Preview the New Shimano Stradic FK Spinning Reel Ahead of ICAST 2015
Introduction: It is July 2nd, and just eleven more days until ICAST! This year it seems a lot of manufacturers are introducing products in advance of the show, building momentum to the event itself. One of the big introductions for Shimano will be the official launch of the completely redesigned Stradic Series spinning reels. This morning we got our first hands on look at the new reels and share our observations in this pre-ICAST preview.
Sounds like a terrific reel in all respects but one: no selective antireverse. I want that feature both for backreeling surging fish and for easily and precisely backing lures away from the rod tip when I see that I need to remove a scrap of weed before making the next cast. (I fish with the antireverse off.) I hope that eliminating this feature does not become more of a trend.
To improve the waterproofness of the reel we eliminated the anti reverse switch. This is an easy entry point for water in the reel. Because the Stradic sees use in both inshore and freshwater applications, we decided to eliminate this feature. We made the drag knob larger to make it easier to do a quick adjustment should you decide to crank the drag a little more when the fish is closer.
Thank you, Bantam1. I did read the rationale for the switch's absence in Cal's review. For saltwater use, I suppose that is a good thing. Of the various spinning reels I have used in five decades of freshwater fishing, though, only one--a cheap Shakespeare reel--ever suffered water intrusion, and that includes reels fished in rain, taken on rainy canoe/camping trips, and a few even accidentally dunked while wading.
I have not fished my higher-end reels with ported spool skirts in the rain; were I to plan to do so, I would first cover the skirt holes with waterproof tape. I am surprised to see that the new Stradic FK has a ported spool if it is designed for saltwater use; isn't that creating almost as bad a point of saltwater vulnerability, allowing water to reach the upwardly angled (in use) oscillating spool shaft that retracts into the spool body on each oscillation cycle?
For me, then, the sealing at the sacrificed antireverse location is not a significant plus. Conversely, the lack of an antireverse switch is a big minus for me because there are times when the only presentation the fish are responding to is one that comes back to me, on one out of five casts or so, with weed filaments that are most easily removed by backreeling the bait to a suitable distance from the rod tip.
So I get why Shimano dropped the antireverse switch for this reel, but just want to reiterate that for a freshwater fisherman, that is not necessarily an improvement, and I hope it is not a harbinger of things to come.
We are using the Core Protect feature which makes the roller clutch water resistant. There is also a rotor covering this portion of the reel, so the ports in the spool make no difference. Those are there for appearance and to reduce weight on the spool assembly.
The Stradic is not just a freshwater reel. We sell several to the inshore markets where having the water resistance is a huge plus. I understand your needs, but less and less people use the switch to back reel. Sometimes to make a product better in some aspects, you have to make necessary changes. In this case eliminating the switch to eliminate a water entry point.
Yep. I was always under the impression that back reeling was born out of guys down south who fish their drags too tight, being used to baitcasters, and from inferior drags of days of old. Today's drags are silky smooth on quality reels. I don't see saltwater guys complaining when pelagics rip off hundreds of feet of line in a single run...
I don't/can't reel my baitcasters backwards to take weeds off the line, so I don't see why it would be such an essential function on a spinning reel either. I hate that switch, for the once a year debacle it causes after it accidentally gets flipped to the wrong side. Didn't even know they had removed it, but glad they did!
