My last Rarenium check

All good things must come to an end. This is my old trusty Shimano Rarenium 2500 which I've proudly pimped up to becoming my most used and trusted reel fighting a good variety of species from small fish to lunkers. It has never failed me and have been thoroughly enjoyable to fish with as it is very light and super smooth with maxed out hybrid ceramic and full ceramic bearings. It's even got some communal Stella parts inside in order for it to take on more bearings.

This will be my last check in with this reel before I hand it to a happy new owner. As previously salt water bashing prepared many moons ago, I've not had any issues with it and therefore didn't really open it up for a routine service.

A thorough strip down and check will be done to ensure that the reel is in tip top operating condition before leaving me for good.

Stripped down, like a DIY kit.

Top left and right, marine grease still covers all internal surfaces of the crank case. Bottom left, main gear's in excellent condition with no signs of wear. Bottom right, worm gear system like new, bearings smooth as silk.

Top left, pinion gear with no signs of wear. Top right, one way bearing's still nicely lubricated without grease spills inside. Spool has no pitting or damages. Carbontex drag washer's in excellent condition, just some well used grease that needs replacement.

Top left, rotor in excellent condition. Top right, spool support clicker and line roller's like new, just need grease top up into the line roller system. Bottom, knob shaft and bearing's still packed with marine grease.

Bottom left, pinion support full ceramic bearings will be replaced with hybrid ceramic variants and packed with new marine grease for longevity and smoothness.

Full ceramic bearings will be kept for my other pimping projects.

Top, reassembly with some marine grease top up. Bottom, line roller system filled with marine grease for a water tight seal against any water intrusion, excess squeezed and wiped off.

Crank handle screw and main gear support bearing's also packed with marine grease for a physical seal against water intrusion.

Complete reassembly with some minor marine grease top up.

My last Rarenium check is now done and completed. I'm proud to say that the extra care put into this reel has paid off very well in maintaining the condition of the reel for long life coming out of various battles without breaking a sweat. I'm sure the new owner will find just as much joy in fishing with this reel as I have.

Racketing Ocea Jigger 2001NRHG - Factory mistake?

This is a curious case of a racketing Ocea Jigger 2001NRHG. A customer sent me this reel with very little hope as to what can be done to fix this reel. He encountered this problem just 5 minutes into his first ever jig retrieval and experienced this loud clacking noise from the reel. The spool would not spin like as though the gear didn't even engage properly.

Apparently, this reel has already been sent to our local Shimano guys for a warranty fix and was returned to the owner 6 months later, 6 MONTHS, deemed fixed but the problem still persist. The owner wasn't too keen to let Shimano have a look at it again for another 6 months and opted for a 3rd party service. It was also deemed fixed after the 3rd party visit and the problem still persist.

With very little hope left, the owner gave me a shot to have a look at it and this is what I found.

Perfectly new and normal looking Ocea Jigger loaded with lines ready for action.

To replicate the racketing effect, all you need to do is have the drag set to anything beyond medium strength, place a thumb on the spool, give it a few crank and the racketing starts. Video below as demonstration.


What this means is that the offending parts sit between the handle and the spool because I prevented the spool from moving thus eliminating parts on 'palming' side with spool lock mechanism. The first thing to do is just a simple visual inspection for any breakages and visible damages within the crank case.

Everything looks new like its fresh out of the factory.

To start with the process of elimination, suspicious parts can be removed independently to do a test to see if the clacking sound persists.

To start with, drag clicker wheel removed.

With the drag clicker ring removed, the racketing still goes on. Next suspect, fail safe anti-reverse gear disc and stopper.

Anti-reverse fail safe mechanism out too.

With both drag clicker and fail safe anti-reverse mechanism out, the racketing continues. Curious case indeed. Time to move deeper into the mechanical gear system. Visual inspection didn't reveal any gear teeth damages.

Main gear teeth is in pristine condition. No visible damages found.

With the main gears out, pinion gear is next. Visual inspection also didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary.

Pinion gear fits perfectly fine in the main plate with no visible damages.

Time to remove the crank case main plate. Again, starting with visual inspection didn't reveal any damages at all. The plot thickens!

Pinion gear fits nicely into the spool shaft with the cross pin seated in the pinion slot.

