thousands of cast on my new Curado 150 DC reel. a review.

[Hobious]

Last year in Oklahoma I fished with a Shimano SLX DC reel.  it was fine but I could feel the reel flex a bit under load of a big fish.  no biggie.

this year. I bought a new Curado DC reel for the trip.  Why DC?  the entire time, hopefully we are casting into a stiff wind.  with the wind in our face, the shad probably show up.  with the shad, so come the wolf-packs of stripers. we watched the weather like NASA on shuttle launch day.  I spooled it with 50 lb braid.  mono backer.  rod was a brand new Phenix MH 7-3.  my reel, and another Curado DC reel in the group of fishermen were the only two that didnt backlash in 8 days of hard fishing.  I would get minor blowups, but only from the braid digging into the spool.  these types of b-nest are easy to pick out.  I took to clipping my line end to pole at camp and walking my spool down to the backer line, and cranking it all back in neatly EACH NIGHT.  it eliminated most of my issues.  I was casting 3/4oz topwaters and I could get way more distance than I could with any of my spinning reels.  I think I like the drags and fighting big fish on a spinning reel more.  more tactile.  on the Curado it is too quiet, too smooth.  I would put my thumb on the spool if I needed to see if I was coming or going. 

I brought the SLX DC with me as a backup and never needed it.  I had to unspool my spinning reel to cut out a wind knot of epic proportions..I put in a deep mono backing and put what braid I had leftover back on...no more issues after that..but I did use the Curado more after that.

winds 17-20 mph in my face..Curado brake set to a conservative 3...no issues with 40-50 yard casts.  now?  I need to load up some flouro and put it into my LMB rotation.  I think the SLX just got retired.

[J.W.]

The only DC I've played with is the SLX DC that my son has. He loves it, I wasn't crazy about it, but I'm sure the Curado is probably a bit more refined. Glad you caught some good bar fish with it.

Next time you go to Oklahoma, apparently there is a massive shad hatch (or some kind of forage fish) that happens at the end of June/beginning of July. The stripers/wipers/white bass go absolutely nuts. At least that's how it was at Sooner Lake when we were pre-fishing for a bass tournament. Could not catch a largemouth to save our lives, but it was a feeding frenzy, especially for the hybrids. Wore the paint off several Rat-L-Traps. Some locals said it is a yearly thing. I cannot describe how many millions of fry were in the water. Just massive swarms of bait.