fishballer06

I generally don't plan when I go fishing around them, but I will compare what they say to how I did, and see how they correlate.

Living up north, I will change the type of trailer depending upon the water temperature. When the water temperature drops below 60*, I like a trailer with less action like a standard chunk or a beaver style bait. Once the water is warmer, I'll use something that kicks a little more, like a Rage craw, Paca Craw, etc.

Drum always amaze me. I like to throw a 4.8" Keitech on a 3/4oz head on Erie and crawl it along the bottom for kicker smallmouth. Wouldn't you know it, I still catch drum on that.

Because manufacturers care more about catching fishermen, not fish...

Spend the extra $20-30 and get yourself the Zodias or a St. Croix Avid. Both are a much higher quality blank.

Hoping my Steelers can take down the Chief's this weekend. We need a good bounce back after last week.

Keep your head up. My wife and I are closing on our first home next Friday. To say the home buying process is a breeze is a flat out lie. We both have very busy schedules, and we have a baby on the way in March, so we needed something move in ready with minimal-no renovation needed. We had to pay a little more to get something in that type of condition, but we like the place we're getting. It's a beautiful house, has a 1/2 acre of land, and ample parking for an item such as a boat...! My best advice is consider the taxes of where you're moving. We looked at multiple places that were within out budget, and then figured out that the taxes were $500-600 a month... The house we're buying is only around $200 a month in taxes, which is a big difference for our budget.

My choice would be a 3/8oz. fish head spin with a Keitech of your size choice, or a 1/2-3/4oz swimbait jig head with said Keitech again. If those fail, drop shot, a texas rigged 10" worm, or a wobble head are good choices.

My reel was straight out of the box and onto a rod. As I said in my original post, the only thing I adjusted was the spool tension knob and I tightened down the drag. Once I use the reel more with some different lures of different weights, I will play around with everything and I'll comment here about my experience. I compared the Curado K primarily to the Tatula series because that is it's biggest competitor at it's price point. I have fished with a friends Tatula SV for about 30 minutes. I am by no means saying that the Tatula's are bad reels, because they are great reels. And we as fishermen should be lucky that so many companies are out there putting out such high quality products at nearly every price point. To me, the entire Tatula series has always been an odd shape in my hands and very uncomfortable to fish for extended periods of time. So for that, I don't enjoy the Tatula reels, even though they are quality reels and they perform well. As far as smoothness goes, both the Tatula SV and Curado are obviously very smooth reels, but the micro module gearing nudges the Curado over the top for me. I don't know if you own any Shimano's with this gearing, but if you do, you know what I'm talking about.

For fluoro, I'm going to be using 20lb. Sunline Sniper or 20 lb. PLine Tactical.

That's a tough one, especially since they span a 20+ year time span and technology has come a long way in that time. It's almost not fair to compare some of the older models to the newer technology reels. K - obviously the latest and greatest. E - The fan favorite and built with quality in mind. I - The first reel to move past the VBS braking system. B - These things are tanks, and everyone knows it. Steve Kennedy is still winning BASS elite events with them. D - These things are the red headed stepchild of the family. Solid, very heavy, but they are built to last. G - My G series all perform great, but I'll agree they really cheapened this series up.

As I stated in my original post, I only casted one lure with the K so far. That being a 3/16oz. jig head with a menace grub on it, so you're probably at around 5/16oz. with that. So I cannot comment yet on how the K handles lighter or heavier lures. Common sense tells us that the smaller spool on the 70 makes it better suited for baits in the sub 1/4oz category. As for palming, the K is a very comfortable reel to palm for a 200 size reel and I have no problem palming it, but I have larger hands. The 70 is again, a smaller reel, so it's going to be lighter and fit easier into more people's hands, so this is sort of a moot point. You're comparing an F-150 to a Ranger here... The design of the K is much smaller than previous 200 sized reels, and it is noticeably smaller than the previous I series 200 size. Both reels are obviously smooth reeling, but the micro module gearing gives the K the edge over any reel without it. I'm guessing you've never used a Shimano reel with this feature, because it makes a huge difference in the smoothness. Go check out a Curado K, Chronarch MGL, or Metanium MGL and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

I already did.

It sure is pretty here in Pennsylvania this time of year...

In what sense?

Correct.

While this is a viable option, you're a fool to pay full price for an unpainted blank. Most blanks are available from numerous sources for around $1 each, and sometimes even cheaper.

