Product Review: 22 Free Swimmer BR

By Jesse Rotin

Nothing gets the heart pumping quite like the sweet sound of line being peeled from a spool at a rate of knots! It truly is music to a fisho’s ears and no matter how distracted one may be at the time, the tune quickly catches every bit of your attention. There’s a species in particular which holds a hefty reputation for their ability to have drags screaming and entices many across the Australian seaboard to hunt them.

Known to have an aggressive nature, snapper will hardly ever pass up an opportunity to feed. They will forage for just about anything live or dead that crawls, walks or swims and their expansive range allows them to show up just about anywhere, at any time. Now I hate to spoil the mood, but even after all the positives I’ve just mentioned, they can at times prove a challenge and seem to show these annoying traits on a spawn run. Feeding no longer becomes the main focus to these eating machines and is rather replaced with the importance of laying eggs for future stocks.

Unfortunately, this place’s anglers at a disadvantage but it does not make them impossible to catch. Although their metabolisms are slowed, setting a planned trap to these somewhat tricky fish can be enough to have them slip up. As always, fresh is best when it comes to presenting baits to snapper, especially inactive ones at that. While feeding is not the main agenda, a snack to fill the stomach and boost their energy may be just what they need. It’s important to remember that the fish are in a timid state and any unnatural pressure as the bait is engulfed, can often result in a refusal.

Now, Daiwa have recently introduced a reel which helps in scenarios just like this. The 22 Free Swimmer BR is a Bite ‘n’ Run style reel, meaning it utilises a dual drag system. To explain this simply, the reel can be split into two completely separate drag settings. A flick of the switch, located on the back of the reel in a downward motion, will engage the Bite ‘n’ Run (Free) function.

A setting where line can be stripped off under minimal tension, this in term will give snapper a chance to swallow the bait without feeling any pressure. When the bait has been picked up by a fish, anglers will be alarmed by the clicking sound as the line is taken from the reel. Once an angler is confident that the fish has consumed their offering via the Bite ‘n’ Run system, a turn of the handle will engage the secondary drag setting known as the Fighting Drag (On). The fighting function is normally set to a tighter tension and is what is needed to ensure a perfect hookset, hopefully into a solid Reds jaw!

So far this season I’ve been able to put this intelligent technology to the test and can happily say that I see it to be most helpful when the bite is slow or even when using big tough baits like silver whiting or solid chunk baits. Plenty of Snapper have already fallen victim to this perfectly set trap, and I firmly believe that many more will find it hard to pass up.

The wide range of species and techniques where this crafty design fits into are endless and I have some new ideas in the pipeline for the future. Surf fishing and also setting up live baits to mulloway or kingfish are all on the cards for these great reels. The 22 Free Swimmer BR is available in two sizes, an 8,000 and 10,000. Both of these reels offer up to 10kg of drag capacity and also fit a truckload of line. If you’re chasing a reel to do it all, then go no further than Daiwa’s 22 Free Swimmer Range.

My Setups

* Set Up 1- BG Bluewater 70 2/3, Free Swimmer BR 10,000, 20lb J-Thread Nylon

* Set Up 2- Beefstick 701MS, Free Swimmer BR 8,000, 15lb J-Thread Nylon