Thanks for the info. I don't know if you've had a look at the 2005 models,
but I think they've come a long a bit in quality. I suppose I would call the
drag lever action and assembly 'budget' though. The price of these reels is
not much less than the brand names. In Australia, for about $120 more you
can get an equivalent Tiagra.

Anyway, thanks again.

"Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers" wrote in
message ...

"Stephan Carydakis" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

Just bought an Okuma Titus Gold 30 2 speed and I'm after any feedback
about
these reels. I haven't used it yet but a couple of mates and I are
taking
a
boat to Tassie in March '06. The things I do like are; it is very light
for
it's size, it's smooth enough, it was a lot cheaper than similar
Tiagra/Penn/Daiwa and the finish is good. Seems fairly heavy duty too.
The
only thing I do not like is a what I consider to be an issue with the
lever
on the drag system.I have set the drag to 5kg in the strike position.

When the lever is nearly at free spool, such as would be when
cubing/strip
baiting, it has a lot of lateral movement, as well as being very loose
in
forward/backward movement. My cousin has purchased a 50WII and it is
even
worse than mine when nearly at free spool with the correct drag setting.
It
literally falls into free spool if you 'tap' the reel body hard enough a
few
times. Both my cousin and I have contacted Okuma via e-mail but they
don't
seem interested!

Does anyone own one of these or knows of this issue?

Thanks in advance,


I don't own an Okuma and I wonder if I ever will. I attended a fishing
industry trade show a couple of years back and visited the Okuma booth
display. There, they had their entire line of reels on display for the 4
day show. Wanting to talk to one of their representatives, I "played"
with
the reels, impressed with how smooth they felt. However, there was no one
in the booth to talk to, everyone was "MIA".

I kept going back to the booth, hoping to talk to someone, and each time I
did, killed time by cranking on the reels. I never did find anyone there
to
talk to.

By the end of the 4 day show, the reels I futzed wth felt like coffee
grinders and made audible grinding noises. Now, if a reel can't handle 4
days of handling in a display booth, how are they going to handle the real
world abuse that a fishing reel will get?

Unless they change their quality, they will remain a budget reel.

And I've always been of the opinion that "You get what you pay for...."
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com