Release SG Reel - First Impressions

[Jeri]

Hi  All

Just unwrapped my latest 'toy', an SG from Release Reels, and despite the fact that we have had to pay for the freight from USA to Namibia, which was pretty painful, it is here now so shan't cry over spilt milk!

First visual impressions are that a lot of thought and care went into the design and placement of the components, and the original scepticism of the handle shape were soon dispelled, as it is nicely counter balanced to swing to just the right spot for easy grabbing. They must have designed it by taking a mould of what would be left if you grabbed a stiff piece of putty – a perfect shape for your hand.

The casings are smooth and rounded where they need to be and crisp and clean on the straight edges. There is a tight spool to frame clearance, which will be difficult for folks to get line snagged inside the mechanism – so a good point there. The index lever drag is positive, and although there is no designated 'strike' position, the 10 positions are easy to feel, so you can soon designate your own strike point.

Flush fitting allen head screws are great, and are tight in their housing, so ingress of sand and salt will be kept to a minimum, so it is going to be easy to keep clean. Also, being allen head, perhaps means that they will prove less problematic than crosshead screws – time will tell.

Loaded up with mono, the small capacity might prove to be problematic to those not using braid, but then we are looking at this reel for surf casting, and we will have to give it the full trial to see how that goes. Fitted to a 14' surf caster and across to our casting court. First a very soft cast to feel the spool and its action, and 80 metres down range was pretty standard, so no big worries; then wind in tight and go for something a little more substantial, and away it went – got a little wild about mid-flight but the free spool setting is just that – free - 120 metres. Next cast proved that you can't get complacent with this reel – a lovely crow's nest. Tried using just one click of the lever to dampen down the quite aggressive free spool, and it flies like a dream. Next to really see what problems we could get with this reel, and piled on the power into a good cast, and it flew – 155 metres with just a few loose coils coming about mid-flight, and a touch of thumb to calm them down. This is really going to be a reel for launching baits towards the horizon.

Last cast with a much more aggressive surf rod design, as the tip speed is so much more than we normally use, managed to really load the rod and launch, and away it all went towards 170 metres. This reel really flies, and managed to get the sinker over an obstruction down on the casting court, which gave me a chance to pull against the drag, well it was impressive, kept adjusting upwards until we had pretty much reached the limit for free spool, so I assume that it was near maximum adjustment, and started pulling on full drag – exceeded the pulling strength of the rod, so pulling horizontally, eventually managed to get the drag to slip, and it was smooth and very powerful – don't know whether I had reached the 30lbs drag advised by Release Reels, but it was certainly close to the breaking strain of the 32lb line, it was singing. Walked down to release the sinker from the obstruction, and that was the end of the test. Need to get this beasty out on the beach soon, but have to work on rods for the next few days, so will have to wait.

Think that if you were using this reel for braid, it would be awesome, as the capacity wouldn't be a limitation. But the small size might well put folks off this reel, as it is so small, smaller than the Avet MXL we are currently using. Certainly a powerful entity is a small compact little body. Casting live baits will be a dream, and a testament to the ceramic spool bearings. The thing that I also noticed during the casts was that it lacked all the noise usually associated with ceramic bearings – this reel was silent.

Will have to get the tools out and have a look inside when time permits, but first to the beach.


Cheers from sunny Africa

Jeri

[Bryan Young]

Thanks Jeri.  Can't wait to see inside.

[Seachaser]

I can tell you, any kind of head is better than phillips except flat head.  Screw heads are one of my pet peeves.  Enjoy your toy. Anxious for a report.

[Bryan Young]

My fav screw heads are definitely Torq or star.  I have yet had one strip out on me.

[akfish]

I received a Release SG a few days ago and also have some initial impressions. First, it is beautiful; the fit and finish is first rate. I'm still working with it but do have a couple issues. First the spool bearings are ceramic -- but they come heavily greased!! Mine has almost no free spool. Once I clean and lube them properly I suspect it will have good free spool. Second the side plate screws are torx head, but made of aluminum. This will reduce corrosion of course, but I fear it will be too easy to strip the heads. Finally, to look inside, you must remove the handle screw, but it is loctited and I'm afraid I'll strip the head and ruin it. Hmm. So I haven't been able to get inside. My understanding is that it has a huge anti-reverse bearing but no back up dogs. It does have a lifetime warranty, and the factory will service it for just $12 but for me personally, I like to get inside my reels more easily that this one lets me.

[Jeri]

Hi Akfish,

If the ceramic bearings are heavily greesed, then I hate to think of the speel of the spool in a surf casting situation, if I clean them out - even with the reel as it is, the speed of the spool in the casting situation is 'scary'.

I concur with the fears about aluminium screw, I would probably ask for stainless steel screws to replace the standard ones, despite the loss of colour co-ordination. Probably the only critisism I have of the reel.


Cheers from sunny Africa,


Jeri

[Release Reels]

I want to say thank you for supporting Release Reels we value you all as our customers. When I get time here at the shop I will take some detailed pictures of our operation and the processes.

