I saw him toss a couple posts in the thread about Zelina Tailwalker reels. If you look at the concise detailed info this man posted there you can get a quick view of what he has to bring to the table. You will see why it thrills me to have him aboard.
He is a top shelf marine biologist with a passion for the details of the sport beyond description... Have known him for years and very few people earn the level of respect I have for the man. Having Melton and Bart and Tred aboard is way nice but this fellow at least to me is a home run...
His first post yesterday shows the level of great i'm talking about...
"Hi -- I'm new to the forum and this is my first post; I hope it's not too long. I bought a Zelina Tailwalker 80W a couple of months ago, largely out of curiosity and because of the reel's low price ($385. on eBay). I dismantled the reel as soon as I received it and gave it a thorough going-over. It has its good points and bad points; here are a few of my observations. The reel's frame is very well machined and the spool/frame tolerance is quite good. The two-speed shift mechanism works smoothly and reliably. However, there is a "bolt" on either end of the main shaft; one secures the handle and the other secures the two main gears. Neither of these had been tightened on my reel (and they need Loctite) and both were ready to fall off, along with the handle/gears. Behind the left sideplate is a "heat shield" covering the drag mechanism. On the 80W it's supposed to be secured by six tiny machine screws. In my reel, only one screw was holding the heat shield in place, and another was rattling around inside the sideplate; the holes for five of the six screws had been stripped and the assembler apparently didn't even attempt to install the other four screws. The handle arm on my reel was slightly bent, but was easily straightened; however, this indicates that this part is weaker than it should be. The drag is decent, but cannot apply nearly as much pressure as is advertised while maintaining freespool (I measured 19 pounds rather than the 34 pounds of drag that is claimed). The drag lever itself operates very smoothly; in fact, it operated too easily on my reel: the lever would back off whenever the handle was turned. I replaced the teflon washer under the drag lever with a slightly thicker fabric washer, and that solved the problem. The Zelina's reel seat is very strong and is secured by six machine screws rather than the normal four (at least on the 80W). However, a bit of these screws' threads extend up into the spool cavity and could potentially abrade one's line if a backlash/overrun occurred. Parts are available, but it takes a while for Zelina to respond. The Chinese-built Zelinas, like their clones (Maguro, etc.), have potential, but there seems to be a lack of quality control during the assembly process, and some of the reels' parts are rather weak. If you are good at working on reels and see one offered at a very good price it might be worth your while, especially with the smaller reels that don't have to contend with as much pressure as an 80.
Thanks so much for the warm welcome, everyone, and thanks for the introduction, Paul. I'll do my best to try to make a positive contribution to this site; from what I've read and heard, there's a great group of folks here. JD5652, I'm a marine biology professor who specializes in fishes, and I pursued a career in ichthyology because I've loved fishing since I was six and I wanted to learn more about the critters I was catching. I'm one of the contributors to the "Fish Facts" section in Sport Fishing, and I've served as the co-host for several of the Saltwater Sportsman National Seminars over the past few years. I had a 50-ton Ocean Operator license, but let it expire as I was only chartering part-time in a small boat and decided I wanted to just fish for fun. I currently have two boats: a 23' Contender that I use offshore, and a 16' Egret that I use when fishing flats and inshore waters. I enjoy all kinds of fishing with any type of tackle.
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