Alutecnos Albacore Gorilla 20? Anyone used it?

[RoyBoySA]

Hi there all, I have ordered the Alutecnos Gorilla 20 for my heavy jigging outfit, will be matched with a 450g rod supplied by Chris Wong in NZ. I will spool up with PE#8 braid, and the main target will be YFT of the Cape in South Africa..

Have any of you guys used this reel - I have seen the review on
360tuna.com for the Gorilla 12, but as yet nothing on the 20.

Thanks in advance - Cheers, Roy

[xyzzy]

I use this reel for everything.. I have it mounted on a vintage Truline (8' 30-50lb rod). I run anything from 20lb mono, to braid, to braid+topshot, for anything from jigging, to live bait fishing, for anything from fishing structure, to throwing iron, to live bait. Ive put the reel through absolute hell, and its fantastic.

[lcosta01]

I have 6 of them. Alutecnos, IMO, is the best reel on the market. I have Gorillas and the Veloce 20s. Also, some 30Ws and an 80W.

The Gorilla is the reel for bottom fishing. I've used it to catch muttons in the Bahamas. They don't stand a chance. Just make sure the rod is well built and strong. That reel will put out a solid 40# of drag.

[The Dude]

Awesome reel!!! An Alutecnos rep loaned me one for a few months, and it sure was tough to give it back. Hands down the best reel of its type that I've ever fished. The only downside I can think of is that the retrieve is a little bit slow for some of the jigging I was doing, but the lower gear ratio would probably be better for slugging it out with tuna.

[RoyBoySA]

Thanks guys, the rod should be up to the task. It is built on a JM500 that arrives in SA in the next week or so. With all the bling alloy components so backbone, form and function are there!

On the Gorilla 20 (only arrives in SA on 9th December), backing will be 250m 80lb Sufix Performance braid, topped with 300m YGK (Number 8) PE#5 (rated at 86lb) so I should be able to mix it on a reasonably even footing with the big yellow sickle finned "bastardos" off the canyon. 550m of string should allow some margin for error on my side as well....... as the Yellows hang out off the shelf in deep water and no structure to take into consideration.

YFT's on jigging gear in SA ist still in it's infancy, so we have a lot of experimentation and learning to do.

I also have a Penn Torque 300 spooled up with Ande 80lb braid that is on my Shimano Beastmaster 200g rod for the not so big critters. This will do OK for the schooling Longfin Tuna (Albacore) that are prolific from now through March/April and typically run from 10-25Kg's. In fact, a mate of mine caught a Longie of 15Kg's off Cape Point on Saturday - 1 of only 3 longies that came out on the day (Tuna Max rod and a Stella 20K so no contest) using a home made jig. This is one of the few Tuna jigged locally to the best of our knowledge, so things should only get better from now.