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Have any of you guys experienced calcutta bait casting reels that lose the
smooth drag after about a year. I have the 150 and my buddy has the 400
and the line comes off in short jerks while fighting a fish on both models.
I've taken it in to the place I bought it and they replaced the drag
washers etc and no difference. Any Ideas or similar experiences?
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<9763>
If you are looking for an idea, sell your reel and get a New Abu C3. They abosolutely rule. Very nice reels. Can't go wrong for the price either. Try picking one up here. http://www.thefishinhole.com (the price of shipping equals the PST that you don't pay for, or about that). I also heard DAve at Highwater Tackle in North Vancouver might be selling them for a good price as well. Good luck, Scott
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<9767>
I'd think that a year's not too bad, regardless of make or model... one operating hint for you: back off the drag to full nothing after each fishing trip...to avoid compressing the washers and having them glaze up when used. If you are in the salt, then tighten the drag full tight after fishing, rinse w/fresh water, then back it off. And if you are **really** serious, then take a look at http://www.smoothdrag.com/ this site has some good drag tips, and excellent products.
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<9813>
I own five Shimano baitcasters (3 Calcuttas) and use them frequently. One of my C200's has the same jerky drag you describe even after replacing the drag washers and servicing the reel. In the past I've been able to rectify the problem by getting the reels services or taking them apart myself. Typically water's got onto the drag washer. This time around I'm at a loss as to what to do -- maybe get the reel serviced again by a different technician and see if that helps any. Ken D's advice on backing off on the star drags is spot on. If you fish heavy lures, you may wish to lighten up on the spool tensioning knob, too. However, I wouldn't recommend rinsing the reels under fresh water unless it's more of a splashing than a thorough rinse. (Some of the Calcutta's have holes in the bottoms of them -- flip yours over to check. If so, cover it with a finger before rinsing.) I use a spray bottle with a misting attachment (what people use to dampen clothes when ironing), filled with distilled water and then sprayed over the reels after every trip on the salt. Then wipe them down with a soft cloth to prevent corrosion. Despite the problems I sometimes have with the reels, by and large they are great and I highly recommend the 200-400 range for light saltwater/ heavy freshwater fishing. (I am an even bigger fan of the Chronarch low profile baitcasters, but these are expensive, finicky beasts that either run well or not at all. They're also a devil to disassemble and service on your own.)
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Brad's got the right definition of rinse....not drown. Why not make a visit to shimano.com reel division, and pose the drag question to their techs? Mike Marcotte's crew is pretty good (Mike's Reel in Abbotsford).... James and Dale should be able to sort it out in short order once you get a diagnosis from the factory.
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Brad, Great post by the way. That brings up another subject. I have 4 abu Garcia Baitcasters in my house hold, 3 of them are mine. They all come from a range of price ranges, and models, but they all perform very well. The Subject is maintenance. How many people in here maintain/clean/oil/maintain their reels regularly? I have personally caught myself being lazy in the past and I'll always guilt trip myself to the point where I get around to cleaning my reels. According to the manufacturers Specs, at least with Abus, you should clean/oil/lube after every days worth of fishing. I find doing it every 2 or 3 times out is good. If you get sand in your reel, clean it asap. I run them under cold water in my bathroom sink, and even if I don't think they're dirty, if you take a look at the bottom of your sink after, you can see specs of sand and dirt. Regardin Drag. I'm not a big cinch the drag as hard as it can go guy. I leave the Drag at a lighter setting than most and do most of my work with my thumb a lot of the time. Its kind of Like Disc DRag fly reels. No matter what kind of drag you have, you're still going to have to palm the rim of the reel to get effective control of the fish and not pop the drag. Very rarely, unless you pop into a Big Chum or Spring, does your thumb ever get burnt or anything like that. This in turn results in a longer lasting Drag Washer in your reel. I second what Ken says about contacting Shimaon (Obviously). Hope they can remedy your problem. Scott
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Thanks for the feed back fellas, all of your posts are useful information. I have to tell you I'm pretty anal about the maintenance beacause I can'afford to drop $300 on a reel every couple of years, and I always loosen off the drag when I'm done for the day etc. I think I will contact a different reel tech and see what he can do? I am glad to know that I don't own a lemon and other calcuttas are doing the same thing.
