Tairaba is one of fun method to target snapper species, which is based on Japanese fisherman’s old fishing method and rigs.
Previously, SHIMANO has announced some products at their 2023 Autumn – Winter Product Showcase and this 23 Engetsu Premium has been announced, but the releasing date was unset.
But now we have a good news – the date has been announced from SHIMANO official!
Today let’s check when with what this new 23 Engetsu Premium reel is like, together.
SHIMANO Engetsu Premium
“Engetsu” is one of SHIMANO’s product range brand specialized for Tairaba, snapper / sea bream fishing. And Engetsu Premium is the name of flag ship overhead reel of this Engetsu brand for a while.
Today, this Engetsu Premium has been produced full renewal including much better usability for Tairaba method.
New Shape Fall Lever Has Been Featured
This is one of the big feature of SHIMANO’s overhead reels, Fall Lever.
You can control rig’s falling speed with this lever without changing your rig weight, therefore you can tactically attract fish even at dropping.
This Fall Lever has been redesigned and reshaped even better and easier to be used by one thumb, from zero to full brakes, which lets you take instant controls whenever, whatever, however you want.
This new Fall Lever also succeeded to reach out another issue.
The previous Fall Lever made reeling heavier when fall lever brake was on, but new one does not do this anymore.
Once you find the right fall speed, you can keep it and wind with no stress.
This can be an incredible option to make your tactics, as Tairaba is such a simple method but fall speed can be a big factor whether to get bites from fish or not.
For example, your field of fishing can have strong current and / or is deeper area, so that you need to use heavier heads like 100g, 120g, or more to reach the bottom within the spot.
But falling speed can be too fast against fish at the same time.
With this Fall Lever you may be able to take this plan – off the lever at first drop, then reel up to the desired range (depends on where fish are hanged around and how they are attractive at the day), and switch the lever on to the desired strength, then continue dropping and winding until you get out of the spot or get too much angle, so that you can show your lure as slow as you desired, as often bigger ones eats at falling!
Fall Lever can be a strong weapon for you to find the working fall speed of the day.
New Counter Alert – Wind Distance Alarm
Engetsu Premium is an IC counter reel that you can check how long your line is out, and the speed of retrieving and dropping, which is quite handy as you can see where your rig is, and the day’s hit speed.
And on this new 23 Engetsu Premium, IC counter has new alert system – Wind Distance Alarm. This is really as named, but you can set the distance alarm from hitting the bottom, which you can select from 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m and 25m each beeping.
Sometimes your skipper / captain of the boat may announce like “fish are there 20m off the bottom” and you think “Ok, then let’s spin the handle 30 times then drop again”, and start counting how many times you spin your handle to match up the rig range to where fish are.
But with this alarm, you won’t need it anymore.
Just set the alarm length and do winding, then the reel will tell you how long you wind up your rigs.
And with this counter, you may be able to think more pattern of strategy – like SHIMANO pro says in the movie, in case when fish are on the bottom and not really attractive, then you make a strategy to wind faster at the bottom in front of fish to imitate baitfish trying to run away from them, then after 10m or so, slow the winding down a bit to make it look like tired – nearly dead baitfish so that fisheater might think “Oh, that’s the timing to bite!”.
If you are a jigging angler then it’s familiar methods, isn’t it? Make fast move to “switch them on” and gives “biting time” by slower move.
With this new alarm system, you can do it without watching your reel.
New Handle Shape
23 Engetsu Premium handle has also been renewed.
The handle length is slightly longer that gives more reeling power, so that you can have stronger winding against fish and can retrieve rigs more stable speed.
And knobs are even bigger to prevent miss holding the handle knob.
Lighter Weight
New 23 Engetsu Premium has 30g lighter weight from the previous model.
This gives you less tiredness of course, as you need to keep holding your reel all day long while fishing, and also gives you more sensitivity to catch more information from under the water.
Release Date and Spec
The release date has been announced as December 2023, which is the next month.
SHIMANO’s release date was a bit tricky as lots of those were delayed, but we kind of trust about this date as 23 STRADIC has been out at the announced date (4000XG, C5000XG are still held back to end of this month).
Currently, right handed models are only lined-up and no announcement for left handed, but we expect it will be coming soon, maybe early 2024.
| Model | Gear Ratio | Drag Power (kg) | Weight (g) | Spool Dia./width (mm) | Capacity Braid (Gou-m) | Retrieve Range (cm) | Handle Length (mm) | Bearing | Price (yen) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150HG | 7.4 | 5 | 220 | 32/22 | 0.8-400, 1-330, 1.5-200 | 74 | 55 | 8/2 | 46,500 |
| 150PG | 5.8 | 6 | 220 | 32/22 | 0.8-400, 1-330, 1.5-200 | 58 | 51 | 8/2 | 46,500 |
* Braided line capacity is based on Japanese size “Gou”. Please refer to Gou and Diameter table to see diameters of each Gou.
