OnthePotomac

That Qualifier is an amazing little reel. Five years ago I picked up on a big sale and fished it until last year on a frog rod with 50lb braid and that reel was a little work horse. Last year I traded it in for $50 toward a Curado 70, but I never had a complaint on that reel.

If you are talking about the Curado 200I I may be wrong. I just looked at mine and it does look like a tiny opening in the red swivel pads where they could be squeezed of. Any model Curado or Citica before the 200I has the slide on pads and extras came with the reels. The Curado 70 and Chronarch 150 are a different story. I just looked at mine and there is no way they come off. I can't believe though that any of them would ever "wear out". According to Bamtam1 they put hundreds of test hours on the new CVS brake pads and did not see any signs of wear. With regard to Shimano brake upgrades, I have been maintaining and upgrading my Shimano reels for 16 years and am not aware of any. Delaware Tackle may know better than I. What specific model reel are you addressing?

I believe you cannot buy new brake shoes for any of the newer Shimano CVS braking design. I recall reading a response to this question on the Shimano product forum by the Shimano rep Bantam1. Look carefully at the inside of the cover and you can see why.

It is interesting that Woo Daves, the famous bass pro has said he still keeps a spin cast reel on the deck for worm fishing.

Simplicity of engineering and reliability. Ie., Shimano accomplishes with six bearings what other manufacturers accomplish with eleven bearings.

Don't worry about the manufacturer, but the reel speed is my choice for chatter baits, but any speed will do. I fish my chatter baits with a 6.4:1 reel speed.

I guess I am fortunate in that my 7' Med Wild is six years old and still doing duty as a crank bait rod. Incredibly light. Got it at a Gander on sale for $80.

I suppose in time it will give up the ghost, but I have had the same 50lb Sufix 832 on my frog rod for three years now and it is still in good shape. Believe me it gets a workout on the Potomac vast grass beds.

On any of the new Curados or Chronarchs just pushing the cover on will not do it. Place the cover on down over the CVS drum until it stops with the nose of the cover slightly pointing down, then just twist the cover up and it will snap in to place. Don't forget to lock it on. That said, if will it not snap into place then loosen the cast control cap as described above.

I don't have a current Gander rod, but 6 years ago I happened into our Gander and they were having a close out on a bait cast rod they labeled a "Titanium" marked down to $50 from $99.99. They only had three left in 6'6" Mediums and what a rod it has been. Super light weight before the light weights hit the market and very sensitive. It is still a primary bait caster for me and really fun with which to fish. You never know.

Hose it down with KVD line and lure conditioner. When I spool my reels I do it by reeling the new line onto the reel through a cotton ball soaked with KVD line conditioner. It helps a lot, especially with flouro. You might also look at a bit more tension of the cast control cap since each reel has its own sensitivity level with each line choice..

My Texas rig style is 15lb InvizX flourocarbon, a really fast reel (7.6:1 or 8.1:1), a 7'MH fast tip rod (I am a BPS Carbonlite fan), a Gamakatsu (sp)3/0 or 4/0 extra wide gap hook and a plastic which weighs at least 3/8oz because I fish weightless. Senkos, hand poured 5.5" Case Magic Sticks and KVD Caffeine Shads fill the bill on weight of my baits. If I use a lizard I will use a small slip sinker. I weigh plastic baits on an oz/gram digital scale on my fishing bench.

Mine are thrown on a 7' MH fast tip with 20lb mono. I use the Lake Fork double hooks.

Not to rain on the braid parade, but after trying it on my bait casters and spinning reels for a season, I have gone back to either mono and fluorocarbon, except for the frog rod with 50lb Sufix 832. I just simply did not enjoy fishing with it as popular as it is, but that is the way it goes.

I had a JM reel just like that if it is the silver anodized finish I think it is. The reel was built like a tank as they say and I used it for 10 years finally trading it in on the reel/rod trade in BPS has each spring. I am an inside and outside reel maintenance freek and I just kept mine clean with car polish/wax while I had it and it looked like new when I traded it in. I am not an expert on that finish though and it is possible that it has gone too long to restore the finish. Try the car polish.

I am also a cocoons fan being an eye glass wearer and I like the aviator size with the rubber seal to keep the sun and wind out of my eyes.. My eye surgeon told me to wear brown lens. Polarization is the difference in night and day for fishing and seeing under water.

I did that to one of my Citica 200Es. A just wanted bling, but that drag star is really a composition, which is pretty strong and is going strong on my other 200Es.

For me it is Seaguar InvizX flouro in 15lb, .013 diameter (same as some flouros in 12lb). Flexible and strong. I spool so much of it I bought a 1000yd spool on Amazon for $89. At $27 for a 200yd spool that is a whopping savings..

I also have both in the XG speed. Of course the MGL has the super light spool, which starts up real fast on the cast. Both reel are really fine reels, simply engineered with maximum performance.

Fry, what in the world are you fishing for that you need so much line on a spool? For instance, I use my Curado 50s and 70s for worms, jigs, spinner baits and crank baits and they have narrow spools. My older Curado 100Bs are used for frogging.

I picked up a Field and Stream 7' MH baitcaster 8 years ago on a super sale ($60) and the thing has turned out to be a beast. Love it. I have even used it for frog fishing.

Who knows, but I have a couple of rods (KVD Quantums) that are on their 15th year of laying on the deck for 6-7 hour fishing days (some at 90 degrees air temp) and they are fine. Obviously though they are in a rack in my basement when not in use

There is an interesting article in the last Bass Angler magazine on a bass pro who is a real frog whiz and he always fished his frogs on a heavy rod, but one day mistakenly tied on a frog on one of his MH 7' rods and says he now prefers the MH rod because his hook ups improved considerably with the tip which gives more then a heavy rod tip. Go figure.

You cannot beat the high speed reels for plastics fishing. That is how all of mine are used.

I do not own a Met, but do have the Chronarch MGL XG and fish only plastics on it, so no comparison only to say I cannot think of anything better for what I am doing with it in all bait weights (well, OK, maybe my Curado 70XGs are right up there).