Chance_Taker4

I have an Okuma SX spinning reel I bought. But for the life of me I cannot figure out how to change the reel handle to the other side. Even the instructions confuse me. It is not a traditional swap. Anyone here have experience with this reel or other Okuma reels on how to switch handles?

Whats the Mag 3? I've heard of the MAg 2 and the Helium 3. Did Trey come out with a new Mag Line?

I use 8# Vicious Ultimate Co-Poly. I enjoy the light line because I like the fight of light line vs just horsing the fish to me.

Here in Ohio the fishing has been off pretty much since ice out. I blame the inconsistent whether. It warmed up earlier than normal but then cooled off quick. We didn't see "normal temps" or conditions until late May early June. Just to record our coldest July in 30 years. However the last two weeks have made up for some horrid fishing this season. I love the fall bite because I can slay them on cranks more often.

I use the D&M and Omega. I prefer the Omega one for faster retrieve as it takes more to get their blades going. However I do like the Omega for the "stop and drop" technique where I burn it and kill it all the way to the bottom then pop it up and start again. As for the D&M I use these with more traditional chatterbait retrieves of slow and steady for slow pause continue.

I have used the 50x a lot this spring and summer. I have come to hypothesize that their baits work the best in pressured waters. As my most productive days came when a lot of people around me were throwing other square bills. As my slowest days have been on water that barley sees a lure.

I have that reel. Its a great reel for the money but can be a pain to tune. Start by turning your brakes off. Then set the spool tension so that the bait falls slow enough to stop the spool when the bait hits the ground. Since you are new turn your mag brakes to 3/4 strength. Cast. Adjust brakes back down until you are getting the furthest cast without backlash. If you are getting backlash at 3/4 it is more user error than reel.

I'm probably wrong but I thought CEC bought CS from E21 in 2013 or 2014? In any event it's CEC's obligation to the brand that has changed hands.

I have 4 that I bought at pro staff pricing a couple years back. The black and orange ones. After seeing how many my partner went through I refused to use them in competition. I'll use them when I'm out for fun or give to people who I take out. They are incredibly light and sensitive but I think you could break one just by looking at it. They had a Wild Green rod in the lineup at one point.

I don't think the name is repairable. The only way they could possibly make money is to change the name and look of the rods.

A source close to me (fishing partner) told me that CEC has sold off Carrot Stix to a group of investors. They are relocating back to California from Toronto. He was on their Pro staff and received an email stating the company was sold off and at this time the pro staff program and all discount programs are canceled. There will be no new rods made until all warranty and individual back orders are fulfilled. The only change I have seen was their website now has all the rods listed as sold out but no other change via website or facebook. Why are people still dumping money into this brand and these rods? Just let them die in piece. I feel these rods are just money pits for whomever decided to own them next.

I see that all too often. Some guy shooting Pro V1s with his Taylormade blades and latest and greatest driver. Then looks down on people like me shooting cavity back Cobras and Nike balls yet when we come back in they are always the worst player. I used to be the same way. When I was younger I would always upgrade to the latest and greatest and catch more fish. I finally thought deep about it and realized that the reason the new stuff always produced more was not the gear but the confidence I gained by buying new. I refocused my confidence in my technique and less in the gear and it has saved me tons of money over the last few years.

We are down to one in my area and it caters to walleye in the spring and catfish in rest of the time. If you walk in and ask about the smallmouth bite that look at you like your crazy. They do sell bass rods and reels and plastics. Occasionally they will have a few bass hardbaits to. I think a lot of it is the dedicated hardcore angler has other means to get their tackle i.e. Tackle Warehouse and the small shops are now having to cater to the recreational angler who doesn't quite care what he catches or uses as long as he is having fun.

Now you have me nervous. I was taking the shop owners word as to what was "fixed" or "broken," I have never used a DC reel and it made sense to me what I was being told. There were no other DC reels on the shelf as there previously were behind the counter when I got there. I assumed he sold out. Now I'm wondering IF a rep even came as I was told and if so did he take the defective reels with him. The more I think about this the nervous I get. It is a relatively new shop maybe 4 months old and claims to be a Authorized Shimano and Abu Garcia dealer but has not signage saying so just hand written signs. Also a couple for the negative reviews I read came from other people who bought reels from his shop. Something is telling me most of the problems are coming from the store not the product. I'm not sure how to feel about this. This sounds exactly like my initial experience and what I heard from other people.

I love catching and eating whites but do agree with @Oregon Native that do poop a lot. In the spring once the Walleye are done spawning in the rivers the white bass come up and we catch 40-50 of them daily to fillet up and there is poop all over in the cooler when we get them home. I've never seen whites effect a fishery though. I am not too familiar with spots as there are many lakes stocked with spots near me.

UPDATE........I am a proud owner of a Curado DC. Shop owner called me last night to come out after work so I did. Shimano rep was there earlier in the day and said there was a unit of 250 reels that left the factory with the brakes not installed properly and they have in narrowed down to a distribution facility in Michigan. Rep fixed all the reels at the shop and left. This would be why the complaints I seen where on local forums. I tested the reel out as I did over the weekend flipping and light sidearm casting and it worked beautifully, no thumbing required at all.

