Saragosa or Biomaster

[Rob Powell]

Looking into either a Saragosa 10,000 or a 10,000 Biomaster to run PE6.

Anyone have any experience with either reel for GT popping? Amy preferences and why or why not?

Cheers,

Rob

[Trevor Skinner]

Rob,

Here's the trade off with either reel.

Both are good reels at a price level. If you are fishing a place that has relatively small GTs then you may not need anything else. If you are fishing a place that holds larger GTs you may get lucky and the reel holds together. You may get really lucky and you get to land a few decent fish with those reels. Just be aware that sooner rather than later those reels will fail, it's not the reels fault they weren't designed for it.

If you plan on doing a few trips a Stella or a Saltiga is actually much better value.


Regards,


Trev

[David Lumanauw]

Saragosa SW 10000 and  Biomaster 10000 are quite different.
The shaft of biomaster is only 4.5 mm. Saragosa SW's shaft is 5 mm, same as stella 8000-10000.
The gears also bigger for Saragosa SW 10000
I use Saragosa SW 8000 with JM 16000 spool for popping. It can handle 30 kg GTs no problem. I like to use the combo because of their lightness.
Saragosa SW8000 and Saragosa SW10000 have the same body, Saragosa SW8000 is HG gear (5.7:1), and Saragosa SW10000 is PG gear (4.9:1)
You can use JM or SOM 16000 spool for Saragosa SW8000 or SW10000
In the picture you can see the difference between Saragosa SW8000+ JM 16K spoool and Stradic 8000 FJ ( same body as Biomaster 10000)

[Mark Harris]

Putting the JM spool on a Saragosa 8000 was smart move David. The drag on a the new Saragosa 8000/10000 is disappointingly bad.

[David Lumanauw]

Hi, Mark,

It fits nicely. I just have to readjust the spacer shim. I end up with glueing 1 mm spacer shim on bottom of JM 16K spool, so i can interchange the standart Saragosa SW8000 spool and JM16K spool anytime easily wihout having to readjust the spacer shims
I think you can put stella 8000 spool or stella's replacement spool like JM, NatureBoys, SOM, Yumeya, Maxel to Saragosa SW 8000/10000.
Standart spool indeed dont have sufficient drag for GT popping, but may work for lighter fish.

Mark, are you taking part in Sanur Village Fishing Festival this 23 August in Sanur? Last year winner got 25 kg GT by popping, leaving jigging fishes behind.

[Mark Harris]

No I will not be David. Rules of the comp are you have to kill the fish.

[Saltywater Tackle]

Hi Rob,

As Trev suggested none of those reels are adequate for GT 's on the long run, however we've been fortunate enough to be part of the field testing for the Saragosa and they actually improved on it, I use it and abused it in harsh environment and it did not fail me,
it does not have the drag power that we need and you can always palm it if you feel the need for.
the following is some of the catches while the reel was under testing:

Southern Oman


Socotra


Tanzania





  Tight lines
    Sami

[Rob Powell]

Thanks guys, lots of great advice here (and awesome pics)! I have a Stella 10,000 FA with a 20,000 spool that I will use to fish PE8.

When we know the fish are generally smaller on average I'd like to throw PE6 around. The Saragosa will be for this purpose. While I would love another Stella I just won't fish it enough to justify the cost unless I can pick up one up second hand for a reasonable price.

I'll pick up a 10,000 and an upgraded spool and let you know how it fares.

If anyone has 10,000 Stella SW on the market let me know!