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Daddy’s Lean and
Mean, the Magnesium Pflueger Patriarch Spinning Reel
(continued)
  During
testing I spooled our mid-sized 9530 test reel with 6 and 8lb. Trilene 100%
fluorocarbon line and a variety of monofilament from Toray and Sunline.
Cosmetically the reel matched pretty well with just about any rod with a grey or
black blank but I ultimately found it both looked and balanced out best with a
Pinnacle Perfecta spinning rod which featured similar aluminum highlights and a
blue blank.
The Patriarch features a carbon
drag system
I
tried a few times this season to get some finesse fishing in on the California
Delta but the water was always muddied up from recent rains and I ultimately got
the majority of testing in at Clear Lake. Even there the weather did not
cooperate and it often rained when we tried to get test time logged in, but the
fish finally did oblige and I was able to get a good feel for everything from
the reel’s retrieve to the drag performance.
The spool's arbor is made out of
carbon fiber which helps reduce weight
Casting: The
Pflueger Patriarch casts well but one thing I did notice was that the diameter
of the spool lip was a little shallow. While this didn’t affect casting in any
negative way it did allow harder fluorocarbon 8lb. line to more easily peel off
the spool unnecessarily when the spool was loaded to the max. To avoid this
issue simply don’t fill the spool all the way up, and this is not a concern when
fishing with lines that are not as stiff, including braid or monofilament.
The carbon arbor and drag system
are sealed in place with four screws
Line
capacity on this little reel is quite good and even with big largemouth on the
line I never felt like I was going to get spooled. As with most spinning reels
the Patriarch proved to be very good for tossing the very light stuff. This
makes for a great shaky head or drop shot reel.
Time to take a closer look at the
guts...
Retrieve:
Smoothness in a reel really can come in two similar yet distinct forms, one
being purely fluid and friction free (ex. Shimano Stella) or weightless and
extremely connected (ex. Daiwa Steez). The Pflueger Patriarch falls right in the
middle and successfully feels both smooth and connected to a surprising extent.
...starting with the spring loaded
bail return
I was immediately
impressed with how smooth this reel was, yet I could feel the gearing mesh and
the lubrication at work. Each turn of the handle resulted in a predictable
response from the lightweight magnesium rotor and even at fast retrieves there
is almost no detectable spool wobble whatsoever. I say “almost” because at
maximum speed we did notice just a bit of vibration, but this was in the lab and
not the result of a real world test situation.
The rotor is constructed out of
magnesium
Next Section: A solid titanium shaft
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