Gear failure and breakages are common in fly fishing, so before heading to chase sailfish in Kuala Rompin (Malaysia), the search had begun for a ‘back-up’ 12wt fly setup. Had picked up an old but unused Redington Wayfarer 12wt (5 piece) a few months back so just needed a ‘budget’ backup reel to go on it. (Don’t do a lot of heavy saltwater work – well for now).
Anyways…there had been a fair bit of ‘interest’ regarding the new Redington Behemoth reel and like others, I had a bit of scepticism about the 30 odd pounds of ‘drag’ the reel has been claimed to generate - mainly because the 11/12 Behemoth is such a low cost reel (US 129.95 RRP).
At the time there were no published reviews from anyone that had actually ‘fished’ this thing. The price was very good, so I took a punt and stumped up for one. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of performance / reliability.
The reel arrived pre spooled (as a favour from a mate) with 500m of 50lb fins braid. So what else would you do but tighten the drag and see just what this reel could do.
Yep…with no scientific approach, I tied the backing to a Besser block and actually pulled that around in the back yard without any line being released. I then actually lifted the Besser block (not with a rod…just on the reel drag) knowing these weigh around 11.2kgs or 25 pounds. So I am pretty convinced this thing does generate 30lb of drag though couldn’t confirm that for sure.
Anyways, the Behemoth then sat in the box in the lead up to the Rompin trip and during that time there was more and more interest in the reel’s performance on this forum and others.
SO…a conscious decision was made to fish the Behemoth (and Wayfarer) as the primary setup in Rompin. Hell…easy decision knowing that my more expensive rod / reel from another manufacturer would be on stand-by. Plus… if the Behemoth did fly to bits…everyone on the boat would enjoy the laugh!!!
First Impressions…
Being relatively new to the market…no-one in the group of fly fishermen I was with had seen the Behemoth ‘in the flesh’ before and only one knew of its retail price. Absolutely no shame came from placing this reel (and cheap rod) alongside much more expensive setups.
Everyone…boat operators & fellow fishermen included…really liked the styling of the Behemoth. To most, the Behemoth looks like a racing mag wheel. So if ‘looks’ and the ‘oohs and ahhs’ of onlookers are your thing when you buy gear…you won’t disappointed with the Behemoth.
Unlike some fishermen…big, hard pulling fish, don’t care in the slightest about the look of your gear. From what I experienced in Rompin…a Sail’s screaming first run and aggressive jumps and head thrashes will expose any part of your system that is not up to scratch. Failures were witnessed during the week with knots, fly lines, hooks and even a couple of ‘smoked’ drags one some more expensive reels.
For the first Sail hooked, the drag setting on the Behemoth was set in the order of 6lb, well less than the normal 1/3 of the 30lb class section being used in the leader set up. The Behemoth remained well balanced during the screaming first run and while the drag did not sound as nice the Tibor Pacific another counterpart had…it’s ‘whizz’ was in no way offensive!
Line released from the Behemoth very smoothly with no jerking or frame vibrations of note. The drag pressure was raised to around 12lb to subdue the fish after the first run and the reel did so pretty effortlessly. No heat build-up in the frame was noticed at any drag pressure used during the week.
Approaching the end of the week…the Behemoth had helped land 5 sizable sails in the 35-40kgs range. It had also withstood screaming runs (200m+) of quite a few more sailfish (a lot more than I would like to admit to here), that had ‘jumped off’ close to the boat due to poor hook sets OR were snapped off while trying to skull drag the fish close enough to allow the crew to grab the leader and add to the boat’s tally of landed fish.
On the final day, I changed leader setup to ‘straight through’ 80lb, with the intention to really test the Behemoth’s stopping power. This very nearly proved a mistake!
The first fish hooked that day screamed away as normal but quickly (within about 80m) stopped, then turned to face the boat where it head thrashed from side to side, non-stop, for almost 10 seconds. Luckily the hook set held and the fish headed down in the water column…clearly not ‘liking’ the force it was having to work against. More head thrashing was felt through the fly line / rod. The fly line was back on the reel and the fish neared the boat in bit over 2 minutes – ultra short for a Sail. That’s when the next lot of fun started.
The fish was unable to peel line with the drag set so high and therefore just zig-zagged from side to side, going under the boat three times. Each time it took some hot-stepping to get the rod tip down in the water to clear the outboards and make sure the fly line didn’t connect with the hull / props which would probably have meant a cut fly line and losing the fish OR worse still…forming a nice hoop and breaking the rod. Luckily the fish then played the game and was leadered & released soon after.
The final fish of the trip copped about 80% drag pressure (based on drag knob rotation) and it too was raised and leadered very quickly after also playing up under the boat. So if you have a reel like the Behemoth that can stop these guys so quickly – be prepared for much more ‘dirty’ close in fight than you get by simply letting them tire themselves out dragging 30m of fly line and 200m of backing around for 10-15 minutes.
Final Observations…
It was clear to me that the reel has the serious stopping power Redington are claiming and did not appear to get hot while it was doing its thing (other reels actually got quite hot!). While I have no idea what sort of magic Redington has put inside the drag system…in short - it works!
Now if there anything I didn’t like about the Behemoth it was the reel handle. I would like to see a slightly larger version to allow a bit more finger / thumb contact and allow easier winding under load. On the positive side though, the soft touch handle grip inserts actually felt pretty good with no slipping experienced – even when wet.
Another minor observation is that the reel paint work suffered a few wear and tear scratches from being thrown around the boat, in / out of vans etc. – due to bad handling. So the Behemoth, like any painted reel, will probably benefit from having a little more care applied than say a heavy anodised one.
The Verdict…
These very minor quibbles aside, the Redington Behemoth is highly recommended for anyone who does casual ‘big fish’ fishing trips and doesn’t want to pay $1000 for a reel that still only has ½ the stopping power of the Behemoth. I’ll be ordering a couple more (in various sizes) very soon!
Final words…
Just taking a punt here…but as the word gets out about the Behemoth, I expect stocks to run out at local stores pretty quick…prices to go up…OR both!!! So get in quick and get your Redington Behemoth ‘fish stopper’ now!
My only concern is that I might only use the reel for a week or two and come back to it a year later and it's already shot.