Upon closer inspection and some fiddling around the mechanical motion and linkages, this little and subtle detail looked a little bit our of place. The pinion gear slot itself. Before I go into the details of how it works, you need to know the basics concept. The pinion gear slides up and down the spool shaft when you engage or disengage the free spool lever. That's how you get free spooling.

Pinion gear with subtle mechanical detail that was a bit odd in relation to the mechanical movement linkages.

As pictured up close above, note that the slot isn't a simple cut out for the spool shaft cross pin to be seated. There are intricate details that makes up for the entire system to function. If you notice, there are 2 different edges within the slot. On the left, the longer edge serves as the catch and cross pin driver, slightly indented to have a firm hold on the cross pin sending rotational force to the spool. On the right, you have the slip edge. This is the edge when the free spool lever is disengaged, lowering the pinion onto the cross pin and sliding into the slot towards the catch edge.

With the above understanding, I figured that the pinion gear is probably from a right handled reel because most of the left & right handled reel parts are interchangeable and some parts are exclusive, the gears for example. But I suspect someone in the factory was sleeping on the job while assembling this reel.

A quick reference check using Shimano's reel schematics can set the direction to confirming this. I know for sure that the diagrams put up by Shimano isn't a 100% representation of a technical drawing but it does give you a clear indication of what part goes where. Below you will find the identification process.

Reel schematics indicates that the gears in this reel is probably the wrong set. Note the direction of rotation too.

Wrong set of pinions also means wrong set of main gears as it has to mesh for it to work. To identify the gears properly, take a look at the diagram below explaining how axial forces are being generated to lift the pinion gear off the cross pin.

Note the helical teeth orientation of a left handled gear on the diagram above vs actual below.

So the racketing noise actually comes from the pinion gears repeatedly slipping as you crank. Axial force generated from the helical gears are also lifting the pinion gear from the cross pin as explained below.

Pinion repeatedly slips as you crank. With the correct set of gears (right, bottom), the system will function as intended without slipping and the racketing noise.

The owner was glad that the problem has been clearly identified but wasn't too impressed with Shimano's ridiculous boo-boo on this. Are the folks at Shimano Japan factory sleeping on the job? These things shouldn't happen and are totally unacceptable. On top of that, this is one of their flagship reels with a proud 'made in japan' stamp on it. The competency of our local Shimano team is also unacceptable with a 6 months turn around time for a claimed fix and yet couldn't solve the problem.

An official report would be filed to our local Shimano and Japanese office to see what they have to say about this. Stay tuned!

Risky Jigger

Quite some people have been bitten by the slow-pitch jigging bug and for obvious reasons that it is easy to pick up as well as its effectiveness in regularly catching fish compared to traditional high-pitch jigging. It's a lot less tiring and also gives you more contact feel towards the end of the line.

Here's a brand new Shimano Ocea Jigger a friend recently bought to try out slow-pitch jigging. All new from lines to the new after market handles and knob. This owner also heard some not so pleasant stories of how the gears would jam up and decides to send in for a quick fix and salt water ready preparation.

Ocea Jigger with an after market handle and knob. Salt water bash preparation in the cards.

The first to get treatment would usually be the knobs. No surprises there when I remove the screws to find no thread locker as most shop owners would do nothing more than just a quick installation job. Worse thing is that the handle screw hole is too big for the knob shaft screw. Weirder still is that the handle and knob came as a set, yet they don't fit! I'm not sure if the screws are designed to take this kind of ill fitting load supported using washers. And we're talking about moderate to heavy cranking power and twisting applied to the knob shaft. Screw breakage risks is definitely high on this one but the owner's willing to wing it.

Knob looks normal, but a quick twist on the screw to remove the bearings revealed dangerous installation flaws. No thread locker found (red). Handle and knob wasn't even compatibly with the lose fitting screw through the screw hole supported by washers (green). Standard stainless steel bearings packed with marine grease and thread locker coated screws (blue)

There was also another shock discovery surrounding the knob and handle, more on that towards the end. Next up, drag clicker system removal. This is usually the culprit for a jammed up jigger. I call it 'metal mincer edition'. This jigger should be equipped with an updated drag clicker retainer ring and a quick thickness measurement can confirm this. This, the owner wouldn't want to risk having. So out comes the drag clicker system into cold storage.

