Salt Water Fishing Reels??

[SaltwaterSlick]

Wow with all that fancy wrappin' those thangs would make real good pinata slappers!!

Nice looking set ups!

[clinthwt]

The new Shimano products are awful. I sell them at my store and bought 4 Chronarch 50e's before they discontinued the white ones. I have tried the 13's and the Lews speed spool silver and gold one is the closest one I have found to perform like the 50e. Concept 13 is a good reel IMO but very needy as far as cleaning.

[Wall_Hanger]

Ordered a Lews BB1-Inshore and a Diawa TWS Inshore at the same time... took 'em both out on identical 7 1/2' medium light rods... After the first trip, I bought another one of the Diawa's and tried to send the Lew's back, but it was beyond the return date so I kept it... I have 4 of the Curado 200SF's that I've used no telling how many hours in salt water, mostly wading... Wanted something new and after the bad reviews I read on here and elsewhere of the new Curado's, this is the way I went...

My summary of the Lew's vs. Diawa Inshore models...
I very much prefer the Diawa over the Lew's ( and even the old curado's). The Diawa has the inshore bearings, and the Diawa cast control is WAY ahead of any of the others, even the old Curados...

I later took both to the Chandeleur's last year, and those Diawa's held up really well. I fished with the Lew's one afternoon, and after tinkering with the spool tension and cast control, finally got it to cast OK, but on the identical rods and with the same lure (1/8 oz. or 1/4 oz jig head and SDL plastic, that Diawa was easier to cast in the wind, with the wind or in any direction over the Lews.

The trouble I really have always had with the Curados and Lew's is when changing lure weights or even profiles (spoon to plastic or hard baits), you always have to tinker with the spool tension and cast control to compensate for the difference in lure weights... With the Diawa, you don't have to do that. Once you get the spool tension adjusted to your liking, you don't have to mess with it again... Total cast control is done with the cast control on the side plate of the reel with the Diawas... Many years ago, I used the Diawa PT series reels and that's how they worked back then, but I got away from Diawa as others came along (such as Curado's, etc.) and I began to use them... Diawa to my liking and opinion has far and away the best cast control system of all the bait casters, and this inshore reel they have appears to be a real winner. Will pick up 2 more of them at least before my Chandeleur trips this year...

As a matter of interest, I have those 4 Curado 200SF's and about $120 worth of spare parts that I'll take $450 for if anyone is interested, you can PM me...

Lews Fan Boy warning.....I know that you are familiar with centrifugal brakes if you have curados but it took me a bit to get used to them when I first started using them so I will recap my latest experience.

I have not used the BB1 but I do have a Tournament Pro TP1SH and two Lew's Customs. The big difference between the Diawa and the Lews is the type of braking systems. The Diawa uses an active magnetic braking system with no centrifugal and the Lew's uses a centrifugal braking system with no magnetic. The Lews will brake more actively at the beginning of the cast and then taper off from the reduction in centrifugal force were the Diawa will brake less initially and then engage evenly throughout back of the cast from magnetic resistance. When I got my Lews, is took me a bit to get them setup. I typically never used any centrifugal brakes on older reels. I would adjust the spool tension knob and the mag brakes and go. I guess these new reels are beyond my casting abilities but after I humbled myself and engaged 3 of the brakes I was casting well. For me, I don't really ever adjust the spool tension knob after getting it how I like it. So on my Lews I set the spool tension a little tighter than I normally would and then I slowly backed it off and eventually dropped to only two brakes. With this setup, I can cast any weight combo with no issues. Last weekend I swapped from a Corky to a 1/16 oz jig head with a DSL Super and never skipped a beat. Hopefully you can get the BB1 running to your liking.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Oh it cast's "OK", but I used to fish a lot in Mexico in the surf (3rd Pass area), and casting directly into the wind, those magnetic brake Diawa's out did anything I ever used... Same is true today for me... Even the Curado's are fine until you let'er rip directly into the wind when wading the surf... Last year was my first try at doing that with the new Lew's and the Diawa's... also had 2 of my old Curado SF's... That Diawa was orders of magnitude better for me casting into the wind than the others... Like I posted, I did finally get that Lew's to where I could cast it pretty good but still not like the Diawa's... Could be it's just me, but I've always been able to cast the Diawa's better and spend more time casting, reeling and fightin' fish than with others...

[AtTheWall]

Wow with all that fancy wrappin' those thangs would make real good pinata slappers!!

Nice looking set ups!

You know it!

I've pulled the stock bearings out and went Hybrid bearings coupled with Rocket Fuel Yellow. Heated sonic washer cleans them up, add a drop of Rocket Fuel and fish again.

ZPI SIC & Hedgehog Studios hybrid bearings.

[rfroese]

Those new Concept Zs look like the ticket for saltwater.

[Wall_Hanger]

Oh it cast's "OK", but I used to fish a lot in Mexico in the surf (3rd Pass area), and casting directly into the wind, those magnetic brake Diawa's out did anything I ever used... Same is true today for me... Even the Curado's are fine until you let'er rip directly into the wind when wading the surf... Last year was my first try at doing that with the new Lew's and the Diawa's... also had 2 of my old Curado SF's... That Diawa was orders of magnitude better for me casting into the wind than the others... Like I posted, I did finally get that Lew's to where I could cast it pretty good but still not like the Diawa's... Could be it's just me, but I've always been able to cast the Diawa's better and spend more time casting, reeling and fightin' fish than with others...

For casting in the wind the mag reels will do better. I had a Abu Revo that was really good for this. They will not cast as far or as smooth in other scenarios (IMO) though. If I'm casting into the wind all day....I am stealing my wife's spinning reel!

