Toying About With the Abu Garcia MAX4 61
By: The Angler
Abu Garcia’s pocket friendly MAX reel family recently launched the larger size low profile baitcasting reels, the MAX4 61 and MAX4 41. The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 and MAX4 41 are reels made to take on hard fighting saltwater fishes. Having received them we decided to give them a go to see how these reels fair in the real world.
[ The sea’s characteristic was like that of a zen master. No currents…. ]
The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 is the larger of the two new MAX4 low profile baitcasting reels. Being the larger reel, it was decided that it would be honoured with the opportunity to slay its first few hard fighting saltwater fishes. We had a trip planned. That trip involves some very hard fighting beasts of the sea. That trip is off the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 low profile baitcasting reel.
Features Of The Abu Garcia MAX4 61
Being a more pocket friendly range; the Abu Garcia MAX4 61 is no weakling. It may not have some of the additional “firepower” of its higher end siblings, but it definitely is a very capable low profile baitcasting reel. It comes with Abu Garcia’s long proven Mag Trax Brake system, Duragear brass gears, machined aluminium spool, four stainless steel HOCR bearings plus one roller bearing, Carbon Matric drag system, and more.
Fun With The Beasts Of The Sea
We headed out to our fishing spot on a rather fast boat. Before we knew it we have arrived on our fishing spot. A jig was tied to the end of our lines, and within a short time they were playing their part; as actors on stage, but a watery one. The sea’s characteristic was like that of a zen master. No currents. It was absolutely calm below the surface. Most experienced sea angler would have been shifting plans from fishing to chatting, or even napping.
The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 low profile baitcasting reel uses magnetic brakes and comes with a clicker (bite alarm).
Despite the calmness beneath the surface, there was action. Our jigs got hit and the fishing was indeed quite good. Before long the Abu Garcia MAX4 61 started to scream. Yes, it has a voice, or rather a noise. The MAX4 41 and 61 both comes with a clicker that can be turned on or off. With the battle on, the clicker or fish alarm was turned off and the tug of was picked up in intensity.
The clicker of the reel can be turned on or off with the red switch.
One of the most powerful drags in the fishing world is the Carbon Matrix Drag. It provides the Abu Garcia MAX4 61 low profile reel with an awesome 11kg max drag. With the drag pushed up high, the drag was adding lots of pressure onto the hard fighting fish. The Penn Spinfisher Jigging rod displayed its muscles managing the high pressure of the fight.
[ Amongst them are more mackerels, giant trevallies, diamond trevallies, big wahoos, etc… ]
The smoothness of the Abu Garcia MAX4 61 is quite pronounced as there is no jerky feeling of the spool even on a high drag setting. The recessed reel foot made it a comfortable reel to hold despite it being a larger reel. Anyway, to cut a long story short; before long up came a big mackerel. The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 handled it with ease and has enough speed to manage the fast swimming fish.
Many hard fighting fishes were battled and landed.
A hard fighting wahoo defeated by the Abu Garcia MAX4 61.
The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 also did battle and won many fishes. Amongst them are more mackerels, giant trevallies, diamond trevallies, big wahoos, etc. It fought them well and confidently. It also remained smooth and problem free throughout the entire two days of fishing and battling hard fighting fishes.
The awesome Abu Garcia MAX4 61 low profile baitcasting reel.
Should you be looking for a pocket friendly seaworthy low profile baitcasting reel from a big reliable brand; look no further. The Abu Garcia MAX4 61 (and 41) s a fantastic reel to consider. It handled many hard fighting saltwater fishes from fast swimming mackerels, to dirty fighting giant trevallies that would break rules just because it can. What’s more fantastic is that these reels remained smooth after working so hard.
