Curado 200 vs 300 for impoundment barra?

[dalethewhale]

Heading up north shortly and looking at a new toy to take. Can the smaller ( and cheaper) Curado Baicaster from shimano handle it ( prob 30lb braid) or do i go for the big( er) gun?

Cheers Peolple in advance.

Whale;D

[Flex]

I have a curado 300dpv. I took it up north QLD in july this year. Its the 1st time I have used a low profile baitcaster up there and it did fine.

It pulls nearly 7kg of drag, which is huge for such a tiny reel. So make sure you match it with a decent rod. I caught plenty of mangrove jacks,queenfish, barra,cod etc in the esturies with it. I was originally going to buy the calcutta, but I liked the feel of the curado more for casting lures around.

The only bad point with it, is its reel capacity, I stuck 30lb braid on it(never fish with anything less than 30lb in far north creeks:)

If you used the reel outside the creeks and hooked a massive queenie,GT etc. Say goodbye to your spool in about 10seconds:) but use it as your main baitcaster and its somthing you can use all day.

Other than that, I am very impressed with it, My brother took up the cronarch and I the curado they performed exactly the same. their stopping power is pretty damn good

I matched mine with a 6-10kg T-curve rod.

[Kev_McC]

The 300 is a great reel but the 200 will do fine and it's a very accomplished reel for barra fishing. The original drag is not capabale of much hurt but Jack Erskine will fix that for you if you need it. It's only an issue if your're fishing timber for big fish. If you're going to troll and/or fish more open water it won't matter. The rod angles you use will be at least as important as the absolute amount of drag. You've got thumbs if you need them!
Line capacity is fine, I've got about 80m of 30lb braid on one with about 30- 40m of 8kg mono underneath. I've only been spooled once when barra fishing! I know some guys who catch a lot of big barra on reels significantly smaller than the 200 Curado.
cheers

[dalethewhale]

Dear Kev and Flex.

Thanks very much for your input.

It will only be used for impoundent barra work briefly, and then returned to sedate Sydney bass life.

I was leaning to the 200 with an erskine drag, just to save a few $$$. After hearing your experinces i think thats the way i'll go.

Once again, thankyou.

DaletheWhale

[Scott nthQld]

I currently use a curado 400 for barra here in Nth Qld and have no dramas with it, in fact, I think its too big, but I can use it for spaniards and reefies when I get the chance, its spooled with 30lb superbraid. I've caught some bigguns on it as well as bloody catfish ovre a meter as well, and its handled them beautifully. I've had the drag locked up while fishing for barra/jacks in the timber (I know, I'm not very nice to my reels) and it works perfectly.

I would probably go with the 300, especially on some of those monsters in the timber you get in the impoundments.

[nedoleboy]

gday dale.i bought a 300 specifically for impoundment fishing and found it just a bit big for flicking all day and would agree with what kev said.a dissapointing aspect of the 300 i found was the back play.even though it was only 3 to 5 mm everytime you stop the wind ,jerk ,twist or whatever it was ever present and annoying.anyone else find this?ned.

[dalethewhale]

I thought that they were meant to be super dooper reals with super stoppers and an anti reverse thingies?????
I wouldn't expect "slack" in a reel of this price bracket.
Interesting.

[Flex]

gday dale.i bought a 300 specifically for impoundment fishing and found it just a bit big for flicking all day and would agree with what kev said.a dissapointing aspect of the 300 i found was the back play.even though it was only 3 to 5 mm everytime you stop the wind ,jerk ,twist or whatever it was ever present and annoying.anyone else find this?ned.

I suppose everyone is different, but the curado 300 is a tiny reel.Im not sure how you can say its too big for casting all day? any smaller and you'd be flat out pulling in anything. My reel has no backplay at all. Just tested it 2mins ago and its all fine. Maybe you're using the old one?

Remember shimano bought in the new curado model only last year. The older model curado is no where near as good as the new one. They did a total revamp of it.

[Scott nthQld]

mine does have a little backplay, but it is the older model, I don't use this one for casting lures, mainly live baiting and trolling, for casting I have an Abu 6 star (about 6 yr old) spooled with 20lb fireline, works a treat, on barra, jacks, cod, anything basically. I am thinking of upgrading though, the rod needs upgrading and I'm gonna go with a low profile baitcaster for more comfort.

[nedoleboy]

It will only be used for impoundent barra work briefly, and then returned to sedate Sydney bass life.
DaletheWhale



i went for the extra line capacity of the 300,most of which never saw the light of day.the 200 holds ample for casting 30lb and would be more comfortable ,especially whenst bassing.get the drag upgrade and get into em.

mines about 16 months old.not sure if its the old model or not.ned.

[Alchemy]

I've also got the later version but a 300DSV (deep spool). I managed to jam nearly 300m of 30lb Tuff Line braid on this. Casts beautifully, no back play at all and the advantage of the extra line capacity is that it makes it a great SP rig for the reefs too. I used this for a weeks fishing up the Cape last year and never found it uncomfortable to cast all day.

Regards,
Dave.