Our motto is making it simpler, In doing so we find when making something stronger, in doing so will always see the next weakness. We are always trying to solve the problems as we grow we know problems will come up. With that said I want to ensure you all we stand behind our products and we will create a new solution as soon as it arises. That is my promise to you all.

Keep us posted and whatever you all might want to see from the behind the scenes side just let us know and we will post it. If you all have any questions or problems please contact us and we will do our best keeping you on the water.

All the best,
Wes

[Jeri]

Hi All,

Finally got to the beach to test the Release SG – 'in the briny' – seems sad that I wrote the original casting report back on the 23rd January, and only now got to the beach to test – pressures of work!!!!

The event was one that I don't enjoy as the competition venue was basically a very shallow area where we have to do a lot of wading – chest deep, to ridges out 2-300 metres off the beach, then cast out into the deeper waters and stand around waiting for the fish and sharks to arrive.

With our surf rods designed with the reel in the low position – just 8" up from the butt button, the reel inevitably has a hard life just sitting there under water. Then when we get a hook up, we fight the fish to you, then begin the long walk back to shore.

Conceivably, the absolute worse situation to test a new reel, but that was the point of putting the reel on the rod, "let us see what it will do?"

It performed beautifully, having cleaned out the ceramic spool bearings of grease, to overcome a slight 'lag' problem in casting on the test field, the reel was casting very well, despite having to push the lever up 1 notch to get some semblance of spool breaking in the cast – too wild at total free spool!!! Stood around for 30 minutes, then a 24kg shark happened along, and it really didn't have much choice against the drag on the reel – absolutely superb – smooth and efficient.  So, even while having to work totally submerged, the reel was faultless.

Back on the beach for pretty much the rest of the competition, the reel was working well, good distances achieved with casting, and possibly a little more tolerant than my Avet, when cast with less than total concentration. Had loaded the reel with slightly heavier line than when field testing – started off with 0.40mm, and changed up to 0.45mm, which gave better behaviour when casting, but still getting serious distances off the beach.

Back home a quick rinse under the cold tap, and left to dry – then into the workshop, and popped the side cover off to just see a few 'bubbles' of water remaining – but everything else looked just fine.

This reel is going to be a serious contender for our 'distance casters', and really can't wait for the guys at the factory to release their LG model, as our big shark guys will be looking for some more line capacity. However, the 40lb suggested drag available to the LG will prove awesome, might break a few rods, and we will have to find a big enough angler to pull on a surf rod at 40lbs!!!! Not many of those about.

'akfish' – your comment about the small allen head screw on the handle is 'spot on' – stripped mine on trying to get past the 'locktite', will now be changing it for a cap head stainless steel allen head. I will live with the 'dis-similar metals' issue with a little grease on the screws before assembly. Probably the only observation I have that isn't totally positive about these reels. Small, compact and seriously powerful.

The reel is now out on loan to one of our club anglers to put it through further field/beach testing, so see how an independent, but competent surf angler feels about it.

Cheers from sunny Africa

Jeri

[jaypeegee]

WHat is the cast control on this Jeri?

[Jeri]

Hi,

There is no cast control - you can either just push the lever drag up one notch, or drag your thumb over the spool.

The lever dray is indexed with 10 positions - so you can choose your own settings.

Cheers from sunny Africa,


Jeri

[mccandrj]

Bill at Release Reels
When are you going to make left-handed reels? You know, there a lot of young and old fishermen that have changed there ways of fishing, one of them is there are more and more fishermen that are right-handed only using left-handed reels. Reason; you never have to swap the reel back and forth to the other hand, plus you fight the fish with your strongest arm.
I have asked people why the use right-handed reels, and they really can't answer, and didn't realize they had to switch back and forth. Plus, after a couple of big blues, fighting that last blue with your strongest arm is important. Most don't change or are to set in there ways or stubborn to change.
SO, when will you go left?

Thanks

RJ

[mccandrj]

Your educated thumb is your cast control.

[mccandrj]

Thumb

[redpaulhus]

A quick question for Jeri and AKFish
How "curved" is the reel foot ?

I've got a 7' XXH musky rod I want to try using for tautog, seabass, and haddock this year, and I think this reel would be great.

But I've found it to have a slightly tight, and very "flat" reel seat.
Some of my reels fit, some don't.
Looking on the pics of the SG on the Release Reels website, the reel foot looks sharply curved, and I'm worried that it might not fit.

What's sad is, I looked at this reel at the Rhode Island saltwater fishing expo last month - they had a booth (they guy hadn't heard of this site but said he'd look it up). I bought the musky rod out of a bargain bin at the expo - but didn't think to bring it by the Release Reels booth to see if it would fit
( 'doh !! )

ok, so it wasn't as quick a question

[Bryan Young]

You may not have been talking with Wes 'cause Wes is here.  I'm hoping to see his reels sometime soon to check them out.