24" Northern Pike

A while back I wrote a review on the Dragon Baitcaster Reel. For those of you that missed it you can read it here.

To recap, I had issues with the reel right out of the box. It was hard to adjust, and after a few casts it started coming apart. For a $70 reel I was expecting more so I contacted OSI with my issues. They promptly shipped me a replacement reel without any hassles at all.

There is no comparison between the reel I had and the reel I have now. I took it with me to Canada for some walleye and pike fishing and abused it. For those of you that have caught 30″ pike, you know that they put up a lot of fight for their size, and they can strip line with the fastest fish in the water. The Dragon reel held up just fine. Once set it stayed set, and after hammering it for hours on end it showed no signs of breaking down any time soon.

So what happened? I can only guess based on my past life in manufacturing. Once in a while a bad part slips through. The important issue after that is how the company reacts. I was more than happy with the customer service and the quick replacement of the defective reel. And I’m thinking that this may become a standard reel in my box of goodies when I plan to do some casting.

We’ll see after I get back out to this new spot we found on the St. Joe River in Mishawaka.

Dragon Baitcaster Revisited is a post from: Lunker Links

The reel is a 6+1 ball bearing low profile baitcaster that comes in a right hand crank only design. The reel looks great out of the box and is very light. Additional features include a magnetic cast control system to help with overruns, 6.1:1 gear ratio, and holds about 130 yards of 12 pound line. I loaded the reel with 14 lbs Berkley Crystal Fire Line and took the Dragon with me fishing down to Marco Island, Fl., to give it a serious workout in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first thing I noticed right out of the box was the the reel came with no set up instructions. This wasn’t a big deal for me, but if this is your first baitcaster with a magnetic drag you may find it to be a huge challenge to set up. I would love to see a small insert that explains the 3 drag adjustments. The reel also seemed a bit stiff to start with.

I put a medium weight spoon on the line and started playing with it while standing on the dock. Almost immediately I had an issue. On the third cast the brass line guide popped out and hung up in one of the guides on the rod. this caused a massive overrun on the spool and I ended up cutting out some 20 yards of line to clear out the mess. You can see the missing guide if you compare the two pictures.

I did end up using the reel most of the week. It worked better with heavier lures and really suffered in anything other than a downwind cast. And on real long casts it made a very high pitched squealing noise that was annoying. But, it did have some distance to it, or maybe it was my 6′ 3″ leverage going to town on it.

Toward the end of the week I noticed a clicking noise while reeling in and didn’t really figure out what the issue was until I took the above picture. At some point the line carrier guide shaft detached from the inside of the reel. Under load it let the line carrier move and jam and that was causing the clicking noises I was hearing.

When I got home I talked with the guys at Easy2Hook about the reel and the issues I had. No questions asked, they said send it back and they would gladly replace it. At this point I’m reserving judgment on the reel because this could have been a random bad reel, but I can say that the customer service is top notch. I should have the replacement reel in hand in a few days and after I get a chance to fish with it a few times I’ll be writing a follow up review to give my final thoughts on this reel.

Dragon Baitcaster Reel Review is a post from: Lunker Links

No knot hooks is a post from: Lunker Links