WHICH REELS FOR LIGHT & ULTRA LIGHT?

[bluemarlin54]

Times ago I fished in Kenya for Sails & Strippies and was very happy with my Shimanos TLD 5 & TLD 10.
Now I would like to start again and I am looking for conventional reels with lever drag for:
4 lbs
8 lbs
12 lbs.
What reels (not highpriced) are on the market and what would you suggest?
Tight Lines
Wolfgang

[Ultralite]

TLD 5 & 10 are my favorites, but are no longer made. If you want to stay cheap, go with a TLD 15 and fill it with backing to take up capacity on the spool. I try to leave enough room for about 400 yards of the class line. You don't need more than that because if you let the fish take 150 to 200 yards of line, you're going to break off due to water pressure on the line.

If you go modern, few of the reels designed for spectra will be very suitable for the lower line classes. For example, the lowest drag setting you can get out of an Avet SX is 2 lbs and the drag cam is very steep. I'd go with the Shimano Tyrnos 8 in single speed. I've hand tested it and you can get the requisite drag settings at strike to fish 4 lb. Shimano always has made reels with well designed drags and they have never marketed based on useless maximum drag claims. The Tyrnos is all metal and will do the job. I think the Tyrnos 8 single speed runs about $225.

BTW my wife holds the current IGFA 8 lb and 6 lb line class records for threshers. I myself have broke off two threshers in a day while leadering them and they were about 80 and 100 lbs and I was fishing 4 lb. They would have doubled the existing IGFA 4 lb record.