Islander TR3 reel

Shame they didn't put a free spool switch on it. With it you don't have to keep loosening and tightening the drag to let line out. Never pay that much for any reel with a FSS. Looks nice though.
 
Checked out the new reel at the Scotty booth at the boat show. Felt very nice and smooth but not likely to be in my near future... Will wait for more colors and hopefully lower pricing - and looking forward to hearing some first hand feedback of "reel" world use. First run is supposedly limited to 100 reels.

Here's the spec sheet for anyone interested. Cool to see a local company bringing something new to the mooching reel table with the ceramic bearings and sealed drag.

0233_001.jpg 0234_001.jpg
 
It does look rather sexy. Not sure I can justify getting them yet considering a already own 6 islander mooching reels somehow :). Will be interested in hearing reviews as well. thx for sharing.
 
Fisherman Rob said:
Does it have one way drag?
Click to expand...
Yes, one way drag. One thing I noticed was that the drag knob had a good range of adjustment - i.e. a half/full turn would make a reasonable difference in the drag setting and not on/off as is reported with some other brands.

Very light touch as well. On my Amundson Theron (great reel btw) I can feel the drag knob start to tighten up when getting to the proper setting as the drag washer are compressed. Definitely a lot less noticeable on the TR3 which would take some getting used to.
 
i wonder if they will take my 4 on warranty because they all have creep!! id go 4 old ones for 2 new ones.
 
No offense to Islanders, as its great to have local companies still producing their products at home (and not in China). It just seems a little ballsy to charge a 50% premium to correct long standing reliability issues on their already pricey reels. It's great that they've corrected their line creep and bearing issues, but it seems for the money they are charging these fixes should be incorporated into all their mooching reels. To expect their loyal customers to now have to shell out over a grand (with taxes) to have these issues corrected seems a bit much to me. Yes its a nice looking new reel, but should you really have to pay such a steep premium to correct reliability issues that should have been fixed years ago. Sorry if I've offended all the big Islander fans, but that's just my opinion.
 
Dropped my MR3 off at Islander a couple of weeks ago to have it serviced. I mentioned the "creep" issue. The lady I talked to said that these reels were made for mooching rather than trolling. Explained a bit to me as most of us complaining of the creep are using these reels for trolling rather than mooching - something they were not designed for. Notice the new reel is a TR (trolling reel) rather than an MR (mooching reel). I have to wonder how the TR3 would stack up against the Able folks here were talking about a couple of weeks ago.
 
bigbruce said:
... The lady I talked to said that these reels were made for mooching rather than trolling. Explained a bit to me as most of us complaining of the creep are using these reels for trolling rather than mooching - something they were not designed for ...;
Click to expand...
As a non Islander owner, I have to say that Islander as a company builds a beautiful product and stands by their vision and their product as well as any company but they have missed the opportunity to listen to the market and bend/modify their vision as the product is being actively bought for both trolling and mooching applications. I am not a reel designer but shouldn't it be easy enough to fix he drag in the MR3 to meet the demands of both the trolling and mooching consumers, both of whom are actively buying the product, and to expand their market opportunity in the process? Is it a situation where they are steadfastedly standing by their original vision for their product (been there done that)? With other lesser companies in other industries, I might also suggest there is a desire not to open up the can or worms of repairing past product but I don't believe that to be the case with Islander ... they are above that.
 
Last edited:
Teja said:
As a non Islander owner, I have to say that Islander as a company builds a beautiful product and stands by their vision and their product as well as any company but they have missed the opportunity to listen to the market and bend/modify their vision as the product is being actively bought for both trolling and mooching applications. I am not a reel designer but shouldn't it be easy enough to fix he drag in the MR3 to meet the demands of both the trolling and mooching consumers, both of whom are actively buying the product, and to expand their market opportunity in the process? Is it a situation where they are steadfastedly standing by their original vision for their product (been there done that)? With other lesser companies in other industries, I might also suggest there is a desire not to open up the can or worms of repairing past product but I don't believe that to be the case with Islander ... they are above that.
Click to expand...

This is a really interesting post.

If Islander is reading the forum, I'd hope the sound the drag clicker makes when the fish runs is louder than the sound of retrieving. Way more exciting to hear the fish run than to hear me retrieve.
 
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