Cheapskate me.... Okuma Reel
 

Ok, first off I have atleast a couple thousand dollars worth of high
quality reels for bass fishing (Quantrum Accurists & Shiman Curados (And
Super Free models) along with a few others) so I am not being cheap just for
the sake of being cheap.

I went on a quest to find a reasonable price fly reel for 7-8 weight for
bass fishing. In the local sporting goods store, Sportmen's Hide-A-Way,
(not much fly gear guys, sorry) the owner is a friend of mine. A sales rep
from one of the distributorships was visiting and Harold (the owner and a
nice guy) gave me the go ahead to order some stuff for my own use.

I sat down with the sales rep and flipped through lines of reels he carried.
I wanted something decent, but to be honest this is something I might use
heavily for a week and then not pick up again for a couple years. They
carried the Scientific Angler line , but at $129 and up retail it was a
little more than I wanted to spend for a reel that might get occassional
use. I did want something with an adjustable drag. even though I am used to
controlling the line by pinching it under my last two fingers I have never
caught bigger fish on a fly rod before. Well I have, but not fly fished. I
used to have an old flyrod that I replaced the first two eyelets with bigger
spinning eyes and used a light spinning reel on for dabbing minnows into
holes.

Anyway, we found the Okuma Sierra S7/8 for a retail of 39.95. I was
skeptical of any reel that cheap just as I would be if it were a baitcasting
reel. There wasn't much description in the flip sheets the sales rep had,
but he said I'ld have no problem returning it through Harold if it wasn't
satisfactory.

It arrived last week and at first glance I was disappointed. It seemed a
little on the small side for holding a lot of line. Particularly for a reel
intended for a 7/8 weight fly line. That was were my disappointment ended.
It has an easy to adjust drag. A little jumpy (which is expected from a
cheap reel) but not horrible. I used a piece of tape to spin a 30 yard
weight forward fly line onto the reel just to see how much space was on the
reel. It is deceptive. It doesn't have a huge amount of space for backing,
but there was some. I stripped the flyline off to put on my backing. I
spooled on between 30 and 40 yards of backing and spooled the flyline back
onto the reel. There was still a little space, but not much. Better than I
expected from first glance at the reel though. I doubt I would feel
comfortable fight big fish in open ewater on this rig, but I think I found a
cost effective reel for the application I plan to use it for.

After I had it spooled up I cranked the drag down tight and riped line off
by hand to burn in or deliberately glaze the clutches slightly and it
smoothed it out quite a bit. Not as smooth as the drag on a Shimano Curado,
but not bad for just under $40.

I'll give you guys a real (reel) world performance review when I finally
hook up a fish or two using this reel.
--
Bob La Londe

Win a Spinnerbait Tackle Kit

Spinnerbait Tips & Tricks Contest
Through the Month of September 2005

http://www.YumaBassMan.com

"Bob La Londe" wrote:
Anyway, we found the Okuma Sierra S7/8 for a retail of 39.95. I was
skeptical of any reel that cheap just as I would be if it were a baitcasting
reel. There wasn't much description in the flip sheets the sales rep had,
but he said I'ld have no problem returning it through Harold if it wasn't
satisfactory.


Bob, I think this is a cousin of the one Willi used on his 5wt in Alaska for
rainbows, dollies, and grayling. It was fine until the crank fell off. He put
it back on a couple times, but it finally disapeared entirely. We'll see if he
comments on this...

Chas

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

chas wrote:
"Bob La Londe" wrote:

Anyway, we found the Okuma Sierra S7/8 for a retail of 39.95. I was
skeptical of any reel that cheap just as I would be if it were a baitcasting
reel. There wasn't much description in the flip sheets the sales rep had,
but he said I'ld have no problem returning it through Harold if it wasn't
satisfactory.



Bob, I think this is a cousin of the one Willi used on his 5wt in Alaska for
rainbows, dollies, and grayling. It was fine until the crank fell off. He put
it back on a couple times, but it finally disapeared entirely. We'll see if he
comments on this...

