Shimano Baitrunners > Reviews > These reels are the best

Author's product rating:   

Durability
Ease of Use
Value for Money

Advantages:	Everything .  These reels are the dogs bits .
Disadvantages:	Maybe the fact that when the freespool is on you have to turn the reel handle a full 1/2 a turn to engage the clutch .  Can be a bit daunting when you first start using the reel and your used to picking up the rod and striking before reeling in .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

After over 25 years of fishing and in that time i have swapped many reels and am always looking for a better deal. Anything that comes on the market that makes fishing easier is always worth a look.

The shimano baitrunner is truely the bees knees when it comes to carp fishing, and at a very resonably price. i know the daiwa emblem's are good but for quality and price you can't beat the Shimano.

The first thing that strikes you about the reels is he quality. Just looking at one and you can see that it has been made with hard fighting fish in mind. Which ever one you decide on and there are a few. you will not be dissappointed. You get all the lingo with it like line lay, ball bearings, anti-reverse gearing, all is a bit much for an average angler.

So in my opion the ease in which these reels can be used is great. i first tried the reel on the river trent in full flow with a bit of extra water running through my swim. The baitrunner has a tensioner on it so when the river was running hard all i did was tighten it up a bit and the freespool was ok. A fish could still pull line off the reel with the minimum of effort.

Unfortunately i didn't get anything on that trip, so i headed down to my local pond armed with my prized reels. After only 20 minutes i was into a hard battling Common Carp. To say the reel stood up to the fish was an understatement. The reel did most of the work as i fight a fish using the drag and not back winding(Why pay all that money for a reel and not use it properly).The line lay was brilliant even under great pressure form an irate carp. The drag was good and the fish was soon beaten.

Maybe this is why the Shimano baitrunner reels keep there price so well. Fully recomended to anyone who wants to go big fish hunting.