Fisherman Central is what you want. https://www.fishermanscentral.com/ I've been buying from here more than TW lately and they offer panfish and walleye section.

I live in Ohio and do my part to kill every Asian Carp I can to try to keep them from the Great Lakes. Also I was in Florida a few months back and hired a guide while down there. He told me and my buddy every snakehead we caught we would kill and dispose of. We caught about 7 that day and every single one we killed and tossed in a dumpster when the day was over. Guide told us he tries to catch and kill 5 snakeheads a day and DNR love him for doing it. The little research I did on them lead to me believe that they are better dead than alive for our fisheries just like the Asian Carp.

I did not like the KVD line of reels too much. But I do love the Exos I have. I have tried the older Smoke and enjoyed using those. I want to pick up the new S3 Smoke to give it a try just haven't yet. I do agree their marketing seems to be subpar to the rest. Looking at ICast they must pay the GMan more than KVD now since Kevin was nowhere in sight at the Quantum booth and GMan was everywhere.

I am in no way discouraging anyone from buying the reel. I still plan on buying one myself. I simply said it looks like there is a problem with the first few released reels. There are a lot of positive reviews that make me think it was a slip in QC. The release date for these were September but the demand had Shimano trying to release early which overworked the employees and caused a slip in QC.

We where pitching into buckets and light sidearm casting in the store.

Well before the thread gets locked due to fan boys I'll copy paste what I am seeing to comply to forum rules. All from Ohio Fishing B/S/T "Buyer beware! I bought the new Curado DC and it doesn't live up to the hype. I have spent wasted time and casts trying to tune this thing and it will not cast without a backlash. I contacted Shimano and tuned it to the way they told me over the phone and I was able to cast but lost distance. They said it was probably a defect and would send me a new one if I sent this one back but couldn't know when a new one would be shipped out. Don't buy the DC sick with the Curado K. I plan on uploading a video on YouTube tonight to show what this reel really does." Replies to said thread " I own two and have zero problems with them. But my teammate got his and has had the same problem and was told the same thing." "I got one to and I'm not impressed. I may try one again once all the bugs are worked out but I haven't see anything special from it." " I seen a video on YouTube that the uploader had the same problem. Must be a bug in the first batch." "I wouldn't be going out and replacing any Curado Ks or Is that I had with the Curado DC yet. But if I was in the market for a new reel I'd look at them." There were OBVIOUSLY about 40 comments praising the reel and people offering their positive review of the reel. And another couple that had swear words that I wasn't going to post. Now please explain to me where I was promoting any brand I stated that my shop was offering to swap defective DC reels with SV reels, Revo STXs or Custom Speed Spool since Shimano couldn't send replacements out due to the high demand and now issues with the first batch. That specific post was posted at 7:38pm the three different posts in saw this morning have been removed by a moderator.

As I stated in my original post. I hope and assume this is a QC error. The reason I posted the word catastrophe is because of the amount of people that have commented on other posts that said I wanted one but I'm not taking my chances for that kinda money. Or the shop owners who posted as well as the shop owner I'm friends with that say I replaced the defective DC reels with "another brand" (locally it's the Tatula SV as the replacement). There's a lot of people out there that will judge this reel by first impressions and Shimano may lose potential sales over this.

I have seen since Thursday countless posts on social media and it seems to be spreading to YouTube a negative review of the first batch of Curado DC. The number one complain no matter how you tune it it always backlashes. So I went to my local authorized Shimano shop this morning to chat and found put that they received 12 in stock 10 are sold. Out of the 10, 6 have came back defective. Shop owner talked to Shimano and was told this is something that they are experiencing a lot. I have been at the shop for about 3 hours and we have been messing with one of the unsold reels and it is doing exactly what everyone is experiencing, the brakes aren't working. Now the other unsold reel works 100%. It looks like Shimano has run into a little hiccup possibly trying to rush out the new Curados.

First I want to say I understand what the OP is stating and to stay on topic. The rec boaters in question need to be more considerate. Second, I agree with this quoted post fully. I constantly see posts and videos from anglers complaining about being "bothered" or "harassed" by rec boaters when all the rec people are doing is enjoying the water. Another issue that grinds me is the confrontations regarding docks. I saw a video last night of a boater flipping a dock where there were kids swimming just a few feet away. The dad came out asking the boat to move away from the dock and his kids and it turned ugly because of the angler's "I'm superior" mentality it got ugly and everyone defended the angler. Another personal situation I was a coangler and my boater was skipping docks. We get to one were there are people on it and it was low to the water. My boater was having issues skipping under it and was making big splashes, putting on the dock, hit the pontoons just making a tons of noise and the owners asked us to move because of his recklessness with his stuff. He to made this enormous confrontation with them. I apologize for getting off topic. Now to bring it back I think rec and fishing boaters both need to be more considerate of their surroundings. As I don't know the entire situation I can tell you that on the lake I fish quite a bit if a boater were to give everyone 150-200' there would be no movement. too much traffic and not a wide enough waterway.