Screw you Penn and Sufix, and for two entirely different reasons

As much as this planet we call home is a truly glorious thing, the world we have created is not perfect and it’s obviously never going to be. If we had any sense as human beings we would not be raping the oceans like we do, and politicians would be on TV telling the truth and not bowing down to big business interests against doing the right thing by the natural world especially. If only I had my way on more things it would all be better! You will notice that I don’t do politics outside of fishing on this blog for many obvious reasons…………..

Aside from it being February and cabin fever rages ever on, there are two things in my fishing world which are distinctly not perfect for two very different reasons. Please take today’s blog post with a big pinch of salt by the way, but as per the paragraph above, I’d also like my way on more fishing related things if at all possible! Number one I’d like the commercial sector to actually give a flying f&%$ about the marine environment and long-term sustainability, number two I want the mighty Penn Fishing Tackle to give into my demands for a 2500 size Slammer III spinning reel because they very obviously aren’t bloody listening to me, and thirdly I’d like to say thanks a lot to the Sufix line company for coming along with their Sufix 131 braid and ruining my stance that I wasn’t going to spend more than £15-20 on a spool of braid anymore because with what’s out there these days there is no point.

As I said, pinch of salt and all that, but if I was in charge of Penn I’d have read my blog post here and I’d have felt all nice and charitable and I’d have made a smaller size of the mighty Slammer III spinning reel because this tit Henry Gilbey is asking for it. I love how fishing with a reel like this stunning little and very lightweight Shimano Stradic 2500HG-FL is a distinctly pleasurable experience, and turning the handle is like dropping a warm knife through a pat of butter that’s been left out to come up to room temperature. So many of these modern spinning reels we are fishing with these days are little marvels of engineering and with most new generations we seem to be getting more and more for our money. Without a doubt my favourite ever spinning reel in the 3000 sort of size that I have fished with for a proper length of time is the awesome and about to be replaced Shimano Twin Power XD C3000HG (should I be “banking” a brand new version of this reel because they are so damn good?), but now I’ve got this amazing little Shimano Stradic 2500HG-FL which so far seems to be just as good.

But I do also love a bit of grunt. If my Shimano reels are the Rotting Christ of the black metal world - impossibly catchy, very smooth, and essentially perfect - then my Penn Slammer III in the 3500 and indeed 4500 sizes are the Immortal of the black metal world. A bit heavier, a bit faster, a bit rougher around the edges but often very catchy, and very confidence inspiring. Some days are Rotting Christ days, and some days are Immortal days. But where’s the baby Slammer III? As I talked about the other day I find myself liking a heavier Slammer III 3500 (Shimano 4000 size) spinning reel on more rods than I imagined, but if a 2500 (Shimano 2500/3000 size) Penn Slammer III came along I reckon I might end up lure fishing for bass with only Slammers because they give me so much confidence. I really like the Penn Spinfisher VI range of reels and I think the 3500 is the sweet spot for me out of the three sizes I have fished with (2500, 3500, 4500), but there is something unavoidably metal about the Slammer III range. So screw you Penn for not making me a couple of Slammer III 2500 spinning reels!

And screw you Sufix for coming along with this not remotely cheap Sufix 131 braid which I am not for one second suggesting is going to catch any more fish or that you really should be spending what it takes to fish with this mainline, but over time I have sort of found my main spinning reels filling up with Sufix 131 because I truly believe it is the best braid I have ever used. I fell hard for their discontinued Performance Pro 8, I really like the replacement Sufix X8, and if you told me that I could fish with only one braid for the rest of my life then I’d find it hard to look past their incredibly tough and long-lasting Sufix 832. I really like how these braids sit with plenty more out there now in the under £20 a spool category.

But along came this Sufix 131 and whilst I can’t even properly describe quite why I like this mainline so much, I look at my Slammer III 3500 which gets used so much in the surf and it’s loaded up with #0.8 Sufix 131 because I so like fishing with it and I trust it 100%. I could be talking crap and I can’t prove it, but it honestly feels like this uber-smooth braid flies out and cuts through wind and waves like no other braid I have fished with. It knots perfectly to my fluoro leaders via the FG knot and I have pulled numerous lures out of snags. It also feels perfect after a hell of a lot of use and because I’ve got a 300m spool on there which I’ll be reversing it at some point although because the braid still feels so good I’m going to wait to do this and get as much life out of it as I can. I look at my Shimano Stradic 2500HG-FL and Shimano Twin Power XD C3000HG spinning reels and they are both loaded up with 150m spools of #1 Sufix 131 and again, both mainlines have been fished with a lot and both feel as good as new. With how much I trust this Sufix 131 I’m going to drop down in braid strength when it comes to changing lines on those two reels. I have a spare spool for my Twin Power which has that excellent Varivas Avani Sea Bass Super Sensitive Full Cast LS8 braid in #1 on there.

I hope it goes without saying that you categorically do not need to go and spend more than £20 on a 150m or so spool of braid these days to get a truly robust and excellent mainline, and I obviously don’t actually need a 2500 size Penn Slammer III spinning reel - but that ain’t the point here. What I need and want are two very different things and increasingly I lay the blame for this type of blog post at the door of this winter’s weather and also an increasingly bouncing brain due to this work I am doing with Savage Gear which I am finding incredibly stimulating and interesting. I’ve got some cool stuff to tell you about but the grownups are insisting that I wait a while longer.

All relevant fishing tackle reviews relating to this blog post can be found here on this website.

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