Vs 275?

[tlapinski]

Pete, I have been looking into the new 275 and you seem to be the only one I have found that has tested one. I had several 300's that I sold, and now I love my 250 again, so this seems like a good fit. The one thing I can't seem to wrap my brain around is the fact that it is listed as $50 over the price of the 300. If it is pretty much a 250 body with a 300 spool, why the price hike? A higher gear ratio can't cost that much more, and the handle change shouldn't be the reason for the difference. What makes this reel more expensive than its big brother?

[Pete_G]

It's the first with '07 pricing, unfortunately.

Other reels will be going to the new pricing as of 1/1/07.

Dennis has written a review of the 275, pm me your email and I'll send it along.

The reel is fast, borderline too fast for some. I love it for Pencils, big walk-the-dog plugs, and other daytime plugging but you have to make an effort to slow down when you want to slow down.

[tlapinski]

I like a little faster reel myself. For me it's easier to reel slow for eels/slow plugs than it is to reel fast when needed. PM'ed you my email addy. Thanks!

[Pete_G]

Dennis Zambrotta's take on the new VS 275:

The Van Staal 275

I have been fishing with Van Staal reels since their inception. My surf fishing is considered heavy duty and my reels of choice are the VS250 and VS300.

I recently had the opportunity to try out Van Staal’s newest addition to their lineup of premium spinning reels. The VS275 is equipped with manual pickup, weighs in at 24 oz and has a line capacity of 425 yards of 25 pound mono or 350 yards of 80 pound braid. It is a “high speed” reel as its 4.75:1 gear ratio indicates. One revolution of the handle will recover a whopping 40 inches of line. Compare that to the VS reels on either side of the 275, the VS300 retrieves 27.5 inches per revolution and the VS250 36.5 inches.
I matched the VS275 on my custom Lamiglas 1201L. I attached the reel to the blank with electricians tape. The balance was very comfortable and I didn’t feel the reel was too heavy for the rod. I loaded the reel with 20 pound Big Game mono.
I used this combination for three weeks and fished many of my favorite surf locations in Rhode Island. I fished daytime and night, with plugs, tins, bucktails, live eels, and rigged eels.

What I found:

The VS275 was smooth and comfortable to use while fishing with pencil poppers. When retrieved very little rod action and had the pencil bouncing back and forth with minimal effort. But I had a hard time trying to compensate for the ultra fast retrieve of this reel, especially when fishing tins that at times were skimming across the water’s surface on a barely moderate retrieve.
This high speed aspect of the 275 was magnified at night when slow retrieves are the rule. I often found myself retrieving my plugs and live eels much too fast and had to make a conscientious effort to “slow it down”. When fishing breechway currents I often found that my slow retrieve to “help” a bucktail along as it drifted was too fast taking the jig out of the strike zone. All in all slowing my retrieve to the required night time pace was very uncomfortable with the VS275.
Not surprisingly I found the high speed retrieve also had a noticeable effect when fighting a hooked fish. I often found myself putting too much pressure on a hooked fish while trying to keep a tight line. The fact that a half turn of the handle will recover almost two feet of line had me loosening the drag so I wouldn’t “horse” a fish that wasn’t “horse-able”.

The drag performed flawlessly and wasn’t affected when getting wet. The long handle with its oblong shaped knob was very comfortable and didn’t slip from my fingers like the small round knobs on other VS reel models.

Bottom Line: In my opinion the VS275 might have a place in a surf-casters arsenal for special high speed use when fast retrieves are called for. That use is very limited when surfcasting for striped bass. “Dyed in the wool” surf fishermen would have a hard time getting acclimated to the high speed nature of this reel. A novice surfcaster would find this reel very comfortable to use but may also be completely oblivious as to why he may not be catching bass “after dark” when others around him are – his retrieve being too fast.
If you’re going to purchase a Van Staal for chasing striped bass the VS300 and VS250 remain the two workhorse reels of choice.

Dennis Zambrotta

[rockdoc]

Pete, thanks for posting the 275 review. After reading it I'm looking more seriously at the 250, and I'm wondering if it's going to come through next year with the oblong 275 style non-colapsing (and non- loosening!) handle. The 40" per turn of the 275 would be great for getting a plug back in quick after the sometimes couple of turns in the rip you get at the end of a cast, like under the light at Montauk, but the 250 does 36.5 " per turn, which isn't too bad. My 200 is a little slow when I'm cranking a plug in for the next cast.

Speaking of Montauk, I should have traded my rod for a surfboard this past Friday and Saturday. I bet RI was big too. A little scary on the rocks. Wouldn't have been so bad if there were more fish.........

rockdoc

[Pete_G]

I fished the 275 some more over the past few days.

I really like fishing Pencils during the day as well as surfing metal lips in the waves and the reel is great for that. Being able to suck up slack promptly when my plug lands or gets tossed by a wave is nice.

I usually fish a 250, so the adjustment to a 275 isn't that big to me.

I know Dennis often uses a 300, which is a complete winch with its low gears so I imagine the adjustment to the faster retrieve is a bit bigger. Also when fighting fish I'm aware that the reel is faster, but not enough so that I'm aware of it.

I'm also planning to use the 275 on topwater tunas next year as well. In my opinion most Van Staals are simply too slow for properly working topwaters for surface feeding tunas.

For another contrast I still like the smaller round knob on the 250.

[Pete_G]

The 275's have arrived.