Squall® Star Drag

Beautiful rod raps and good looking reel, very smoth spool bearings, smoth drag. 30 size reel holds 547yds of 40lb brade to top of gold full line ring. Box was very beat up in shipping, but rod and reel survived. Check frame screws for tight. Spool runes so smooth it reminded me of the penn squider I bought 50 years ago. Good fishing 2 U !

Good Quality Rod

Lack of information, it doesn’t say anywhere if it’s left or right hand retrieve but all the pictures show left hand so I bought it, unfortunately it’s right hand retrieve

Works perfect!

Good reel, we caught a nice shovel head shark 4 footer on it. It is harder to cast than I thought it would be. I was using a 40lb mono line on it. You have to have that thumb hold and tension just right, otherwise you will have to work out a small birds nest on the reel, not too bad most times and you let the bait set while doing it.

Love the reel. The rod is poor quality and broke on the 2nd outing. 2 guides came out.

I got this combo specifically for Red Snapper fishing here in Florida. We just had one of our Federal Red Snapper fishing weekends and I got to try this new Squall II 30SD (star drag) out. The rod is very light, stout at the butt and a fast tapper to the tip. This is preferred for live baiting with the fast tapper so the bait can pull on the rod tip without exhausting the bait, keeping him lively longer. This is also allows me to track his movement and predict a strike by seeing him get nervous simply by watching the rod tip. A stout rod tip is tougher on the baits movement to feel or predict as well as weakens them to a shorter life span. The Squall II reel feels so much lighter, well balanced and so easy to manage while fishing. The spool is braid ready so you do not have to add mono backing then add a line to line knot which eliminates another failure point. With 7 bearings and the HT-100 drag system this reel fights bottom fish so smoothly without skipping or jerking making it a smooth retrieval no matter how hard your retrieve. together this is the best snapper bottom combo I have in my arsenal.

I’ve been using this combo for bottom fishing for striped bass on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. Perfect for trolling. It’s rugged and performs well; the reel is easy to use and seems superior to my older Penn reels. The retrieve is smooth and will handle large stripers. The combination of the rod and reel is perfect. I’m reaching for this combo at every opportunity. Stellar quality!