The Serrano Reel by Okuma

Okuma Serrano Citrix and Alumina Test results

Okuma has gained the respect worldwide and in South Africa for great spinning reels and their heavy offshore reels, but have never really had a competitive bait caster. That is until now .the Okuma Serrano has been available in the states and elsewhere for a while and has had fantastic reviews wherever it is introduced, and I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to put one to the test.

Some anglers may have an issue with the colour as it is only available in an olive green, but I kind of like the colour it matches the Loomis and Franklin calibre rods I admire so much and the new Okuma c3 rods. The design and performance of this reel is a massive improvement from their old vs. reels that where a little bulky. The Serrano only weighs a mere 204 grams or 7.2 ounces and made up of A6061-T6 machined aluminium body and Dura brass gearing and the drag is a vast improvement over the old reels and are made up of multi disc carbonite washers with click control for precision setting. The cast control setting or as they put it velocity control system has 8 settings and is very effective when set right, the reel sits well in your palm and is comfortable to fish with , another great feature is the crc coating that keeps the reel pretty scratch free even in my rod well.

I rigged the Serrano on various rods but it's now settled well on my Loomis and Franklin calibre 6.9 mh, where I have spooled it with 10lb fluorocarbon. My first trip with the Serrano was to Goudetrouwe dam in Eshowe where I started off on top water and second cast of the morning hauled in a 1.5 kg bass, I played it a little to see how the drag operated and it was very smooth. casting was simple and I was getting good distance with a weightless Zulu just as far as my guest fishing spinning gear with braided line even pitching was easy and once the vcs was set I had no hassles at all during the day with over runs even in a stiff breeze . The day got extremely warm so much so that it was extremely uncomfortable and swimming every now and then was the only way to cool off and we were forced to dip the reels into the water to cool them down if they had been lying on the deck a little too long. The Serrano performed well despite the heat, fishing was pretty good and I landed numerous fish around the two kilogram mark, but it wasn't until later that afternoon that the reel test occurred. I casted out and noticed two very nice fish follow the bait but as usual the smaller one of the two took the bait and I set the hook and the rod loaded up and the drag began to work ( I can't say sing because it is so smooth and quite you don't hear much) the reel was perfect even though I was a little worried of losing the fish because of the light line but the fish was landed and weighed and photographed and then released a magnificent 4.5 kg beauty and all I can remember saying if only the bigger one had taken the lure ,Another reason to return to goodies.

All in all this is a stunning reel and my hats off to Okuma for finally producing a bait caster worthy of spending some cash on and talking about cash these reels are very reasonably priced and value for money probably the best on the market .

The Citrix is even more affordable although it doesn't boast the 11 bearings of the Serrano the 7 ball and 1 roll bearings it does come with is good enough to make fishing this reel a pleasure , I found the reel to be a little noisier than the Serrano but smooth none the less . the body is also cast aluminium with graphite side plates and it does weigh a couple of grams more than the Serrano, but when you pick it up it feels extremely well built and the handles are a little bigger and suit the reel well, as with the Serrano this reel sits well on the rod and paired with the Citrix rod looks really awesome. I found it a little more difficult to set than the Serrano but once the centrifugal cast control and the spool tensioner where set fishing was great and the reel performed. I did find it hard to put down the Serrano but as I only received a 5.4-1 ratio citrix and on the day a faster retrieve was the in thing however later in the day I fished a few jigs and the reel was perfectly suited for working the jigs slowly around the rocks and ledges. the reel was spooled with 14lb fluorocarbon and I worked mainly jigs due to the low ratio (they are available in 7.3-1 as well) but the fish where on the top and I rigged a top water plastic bait on a 5/0 hook and began catching some good bass the drag was smooth and unfortunately didn't get the work out I wanted it too. The reel is now spooled with 20lb fluorocarbon line and is on a 7.0 heavy C3 rod for jigging as it has an incredible 11lb drag rating and is awaiting a good work out at goodies when the fish move deeper.

The other reel I tried out on the day was the Okuma alumina bait caster which is at the bottom of the range of the new releases .silver and blue in colour this reel looks great and feels great but it is only available in 7.3-1 ratio, which I believe is the best ratio to buy (its like a bass boat rather have a fast one and if you need to go slowly just tap off on the juice).However the best thing about this reel is that it was built with the absolute novice in mind , it sports two very effective cast control systems an internal 8 position velocity control system and an external magnetic cast control this feature does not occur on any of the other models because Okuma believes that more experienced anglers can handle less assistance in the cast control department . Yes it does work and works very well first you open the side spool and set the velocity control then you use the external control to fine tune your casts. Once this was set I found it unnecessary to even keep my thumb on the spool in case of over winds. This reel was smooth enough with it 6 bearings in fact I was very impressed with this reel. Its ease of casting and smoothness did not in any way suggest that it was a low priced entry level reel. The alumina has been one of my best tools when it comes to teaching newbie's how to cast, it's just so easy, the drag was smooth and casting distance was very good. I had the reel spooled with 12lb flourocarbon and used the reel for pitching weightless Zeros on the dam wall and managed a respectable 2.8kg bass it was paired with a mh Loomis and Franklin calibre rod .