Avet HXJ Raptor Plus 3/S MC Three Speed Reels

Why narrow, at this size. Any application that doesn’t need a lot of capacity but does need heavy line and drag benefits from the narrow spool — it is easy to guide line onto and comfortable to fish all day. That is why HXJs end up on Gulf grouper, on Pacific halibut from Northern California to Alaska where the halibut get very big, and in Mexico on bigger yellowtail and even black seabass.

Rods. Yoyo iron and dropper loop: UC RUS 76 Predator. Heavy jigging on the Raptors: UC RGPXJ 6404 or 6405. Wahoo casting: RUS 76 or 80 Wahoo, RGP 76 Wahoo.

On the magnetic cast control, there are two clear buy signals. If you are new to fishing a conventional reel in saltwater, buy the MC version — it will save you time and frustration, and it does not degrade your cast one bit. And if you are going to fish mostly braid connected to a shorter leader, there is no question: get the MC. The magnet builds resistance in proportion to spool speed and then tapers off on its own as the spool slows, so it does the most work early in the cast, when a spool is most likely to over-run.

On left-hand retrieve, Avet is not like anyone else, and there is a reason. Harry, one of Avet's owners, is a lefty — so they go out of their way to build a left-hand model in almost every size and model they make. Among American manufacturers, Accurate and Seigler look after lefties too; nearly everyone else offers one or two models, if any. And a question we get a lot: does Avet make left-hand reels in colors? They did, six-plus years back, in a few colors — then stopped, for a practical reason. The only part that differs on a left-hand reel is the gearbox, and colored parts vary from batch to batch, so they kept ending up with mismatched colored parts. It is simply easier to build them in silver. A silver lefty is a manufacturing consequence, not a shortcut.

A note on availability. Avet holds a large stock of parts and assembles reels as they are ordered, so most Avet reels are not sitting on a shelf at the time of purchase. We order and receive from Avet three to four times a week, so a reel we do not have typically lands in three to four business days — longer on larger or specialty models. If you want an odd size, color or a left-hand retrieve, that is usually a short wait rather than a dead end.