Chas

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly



The Okuma Sierra is what the reel is/was. For occassional use like Bob
would be using it, I think the reel would be fine. However, for more
frequent usage, I don't like the reel. The aluminum, used to make it is
too soft. I wore grooves in the line guard after the first six months of
use. The handle fell off in Alaska because the hole that the handle went
through became worn through use until the screw head holding the handle
on slipped through the hole. I'm getting a new (and different) reel for
my 5 weight.

Willi

..... we found the Okuma Sierra S7/8 for a retail of 39.95. I was
skeptical of any reel that cheap....

A friend of mine, who has a number of reels, got an Okuma, 5 wt. I
think; he likes it fine.

vince

The Okuma Reel Is as you found out, not a bad reel for the price.
When the reels came out in the early 90's I wouldn't even consider them.
Since then the quality has come a long way.
Good Luck with the reel, and I hope you catch the "The Big One".
Brad Bohrer
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
Ok, first off I have atleast a couple thousand dollars worth of high
quality reels for bass fishing (Quantrum Accurists & Shiman Curados (And
Super Free models) along with a few others) so I am not being cheap just
for the sake of being cheap.

I went on a quest to find a reasonable price fly reel for 7-8 weight for
bass fishing. In the local sporting goods store, Sportmen's Hide-A-Way,
(not much fly gear guys, sorry) the owner is a friend of mine. A sales
rep from one of the distributorships was visiting and Harold (the owner
and a nice guy) gave me the go ahead to order some stuff for my own use.

I sat down with the sales rep and flipped through lines of reels he
carried. I wanted something decent, but to be honest this is something I
might use heavily for a week and then not pick up again for a couple
years. They carried the Scientific Angler line , but at $129 and up
retail it was a little more than I wanted to spend for a reel that might
get occassional use. I did want something with an adjustable drag. even
though I am used to controlling the line by pinching it under my last two
fingers I have never caught bigger fish on a fly rod before. Well I have,
but not fly fished. I used to have an old flyrod that I replaced the
first two eyelets with bigger spinning eyes and used a light spinning reel
on for dabbing minnows into holes.

Anyway, we found the Okuma Sierra S7/8 for a retail of 39.95. I was
skeptical of any reel that cheap just as I would be if it were a
baitcasting reel. There wasn't much description in the flip sheets the
sales rep had, but he said I'ld have no problem returning it through
Harold if it wasn't satisfactory.

It arrived last week and at first glance I was disappointed. It seemed a
little on the small side for holding a lot of line. Particularly for a
reel intended for a 7/8 weight fly line. That was were my disappointment
ended. It has an easy to adjust drag. A little jumpy (which is expected
from a cheap reel) but not horrible. I used a piece of tape to spin a 30
yard weight forward fly line onto the reel just to see how much space was
on the reel. It is deceptive. It doesn't have a huge amount of space for
backing, but there was some. I stripped the flyline off to put on my
backing. I spooled on between 30 and 40 yards of backing and spooled the
flyline back onto the reel. There was still a little space, but not much.
Better than I expected from first glance at the reel though. I doubt I
would feel comfortable fight big fish in open ewater on this rig, but I
think I found a cost effective reel for the application I plan to use it
for.

After I had it spooled up I cranked the drag down tight and riped line off
by hand to burn in or deliberately glaze the clutches slightly and it
smoothed it out quite a bit. Not as smooth as the drag on a Shimano
Curado, but not bad for just under $40.

I'll give you guys a real (reel) world performance review when I finally
hook up a fish or two using this reel.
--
Bob La Londe

Win a Spinnerbait Tackle Kit

Spinnerbait Tips & Tricks Contest
Through the Month of September 2005

http://www.YumaBassMan.com

Bob,

I've been using the S 8/9 (spooled with 444 Lazer) for 2 seasons on my 8 wt
Avid. I bought the 8/9 over the 7/8 because I wanted more backing. I think I
paid 41.95 for the 8/9. I've yet to have to tear it apart for repair and I
seldom catch a fish so big that I have to put them on the reel, so I don't
know how the handle will hold up, but the drag seems to have smoothed out
nicely. I figure that if it breaks, I'll buy a new one. If I decide to go to
Manitoba for pike fishing, I'll get a higher quality reel, but for bass it
seems to work fine.

Mark