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New Spey Reel

5K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  Eddie 
#1 ·
Need a large capacity spey reel? I placed New Redington Brakewater 11/12 ( capacity 8/9 MidSpey + 200y of 30 lb Dacron) on the For Sale page.
 
#2 ·
Bolen re the Brakewater 11/12

I have this reel and it appears to be an excellent reel for Speyers, and those who fish for stripers and off shore fish.

Dan Blanton is very high on this reel and considers it to be basically bullet proof. My son, who hires and fires engineers, if he had not won a Reel in the recent Striper Fest, he would be buying this reel.

The Brakewater is currently being used on my Sage 10151 with an Accelerator Line without tip two/one with the various tips including the new Tip compensator. It is a tight fit with 300 yards of 30# dacron backing. and this reel couldn't handle the Grand Spey 7/8 tester that I'm using.

I will be ordering my own Grand Spey 7/8 floater, which will go on my Loop 4. Then I will put my Mid Spey 7/8 with tips on the Brakewater for the heavy flows later this year. I could not put the GS 7/8 test line on the Brakewater. Then I will use them on my Sage 7141 this winter/early spring.

The Brakewater 11/12 balances both my 7141 and 10151 very well. It is very hard to find a good reel that doesn't cost as much or more than the European Spey rods and still balances them. The Brakewater balances them perfectly at about 1/3 of the cost of the rods.
 
#3 ·
Are you serious about the Redington? No Dan never said it is a good reel... Actually he had to say it was a good reel and he told me it is the only mistake he has done in his career. Seriously, this reel is not well balanced, has a poor drag and the spool wobbles.

I have bought everything from Pflugler to Tibor and I will stick with my Old Florida for the life. These reels are good, affordable and simple. They will survive me.

For Spey, I would go with a Old Florida #88 or a Super 8. Plenty of backing and it will balance really well with your spey rod. This is what my spey guru Max Garth use in Australia. He use also the same spey reel on off shore species such as sailfish.

Also, you might want to check the Nautilus 12s and 14s still form old Florida. I use the #10 for permits and tarpons here in South Florida.

Serge
 
G
#4 ·
I have never used a OF LA88 on a sailfish but if I could I would, I've used a LA77 on a few fish, I have a LA88 and a SA8 and am kind of in love with the new 5" OF Nautilus, when I am lucky enough to get one it will be "Heaven on a Stick" or like paradise mate. The perfect DH reel.
Fact is I like OF's for a few basic reasons, one they are good gear, have great drags, come in useful sizes and have the spool interchange facility. The guarantee is great, the service wonderful and they hold wads of backing and they do work.
One of my dreams is a billfish off a rock and if I ever get that far it will be with an OF reel. That you can bet your boots on.
Presently I'm using a Steelfin XFR on my Talon 15" DH rod and Loop Blackline 12'4" 9# and that is because my LA77 and LA88 are out on loan, my SA8 is empty of backing and the Steelfin is the last cog in the chain.
Thats an OF LA88 with no holes. Max
 

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#7 ·
Hi Well "off shore" to me is what it says, and whether irs off a boat or whatever I use a OF reel, I only have OF and a Steelfin so no matter what it is on the end I use it. I'd use the OF LA88 on marlin if I get near them, I certainly don't have special reels for fishing off boats. Yep that Nautilus will hold a bundle but it will also hold a big Spey line with room to spare.
Cheers mate have a good Xmas. Thats to everybody. Max
 

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#8 ·
The French guy. cc loco_alto re the Redington Breakwater Reels and Dan Blanton

The French guy.

Lets clear this up. Your condemnation of the Redington Reel was not the the Breakwater, yes or no!:confused:

As Loco Alto, stated Dan was still positive about the Breakwater in October and November on his web site. :tsk_tsk:
 
#9 ·
You are a little hard on me.
Sincerely, I do not know why I thought it was about the breakwater reel? :eyecrazy: I read my post again and the thread and they did not match at all. I checked if that post was not an answer to another one and it seems like I had several windows opened and answered to the wrong post--> I think this is what happened when I wanted to reply to a post about a good value reel. I tell people about the breakwater as being a cheap alternative for a cork drag reel.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Dan confessed me that if there was was mistake he had done in 40 years, this is truely with the Redington AL (not the breakwater). The reel was nicely machined, even according to Ted Jurasiscs (Tibor owner) but they used a bad drag and bad ball bearings. The breakwater is much better and will hold well.

