Northwest Fishing Reports

Long story, but I bought a Symetre FJ model at the beginning of 2011. A year and a half later it started to bind up when reeling. I thought I’d gotten water in it initially, so pulled it apart and replaced the grease, which helped for a while, but the problem would still reoccur randomly. After another couple years of limping along with it I sent it in to Shimano for service as it had become a constant hassle and was unreliable.
Shimano replied that the gears were shot and said that they didn’t have parts for that reel anymore, so replaced the entire reel with a refurbished new model Symetre FL for the cost of basic service. A little over a year later that Symetre started to exhibit the same problem. Having already dealt with the issue I knew that it wasn’t due to abuse or water breaking down the grease, as I was very careful to take good care of the reel, on and off the water. I contacted Shimano again and was told to send it in as there was a known grease issue with the early model Symetre FL. A couple weeks later a brand new reel showed up on my doorstep, no charge.

Hopefully this one will outlast the previous.

Even though my experience with the Symetre line has been mixed, due to the fact that it’s an awesome reel when working, but so far has given me two failures, I can say that Shimano customer service definitely didn’t let me down in terms of trying to correct the problem.

What I do find strange is that I have a couple of inexpensive Shimano FX spinning reels that I got when I was a kid and have used and abused for over 30 years. They are not high-end reels and have never had a bit of maintenance. They’ve been dunked repeatedly, stepped on, dropped in the dirt, used in fresh and salt water, and bounced around the bed of a pickup, but my kids are still using them to this day. One would think that with today’s technology, advanced materials, combined with the higher cost of some of these reels that they’d do just as well, if not better than the old predecessors, but maybe the old adage is true, “They just don’t make ’em like they used to”.

I now have a new Symetre and a year-old Saros, which hopefully will disprove that.

Despite the inconvenience of the whole situation, I have to applaud Shimano customer service.

Shimano has done me good too, sent me the triggers for my sorta new-less than a year- Syncopate 2000 reels as the material is so weak/bad they wear out in one summer and then there are notches in the trigger and grooves in the mating part for the bail where they slide together. And no charge for the parts. I need a couple parts for the 4000 reels now.

I also have quite a few Shimano AX and FX 300 and 300Q reels, not even a scratch where the trigger slides on the bail part, and I've been using those reels since the late '80s. Some are loose, but still work, some are tight and run slow, some work like new. And no I don't take care of them, NEVER cleaned or greased and they work fine to great. They also have graphite 'bearings'. I bought the new reels, as they have 4 ball bearings, to go with the new rods a few short years ago and a couple have had to be replaced already.

I'm a big fan of Shimano as well. I've tried a bunch of other brands, and while I'm sure they are great for other folks, the ergonomics and reliability always had me coming back (I like the FJ 300 spinning and Curado baitcasters). I've dealt with customer service as well for replacement parts (I lost all my wheel brakes that came with my Curados), and they sent me a bunch, no charge.