Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Quote:

Originally Posted by diehardfisher (Post 88003)

I have been looking for a good deal on a reel for a nice kelp cutter rig and I saw that BIG-5 had the shimano tyrnos two-speed on sale for a really good deal and was wondering if you guys had any opinions about the reel and what size you would go with.

I have a few Tyrnos reels and I really like them, and you can get them dirt cheap especially on ebay.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7402/tyrnos2.jpg

They are my go to bait and dropper loop fishing reels, replacing the TLD15s I used to use when fishing La Jolla. I like the Tyrnos 8 size: they are lighter, smaller in your hand, more solidly built, with a much better drag (stronger with a better adjustment) then the old TLDs.

The real difference is the small ones like the eight and ten actually cast decently, about as well as a say a Torium 14 compared to the TLDs which honestly cast like crap.

I spool the 8s with 40 power pro spectra, it's a square four strand spectra which makes it sharper to kelp and since it over tests I run both 30 and forty Fluorocarbon topshots with it. People swear by sixty five pound spectra but four strand forty like power pro cuts the kelp quicker and I have never broken it when fishing off a yak. The 8s hold something like 350yds of forty more then I would ever need even offshore. If I was going to go with 65lb spectra I might move to the Tyrnos 10, but prefer the 8 and you could run either forty or fifty with them and have plenty of line.

Like I said I like them...but... I greatly prefer the two speeds over the single speeds.

The singles have kind of a winch like 6 to 1 gearing that just feels weird to me. For some reason the two speeds even when running at 6 to 1 are much much smoother. Just better gearing. They are just a blast to fish with.

I had a single speed Tyrnos 20, didn't like it and sold it and I have a single speed 8 which though workable is just not as nice as the 8IIs (I now own three of them) and I personally would not buy another single speed.

That said even the single speed is strong and very fishable. I've now got several seabass on the 8 single speed and have landed some huge fish on it.

Here's a Big black I got on it.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6560/bigblack3.jpg
The reel never flinched on that fish. It would of completely demolished a TLD15 (cracked the frame) with the drag settings I was running, about the max drag I could honestly put on it from a yak, and I fought it a long long long time.

Maybe not fancy enough for the armchair crowd but they are nice on the water. Great reels for the price, a generation more advanced then Shimano's old lever drags, but they just haven't caught on, which is why they are so cheap.. You can buy better small lever drags for more money, but bang for buck these are a great deal. I'm going to be fishing the Tyrnos 8IIs on my bait rods for striped Marlin this summer. In my opinion they are that good.

Jim