Fishing with the Socorro SW

Shimano’s range of Socorro SW threadline reels offer a quality saltwater spinning reel without a hefty price tag. With Shimano’s reputable Hagane gearing, the Socorro range of reels are super smooth and have plenty of pulling power. I’ve been using a Socorro SW 10,000 for 12 months now, and it’s proven to be my go-to reel for a lot of medium to heavy work down here in SA. I’ve spooled the reel with 50lb Power Pro Depth Hunter braid, which has managed to stop the majority of fish I’ve hooked. The reel has been very versatile in its applications, and I’ve used it for pitching live baits at kingfish in shallow water, for dropping live baits and dead baits on deep reefs for Samson fish, trolling for tuna, and yesterday I used it as a bottom bouncing reel for red snapper. Having a reel that is suitably sized and not overly heavy means it can be used for a variety of applications. My best fish on the reel so far is kingfish at 142cm (approx. 30 – 32kg) that was caught sight casting in a shallow bay here in SA. We saw the fish moving with around 20 other fish around the entrance to this bay, so we followed the pod of fish from a distance and managed to get a live bait in front of them a few times. It was on about the third of fourth attempt when one of the fish peeled away from the pack to eat the live salmon trout. This meant casting live salmon trout for quite a distance so as not to spook the fish, and the reel was perfect in this situation. Obviously pairing the reel to a suitable rod is important too, and for pitching live baits I wanted a rod bit of length but also possessing a soft tip so as not to pull the hook out of the livie on the cast. I used the Shimano Revolution Offshore 6 – 12kg, and while it is a little light for the 50lb Power Pro, it enabled good presentation of the live bait. There are 4 sizes in the Socorro range to check out; a 5000, 6000, 8000 and the largest is the 10000. For the modest price tag the Socorro performs exceptionally well - it’s a reel I enjoy using.