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There is of course the local Shimano office in PoCo. The problem is that Ted is no longer fixing reels, just Gerry and that other guy I call Shakey. Neither one has 5% of the technical background/mechanical aptitude that Ted has but I guess after 7 or more years Ted figured it was time to move up in the organisation so he's doing something else. And so we here on the West Coast are stuck with what I feel is substandard customer service/reel repair. I had a discussion via email about the situation with Jean Berube the Service Manager for Shimano Canada back in the fall. According to him there were changes in the pipe for the Vancouver operation but he wasn't too sure of the details. By all means talk to Shimano Canada see in Mr Benwell is able to help he's the fix-it guy there. I have 3 Calcuttas myself and I love 'em although I do find the 200 doesn't do too well around the salt.
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Why do any of you guys bother with baitcasters when you can fish a centerpin for the same price? A single-action reel is 10 times nicer to fish with and when you're fighting a fish, the drag is all in your palm. You tend to lose far fewer fish because the drag is always smooth.
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Steve, Personally I find my baitcaster has a few advantages over that of a Centerpin reel. Some advantages I've noticed are 1) I can chuck spoons with much more authority with my baitcaster if need be. Sometimes a float fishing isn't producing, but spoons may. Nice option to have 2) The way I fish a baitcaster, when fighting fish, I prefer to hold my hand on the spool and I can thus control the drag that way and get as smooth of a drag as you can with your centerpin 3) NO knucklebusters. I hate being knucklebusted. Not all Centerpins have an auto click on them 4) I noticed that between my friends who have Centerpins and I, that I can get more casts in on a given day (and thus more drifts) than they can. 5) I can cast farther with a baitcaster than a Centerpin. 6) My personal preference, I find a Baitcaster more comfortable (It even holds me too). Obviously there are always disadvantages to every method, but this is why I fish a baitcaster over a Centerpin. I'm happy with the single action I get on my fly rod. Ok, that didn't sound right, but you get my drift. Theres obviously more working parts in a Baitcaster to deal with so that can add to the conflict, but a good baitcaster that works well provided its maintained doesn't run above 150 bucks these days. I notice most of the better/higher end centerpins are around the 250-400 or more dollar range. I guess its all a matter of personal preference, you can't say everyone isn't justified for using what they use. Scott
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Those 'Centrepin' reels are OK for River Fishing and if River Fishing is all you'll ever do in your whole life by all means go ahead and buy one, along with a special rod for it. Myself I have a number of different applications for my reels, variety being the spice of life.
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I use both. There's a time and place for both. Maybe Steve gets the same joy as I do, in seeing your fishing partner nearly brought to tears with the pain and noise that comes from having his/hers knuckles rapped by a large springer who's decided he's goin back to sea! It's all part of the game.
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<9869>
Thanks for the comments and recommendations. I just got off the phone with an ace angler, fishing tackle professional and the fellow who does most of my heavy duty reel rebuilding (salt and fresh). In a nutshell, he said he didn't know either! Sometimes his clients and he get chattering on new drag disks, sometimes not. Sometimes taking a pair of leather welder's (or similar) gloves and punching out a leather substitute for the composite fiber (white) drag washer does the trick. He's experimenting right now to try to find a solution. He'd like to hear what Shimano has to say as well. (Not very encouraging, I'll admit.) I also visited the Shimano website noted above and learned a few things: 1. They offer OK-looking how-to's for maintaining Spinning, Round and Low Profiles reels. The photos and steps are common sensical but not sufficiently detailed that the mechnanically "declined" anglers (like me)are going to be able to figure it out on their own. At a minimum, you'd better have the "exploded" parts diagram handy. (Downloadable from the Internet, too, I believe.) 2. Owners of a C400 who are willing to spring for postage to Irvine California will receive a free "Dartainium" drag upgrade and free postage back to a US destination (I presume). If I were a cynic, I'd ask what was wrong with the original C400 drag. But I already know the answer: I think it's basically the same set up as the C200 and C250. I haven't taken my C400 apart for over a year so don't hold my toes to the coals if this isn't exactly true but I recall thinking to myself "This C400 drag has too little surface areas for heat dissipation, and I wonder if you can put even 10lbs of drag on the reel without taking a pair of pliers to the star drag." 3. I coudn't find an email address anywhere on the site. (Suggestions gladly welcomed.) I did find the Canada and US numbers (sorry, didn't write them down!)at the bottom of the section on reel maintenance frequently asked questions.
