The Walmart in Lethbridge, Alberta was selling this at $25 so I thought "Why the heck not" and threw it in the shopping cart. While I was in the fishing aisle I thought I would grab a couple of Canadian Wigglers as I had lost one on my last outing and it never hurts to keep a spare... and also I wanted to grab a few 18lb leaders so the Pike won't chomp through my line.
As I was browsing, I noticed that in the rod rack there was another Shimano IX4000R except that it was being sold as a combo (with a rod) It was only a cheap rod but non the less it was a rod, and they were selling it for $29.99. I returned the reel to it's peg and snapped up the combo.
I went out on Raymond Lake last night just for an hour to see how the new combo worked. The reel worked as expected, nice and smooth and it is the larger 4000 so sturdiness is not going to be a problem, I always go for the heavier reel, they are the same price as the smaller ones and I feel they give better balance to the rig.
I did not catch anything but i really wasn't too disappointed, the main thing was that I got the new line wet and tested the reel action. Two things drew me to the Shimano IX 4000R (apart from the price) the first was that it has a rear drag adjustment. I love that feature because it is so much easier to adjust when you have a fish on.
Non-fishing people are not aware of the fine tuning that goes on between the reel and the line. The easy way to land a fish is to use a barbed hook (so the fish can't escape) a very strong, heavy fishing line that will never break and a fishing rod as thick as a broomstick. Using that sort of tackle it is just your brute strength against the strength of the fish and you just yank him out of the water and into your net. Strangely enough there are a lot of anglers out there who think that is what fishing is all about.
In actual fact you can land fish many times heavier that the breaking weight of your fishing line:
Using 6 lbs test line, you can catch bigger fish than 6 pounds. You set the drag on your reel so when the drag is set, you can still pull line out without breaking the line. A big fish will get worn out pulling on your drag, and the rod will help you tire out the fish. You have to take your time and not force your fish in.
The world record for Black Marlin on 6 lbs test line is 735 lbs 3 oz.
The drag adjuster works along side the anti reverse, tighten the drag right up and if you put enough pressure on your line the eventually it will snap. Now turn the drag down until the reel releases line before the snapping point. For example if you are using 6 lb line then you want your drag to start kicking in at about 5 lbs. With that set up (in theory) you should never have a big fish snap your line, instead, if he puts more than 5 lb of stress on your rig then the drag will let him have more line.
While he has got the strength and stamina he will be able to get further away from you by pulling out the line. In the meantime you are fighting with him by trying to reel him in. While he is pulling your reeling will be doing nothing, in fact he may even get further away, but eventually he will tire and will not be able to put so much force on your line, this is when you pull him and steer him in closer to you... until he is close enough to be scooped up in your landing net.
The result is a more exhilarating experience for the fisherman and it does give the fish a sporting chance to escape... that's why they call it Sport Fishing.
The second reason for choosing the Shimano IX4000R was that it had a bale arm trigger. This little device is great but there is a trade off. There is a little trigger that lifts the bale out of the way when you are ready to cast for a true one handed cast. After about 10 minutes of practice you will wander how you ever lived without it, when you reverse reel the trigger will always stay in the correct position so all you have to do is pick up the line with the fore finger, hold the trigger then pull. The bale arm will lift and your finger will draw the line to the rod which puts you in the perfect casting position.
The trade off is that the anti reverse is not instant, on a normal reel the handle will not reverse at all, it will only travel in one direction. With the Quick fire it will reverse back to the trigger point, some people might not like that, and to be honest it almost put me off getting the Spirex and the IX in the first place. I tried it in the shop and it felt that I was going to lose a lot of the sensitivity of a smaller fish biting. in practice down at the lake (where it matters) I don't even notice it.
Overall the Shimano IX4000R is quite a large reel even for a 4000 size. The trigger on the Quick Fire is made of plastic although from what I have seen from both reels (same construction) it seems to be up the job... only time will tell. The drag on the rear is very precise and even for a novice, it will be easy enough to set exactly where you need it. The spool could maybe be a little bigger but I have got 12 lb line on there because I like to fish with a Canadian Wiggler which is quite heavy but I have still managed to get about 150 yds on it. Everything else is absolutely fine, in fact I am going back out on Raymond lake this evening and I am planning to use it.
So after thinking I had got a bargain I was looking on Amazon this morning and this is what I found:
Amazon in the US - $11.26
Amazon in Canada - $16.86
Unbelievable, practically half the price and I thought I had a bargain in Walmart, click on the price links above and check it out for your self or take a look in the Tackle Shops at the top of the page.
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