Tiburon Smart Reels

In 2002, I was introduced to the Tiburon Smart Reels. The demonstration of its ability to shift automatically from high gear to low gear and then back to high gear, depending on what pressure the reel was receiving, really interested me. I thought about how many times, while fighting a large tuna, that all of a sudden the fish would swim right at the boat. The reaction time of going from low gear back to high gear manually sometimes could be cumbersome and cause loss of time, giving the fish an advantage at that point… So I purchased the # 8 Smart Reel !

Last year I fished the # 8 Smart Reel on three long-range trips of 5, 6 and 8 days with great success. I fished 40 lb. and 50 lb. top shots and landed yellowfin up to 80 Lbs. and yellowtail to 42 lbs. Crew members, skippers and other passangers were impressed and began askin questions about the reel. I let several individuals use it and they all could not believe how smooth and precision it was.

In 2003, Tiburon introduced their 3 new larger reels and I could hardly wait to get another in my hands. I purchased a # 16 Smart Reel. I rigged my last years reel, the # 8 with 40 lb. topshot and my # 16 with 60 lb. top shot. Last week (May 22nd) I departed on my first trip of the year, a 5 day on “The Apollo”. Exploring outside for about half the day, we ran into a large school of ” Bluefin”….. LARGE BLUEFIN !!

I decided to use my new # 16 Tiburon Reel with 60 lb. test. The first bait out was an immediate hook-up. The bluefin was landed with precision and ease with the Smart shift # 16 reel. At the dock, the bluefin weighed 100 lbs. Quite a test for my first fish of the season. ( Maybe a tough test for me, but NOT for the Tiburon Smart Shift Reel.)

I continued to use both Smart Shift Reels for the rest of the trip for bluefin, yellowtail and albacore. I cannot say enough about the performance of the Tiburon Smart Shift Reels. They do the thinking for you. I now know why they call them “The Smart Reel”.
I have been ocean fishing out of San Diego for over 40 years with every type of reel on the market. This is the first time I have ever made a public comment on any reel. I thank Tiburon and the Captain and Crew of “The Apollo” for a great start of the season.

Good Fishing,

John R. Scott of San Diego, CA