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If you take your leather washers, and lube them with bacon fat, when the fish runs, smells like breakfast is on the way !!! (My father-in-law told me this little tale, as during the hungry 30's, money was scarce, so everybody made do. Grease was rare, while bacon and eggs were available.) True or not, it's still a good story !!!! Cheers. PS..... I made a visit to a large reel discussion group south of 49 and asked this drag query...should have some opinions soon.
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<9874>
This just in from an Indiana reel repair shop: ....".Have they replaced the drag washers? I would recommend replacing them. Make sure they use Shimano Drag Grease on it. Ensure the one way roller bearing is seated all the way in the side cover before assembling the rest of the parts on the drive shaft. Ensure there are no spring washers missing from the drive shaft." More as it happens.
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<9884>
I happened to see your post on that american board.you usually get a lot of opinions from those guys but so far the only response is blatant spam. I'm sure you'll get more replys.I'll be watching,asI have a Calcutta 251 with no drag problems yet.I have had similar problems with my 5501 though cheers Mike
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Another report in from an independant angler...RE the sticky drags.... "....If everything that Bob suggested checks out, Shimano offers a free Dartanium drag washer as a replacement on the 400s. That was the problem with most of them. I've tried many types of grease on mine and the Shimano Cosmo drag grease seems to work the best." Hi, Mike... I'm not sure what your point is.. 2 opinions to my post..one from a reel shop and another from an independant angler is spam?? Hmmmmm....... Is your 55 a drag stack, or the dual washer model?
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Sorry Ken when I read the first response I must have clicked on their link and all I saw was a bunch of advertising. My mistake.Not sure which type of drag my reel has.It's a 5501 C3.It let me down a couple of times and I stopped using it.I carry it as a spare now.Suppose the smart thing to do would have been to check why the inconsistent drag. Maybe today Regards
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No worries, Mike :-) The fun of busy boards is: lots of repetition, hype, and general siss-boom-bah !!! Along with the chaff comes the wheat too....some of those boys are clever lads... Abu uses weird drag washers in their stacked array, and interesting ones in their dual array....if you have the "ultracast" model, with the brgs in the axle, not the side plates (You can pop the bearing cap underneath the star drag for a peek..and if all you see is axle stub, no brg, then you have a stacked array. What happens is they get glossy, and tend to stick a little bit. If you feel ok in going in, then you can take apart the array, rinse the drag discs in soapy water, dry off,and re-assemble in a different order, first dusting them with the smallest bit of grease between your thumb and forefinger, just a hint. That oughta do it. Unless you are changing out the washers.... then give the new ones that little hint of lube. Cheers... :-) PS.. if the post seems a little verbose, I somehow always feel there's another reader or 2 out there who could use the date to their benefit, too. Re-cheers. ;-).
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I've been chasing this drag problem on other boards, and the Aussies sent me right back to www.smoothdrags.com. I went through the site thoroughly and, contrary to initial expectations, the Calcutta series (CT100-700) IS covered (as are all ABU reels, most Penn Spinfishers, Ahabs and all the Penn bluewater trolling reels). The prices seem reasonable, too, at US$2.50-$4.50 per set and you can order over the phone or via snail mail from information given off the website. (The company is based in California.) I'll be ordering a handful of drag washers and field testing them here in Singapore. I'll let you know how it goes.
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I am not sure about Canada but here in the states there are very good repair shop who can solve that problem by chabging the drag to Dartanium. Cost is about $25 US funds. It solved the problem on one of my Calcutta 251.
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