Bull Red Pics and Summary (Cameron Jetties)

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by breambuster

Not to get off topic, but what made you choose the symetres? And why not go with a 4000?

When I bought the set of eight reels two years ago, I was thinking general inshore use and occasional bull reds, so I paired them up with 7 and 8 ft ugly sticks and 30 lb power pro. But my kids kinda fell in love with catching the big fish, and we sorta got good at it. So we've respooled 5 of the reels with 50 lb power pro. If I had it to do over I would go with the Symetre 4000 for the extra line capacity (140 yards of 50 lb pp instead of 110-120 yards.)

I chose the Symetre because the guys on the board here recommended it highly as a tough durable reel for general purpose boat rods. The Penn Battle was strongly considered instead, but some recent reviews indicated some quality issues with Penn Battles of recent vintage. When you're buying eight reels to put on your boat rods, you want them to last without a bunch of repairs. The Symetres have been up to the task for the first two seasons. If they continue to handle the big fish for two or three more seasons I expect to replace them with Symetre 4000s when the time comes unless my children have shifted their likes to smaller fish.

But the children are talking about sharks and mackerel and snapper and grouper and stuff of that sort rather than the finesse inshore game chasing specks, smaller redfish and flounder.