Again my intention was not to be bad with Redington even though you guys maybe know I am not a big fan of Korean made products.

Happy Xmas to all.

Serge

PS. Do you know Jim Murphy, is starting a new reel and rod company: Albright? The reels are also made in South Korea. I do not know about the rod though.
 
#10 ·
The French guy

Thank you for your clarified response. You were very hard re your criticism on the Breakwater which turned out be based on another Redington reel.

The Breakwater appears to be an excellent reel for the value. It fills a big void for those of us not wanting to spend $500 or more for a good reel to balance the heavier Spey Rods. Also, I can transfer it from one of my Spey Rods to Bob Meiser's 9/10 switch rod and handle any fish in California or Oregon.

My one complaint is that the Breakwater big reel does not hold as much backing as my Loop 4 does.

Actually, I have no problem with S Korean products, and I boycott all things made in France until ChIraq is driven out of power.
 
#11 ·
Here's my take on this.

When I hold a reel in my hands, my mind travels far...

but not to the socio-economic-political underpinnings of the world but to the soft sandy paths between coral patches on a carribean bonefish flat, or a cedar-lined canyon with pure turquiose glacial flows gliding over a bouldery dream run, or a pungent incoming tide on a Cape Cod inlet at dawn, alive with swirling hunters of the sea.

In fact, these underpinnings are the type of things I try to escape from when I put the reel into play.

.02

Juro
 
#12 ·
Grampa Spey wrote:
"and I boycott all things made in France until ChIraq is driven out of power."

Did you follow recent Capitol Hill fight over so call Energy Bill which was stopped thanks to six brave moderate Republican Senators.
Look closely at its provisions:Exemption from clean air and water act for oil, gas and mining conpanies.
Miners will be able to dump solid waste into non navigable screams which flows to major rivers.
Do you think steelhead and salmon will be here 10 years from now .
Bush Administration needed this war badly to focus you attention on Iraq not domestic issues.
Now Bush is paying off to his Energy Political friends trying to allow them to do anything they want on public land.
Previous war cost us 20%, old Bush was much smarter.
His son is blowing 100 bil a year, and Exon-Mobil is very happy:







bolen
 
#13 ·
OK gents, let's get it back on topic. I have no problem with a good political debate now and then but this thread is not the forum for it. If there is interest in debating this, might I suggest starting up a relevant thread in the Environment Forum.

sinktip
 
#15 ·
Jay - "well-machined" or not, the drag on those AL reels is certainly what I would call... pathetic. It's simple to see why they have been discontinued for so long, and also why the market is still flooded with them. For an inexpensive LA reel, the Tetons are pretty good and are all well-made. Yes, I know the drag isn't cork, but at least it's got plenty of surface area and I've never had problems with mine (to be fair, I've caught only bluefish and weakies with this reel).

By the way - and this is to the founders and moderators mostly - what's with people writing in recently to tell us that they have something for sale on ebay? I was under the impression that this was not a forum for that sort of thing, and that the "For Sale by Owner" page was the proper place to sell things (and even then, not for use as an advertisement for someone wishing to tell us that his stuff was listed on ebay). Are there rules or policies about this?
 
#16 ·
Although I don't own one, friends who use AL reels swear they have been reliable for freshwater use. I am thinking of picking up a few for spey reels to put on my demo rods for shows and claves.

However they have proven to be susceptible to saltwater exposure due to internal components that are not resistant to corrosion. I made the mistake of recommending this reel as a starter reel to a mechanical engineer buddy who fishes exclusively in salt. The resulting diatribe was quite convincing as he tore the thing apart into individual parts to analyze it.
 
#17 ·
French Guy, not sure why Grandpa Spey had to make it personal but I think he was out of line.
Bolens remarks must have been meant for another thread.
Max, welcome to the Forum!
Back to the topic: The BreakWater reels I have handled seem to be a good value. Will Sage continue them, or will Albright pick them up? If they are discontinued, I would avoid them.
 
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