My left handed Curado K finally arrived on Saturday while I was out fishing. Once I got home, I quickly opened it up and inspected it. Upon first holding it and spinning the handle, I was pretty impressed with the reel. I was bummed that it didn't arrive in time for my trip out on the boat on Saturday, but then my wife asked on Sunday if we could take the dog for a walk around the one local housing community pond. So this was my opportunity to get some on the water time with this reel. Here's my initial thoughts and first trip out impressions of the reel. Briefing: I've always had a soft spot for the Curado reels. My first baitcaster that my father and grandfather got me was an old green bantam Curado back in the mid 90's. I learned baitcasting on that reel and I still have that reel today and it still works just as well as it did back then. Since that time, I have owned (and some I still own) every model of the Curado that has come along. The model I got was the 201K-HG model. For those that aren't aware, this is the left handed model in a 7:1 ratio (31" IPT retrieve). I also have a standard model on pre-order (6:1 ratio, 26" IPT), but those haven't started shipping yet to my knowledge. Unboxing: These reels come in the standard Shimano boxing that we're all accustomed to. Upon taking the reel out, I was immediately impressed with the looks of the reel. The flat black look awesome on this reel, and it looks much more expensive than a $180 reel. The dark green spool and tension knob were a nice touch of the past. The one thing that struck me as odd was the coloring of the handle and drag star. They are a gunmetal silver color, and in certain lighting it looks more silver than gunmetal. With the coloring of this reel being so muted down, a shiny silver handle/drag star looks a little out of place. Shimano has black handles and drag stars on their other reels, so I'm not sure why they didn't stick to that on this model. Not to be confused with what I said earlier, this gunmetal silver in other lighting does look darker, so it's just a matter of what lighting you're in I suppose. Upon grabbing the handle, I immediately noticed that the knobs are bigger around that what I'm used to on my Chronarch's and Metanium's. They definitely beefed them up on this model. I'm not sure how I feel about these larger knobs, but I know some guys prefer a beefier knob, so I'm sure they'll appreciate this feature. Once I turned the handle, I was really shocked. This reel feels as sturdy and smooth as my Metanium MGL. Shimano has really dialed it in with the aluminum frame and micro module gearing because this thing is so fluid whenever you turn the handle. Comparing this reel to the previous I model, this K model feels light years better in basically every category. I'm not saying that the I series was a bad reel, but I feel like this model Curado is under priced with how refined it feels. On The Water: Prior to heading out, I spooled the reel up with 14lb. Gamma Polyflex copolymer line and mounted it on a St. Croix LTB 7'1" Medium powered rod with a fast action. My reel came with the internal brakes set to 2 on, 2 off, and the external dial set on 3 (adjustable from 1-6). I tied on a 3/16oz. swimbait jig head and attached a Rage Tail Menace grub on it for the sake of taking her out on her maiden voyage. So I left the on the stock brake settings from the factory and adjusted my tension knob until I had the desired fall rate that I wanted. Making the first cast, I was impressed with the reel. It was like the factory settings were made for my little swimbait presentation. I experienced no overruns during the cast and no backlashes upon splash down. Color me impressed considering I didn't adjust anything from the factory other than the spool tension. During the hour or so that I fished, I casted numerous different ways to see how the reel handled everything I threw at it. Side arm, overhead, back hand, roll cast, pitching. It handled everything with ease and no issues at all. I was able to pitch with ease and good distance, considering the presentation I was using was probably only around 5/16oz overall. My standard casting distance was on par with what I get out of my Chronarch's and Metanium's, so I was impressed with that. I backed my external dial knob down to 2.5 and got a few more feet on my casts. During the hour or so I fished, I managed to catch four fish and I lost two others. Everything in this pond is in the 9-12" range, so no monsters to really test out the drag, but big enough to bend the rod and feel a wiggle on the end of the line. The reel felt just as smooth retrieving my bait and reeling fish in as I thought it was when I pulled it out of the box at home. If you haven't fished a Shimano reel yet with the micro module gearing, you're missing out on a super smooth reel. I'm really impressed that Shimano has brought this technology down to the Curado lineup. Conclusion: So far, so good with this new K series Curado. I'm going to try to put as much time in with this reel as I can before we have ice here in Pennsylvania. I can't wait to receive my standard 6:1 reel either. From what I can see so far, Shimano has taken a big step in the right direction with the Curado lineup. I know people were very upset over the G series, but the I series was a vast improvement over the G, and now the K is a big improvement over the I series. Only time will tell, but I'd say that the Curado is back to being king of the $200 casting reel market. In my opinion, this K series feels better in the hands and performs better than all of the various Tatula models I've fished with. I know this was only my first outing with this reel, but I wanted to voice my opinion for everyone who is on the edge about this reel. I am going to put in more time with this reel and I will probably update this post or create a new one once I really break this reel in (just like I did with the Chronarch MGL). So stay tuned for more updates. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to help out the best I can.

Lefty Curado K's finally arrived!

She definitely has a mouth the size of a 5 pounder, as opposed to the size of a 3 pounder. However, like others have said, without putting it on a scale, you'll never know... If you had a tape ruler and knew the length and girth, we could give you a close ballpark number.

Well, whether or not they add more drag is subjective to what's currently in your reel. Old, worn out drag washers get weaker over time from being locked down and under pressure.

Jackall Flick Shake

So you're going to make an announcement at 3 AM telling anglers what lake they need to show up to? And then you're going to have a scale there to weigh every piece of equipment/tackle that each angler is taking with them? Am I understanding this correctly? If so, best of luck with your format.

I mean, can't this be said about a lot of rules/laws in California???

I've found in the past, that manufacturers understand their warranty process better than the random members of a message board on the internet...