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Introducing The Second Drag System - I'm not a fishing historian, so I can't say for sure who invented the
"bait runner" or "bait feeding system" type spinning reel, but Shimano was the first that I
know of, and I've been using their bait runner reels for years. So many years, in fact, that I
feel uncomfortable fishing without the bait runner option. The bait runner reel has a second,
totally independent drag system. You set the main drag on the reel the way you want it, and
then forget about it. You set the bait runner drag very loose, so that the fish can take
all the line he needs, but he can't take the rod and reel. When you set the rod down, you
click the bait runner drag on. When you pick the rod up and turn the reel one crank, the
bait runner automatically disengages, and you're fighting the fish on the main drag; very
hard to make a mistake and lose the rod and reel or the fish.
Shimano, as I said, was the first to market bait runner type spinning
reels. They were not inexpensive (about $125 in the 80's) but if you used one, you'd never look back.
The concept must have become popular with fisherman, because today Shimano, Diawa, Okuma,
and other companies are making and selling the bait runner type spinning reels. I had read
a lot of positive stuff about Okuma on the net, so I decided to take the Okuma for a test drive.
I consider the reel as my most important piece of fishing gear. When I
buy a reel, I buy what I consider to be "high end" equipment. I plan on using the reel
for a long time; I have Diawa BG-90's that I purchased in the 1970's, and a collection of
Shimano Bait Runners that are over 20 years old. I maintain my reels, and my 20+ year old
reels all look and function like they did when they were new. I don't have any Penn
Internationals (they don't work for surf fishing anyway), but I never buy the twenty dollar
reels in KMart either.
Internet shopping is a wonderful thing. Today you can find and buy just
about anything you can imagine on the Internet. But there's one inherent problem with buying
things on the Internet; you can't pick them up to see what they feel like before you order
them. It's hard to choose things like fishing rods and reels when you can only look at the
pictures as opposed to seeing them in person.
I'd read about Okuma reels on the net, but I'd never used one. They were
easy to find on the Internet, so I imagined it wouldn't be much of a job to find one in a
local tackle store. A few phone calls and a few visits to the local fishing suppliers
proved that idea wrong; I couldn't find an EB-80 in any of the stores or tackle shops I knew
of, so I decided my only option was to order one sight unseen, which I did. The Okuma EB-80
can be purchased for about $90, which is less than the Shimano bait runner reels I'm used
to using sell for today. Close to what I consider "high end" pricing, but less than what I
expected.
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