Parts which will be removed (red arrow). Previous batches, the drag clicker retainer ring is only 0.26mm thick. New and improved version at 0.3mm thick (green arrow).

Crank case and main plate removed to reveal spool locking mechanism side with little grease protection. A quick brush down with marine grease on all surfaces for water displacement or salt crystals build-up. Care is taken to not mix grease types as the spool support bearing uses a different type of grease.

Some grease here and there straight from the factory (top) and nicely lathered after (bottom)

All surfaces and other bearings apart from free spool support bearings will be marine grease packed for long life protection and smoothness.

No casting needed, just plain ol-reliable salt water jigging. This calls for marine grease packing in most bearings and all internal surface.

Shimano heavy grease coat the gears for smoothness and protection. Drag clicker parts gone too.

Now back to the curious thing found earlier when removing the handles. The lock nut retainer screw wasn't even the right size for the hole. The handle screw hole's machined to use M3 threaded screws but the screw used was from the original jigger which is an M2.5.

Another ill fitted part found. The lock nut screw isn't even screwed onto the handle thread. It was barely slotted in and can be popped out with a few shakes. An M2.5 screw used in an M3 threaded hole. An excuse for some bling job.

The owner wasn't too keen with the purple bling. A few show and tell, back and forth with the owner lead us to something he's agreeable. A quick dremel polishing and buffering reveals a sparkling chrome button head screw. This, the owner agrees won't cramp his jiggy style.

Purple bling wasn't to the owner's fancy. A quick dremel polishing and buffing reveals a sparkling chrome button head. Owner's happy with it.

The only thing of concern here is the knob shaft screws. Not ideal but the owner's willing the take a chance with it. Another 'no metal mincer' jigger edition to be released to the wild for some jiggy action.

Bumper Jigging Issue

Show & tell time! This was one of the better Pulau Jarak offshore sessions to date and I'll let the pictures and videos do the talking.

Small grouper, big appetite. Taken on Feed's luminous madai bumping on the sea floor using MajorCraft Giant Killing's Slow Pitch rod paired with Ocea Jigger.

Everyone hard at work with a variety of slow pitch set-up.

A school of Cobia hit us all like a wave messing up everyone's lines. This little fella put up serious fight falling prey to Shout's Flash worked using MajorCraft Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger on the drop near the sea floor.

Greasy grouper thinks it's got a good meal out of Feed's madai. Also on the Giant Killing Slow Pitch + Ocea jigger setup.

We got hit by another school of cobia, this time on Feed's Madai.

When night falls, we whip out our ultra light gear hitting the shallows around the Island. A feisty big eye trevally giving the MajorCraft Crostage Aji rod + Stella 1000FE a good run.

Taken on IMA's new fluttering micro jig, Ichimatsu.

Another big eye trevally but this time on Xesta's nitro jig.

Heading back to the deep, Feed's Madai managed to coax this hungry grouper. A setup second to none, Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger.

Another greasy grouper, also on Feed's Madai, Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger.

Switching to Bassday's bottom contact, I was able to raise this bait fish muncher up from the deep. Worked slow and taken on the drop very near the sea floor.

Occasionally, fish throw out their stomachs content to reveal bait fish the same size as the jig. Bassday Bottom contact sure does look like some of their food choices. I usually travel with a few of these jigs with me and will a few more home for other trips.

Giant Killing Slow Pitch loaded trying to tame sea floor dwellers.

Up comes a decently sized golden snapper, which explains the rod bending action.

Bassday's Bottom contact, not just for groupers. Hammered hard on the drop near the sea floor too.

Another jig switch, another fish take. A greedy greasy grouper. Taken on the Xesta Flap while bouncing near the sea floor.

With the same Xesta Flap jig, it managed to stir up this bullish golden snapper. Plenty of fight and head shakes all the way up. Most of the work comes from the Ocea Jigger being able to crank the bugger up leaving the jig action to the rod.

Overly ambitious snapper doesn't know that this Xesta Flap is being worked by an Evergreen's Poseidon Spin Jerker paired with a Stella. One way ticket.

We've also managed to piece together a 2 part video below showcasing some highlights of the offshore session to Pulau Jarak. Enjoy!



Photo courtesy from Tackle Source & full catch report can be found here at Tackle Source.