13 fish free fall first impression

Hey guys, got to hold a free fall at cabelas today. I passed on it, but it might be what others want. I know the composite frame is strong, but it felt cheap. The trigger is in the right place and worked well. The spool is silky smooth and will definitely drop with small jigs. Drag was smooth and very adjustable. I know the composite is better than aluminum for the cold and weight, but I just couldn’t see $109 in the box. I’ve survived all these years without and I am gonna try to buy more bait and go more often on my $100. For the gear junkies, it is probably what you dream of. I bought a 6061 on close out and it’s ok. Now everyone has ripped off the design. Enough rambling, it does a lot of things right, but it didn’t follow me home.

Thanks for the info, I was actually just thinking of asking for the exact info you gave. I have not bought any of the inlines yet as I don’t like the idea of hand stripping line or a 1:1 crank ratio on a tiny spool. However I will say that this one has got my attention now that is drops bt Im not too sure on the price, maybe I will see how many Cabela’s points I can get saved up. Thank you.

If you want to give an inline a try before spending big bucks, I’ve had pretty good luck with $30 eagle claw models. The ones I’ve got have a spool tension control and are able to free fall my crappie jigs. The drags are tolerably smooth. They are a little on the heavy side. I would definitely avoid buying online so you test the reel before you bring it home. Not all of them would pass a good quality control department.

I went with a frabill 371 with a 32″QT and it was amazing for hole hopping for perch crappie and even the surprise walleye. I thought the same thing about the free fall it just felt like I was one drop away from losing 109$.

i picked my Freefall up yesterday and am super impressed!! ive never felt a drag that smooth on any inline i have ever come across not even the ones ive done drag washer upgrades to. also it is carbon frame and is extremely light weight and seems to be very very tough!! the overall feel of the reel on a rod is awesome too! Pretty well balanced and the way they designed the fenders on it you can hold it comfortably with gloves on and not interfere with the freespool. i cant wait to test it out a little more when i get it to a lake! overall first impression though is very very high! worth my money!

I assume these reels are for deep water and big fish? Thanks.

riverruns wrote:

I assume these reels are for deep water and big fish? Thanks.

Really these reels r for any presentation. Deep or shallow, spoons, ice flies, rippin raps, jigging raps, very very versatile!

Fished with the Free fall for a little over 8hrs yesterday. Used the reel with a 5’ UL spinning rod, 10lb Power Pro, and a 1/8oz jig while vertical jigging in 20-40 FOW with sonar for crappie.

The reel is very light, and well balanced. A little too light for a 5’ rod, but it will balance nicely with an ice rod. Very comfortable fishing with a “pistol” grip, no issues with my hand rubbing against the spool (even with gloves), and the trigger became second nature after less than an hour. The trigger worked flawlessly, and it offers a HUGE advantage over a spinning reel. The ability to drop a jig, and stop it instantly when something interesting appears on the sonar is awesome. This is the reason that I purchased the reel, and it alone exceeded my expectations. I’m going to give it another work-out this weekend, but will probably be getting a 2nd before I get on the ice.

Now for the many negatives:

The spool drop speed adjustment was non-functional (turning the knob had zero impact on drop speed) out of the box. I took the spool off, and tightened the magnetic plate down with a screwdriver. This seemed to reseat the plate, and the knob is now functional (full range of motion with the magnetic plate). However, there is still very little impact when using a 1/8oz jigs. But, the range of adjustment is adequate for the lighter lures typically used for panfish on ice. Wish the adjustment was more refined like on a baitcasting reel.

Drag adjustment is not very refined, and the drag is not very smooth. There is no consistency with the drag adjustment, and my drag was either set too light or too tight all day. If I rate a Shimano 500 as a 10 out 10 on drag smoothness, I would rate the Free fall as a 4 out of 10. Again, the drag either slips or sticks…comes off the spool in “jerks”

A lot of play in the reel handle. There is a lot of “wiggle” in the reel handle, much more than in a spinning reel for 1/3 the cost.

