Originally Posted by
Nepptune
I'd advise you to buy 5 of them at that price if you can find them and reselling them online because anywhere else you looking a new Saltiga 6500 will set you back close to $1300.00 USD, and if you move up to the higher speed DogFight version you looking at $1400.00 USD.... Personally I'm a Stella man rather than Saltiga ( I couldn't stomach paying R 10k plus for a reel and having to immediately spend another grand upgrading to Carbontex Drag washers to make sure the drag was smooth... this has been remedied by Daiwa, but still grates me that it took 5 years for them to remedy it! )..
Actually despite the weakness of our rand, and the INSANE mark up that some of the local agents put on products because they still think we living in the dark ages, and have such a strangle hold/monopoly on the market, South Africa is still the cheapest place on the planet to buy high end spinning reels ( Stellas anyway, buy close on $350 USD in some cases!! ) so we can't complain too much...
But I agree with you allsorts... I am a jigging and popping addict, and its where 99% of my tackle spend has gone for the last 10 years.... But when you see the engineering and ability of products like the Stella and Saltiga reels, the price tag "kinda" makes sense... sort of... but when looking at Fly reels, I am lost... I am the first one to admit to a complete addiction to high end tackle, and I don't mind paying for a premium product that will perform as per spec.... but I am baffled with the total simplicity of fly reels, why their price tags are so ludicrous...
Perhaps as Chris alludes to, these products are "timeless"... case in point my 10 year old Shiltons are performing as well as they did the day they came out the box, with nothing more than a little neatsfoot on the cork drag, and a fresh water rinse and perhaps a complete breakdown and grease/oil after a particularly intense trip.... Same cannot be said for my 8 and 9 year old Stellas... which while they are still performing, they certainly are not what they were when I bought them, and have since been replaced by newer and newer models, and need more intense and regular maintenance to keep performing at the levels we expect from them ( 15 kilo plus silk smooth drags etc ).... So are we paying for the simplicity and longevity of the fly reels?? When looked at over a 10 year period, I would say that my "overpriced" fly reels are far better value for money than my Stellas... even if the fly reels cost twice as much as they did/do, they would still be better value as they would more than likely last longer, or would at least perform as I would ask of them for longer...
That being said though, I find it far easier to accept the price tag of a new Stella over a new Shilton.... because I simply cannot, in my brain, get past the fact that something so simple, and relatively easy to engineer, when compared with a Stella for example( open one up, I dare you, and have a look at the engineering!), costs so much... Human nature I guess... And I am presenting arguments and reasoning from both sides of the table here, so not really helping, just raising some points...
SO moving away from reels for a moment, and looking at rods... A high end popping rod for example, on the same "level" as a new Sage SALT or G.Loomis NRX for example will set you back somewhere between R 10'000.k and R 15,000.00.... And for that you will receive nothing even remotely resembling a warranty of any sort, unlike one receives from pretty much every mid to top level fly rod brand...
Granted the technology on these rods is MENTAL, and their performance has to be seen and felt to believe... but why can fly rod manufacturers provide such incredible back up in terms of "no questions asked" replacements etc, on their top level performance products, which have huge numbers of hours/dollars into their development, when their counterparts in the Popping world won't even acknowledge the fact you bought a rod from them? Is it perhaps a cultural thing? Are their any high end Japanese fly rod makers? Most of the best Jigging and Popping rods are designed and built in Japan by relatively small scale boutique style companies, with a few exceptions that are built in Taiwan and Korea... but names like Carpenter, Ripplefisher, FISHERMAN, Smith LTD, Souls etc who all produce R 10k plus rods offer no warranty whatsoever.... in fact they are not even keen to do business outside of Japan generally as its too much hassle, and their domestic market pretty much buys everything they can produce so is this why they can afford to , for lack of a better phrase " not give a toss"...?
The flyfishing world is perhaps more competitive as there are so many products out there, and so much stock, companies need to sweeten the deal with their warranties? Unlike the popping stuff which gets bought up and out of stock almost immediately....
Anyway, I am properly rambling now, so I'll stop before I completely ruin this thread by going off topic...
For me, as a true tackle tart, I am of the firm belief that if you want it, and can afford it ( whether immediately because you have the cash, or if its something you save and strive towards ) and it makes you happy, and you enjoy fishing with it, thats what counts.... The fish don't give a damn, of that we can all agree... BUT, when a 50 kilo plus Omani GT eats my popper, I don't want to be second guessing my tackle..... when a Permit presents itself at 25 metres in a cross wind after 4 fruitless days on the flats and you probably only going to get one shot, I want to maximise my chances at presenting properly.... best way to do that is most likely to make sure I've spent every possibly chance practising and improving my casting.... and the second way is to make sure you've got the right tools for the job, that make you believe in your abilities.... and enrich your enjoyment of the pursuit..... some folks look at tackle as purely a tool with which to target and catch fish.... nothing wrong with that, as that is the purest ideology at the core of being an angler... But I am a lover of fine fishing tackle... fishing with it, rigging it, having it, researching it, testing it... this all adds to my enjoyment of being an angler more than I could ever quantify... to each their own I guess....
Right, now I shall climb down off my "Waffling Horse", and get off this " Thread HiJack Highway" and shut up for a while...
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