The little big pit reel with massive big pit attitude. Answering the prayers of not just carpers alone, the 5500 XT-B is also ideal for Surf, Pike, Barbel, Zander and Salmon fishing. Even long range feeder anglers will have their heads turned and rods soon fitted with this reel.
You soon get used to the different Baitrunner procedure
Featuring an incredibly lightweight biomechanical handle, Baitrunner Spool System II, and 2-Speed Oscillation plus Aero Wrap for perfect line lay and smooth clutch operation. A long range caster’s dream, and with the addition of a new cold forged AR-C spool and 4 Shielded A-RB + 1 Roller Bearing performance, it just gets better.
AR-C spool technology provides an angled front spool lip, which produces reduced diameter coils on the cast, vastly reducing energy lost through larger coils of line entering the guides. Less friction means more energy is retained from the initial casting force which makes longer casts for less effort.
With over a metre of line retrieve per crank of the handle, it does not take long to retrieve your line with the extra distance this reel is capable of. One spare aluminium AR-C spool is supplied as standard.
Jan Porter demonstrates the Baitrunner II system
Verdict
I’ve long been a fan of Baitrunner reels, the simplicity with which you can switch from tightened drag to free spool and then back again with either a turn of the reel handle or the flick of a switch.
But due to design constrictions they were never as good for long casting and cranking line back as the big long-spooled front drag reels that we know as Big Pit reels. And they were difficult to manage as free spool reels with having to loosen off the front drag to allow line to run and then having to tighten it back up to a safe setting following a strike that had to have one hand clamped over the spool. I’ve often longed for some kind of compromise between the two but it’s never really happened and the best that anyone could do was fit a gadget to the front that made the process quicker. Besides all that, Big Pit reels really are big, which is not surprising considering they were built originally for sea fishing.
The drag is excellent and can be very sensitively adjusted
But now we have that near perfect compromise with this Ultegra 5500 XT-B with its new Baitrunner II system. The reel isn’t much bigger than a normal carp sized Baitrunner, but it has a lovely long spool to match the Big Pit’s performance and a big handle to crank line back from those long casts; and the Baitrunner II system is much more user friendly, once you’ve got used to it. The drag is excellent and can be finely adjusted.
The front drag has an inner drag knob to set the tension of the drag and an outer drag knob that with very little movement releases the tension to set the free spool or tightens it following a run. A quarter turn will allow the spool to run very freely, but varying degrees of less turn will keep some tension, which is often necessary to keep a fish hooked between running and striking.
If you’re used to the simplicity of a conventional Baitrunner system then it’ll take you a couple of sessions to get used to the different procedure necessary to set and unset the Baitrunner. But once you have got used to it it’s very simple to use and you’ll really appreciate the extra distance you can cast or how much easier it is to cast your usual distances. And this reel retrieves line so smoothly and rapidly it’s a dream.
I won’t be happy now until I’ve got another one to go with the two I’ve already got.
