I am heading to the Sport show in GR this weekend and was wondering if Shimano Techs were going to be there like last year. I have three of the Tekota 800's and so far one has had the clicker changed so I would like to get the rest done. I am still on the fence with the performance and cost of the 800's. The clicker that went lasted about 5 minutes of reeling. I also lost two fish in a tourney due to the drag not working properly. Sorry to say but I work to hard for my money to buy high price low quality gear. Thanks for any help.
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Shimano will be there again this year ... nto sure if the techs are going to be there like last year to replace sideplates and clickers. May want to call Shimano and ask if the techs will be there.
Regarding the drag I was talking about burning in the drags with Dave Engel from Best Chance and I believe he's going to be at the Shimano booth at some points during the show. He suggested taking the reels out and a pound weight on them and then troll fast and burn the drags by letting the line out quickly against some drag, this is to break them in and clean them up. He also said to always back the drags off some when not fishing them ... every trip.
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Not to change the subject but I find it funny. If we were to be discussing a problem with an Okuma reel there would be a barage of people slamming the product by now, but when it happens to a Shimano it's OK. Not trying to let Shimano have it because I think they make a great product. It goes to show that any mass produced product will have some flaws.
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I think the difference is we don't allow slamming on this site, and we've had productive discussions about Okuma and others, that may get attacked in other places. I don't think it's all about Shimano getting a pass because they're Shimano, I just think folks are being civil which is what I like about the people on this site.
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i have also had some issues with the tekotas, but still like them. the drag burning in thing was created by the shimano people. I too had never heard of that prior to this issue with them. What I think is happening is the drag washers are sticking to themselves. I will say, they do get better with time and the all or nothing that happnes occasionally does lesson up. I still bought another combo this year for core. I have not gotten rid of my Diawa sga's yet either. I am also having some drag work done on my old diawa great lakes reels. they should be silky smooth when I get them back. As for Okuma, I have them and am not getting rid of them either. the drags are actually very smooth, but what I find is that the drag has to be about all the way tight to gain line or you have to thumb it and pump them in. but for initial zip when a fish hits, they are very smooth. For the Tekotas, the most attractive thing for me is the size and speed of retrieve. It takes some of th uugghh out of core fishing with a fast retrieve and I have notes on how much backer for each size and such. Like was said earlier, every product has issues at some point. Shimano did step up and correct the problem though. Yes the clickers sucked, but new side plates took care of that. We think of these reels as top of the line, but the salt guys refer to them as economy reels. I dont think anyone uses clickers like the great lakes guys, so that may explain the crappy initial design.
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