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Cheap baitrunners

N

Nigel Whittingham

Senior Member & Supporter
I’ve always taken my son fishing and consider it a job well done as he is now mad keen and will be an angler for life. He chose to go down the Pike & Catfish route although now fancies a go on the rivers for Barbel.
I’m going to set him up for the new season (birthday pressie) so want to get reasonable quality gear that will do the job but on a budget.
I was thinking of a pair of Shimano 4000 ST reels. Has anyone used them? They seem cheap but see quite a few in use so wondered if they were up to the job?
 
Nigel Whittingham said:
I’ve always taken my son fishing and consider it a job well done as he is now mad keen and will be an angler for life. He chose to go down the Pike & Catfish route although now fancies a go on the rivers for Barbel.
I’m going to set him up for the new season (birthday pressie) so want to get reasonable quality gear that will do the job but on a budget.
I was thinking of a pair of Shimano 4000 ST reels. Has anyone used them? They seem cheap but see quite a few in use so wondered if they were up to the job?
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They are really good value Nigel.

A pal has been using the 2500 ST's since they came out well over 10 years ago. No issues at all.

The fact the ST baitrunners have been on the market for 10+ years and haven't changed is a measure of how good they are for the money.
 
That’ll do for me then. I thought they’d be ok.
He’ll probably upgrade after a few seasons anyway once he gets to grips with it all but didnt want to start him off with something he’d struggle with
 
great value reels, I bought mine when they came with two spare spools, they don't come with any now but they're dead cheap to buy
 
Plenty of cheap second hand classic Shimano aero baitrunners on tebay, bomb proof and cheap as chips really.Many Trent anglers still using them.
 
Okuma get a great following
I’ve never owned one so that’s as far as my comment can go but people seem to love em and they are much cheaper than new shimano’s
 
St 4000 are brilliant reels and plenty of spare spools available along with the double handle option if you wanted.

I tried an Okuma once, I'm used to fast type drags but I found the one I had a bit unusable, it went from loose to locked up in a couple of clicks so I sold it straight away. I couldn't find spare spools for it either. Think I had a Pulzar 4000. Went straight back to the Shimano.
 
I’ve actually bought him a pair of the 4000 Pulzars (new). They feel a lot better than the Shimano ST and if they are anything like the Inception & LS versions i use for Piking, they will be fine. Better line lay than Shimano and the freespool can be set to almost like an open bail arm. Think you were just unlucky with yours (i’ve had problems with expensive reels out of the box in the past)
Okuma are cheap but perform better than a lot of more expensive reels in all departments. I’ve had mine for about 6 years and are proper workhorses and never let me down. If for some reason they aren’t any good, we can soon change them & wont have lost much.
Thanks everyone (as always)
 
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