No good for bottom bashing? I would guess that more bottom fish would have been caught on TLD's than any other series of reel in Aus. Hard to go past for that price.

They are a better reel for trolling but only cause they are hard work winding cause of the gear ratio but I still have one thAt my deckies use if they don't have their own

Not ideal but certainly still a good bottom cranker if your not fishing too deep say 60 meters or less, a Fin Nor Marquesa 12 or 16 with 50 or 80lb braid would be better not to mention a lot less cumbersome without stretching the bugget too much. As Dodgy says a lot of bottom fishers use the TLDs but I think this might be because their cheap.

They were a good cheap starter reel for me bottom bouncing. Gone the Tyrnos now. But there's nothing wrong with them if they're looked after.

spend the extra and buy a tyronos!!! so much easier to wind in!!!! well worth the extra money

Get a Saltist overhead. Fairly cheap and far better for bottom work.

I used one for years bottom bashing, they are fairly hard work when fishing deep- the retrieve is reasonably slow but that aids in the ability to return unwanted or undersize fish back to the depths. Once you have fished alongside someone who uses a Tyrnos you will immediately want to upgrade.

$199 is a bloody good price- especially for BCF!

Campbells in Leederville have/had them on special with a 15kg Shimano Backbone and rod bucket for $240.  I just bought one as a spare for the boat. My mate had no problems with it on the weekend...and he out fished me!! The only thing I don't like is that they have a pretty small handle...but you can probably upgrade that.

Sure you can get a lot better but they are pretty tough and that special (with a rod etc) is really good value for money.

Had my TLD25 for about 15 years. great for bottom fishing up to 40mtrs due to lightweight. Bought a Tynos 30 for deeper water but heavier.

I have four of the little suckers used them for bottom bashing to trolling for Billies only a 3.6 ratio and all most 20 lb drag been bullet proof mine must be close to 12 yr old now and good as the day i bought them. For $199 can,t go wrong must say the tyrnos are great as well and have a 5.0.1 gear ratio so pulling from the deep is certainly easier.

They'll do the job. Once you use a reel designed more for that purpose though you'll see why people buy them over the TLD. Myself and several mates used these and similar lever drag Penns bottom bashing in the early years then upgraded to specific bottom bashing overheads and never looked back. I ended up going across to spinners and never looked back even more!!

Thanks for all the feedback fellas, Broke the TLD in today with 3 Dhueys south of Dawesville cut, pretty stoked with it. We landed 5 dhueys all up with the 3 we didnt keep released with no dramas.

Nice. Any pics?

Have used TLD reels for years, have enjoyed using tld15 reels due to their weight and braid line, never bring my fish up quickly so speed isnt an issue. Havent been able to kill them

I dont get why to go the TLD25 vs the TLD15 sizing when you don't really want to go deep so spool size is not a huge benefit. But other than that for 200 bucks who cares

Just over 11kg, the other keeper was just under