Quality/Construction: The 2015 Shimano Aldebaran is a magnesium framed reel with CI4+ carbon sideplates. It's roughly the same size as the 2009 model that it replaces, but features a more aggressively designed nose. The spools are the same size but are not interchangeable.

The new Aldebaran comes with a dark, satiny, charcoal grey finish with plenty of different planes, ridges, and edges reminiscent of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft. Yet with all these ridges and planes, joint lines between sideplates and other pieces are spot on. The handle has an almost undetectable amount of backplay and the knobs on the handle are about as tight as they can be. This reel is really quite solid out of the box.

But with more ridges, edges and planes along the body, this reel resembles a stealth fighter!

The HG model comes with a 7.4:1 retrieve ratio, the standard version comes with a 6.5:1..

Both version feature an 84mm handle.

Another reason for the reel's smooth performance is X-Ship, a bearing supported pinion gear.

Drag: The 2015 Aldebaran's drag performed incredibly well on The Machine. Referencing the reel's Sweet Drag Performance Chart below you can see that each curve is really very smooth and consistent. The highest curve, representing the reel's performance at lockdown drag is somewhat erratic, but even then it's smoother than a lot of reels we've tested of late.

Fig 1: The Sweet Drag Performance chart above shows the consistency in drag performance of our Shimano 2015 Aldebaran 50/51.

This outstanding performance can be attributed to the single drag washer design Shimano employs in the majority of its bass sized low profile reels. Where other reels achieve higher maximum settings with their multi-stack drag washer designs, Shimano consistently delivers reels with drags that are super smooth and consistent in their performance.

Power: Though I did test this reel in general purpose applications, one thing I did not do was tie on a deep diving crankbait to test its pulling power. What I did do, however was respool the reel with some braid and toss some frog baits with the reel as well as mount it on a punch rod and perform some punch presentations with it. In both instances, it performed just fine with plenty of power to pull some average sized bass out of thick cover.

Casting Range: Respooling the reel yet again and mounting it on a Phenix Recon 2 PHX-C682L at the lab, I tied on a series of finesse style offerings to see just how low I could get the Aldebaran to go. My best result was with a quarter ounce finesse style jig that I was able to cast roughly forty to fifty feet using 6 pound test Sunline Supernatural nylon monofilament. Ratings for this reel claim 5 grams or 3/16oz. I have little doubt with the right line and rod, this can be achieved but the lowest I was able to go in practical situations was about one quarter of an ounce.

Brakes: The 2015 Aldebaran, features the latest and greatest centrifugal braking system from Shimano, namely the SVS Infinity system. There are 4 brakes on the spool that you can set to on or off, and an external dial with numbers from one to six (1 to 6) to further fine tune your cast. That external dial is not ratcheted, however, so you can really fine tune the brakes through the dial to suit conditions of the day.