The reel is WAY overpriced. It is a composite reel, the adjustment knobs are not refined, and there is a lot of “slop” in the reel handle. The components and quality hardly justify even half of the MSRP. In comparison, this $110 reel makes a $30 Shimano Sienna feel like a Stella. It is a plastic, cheap feeling, sloppy reel that should be priced accordingly.

The ONLY reason I’m keeping this reel (and probably even purchasing a 2nd) is the trigger. It is AWESOME! Ultimate drop control of your jig with one hand! If another company comes out with a trigger as good, there would be no reason for me to over pay for this generally low quality, and overall cheap feeling reel.

This is a $50 option that has a thumb control for a part or full time free spool control. No spool drop speed adjustment, but the spool can probably be feathered like a baitcaster.

http://sportsmensdirect.com/shop/reels/Ice%20Hopper-tight-line-pro-reel/

I think they rush things at 13fish to get them to market. I had to work on my 6061 to get it right. Polishing, drag, clean and hot sauce. The parts were rough, but they were of good quality. Cleaned right up and works great. Kinda like a ruger revolver… Functions out of the box but sweeeet with a spring job and some polishing of the internals. Like you, I found it overpriced. I fish right next to a guy who only uses spinning reels. I’ve never had a day that the inline out performed him. I like it, but I’m not gonna pop on one. If I didn’t have the others, it would be different. Tight lines gents!

If they are going to sell a reel for $110 it should be a lot better than the $30 ones. If the drag is bad, the reel is bad trigger or no trigger.Just my opinion.

the freefalls are not composite they’re carbon fiber that’s where they’re getting their price and weight savings at I’ve been looking at these for awhile now and just have not pulled the trigger yet I love my 6061 and especially since they’ve dropped the price on them

I’ll be honest, i’ve not touched a free fall but inside a buddies garage and it seemed nice enough for 50 bucks but not a hundo.

I’ve used pretty much all the inline reels. 6061’s, black betty’s, spoolers, 391’s, and the eagle claws. all of them i’ve sold except for 1 eagle claw i have on a emergency “fish don’t like the spin” rod which i never have to use.

i had to peel line off of all of them and their drag systems were just godawful.

i was interesting in lookin at this one until i saw the price tag. crazy.

I bought the last shimano symetre 500 that I could find. $65.00. Pretty pricey for a spinning reel, but everyone is discontinuing high end 500 reels it seems. IDO is running okuma this season? I kept my 6061 and a black Betty for shallow work. 99% of the time I run spinning reels. I feel like this in line craze is a fad. I still can’t see $100 when I look at a free fall. If that is what you are after then go for it. I will still pass. I have yet to see the IDO staff pimping an inline.

It’s just something different to fish with, your not gonna catch anymore fish with one…I bought an eagle claw one and never use it because I don’t trust the drag at all…I’ll stick with my Sedonas,Siennas and 13 spinning reels.

Yeah the price is a little ridiculous and I go back and forth on inlines I started out with the eagle claws and their drag is garbage the drag star was completely off the threads before it was light enough for my 2lb line and wasn’t smooth at all so back to the spinning reels it was then picked up a cgi a year or 2 later and it was a lot smoother than the eagle claw then I just got the 6061 last year after looking at them since they’ve been out and so far I like it it’s definitely heavier than the eagle and cgi obviously it’s made out of metal but its the smoothest inline I have the biggest thing I like about the inlines is the line twist that is in my mind the ONLY advantage but when I’m using heavier tungstens I don’t have that problem with the spinning reels and the inlines don’t drop jigs any faster actually my spinning drops better but spinning reels will always be in my rod locker in the end it’s just what you prefer to fish with

jarrod holbrook wrote:

I bought the last shimano symetre 500 that I could find. $65.00. Pretty pricey for a spinning reel, but everyone is discontinuing high end 500 reels it seems. IDO is running okuma this season? I kept my 6061 and a black Betty for shallow work. 99% of the time I run spinning reels. I feel like this in line craze is a fad. I still can’t see $100 when I look at a free fall. If that is what you are after then go for it. I will still pass. I have yet to see the IDO staff pimping an inline.

at one time James was using the okuma fly reel but it was in pretty shallow water. it seemed he’s gone back to using spinning reels all the time on his show. would be interested to hear his take on inline vs spinning.