It’s probably a little known fact that the Shimano Baitrunner freespool concept was actually an Australian idea.

Bait fishing from a wharf for bream and tailor, former Shimano Australia chairman, John Dunphy, was pondering how to incorporate a freespool mechanism into a threadline reel so a fish could run with the bait before swallowing it, when he hit on an idea that was in his own words, “beyond belief.”

The next day, John and Mark Mikkelsen were on a plane to explain it all to the Japanese design engineers. In an incredibly short period of time, the Baitrunner threadline went from a sketchy theory, to a line-up of dedicated freespool threadline reels. The legend was born.
Snapper fishing devotees right around the country took to Baitrunners in a massive way, but the smaller reels in the lineup also proved handy for fishing baits like scrubworms and mudeyes for brown and rainbow trout, even float fishing for blackfish off estuary retaining walls and rocks, where the ability to feed line to provide a natural drift to the weed bait is essential for success.

The Baitrunner system is now available on six threadline reels in the Shimano range, from the entry level ST series, right up to the Baitrunner D and the heavy-duty saltwater Thunnus series. The cosmetics are now sharper, the internals have definitely improved, but that brilliant Baitrunner concept still remains the same.
Baitrunners are also great for other fishing styles, but it’s handy to have the Baitrunner option in reserve if a bit of bait soaking is in order.