Journal

Saltwater asks more of a reel. Salt and sand find their way into the smallest spaces. Heat, spray and repeated exposure add to the demands of powerful fish, long runs and sustained pressure. A reel has to deliver precise, consistent performance while living with all of it, day after day.

In this environment, closing the gap between factory testing and performance on the water takes time. Controlled tests provide essential measurements, but understanding how a reel performs through repeated exposure to saltwater fishing requires a longer process: testing, assessing, refining and taking it fishing again.

The Saline spent nearly four years in development, moving back and forth between the factory, the UK and Scandinavia, and travelling to saltwater destinations around the globe. Factory testing and stress cycles formed one part of that work. Time on the water with experienced anglers formed another, bringing the development process into contact with the conditions the reel was being built to face.

Off Mexico’s Magdalena Bay, that meant hundreds of metres of backing disappearing into the Pacific, with a striped marlin at the other end. For Max Kantor, fishing Saline prototypes there was an opportunity to discover how they responded when powerful fish took control of the encounter.

“We watched hundreds of meters of backing disappear, cranked on fish until our knuckles were bruised and bloody, and had the time of our lives.”

Such moments bring nearly four years of work into sharp focus. Every design decision and every round of testing eventually has to translate into something an angler can feel: smooth resistance as a fish accelerates, controlled pressure during a prolonged fight, and confidence to make the next adjustment.

A demanding test programme needs to examine more than maximum drag. How resistance builds through the adjustment range, how the reel behaves under load and whether it continues to perform consistently through repeated use all matter to the person holding the rod.

The advantage of factory testing is the ability to control and repeat those demands. Stress cycles allow performance to be assessed beyond a single application of load, while comparable conditions help the development team evaluate successive prototypes.

Field testing adds another layer of scrutiny. Current changes the pressure on a fish. A sudden surge forces an adjustment. Sand, salt and handling become part of the working day. Experienced anglers can assess how the equipment responds within that wider picture—and explain which characteristics make a meaningful difference.

For Espen Myhre, Max Kantor and Fabrice Bergues, that assessment draws on years spent pursuing demanding saltwater species.

For Max Kantor, much of the Saline’s time on the water has taken place close to home, on the northeastern coast of the United States. Here, striped bass provide both regular fishing and opportunities to encounter exceptional fish.

“For the last two years now, the Saline reels have been a staple on my boat chasing stripers, both in the 9/10 size for all-around use and the larger 11/12 size for the best weeks of the year.”

The 9/10 has been his everyday workhorse, usually paired with a 10-weight rod. It is also the setup he reaches for when false albacore arrive in September. Across his striper fishing, Max reports hundreds of fish landed on the Saline range, giving him repeated opportunities to assess its performance.

Western Long Island Sound offers a particularly demanding chapter in that experience: a short window to target trophy stripers exceeding 30 pounds and approaching 50 inches.

These fish demand patience. Max describes casting 10-inch flies for hours while waiting for conditions and tides to produce a brief burst of feeding activity.

“10 hours for 10 minutes? Seems worth it to me…”

When the opportunity comes, large fish and strong current make controlling the fight a priority. For this fishing, Max pairs the Saline 11/12 reel with a 9-foot, 11-weight NT11 Saline rod.

“Upon receiving the prototypes of this reel, it was the first time I got to test the drag to its full capacity, and I was happy to report I was turning large fish in heavy tides and current and landing them faster than ever.”

That observation gives drag power a specific purpose. Max wants to bring these large, breeding-size stripers to hand efficiently and avoid unnecessarily prolonged fights before release. The ability to turn a fish in heavy current is an important part of doing so.