Pflueger Supreme XT 2000S Reviewed by Royter

Well, where do I start? Let’s start with where it all began shell we! Some 4 years ago Pflueger introduced us to the first of their MG or Magnesium body and rotor reels called Supreme MG. These where quite a break through for the US reel manufacture as they where on par with some of the lightest reels in the world for their size at the time. Bring it all forward about 18 months and they released the Supreme XT, the platform for the XTS!
Now for the outside you would say that there has been some significant Japanese styling done to this reel and would be right. I’m not sure where in their culture this amazing ability to create beautiful looking fishing reels comes from and I don’t really care, as long as they keep doing it!! You have to admit, this is a sexy looking reel. From the XT to the XTS there is only few things have changed. Let’s look!
From the outside in you have the obvious deep chocolate brown and gold cosmetics that quite convincingly stamp Japan as the country of origin.

Probably the most significant outside part on the reel is the handle. This thing is a work of art! The whole thing weighs just a few grams with two very important features. Firstly is the carbon handle shaft. This lowers the overall weight of the reel by as much as 15 grams. Why all reels don’t have this feature is beyond me! Second is the EVA handle knob. Very comfortable indeed; in fact, if I could I would make every reel I own have one of these EVA knobs. Hidden inside the knob are two of the 9 bearings which make it feel effortless to wind. Other less noticeable parts are the alloy main pin and machined main pin body.

The spool is quite the piece of work as well! Aside from its pretty little holes and funky looks it’s a tournament spool. What that means is it takes only one shot of 125 yards to fill. Not 300 yards where 200 of that will only ever see the light of day again when you de-spool it to change the line! Plus it’s a ‘braid direct’ spool meaning that you can tie your braid directly to the spool without the fear of the whole lot spinning. It does this with thin rubber elements that run opposite to the line laying.

Tucked away inside the spool is the drag. Water proof of course (there should never be another reel built in the world that doesn’t have a water proof drag!) and instead of the Carbon Matrix drag the Japanese designers have opted for one of the most reliable and smoothest dargs on the planet, oil soaked felt and stainless washers. And I know what you’re thinking; you want the carbon drag right? Well before you get all huffy about it let me tell you a few things about the old school felt washer! This is the most common drag system used in reels today. Why? It works! Both the 2 big players Shimano and Daiwa have built (and still do) more reels with this drag system than any other. It’s so reliable smooth that there’s been nothing else to take its place for 30 years or more. Another good thing about the material is you can change the type of grease that’s in them to change their characteristics. The thing is about this type of system is that if you’re not heating them up with 100+ metre runs and really cooking it than it will stay smooth as ever for ages and when it comes time to change them its cost cents not dollars!!

Moving right along we have some really nice parts next. The MG or magnesium body and rotor is where this reel gets most of its weight savings from. This material is an alloy and is 2/3’s less dense than aluminium and a little stronger. This material has been used in the manufacture of fishing reels for many years and is still one of the best we have today for making ultra light, rigid bodies.

The drive train is a very nice simple and strong layout; titanium main gear, pinion gear, rotor bearings & anti-reverse assembly, oscillating gear, oscillating slider and main shaft. Neat and simple! The thing that makes the XTS feel so smooth is the oscillating gear and slider. The gear runs on a bearing which takes out unwanted drive-train lag and metal-on-metal friction of the surfaces between the body and the gear. The oscillating slider is also given a hand to stay straight and true by the way of a capture plate that guides the slider back and forth not allowing any torque that so often happens in other reels.

Other features include a weight tuned main gear with radial pie cuts for less rotational mass, hollow alloy bail wire, Ti plated line roller & spool lip, sure click bail cam and did I mention dead sexy lookin!!

Just before I go I had better talk about something that’s dear to my heart. Corrosion Resistant Ball Bearing! These are by far the biggest advancement in reel technology since the invention of the compression bail spring! These little rippers are saving your reels every day. By beating back corrosion and not allowing it to form the humble bearing is still rolling and not all furry, brown and disgusting. Lucky for the people who have bought or are about to buy an XTS because the 3 main bearing in this reel are CRB’s! There’s 1 in the rotor assembly and 1 on either side of the main gear, keeping your gear box in-line and smooth. It quite easy to tell a non-CRB from a CRB; the CRB’s have a blackish tint to them. This blackish material is chromium. Chromium is what makes stainless steel not rust!
Well there you have it, the inn’s and out’s of the new Pflueger Supreme XTS.
Get down to your local and have a look. I know you’ll like what you feel!

Cheers

Royter.

