When bass or blues hit the jig on the drop down in free spool, you come tight to the fish in a nano second soon as you crank the handle. Re-engaging back into gear is instantaneous with a forward crank of the reel handle, which is great for jigging. While palming the reel in my left hand, I could quickly depress the thumb bar with my right thumb with no fumbling at all. I fished a Hybrid 25 for bottom fishing and also for jigging, and really liked the thumb bar spool release feature. The overall handle length is perfect for rapid line retrieval without being awkward. The round handle knob has a non-slip surface, and a small but very fisherman-friendly feature is the machined hourglass shape of the handle knob shaft that helps the angler’s fingers get the best grip on the knob. At only 13 ounces, it balances nicely with rods from 6 to 7-1/2 feet.'Īdding to the comfort and superior design is an S-shape handle that keeps the handle knob closer to the center of the reel to minimize reel wobble while the angler is cranking fast for speed jigging. 'You can buy one reel and use it for just about everything,' said Jerry Gomber, Director of Development for Bimini Bay Outfitters, the Maxel distributor, 'and the round shape and recessed reel foot positions the Hybrid low on the rod so it’s very comfortable to fish whether bottom fishing or jigging.

The Hybrids are true multi task reels equally at home drifting for fluke, live lining for stripers, chumming or jigging bluefish, bottom fishing for sea bass and tog, and light trolling for dolphin and albies. They’re called Hybrid because they combine the engineering, machining and impeccable high standards of the company’s Ocean Max lever drag reels, but in a star-drag configuration.

Oceanmax reel