SOM Blue heaven L 50 OGM OTA garage review

[hafnor]

So after loking online for the Studio ocean mark reels for a long time I fell in love with the limited edition Ota garage L50 reel. After some time I was able to track it down and ordered one. A shop in japan called Veinz sent me the reel and I am now the proud owner of number 81 out of 150 total produced. I was leaving for a halibut trip the day after I recieved the reel so I was excited to test it out.

I always open my reels to see what makes it tick and this was no exception.

the package I recived came in with a nice small plastic padded bag, schematics, economizers (for thinner lines), registration form from SOM, and a sticker.







The reel looks stunning, notice the nice carbon fibre handle arm and drilled reelhouse:)









a nice narrow spool, holding approx. 250meters of JB 60 solid with good room for a windon



the reel detaches easily by removing three flat head



the main body has a flanged bearing inside so there is no need pulling it out from the inside. This bearing is ofcourse packed with grease.



the three main parts disassembled, very easy configuration, SOM also provides spare spools for around 130usd, very easy to change a spool for other line choices.



The spool width is 24mm almost all the way.



now comes the part that I was most sceptical to. the cork drag washer. It is made of cork but reinforced with a mix of resin and heat treated. This washer works great with cal's drag grease. and feels buttery smooth. also see the clicker on the spool, this is hands down the best clicker I have ever had, if you want a louder sound you can install two more clicker pins and the clicker will be beefed up. the clicker only makes a noise once drag is pulled.





The spool is solid and includes two retainers three bearings a bearing sleeve and a spring for that cushion like feeling and for the protection of the bearings inside. I will flush these bearings in tsi 301 for great freespool.



the spool shaft is made of titanium and the drag plate is made of aluminum and stainless steel. the cam houses a bearing and is a typical proven lever drag configuration. this bearing will also be packed with grease.



here you can see the aluminum drag plate with engraved grooves for the clicker pin, there is also a strong spring and a inner sleeve to only hit the inner diameter of the bearing. The strong spring makes binding impossible



the main gear assembly is made of stainless steel



once you remove the handle and it's assembly assembly you can push out the whole main gear shaft and main gear. two washers, a rubber seal from prevention intrusion into the anti reverse bearing and the two other bearings and a felt washer (pretty much the same system as a JM reel, it gives very light cranking and winding and is very stable with no play at all.



once the main gear assembly is out you get to access the right side plate bearing and a look into the anti reverse bearing from INA germany, this bearing is also used in alutecnos and JM reels and alot more high end reels. Now a big surprise for me was that they use a angular contact bearing. this is superstrong against sideloads (when the inner diameter bearing gets pressure once the drag is engaged many right side plate bearing gets crushed. happened to my JM pe 4 three times already!!!)



the handle arm is made of carbon fibre and is from axis to axis 90mm long, this gives tremendous cranking power. The fisnish on the handle is amazing (also notice that they have filled the gaps with stainless steel sleeves to accomodate the security handle screws, this will prevent the crisp carbon fibre to get torn apart if you tighten it to hard.



the handle knob is the best knob I have used, fits my hand perfectly and measures the same as JM and ultimate jigging knobs at 45mm. This handle knob includes two bearings and two seals.







The reel

weight. 450 grams!!!
ratio. 4.9:1
max drag: 10kg with 0,5kg increase per click on the lever and 1kg when pulled into full.
11 bearings in total, one is AR
cap. 280m of pe6, 400m of pe4, 350m of pe3
price: I paid 1350 USD!!!



I tested the reel for halibut a week ago and it was great in the beginning. First of it is the best reel I have ever fished with and wind with, it palms perefectly and it is light, the knob is a perfect size for my hand and the long carbon fibre arm gives an incredible cranking power. The drag was silky smooth just like when you have a newly greased carbon fibre drag system, buttery smooth!

However, as I suspected and like many fly fishermen have experienced before me, the cork drag washers are no good once it gets wet, and it does get wet no matter how! after the second day fishing I hooked up to a smaller 50 pound fish.... in the initial run you can feel a slight twitch in the drag. I knew then that the cork was slightly swollen for moisture and the surface was uneven. It got better towards the end but the disk has to completely dry for it to work flawless again. Except for that the reel is perfect. I will make a update once I aquire some new carbon fibre washers and possibly a new dragplate. I will also post a video with the reel in use and a fish hooked in the other end.

likes:
build quality
attention to details
narrow spool
long CF handle
EVA handle knob
large oversize gears
light weight
clicker mechanism
small size reel with asymetrical frame
well spec'ed dragwise for it's size (none of that 60lb max drag junk)
good warranty

dislikes
price!
availability for the reel and it's parts
cork drag washers and aluminum drag plate



video of the reel in action



Best, Thor

[saltydog]

Nice fish.

[Bryan Young]

Thanks for the write up Thor.  Well, even with the price and cork drag, you still pulled in a monster fish.

[redsetta]

Great review Thor - and much appreciated.
It's a beautiful bit of gear.
Sounds like you'll be changing over to their CF option, which should make it pretty close to faultless (aside from the eye-watering price tag ).

I hooked up to a smaller 50 pound fish....

Nice
Cheers mate, Justin

[hafnor]

thanks guys, it is a beautiful reel indeed and a beautiful fish will post a report from the trip soon

[Cone]

Great review, probably as close as I'll get because of the price. I wish the flounder in the gulf got the size of that halibut!  Bob

[Alto Mare]

Hello Thor.  Not really creazy about that reel, doesn't do much for me, but that's a nice looking fish. That acid wrap rod looks sweet also. Thanks for showing, Sal

[hafnor]

the rod is a synit kaha 250g acid wrapped. very nice rod indeed!

[johndtuttle]

Thanks for the look at some state of the art machinery Hafnor .

[redsetta]

G'day Thor,
How'd you manage to get a Synit rod all the way from NZ to Norway?
They're great rods - kaha means 'strong' in Maori...
Cheers, Justin

[hafnor]

Thanks John! I got in contact with Graeme of synit NZ and he fedexed it over. took 4 days

[redsetta]

Now that's service!

[raumati01]

Nice fish mate, catching a Halibut like that is on the bucket list .
Very cool to see the Synits in Norway ,I have two Synits- a Grey Ghost 111 and a Deepshot seriola elite. http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/synit-deepshot-seriola-tackle-tester-review_topic62925.html

[hafnor]

we caught several halibuts this summer/autumn from 20-170 pounds. Thank you for the nice rod review RaumatI01, the synit's are the best of the best. I plan on buying a spinning 200g to match my stella and a 100g for large coalfish at a later time

Pictures added (saw that some were missing) Otherwise as an update I may have located a metal shop that can make me a drag plate out of stainless steel. so I will update you on the new drag setup as soon as I get it.

Best, Thor

[hafnor]

a video of the reel in action on my halibut