and features. But without the "fix" it's unacceptable regardless of the good features. I just can't believe they would overlook something this basic! Luckily I did manage the fix though, and now I can't wait to test it out on a biggun' !!!

Nice! Now We want the pictures!
Best Regards
leonard

[nelz]

I was just on Tica's site looking at the schematics of their latest models. It seems they've addressed the drag knob creeping issue by adding a tension spring and clicker to the knob assembly.

[nelz]

I wonder if it's hard to get spare parts or not for it.

Here's the scoop on parts...

(Dec 2015)  Got next day response to order placed using online parts order form on Tica website.  "Frequently requested" parts are in stock in USA. Other parts are ordered from overseas to be placed aboard a cargo container and may take two months to arrive. The guy I spoke with was knowledgeable and friendly. Unfortunately, it could be quite a wait, but that's better than no parts at all.