I have owned and fished with Shimano reels for 2 decades or more. Everything from the original silver Calcutta’s to saltwater 200’s and 400’s to Chronarch’s and Curado’s. I recently purchased a pair of the new Chronarch’s. After a few months of fairly heavy use, both of them started making a loud cracking sound when I set the hook hard. The noise only occurs upon hook set...it is loud and unmistakable. The first time it happened I was certain I had cracked a rod or rod seat. I eventually sent them to Shimano in CA with a note. Within a few weeks, I received two new ones...and a few months later, I started experiencing the same. Being a dedicated Shimano guy, I decided to give the new Curado’s a try. Believe it or not, after 2-3 months of fairly hard use I am experiencing the same noise with one of them. Crazy! Has anyone had the same experience? Any suggestions?

Nope. Owned at least 50 in the last 20 years. Sounds like a reel seat nut to me.

i have had my chronarch make some pretty weird sounds when fighting big browns in the river current

 

its like a cracking/ scraping sound on the reel i thought for sure the first time the brown had exploded my chronarch lol

 

it ended up being fine i have no idea what happened but the next time i caught a big brown the spool was making some weird noises again which went away after a few casts... chronarch is the ci4 model

 

basically i am just saying i dont know I don't understand it is but it has happend to me but only on big fish in currents

I hear a bit, but rather than the reel I think it's the rod's reel seat. I use almost exclusively the Zodias lineup, and their Ci4 reel seats are a pretty hard plastic hybrid which lends itself to those kinds of noises. I fixed it by wrapping the ends of the reel-side seat about3 wraps with teflon tape, noise was gone. Even if you didn't have Ci4 reel seats you might give it a try and see if it stops the noise. It drove me nuts, almost to the point I'd stop using them for fear I was going to disintegrate one.

You guys have to stop fishing for whales.  Never had that happen to older, or newer Shimano reels and they take a beating on the Tidal Potomac.

Yup. It's likely a reel seat thing. Have had it happen.

Easy to test. Mount the reel. Hold reel (mostly from the top) and try to rock it back and forth. If you find play with the rod - it's the reel seat. The seat is likely not defective - and really can't be fixed. As mentioned above, build up the end of the reel seat that moves with some tape.

 

Karl