[SaltwaterSlick]

Hey Rob, you ought to check out those Diawas... They got some pretty slick bearings, and after the end of the summer season (abruptly ended due to Harvey for me), I only recently got back to 'em to clean 'em up... They felt like I hadn't even used them... still buttery smooth. I cleaned on 'em a little, a tiny wipe down of CorrosionX and back in their boxes... Gonna be getting them out here shortly for a shake down probably in East Bay to kick things off this year...

[kyle1974]

shimano's are sensitive tiny little babies... one good splash or god forbid a dunk, and you're going to be replacing bearings. I have been using the lews team lite model for abotu a year, and so far so good. very light, smaller than the curado 200, and seem to cast just as good.

the only time shimano's feel great is right out of the box... after that it's all downhill

[AtTheWall]

Hey Rob, you ought to check out those Diawas... They got some pretty slick bearings, and after the end of the summer season (abruptly ended due to Harvey for me), I only recently got back to 'em to clean 'em up... They felt like I hadn't even used them... still buttery smooth. I cleaned on 'em a little, a tiny wipe down of CorrosionX and back in their boxes... Gonna be getting them out here shortly for a shake down probably in East Bay to kick things off this year...

I have a couple of Daiwa Lexa's - a 300 and 400. I like them both and the 400 see's King Mackerel plugs on a 9ft Steelhead rod built to chase them from the Jetty tips. Fish the 300 on a casting stick, and it's been an excellent casting reel.

I also use a Daiwa Millionaire 7HT Mag Tournament for a 12ft surf rod. The reel I recently picked up. Out of the box, it was hitting 165 to 170 yards with 4 ounces of lead. Ordered a set of TG Rocket Hybrid bearings from England - thinking I can free it up a bit more from stock and get another 15 to 20 yards out of it? Finishing up a new 13ft 3-6 ounce CCP blank for this reel, bearings and an extra foot - hoping to hit the 200 yard mark?

Also very fond of an ABU Record - which is a sweet casting reel and it finds its place rock hopping jetties with big plugs and poppers. And catch - releasing big uglies along the ICW. Lexa 400 and ABU Record are decent bullred reels and cover Jacks and Kings easily when fishing waters where they mix....Port Mansfield jetty and channel mouth is an example where they work well using 7ft to 9ft blanks.

Surf rods, I'm leaning on AKIOS 666 Shuttle and Daiwa Millionaire 7HT Mag Tournament along with AKIOS 757 Shuttle (no level winds). These reels will cast 3 - 8 ounces on long rods well over 100 and upwards to 200 yards.

Offshore casting - Avet Raptor 2 speed MXL reels spooled with 50 lb Momoi Diamond braid and 25 ft flouro top shots. These little 2 speed reels cast extremely well on surf blanks too but I can get more out of the AKIOS and Daiwa reels on surf sticks since these setups are made for distance casting. Lighter spools and more mag adjustments with oversized mag knobs to dial back as the bait flies - squeaks more distance out of the cast. But in a pinch, these little Avets can pound out 70 yard casts, using 7ft Calstar Grafighter tuna blanks casting 3.5 ounce or higher lures - and easily whip 100 - 140lb tuna. Killer with topwater baits when the tuna bite is on fire.

[redfishted]

Chronarch Super Free

shimano's are sensitive tiny little babies... one good splash or god forbid a dunk, and you're going to be replacing bearings. I have been using the lews team lite model for abotu a year, and so far so good. very light, smaller than the curado 200, and seem to cast just as good.

the only time shimano's feel great is right out of the box... after that it's all downhill

Disagree with this, I salt water fish a lot and I wade fish a pretty good bit, probably 30-40 days last year, I have 2 Lews Lites, 2 Concept Cs and about a dozen shimano chronarch SF, hands down nothing works and last like the old gold super frees.

[futureagg]

I absolutely love my 13 fishing concept A. I have surf fished, wade fished, fished out of a kayak. Never cleaned it and it works flawlessly.

I am interested to get my hand on the new concept z. That’s for sure!


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[Notaguide]

Lew's Lite LFS's are tough and have handled a lot more days personally between cleanings then both 13 Concepts or Shimano's. Not uncommon to have a little spool noise but other then that are solid. External brake adjustment is a plus also. I'm still a little butt hurt over the originally Concept C side plate design that would fall in the water. Neither A's or C's are worth the trouble in salt IMOP but the E's are very nice along with the TX edition. Seems to be personally preference as many of my hardcore fishing friends prefer everything across the board. I'll be fishing the Legend's Series starting in Matagorda and one of the most common set-ups will be a Lew's Lite with a Waterloo ultra mag in most boats. I'll agree the original SF100's with ceramic bearings are incredible reels. Sold 4 of them a few years back moving to low profile lighter rods and probably shouldn't have.

[kyle1974]

Disagree with this, I salt water fish a lot and I wade fish a pretty good bit, probably 30-40 days last year, I have 2 Lews Lites, 2 Concept Cs and about a dozen shimano chronarch SF, hands down nothing works and last like the old gold super frees.

yeah, those were good but they stopped making them about 10 years ago. LOL.

I've owned almost every generation of the curado. the red ones, the "original" greenie, the greenie super free, the B, G7, and the I. out of the box, each generation is smoother and lighter than the last, but the reliability has been going down hill since those reels made 8-10 years ago. I'm not getting suckered into the new K.

One thing that did help was ceramic bearings, but they're pretty expensive. I still have 5 or 6 curado I's, but I keep them functioning with new bearings about every 2-3 months depending on who's using them.

[Banded Drake Calls]

I just picked up a Lews Mach 2 and love it

Banded Drake Custom Calls