Adventure Bound - Black Magic Reels

As Seen on TV

Season 4 now showing on TVS Sydney & Channel 31 Melb, Bris, Fremantle & Adelaide.

Sydney: Thurs 8:00pm
Melbourne: Tues 8:00pm
Adelaide: Thurs 7:30pm
Fremantle: Sat 7:30pm
Brisbane: Mon 7:00pm

Shop

Buy Adventure Bound DVDs Buy Outcast Apparel Buy Adventure Bound Apparel Adventure Bound Video Downloads

List All Products
Product Search Advanced Search
Download Area
Show Cart
Your Cart is currently empty.

Membership Login

Syndication

Get the latest Adventure Bound news direct in your news reader!

DVDs - Now On Sale

Shane's Recipes

Home

Gear Guide

Black Magic Reels

Written by Neil Tedesco

Saturday, 27 January 2007

BSX and BMX Lever Drag Reels

BSX Reel

Success in fishing is not about having more fishing rods than the next bloke or a full collection of reels, it's about building up a functional range of outfits capable of catching multiple species. When I go snapper fishing I know that if a kingfish, gummy shark, school shark or mulloway grabs the bait I'll have a good chance of landing it. The bulk of my fishing is aimed at target species varying between 5kg and 25kg so I needed to find one outfit that could handle all of these fish. The Black Magic BSX or BMX reel loaded with 20-30lb Black Braid is well suited to the task.

The most appealing feature of functionality of these models is the fact that they are lever drag, one of the smallest on the market with the strength and quality to make it a proposition for the serious sport fisher. The problem with most other lever drag reels of this size on the market is that they are generally aimed at the light tackle angler and simply cannot achieve enough drag to genuinely be useful for serious braided line classes. Out of the box both the BSX and BMX will maintain excellent drag progression over the full distance of the levers range with a preset strike drag of about 4kg, giving approximately 6kg at full drag; this can be further increased by another 2kg with the installation of an alternate cup washer set which is available as an upgrade kit.

BSX Spooled w/ Black Braid

Some other valuable functions are the bait setting lever position which helps eliminate overruns when fast running fish takes the bait. This is a great alternative for live baiting and can even be used as a cast control at most drag settings. When it comes to the drag system itself, the large carbon fiber washer can handle quite some punishment, it maintains its smooth and consistent drag progression even when wet, and when I mean wet, I mean submerged in salt water. On a recent trip to SA fishing for Mulloway from the surf the only way to get to the fish was wading out into the surf zone itself, right up to our chests. Needless to say the reel spent more time underwater than above and did not get a clean with fresh water for two days running. It performed flawlessly on this trip to the point where I now believe it really made no difference whether the drag was wet or dry.

The main difference between reels that can achieve huge drag settings and those that cannot has a lot to do with design and construction, one thing all of the best brands have in common is machined aluminum frames where the main drive parts are all actually built or mounted onto the main frame. This eliminates all twist and torsion created by extreme drag pressure allowing the reel to squeeze down hard on the drag plate without fluctuation in drag pressure.

Some other well thought out features of this reel are the counter-balanced handle, open frame design and small footprint reel seat. The Black Magic reels really do fit into the new category of multi-purpose sport fishing reels; the only thing they lack is the speed to jig lures. Having said that jigging is highly specialized and it is a small price to pay in exchange for all the bait fishing features you could ever want.