Switch baiting squid

It’s generally pretty hard to drag me away for the Bream fishing but sometime I promise my wife a fresh feed of tasty calamari. When squid fishing, I like to use a technique we call switch baiting. Switch baiting is when you attract the squid with a lure or bait and then drop down a squid jig which hopefully the fired up squid will attack.

Switch baiting is particularly successful when fishing with a partner. Select one person to cast a squid jig and the other to cast a plastic. I have 2 preferred plastics when searching for squid, the 4” Powerbait shrimp in natural and the 4” power minnow in smelt or watermelon.

Switchbaiting squid is extremely good fun and very exciting. Just recently my brother and I had a fantastic session chasing squid. My brother (Brent) was throwing a Power Egi squid jig in olive pink and I was throwing a 4” minnow in watermelon. At first the fishing was tough, until after 20 minutes I felt the distinctive lunge of a large squid. This is where the fun begins. It’s very unlikely to have successfully hooked the squid with a single jighead so very gently I started to apply pressure to try and get the squid to within eyesight. Meanwhile Brent had quickly retrieved his jig and was ready to cast as soon as we sighted the squid. Once the squid was sighted, Brent lightly cast his jig just in front of the squid and allowed in to sink. As his jig reached level with the squid I gave a sharp flick of the rod tip to pull the plastic away from the squid, (I like to leave the plastic in the water to keep the squid interested) Brent was lifting and dropping his jig to try and tempt the squid to switch his aggression onto the jig. Watching a large aggressive squid, light up, serge and rap his tentacles around the jig is truly as exciting as any other form of sight fishing. This squid obliged and we had fun trying to net the squid without being inked.

The next squid I hooked on the 4” minnow was followed by 5 of his mates. It can really get hectic when this happens. This time I held my plastic with squid attached down deep to try and encourage the others to hang around. Brent quickly dropped his jig behind the squid and was immediately hooked onto a large squid. We quickly netted it but left the net dangling in the water as Brent dropped his jig back down. I got a bit greedy and grabbed my spare rod with jig attached and dropped that over the side as well. We both hooked up and without any spare hands to wind or unhook the squid we had line and ink flying everywhere. This pattern of schools of squid following their mates continued for the next couple of hours. We had an absolute ball and took home some very tasty calamari.

I use a Berkely Pro Tactic 6’10” 2-4kg for squid fishing with either 2lb Trilene straight through or with an extra long leader of 4lb Trilene attached to 2lb/3lb Crystal Fireline. I always have at least one rod rigged with a Berkley Power Egi jig ready to cast and I’ll also have another trailing out the back of the boat. It is amazing how many squid the stationary jig will catch.

The Berkley Power Egi comes in a range of sizes, weights and colours so try a few to find the ones that work best in your favourite squid patch. The added bonus of the Berkley Power Egi jig is its scent. It has a very distinctive prawn/shrimp smell to it which the squid just love. When working the Power Egi I have a couple of retrieves I like to rotate through. The standard lift and drop will work well but I like to be a bit more aggressive than that. Once the jig has sunk to within a metre of the bottom, I like to give the rod tip 2-3 sharp flicks, this will swim the lure from side to side. Then let it swim back to the bottom. The squid will strike when the jig is drifting back to the bottom. Good luck and don’t forget to try switch baiting.

Hodgey

Amazing catch on ABU Tracker telescopic rod.

Abu 6’6 Tracker – what a legend! Having owned telescopic rods as a little kid I never really had much faith in them, but gee they have come a long way since then. My recent purchase of a 6’6 Tracker came from a passion of fishing and a need to fit a rod and reel into my laptop bag for my work which involves flying around the islands of the Torres Strait. Having purchased it down in Brisbane this Christmas I dragged it along as a spare rod on a trip to Moreton Island. To cut a long story short – during a squid fishing session with mates I landed a 25-30kg Cobia (scales only went to 25kg which it made easily) in 45 minutes. We were all blown away by how the rod stood up to the challenge and helped make this fish my greatest ever catch. The next week my brothers, father and mates all bought Abu 6’6 trackers!



As head of Marine Education for the Torres Strait (18 schools and TAFE) I am pretty well known for being an obsessed fisherman – getting stuck into everything from Billfish to Barra in what has to be some of the most extreme fishing locations around. A lot of the gear we use is pretty good stuff and a lot of the gear we buy also never lasts long with blown reels and busted rods a continuous hassle. For a laugh we are going to see what we can catch with the 6’6 on upcoming trips to the shelf (440 km round trip this weekend coming) – if you need extra photos or video footage we can forward it on. We are by no means expert fisherman but we happen to fish in places where it does not matter.



I am running 30lb superbraid and a fairly cheap Shimano reel on the Tracker as well.




Regards,



Andrew Denzin