Revo Rockets

 

 

Abu Garcia

Revo Rocket baitcaster family

 

 

 

My Revo Rocket Family of reels.

 

 

Check out the first Rocket, the Revo Rocket 9!

How fast the the Revo Rocket 10.1?

The Revo Rocket Toro Powerhouse. Find out more here!

About the

Abu Garcia Power Stack Carbon Matrix Drag System

This design of drag stack is normally only found on offshore heavy duty overhead and spin reels. The keyed carbon washers enable both sides of the carbon and metal washers to come into play. This extends the durability of the drag. It also increases the maximum drag pressure by 30-40% compared to similar sized baitcasters using the typical ordinary drag stack design that does not have keyed carbon/soft washers. This is based on my own measurements of drags, not the stated max drag on the boxes. I only make my max drag measurements after I have tuned the drags to be smooth with no jerkiness at max settings.

 

I am more than happy with the solid performance of the Revo Beast Rocket as a light tackle saltwater reelin tackling the two 10 kilo cobia and one 20kg cobia!.

 

 

 

 

 I use my Halco Laser Pro 120 lures with these size 2/0 single hooks from Mustad (Kaiju Inline Single hooks)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revo Beast Rocket – a sturdy baitcaster

 

By Christopher S.G. Tan

_{New Update (Nov 2021) on the Revo Beast Rocket – see details and pics of tangling with the beasty monster fishes at the end of the article.}

I started using the Beast Rocket this year (2020). It's a bigger version of the standard Revo Rocket (the frame is a little larger and heavier) and a lot smaller than the Toro range. The spool has a larger diameter and deeper than the smallest Rocket, and therefore has a higher line capacity.

It has a gear ratio of 9.2:1 and a retrieve rate of 109cm, the highest retrieve rate of all my Revo Rockets. This would raise the question that is always asked of high speed reels: what is the cranking power like? More about this later.

This reel fills the niche of being the reel I would use when I want to have a lot of line capacity in the 20-30lb braid line range for open water fishing in the sea, targeting tenggiri and any other open water species. I could also fill it with braid up to 50lbs test for water where line capacity is not an issue and I want the mainline thickness for insurance against abrasion.

It has the great Power Stack Carbon Matrix Drag System, an improved clutch system, sideplate-supported shaft and pinion gear system and all the other improvements of the latest Revos except the Active Response Drag Mechanism. It is a solid reel that feels great.

I have tangled with the hard-fighting Sarawak sebarau with this reel and it does the job well. To catch these sebarau I was using large spoons and spinnerbaits, and deep-diving crankbaits and had no problems cranking them with the stock 95mm handle.

I used the stock 95mm handle to crank in the Halco Sorcerer 90 +4m to catch this two-barred sebarau.

The stock handle has large knobs, for a beefy grip. This does make it more comfortable and easier to crank heavy lures, or just crank superfast for high-speed retrieves.

For crankbaits, I was using the deep-diving large-bibbed Halco Poltergeist 50 (+5m) and Sorcerer 90 +4m. I fished using these heavy-drag crankbaits throughout the first two days of fishing. They did feel heavy, but it was manageable enough to fish the whole day.

For these bulky lures I generally activate 3 brake blocks and use the magnetic dial to for finer adjustments to compensate for wind and other minor factors.

Another solid two-barred sebarau caught with the Beast Rocket fast cranking the Halco Sorcerer 90 +4m.

I used the Rocket Beast with a 120mm handle to crank the Halco Poltergeist 50 +5m crankbait.

For the last two days of fishing I changed the handle to a 120mm version. It did feel easier with this longer handle. Given a choice between the stock 95mm and 120mm for fishing deep-diving large crankbaits, I find it to be more comfortable to use the 120mm handle.

Updated/Added on Nov 2021

Recently I was able to fight and land two big cobias, followed by a monster cobia a few weeks later. Without doubt the Power Stack Carbon Matrix Drag System performed well, with the three cobias ripping off considerable line at an astounding rate several times. Throughout all the fights, it reliably released line smoothly and steadily.

The first big cobia was caught using a Halco LP120 lure that was outfitted with size 2/0 Mustad Kaiju Inline Single hooks.

Click picture below to view the video of the fight :-

The large line capacity of this reel did not give me any worry of running out of line. There was plenty of time to turn the boat towards the fish to chase it down. With the high-speed retrieve I was able to keep the line tight without having to struggle with madly cranking the handle. Steady rapid cranking easily kept the line tight when chasing down the fish or when the cobia turned to race towards the boat.

This second cobia catch came an hour later using the same Halco Laser Pro 120 lure and Mustad Kaiju Inline single hooks. The hooks have the barbs pressed down.

When the cobia came nearer the boat the lengthy slugging match started as is usual with the cobia, stubbornly fighting it out. At this point the rod is used to fight the fish, with the reel keeping the line taut on the line recovery/rod downstroke. This is a high-speed reel, so it does not have the winching power of low speed reel.

This monster 20kg cobia was caught a few weeks later on the same Revo Beast Rocket and with the same model Halco Laser Pro 120 in a different colour scheme. It also had on the size 2/0 Mustad Kaiju Inline single hooks with pressed down barbs.

The Revo Beast Rocket has also been easily landing many fish in the light saltwater class like small giant trevally, queenfish and barracuda!