Pinnacle Producer X

This thread will contain my review of the Pinnacle Producer X baitcasting reel. For the record, I am in no way affiliated with Pinnacle Fishing®.

Pinnacle Producer X Review:

Initial impression of the Producer X is very good. It's light, looks good, and feels solid overall. The main things I've noticed so far:

Plusses:

The clicking drag is a nice touch. This is my first baitcaster with a clicking drag, and while not strictly necessary, it does make adjusting the drag a bit simpler.

The reel has very few plastic parts; the insides are almost completely metal, and none of the critical parts are plastic.

The magnetic brake is easy to adjust and has a wide range of settings. My casting ability (or lack of same ) limits me to using the highest or second highest brake setting, but I'll be able to use lighter brakes as I get used to the reel.

The drag is powerful. First I tested the drag with a scale (admittedly not the optimum tool for this, but it gives a rough estimate), and it locked down at just under 10 pounds of drag pressure. But then I had the bright idea of staging a "reel pull" between the Producer X and my Ambassadeur C3. For reference, the C3 is rated at 15 pounds of drag.

For the test, I locked down the drags on both reels, and then connected the line from each reel to an old lure that I use as a casting weight. I had my brother hold the Producer X while I took the C3, and then pulled to see which drag would slip first. The Producer X was unable to slip the drag on my C3, but it still has a very powerful drag, more than enough for most bass fishing applications.

Minuses:

The gear shaft showed some signs of wear after I did my lock-down tests. The metal drag washer caused some very slight gouges in the gear shaft due to the high-pressure it was subjected to. The gouges are not serious enough to affect how the reel functions, but they do make it more difficult to remove the drive gear from the gear shaft. The problem is the somewhat loose tolerance between the metal drag washer and the gear shaft; if the metal drag washer fit more closely with the gear shaft, the gouging would never have happened.

Other Notes:

I did some fishing the other day, and while I didn't catch any fish I did get to put the Producer X through its paces. I'm very satisfied with how it performed; casting distance is good, the reel palms easily, and the retrieve is smooth. Only time will show if the Producer X holds up over the long haul, but so far it doesn't appear to have any issues other than the above-mentioned drag lock-down problem. That probably won't be too much of in concern since I typically use no more than 1/2 of any reel's full drag power, but the Producer X disappoints me in that regard. As I said, that's the only problem I've found with this reel, and currently I'd rate the Producer X 8.5 out of 10 overall.

That's all for now. I'll post updates when I can, but I probably won't be able to see how the reel handles fish until next fishing season.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Ben