John G

Well thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you! I just bought a Conquest 50, delivered today. I gave Japan Tackle $457.00 for it and I bought a handle nut retainer. Plus shipping it was close to $500.00 Rakuten has Conquest 50's for $376.87 I want a Antares HG but before I saw Rakuten, I was feeling a little guilt for wanting a $600.00 reel. It looks like my MBR844 will be sporting a Antares HG in a couple of weeks.

I have never even heard of Rakuten. That Site list a Antares HG for $412.20 plus shipping. Is this a reputable place to buy from?

Shipping would only be $3.00 and that's if they charged you.

John Chestnut Sr. Park in Palm Harbor, Fl It is a little county park adjacent to Lake Tarpon. The fishing here is realllllllllllllllllllll slow!

Carry a Thermocell with plenty of refills.

I'd like to. We don't have any of the exotics in West Central Fl. I am just west of Tampa on the coast, Gulf side.

Nice catch! Y'all have a big variety down in South Florida!

The reason that I bought the CTE100GT handle for my 100B is because I think the solid gold colored handle looks very nice with that reel. I have 3 Hawgtech's and Hawgtech's are nice but I wanted the gold. I would not mind a longer handle for the Conquest 100 but if I did that, I would get the Avail swept aluminum handle in gold. My Calcutta 50 is the one that they call the 05' Calcutta. It has the short handle but it also has 4 ball bearings in the knobs. I just bought a 100 05' Calcutta off of ebay this morning and it too looks like it has the short handle. I agree with you that the Conquest 50 is just too purdy as is to mess around with.

I just noticed that my Conquest 100 handle is the same length as my JDM Calcutta 50 handle. Both handles are shorter than the CTE100GT handle.

I thought that you were using the Shimano knobs cause of how great they are. Sorry! LOL

Shimano knobs on a Diawa! Say it isn't so. LOL

My Shimano's consist of 3 Calcutta's, 1 Conquest 100 and a Conquest 50 on the way as I type this, 1 Curado 50E and 2 Citica 200E's. I own a Bantam Mag Plus 250SG from the early 80's and I have had the original Curado, the original Citica and a 100, 200 and a 300 D Model Curado. As long as Shimano keeps on making them like the ones that I mentioned, I absolutely couldn't care less what the other guys are making!

X2. I have an older 6'6" ML/F Clarus for small squarebills and it's a nice little rod for not a lot of money.

I've got a sliver colored JDM Calcutta 50 and it also has a very short handle. It must be the later ones with the short handle.

America is a very expensive place to do business in. I put the onus on the people in charge right now that are doing everything they can do to make businesses not want to do business here.

If more people realized this we would be much better off as a country. Sadly, most people think that an entrepreneur made an investment and started their own business just to provide the masses with a job, health insurance and retirement.

My 100B is a few years old and the handle on it measures just over 3 5/16" center of the post to center of the post. This is without knobs. I replaced my 100B handle with a CTE100GT handle. I went from 0 ball bearings in the knobs to 4 total. The CTE100GT handle is the same size as the 100B. I have a spare gold colored Calcutta handle and it's the same size as the 100B handle. I am not sure what Calcutta it came on cause it came with Power Grip knobs. It has a different screw that holds the knobs on and it doesn't have any bearings either. If bearings are not important to you, you can have it. I just compared the 100B handle to the handle on a 200GTB and they are the same size.

Calcutta 100B for a baitcaster on a MH rod. It's a quality reel. It's not too fast or too slow. The place where I do most of my shopping has them for $199.99 to your door.

That is a nice size fish for the 842. If mine broke, I think that I would try to get them to replace it with the PR844C GLX. I know it's a completely different action but it's the one that I would want.

Looks like it's been discontinued. I am glad that I got mine and hopefully I don't break it. Great light jig and un-weighted Fluke rod.

I just paid more than $30.00 for some 30# Hi Vis Yellow Power Pro for my Calcutta 100 and I have had digging problems. I bought the thin diameter for capacity. If you pull hard on it, even though the drag isn't all that tight, it digs into itself. I must not be putting enough tension on it when I put it on the spool.

Most guys IMHO, including me, aren't out there to see how long we can play a fish. When I hook up, I see how fast I can get the fish in before a gator grabs it. In saltwater, there is no way I will play a fish because of sharks. I am surprised to read that you do play the fish even though sharks are always present. How is that giving the fish a chance when the threat of sharks is always present. Snook, you know guys aren't using 50# braid cause they think think they need it in all circumstances. They are using it because 20 and 30# braid digs into itself bad on a baitcaster if you look at it wrong.

I do what comes natural for me. I am left handed and I cast with my left hand and reel with my right. I never really knew that us left handed folks had an advantage with anything in this right handed world that we live in.

I rarely post anything other than a simple comment because I use the search feature or Google. Just Googleing the words whats a good jerkbait rod gets you all the info you need and Bass Resource is at the top of the search list.

Beetlespin Rig To be more specific, as soon I get my Calcutta 50 back from DVT it will go on the Loomis MBR782 that the big brown truck dropped off yesterday.