Black Magic Avet BSX Reel Left Hand 5:1 Ratio

The BSX 5:1 ratio 8kg reel holds 345m of mono.

The reels have been tough-tested by a variety of retailers, charter skippers including Rick Pollock on Pursuit, and TV hosts including Adam Clancey from Sky's Fishing NZ.

They are made in Los Angeles by a family of Armenians who arrived in the United States penniless in 1986 and now run a huge business.

The father, first name Avet, gave that name to the family business, and Avet reels are popular overseas, though less known here. Black Magic's Rick Wakelin saw them at an international marketing show and bought one, brought it home and gave it death.

"It was a good product to fish with, but I wanted to see how long they would last."

A year later Black Magic commissioned a prototype run of a model re-designed for New Zealand conditions.

They were initially released to a number of regular anglers who also put them under strain to find faults. I was one of three fishers who broke an early model rod - the 8kg model, with a 15kg kingie on the other end. It snapped mid-section with the fish already at the boat.

Re-worked and now released on the market, the best catch reported back to Wakelin so far is of a 35kg kingfish taken by an angler at Port Augusta, South Australia. Wakelin agrees it is basically a snapper set, though.

For those who like to fish overheads, the new Black Magics are a good option to Penn, Shimano or Abu, which have long dominated the area.

Wakelin claims black anodising is the best because the colour black adheres better to the aluminium.