Hey,

New guy to the board but not to the scene....Quick question, I heard the metaloid drag locks up if you push it past the strike position? Is this still an issue with the reel?

Thanks for the help everyone!

The catch with any leverdrag is to fish the reel as intended in terms of drag setting. Too much drag and you're putting more pressure on the spool bearing than the reel is made to handle. I'd say the Metaloid reels offer a great deal for the money, and their drag capability is high for their price points. But, they don't have as smooth a drag curve as some other reels, such as the Andros series or competing reels like Avet. The Metaloid has a rather narrow operating range, high, but when you go from strike to full it's not linear (none are really) and moves from good to too much fast. Within the intended application, all is good, but do not expect a smooth progression.

You mention a "lock up" that's not something we've seen on current production. We did discover a manufacturing glitch a year ago when these were first coming onto the market. THere was a design issue which we found only upon spooling under load. This did lock up reels, and Okuma did the right thing, pulled back stock and corrected the problem. However, the range of drag is still not perfect...when compared to some other reels...of higher cost. No firm has offered so much for so little as the Metaloid series of reels, and they have performed very well for a lot of guys. With a 3 year warranty, the manufacturer is backing up their product VERY well. Two of the guys working at our shops have Metaloids, and they've been very good performers.

Mark is correct. I have a Metaloid 12II intending to fish 40# line. Using the drag adjust knob I can set the drag at strike at 7.5# which is less than I want. However, if I just tighten the knob a single click, strike drag goes up to 13.5#, more than I like. I mentioned this to the Okuma representative at the Long Beach Fred Hall show. His response "That is the way the reel is" I upped the line to 50# and bought a Andros for 40# line and that drag is fantastic