It's a lovely little reel - but at 71cm, slow to retrieve! 
Almost makes you wish you hadn't cast very far with it...
Thanks bud. I now own all the star drag models in the Fathom range and this little beauty was in fact the last piece that I needed to acquire.
So initially it was a little bit more of a case of wanting than needing however, there was a conversation between Brandon and I a few weeks earlier where we talked about the alternatives to actually fishing a Abu 6500 and the one thing that was most important when comparing to an Abu, was torque. My personal assessment is that what the Fathom lacks in casting speed over the Abu, and its not much at all, it makes up in torque which makes it a much better fishing reel. So when 12 popped up, I had to have it for a number of reasons.
Now after Brandon fitted the mag and line and tested, some thoughts began to run through my head about what it can be used for and that when I thought, why not edible fishing. South Africans are strung up on big reels. Back in the day and even now, if you don't have a SL50 with 600m of line on it, you cant go fishing. Why would you need 600m of line when you fishing for edibles? Check out the guys in the US, they are using small little reels to catch 50Lb Black Drum.
I'm not too concerned about retrieval because of the species being targeted and that they are predominantly found in sandy flats. The are a couple of places in KZN and EC where you have to fish off rock outcrops and reefs and in that situation I'll flip a coin between Fathom 25 and 30. :)
Anyways you must remember that retrieve is relative to how fast you can turn the handle. :)
