North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi All,
Ok, so I know this reel is rarer than a Blue Moon and Rocking Horse doo doo combined (apart from the Black Sheep but I already have one of them ) but that's part of the appeal of course, and I have an opourtunity to aquire one with a very low serial number (under 100 out of a rumored 15000) so the question is does anyone out there have or had one? And just how good is it? For anyone not familiar here is the beast in question: Yeah, I know.....(insert drooling smilie here) And I'm still going to fish it, I don't do shelf queens....
Cheers,
John.

I have one. A pleasure to use. It is very light, made from magnesium and for freshwater use only. It is so light that I find when I swap to any other reel including my zillion pe special that all the other reels feel like lead weights. It has near on a dozen bearings and is very smooth. The magnetic brake on the spool is slippery and casts a mile. Note that the brake can be a little unforgiving compared to the the latest daiwa magnetic brakes such as that used on the Ryoga (which casts a mile but is more forgiving). The Ito spool is much more slippery than the Zillion Long Cast spool. For example you might never bird nest your other bait casters but you might get the odd one on this fellow.

I have used mine in the fresh for barra up to 90 cm and sooties in the fresh and it has handled the task no worries but in my opinion the internals are not as tough as the zillion series.

Expect to do a drag upgrade to carbontex. Drags have come along was over the past 8 or so years.

The Ito is basically gave way to the Steez. Other than that the reel is a work of art. Rare yes but you could buy one from Ichiban Tackle most days of the week.