Stella 10000SW

[Chris Dennis]

I note Brandon's comments regarding the Stella 10000SW vs the 18 or 20000 in his article about GT tackle basics.

I'm an occasional offshore angler based in Dubai and go on a few trips a year up to the Mussandam and more recently Southern Oman.

I'd like to invest in a popping outfit and like the idea of the 10000 with the higher capacity spare spool as I could use it for other types of fishing as well eg jigging trips for amberjack off Fujairah.

I'm concerned whether the 10000 would be man enough to deal with the beasts that lurk in Southern Oman. Is there anybody out there who has any direct experience of using the 10000 for monster GT's ?

[Brandon Khoo]

Chris, a number of very large fish have been landed on the 10000. If however you hook a beast at runs straight and hard in one direction, you may be exposed in terms of line capacity. I have have had a fish in the 40-45kg class get me down to the metal in one run.

Personally, if I was after a reel specifically for chasing big fish, I would go with an 18000.

[Chris Dennis]

Thanks for the prompt response Brandon.

I suspected that the 10000 may come up short when it came to the possibility of dealing with a monster in S Oman. At the end of the day I'm happy to forego the flexibility and lightness of the 10000 if it means I have the right piece of kit for the job so it looks like I'll be buying the 18000 (......unless the wife finds out how much they are first, then it may be the Saragosa
   

[Cam Munro]

Best advice you could get is to POP in and see Nick @ the Ocean Active store, Garden Center.

[Mark Harris]

I would suggest you try to feel the reel in hand on the rod that you intend to use it with first Chris.  The comfort factor is a huge thing when fishing for GTs.

A Stella 10000 with 16000 spool will give you about 250 metres of PE8 line capacity against about 300 metres on the 18000 and that is, as Brandon indicates, a significant difference.  An 18000 will also be cheaper than a 10000 with 16000 after market spool. On the other hand, an 18000 is quite a bit heavier.

Also, although I have never heard of a 10000 just failing with a big fish on, we should all remember that they were not really designed to be fished with over-sized spools (Shimano don't make one, which has to mean something) which allow the targeting of monster-sized fish. I fish with a couple of 10000s quite often and I must admit this fact gets into my head sometimes.

As is usually the case in our brand of extreme fishing, there are lots of pros and cons to assess there!

[Chris Dennis]

Cam - I'll pop into the Garden Centre next time I'm passing. I'm only 10 minutes away which is way too close as evidenced by a drawer full of unused lures etc which looked great in the shop. Having said that you can't beat a bit of retail therapy at times

Mark - I've used a variety of reels on the charters I've been on so far including the Saragosa 18000, Van Staal and an old style Stella 20000. All are hard work popping in the high temperatures we get, particularly in Mussandam but the GT's seem to like the heat. I've had chance to read a few more posts now and the 18000 Stella seems to be a very popular choice. Hopefully that extra 50 metres line capacity over the 10000 may come into play one day in which case the 6oz or so of extra weight will seem insignificant !

Thanks for the advice so far guys, all of it is very much appreciated. Now to research rods to try it with......