Help with new reel purchase

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beezy
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Help with new reel purchase

Post by beezy » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:00 pm

Hey guys, I've narrowed my choices down to these two reels to handle swimbait (5-8 inch), inshore, and saltwater duties: Shimano Calcutta 300D or Shimano Trinidad 10A or Shimano Trinidad 12A. I've already considered every thing else and this is what i came down to. So my question is "which of these reels would you buy" if you were in my shoes? I want some suggestions on these reels if you guys can give me some input.

WIth regards to the Trinidad, I was wondering which one, the 10A or 12A, would you buy if you had to choose one of them? The reason is that they're similar in weight but if i can get away with a smaller profile or lighter weight reel then I usually go that route. For those who have the trinidad 10A or 12A, please tell me why you chose one over the other.

Thanks in advance for those who reply. :D

wnyBob
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Re: Help with new reel purchase

Post by wnyBob » Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:10 pm

beezy wrote:Hey guys, I've narrowed my choices down to these two reels to handle swimbait (5-8 inch), inshore, and saltwater duties: Shimano Calcutta 300D or Shimano Trinidad 10A or Shimano Trinidad 12A. I've already considered every thing else and this is what i came down to. So my question is "which of these reels would you buy" if you were in my shoes? I want some suggestions on these reels if you guys can give me some input.

WIth regards to the Trinidad, I was wondering which one, the 10A or 12A, would you buy if you had to choose one of them? The reason is that they're similar in weight but if i can get away with a smaller profile or lighter weight reel then I usually go that route. For those who have the trinidad 10A or 12A, please tell me why you chose one over the other.

Thanks in advance for those who reply. :D
No one has responded. This Salt section tends to be a little slow. But usually at least someone has a good reply. Not me.

I don’t have either of those, but I’m sure that either/or are fine reels. They’re seriously pricey enough you would hope they would almost have to be.

I have Shimano and Abu casting reels. But for different application. I have a Shimano Calcutta B and it’s a fine reel. The go to reel for a lot of guys I fish with and know of otherwise. But those are for fresh water Musky only. Other needs, other reels. I even thought I upgraded once to a Abu Ambassadeur 6600C5 Mag-X which is now discontinued and when word went out they were discontinuing it if you snoozed you lose because they went FAST, so many others thought it was a good reel too. That 6600C5 was a casting machine, it could toss a big lure a mile. But for overall performance I went back to the tried and true Calcutta B. Those reels have been around forever. Because people like them and keep buying them. To me regardless of the brand and model, those are the kinds of reels to get. And Abu has a cheapie or moderately so, the Ambassadeur Classic C3. They even call it “Classic” It has been around for ever, and our advice to anyone starting to Musky fish or haven’t used a casting reel is take the C3 first. They’re primitive by newer standards, but they have never discontinued it, it sells like crazy too. But it is the old work horse still on the market. Don’t know where I was going with that lol. Other than point? – the Calcutta Bs are fine reels and I’d hope for nearly double the prince that the Calcutta Ds are awesome.

But I also see you’re going to more of low profile reel. Not truly low profile but a leaner highbred of the round casting reels. I was impressed with the line capacity listed for the Calcutta D. That’s a good thing. So get between low profile and round, those two that you’re looking at are right where you want to be.

I’d always used spinning reels for other fresh water applications other than the musky. And it didn’t take long to get comfortable with changing from spinning to casting and back all the time, second nature. But I had my first real chance to fish saltwater just a few years ago but now we spend a lot of time near the coast and fish the surf, the tidal creeks, there is a pier we fish some. All the people a couple of friends included that I knew that went where we now go were freshwater guys and switch up to salt and use spinners. When I was getting ready get into it I just took the spin route too. And you see as many or probably more guys using spinning reels as conventional casting at the beach and tidal creeks, other than some blue water off shore fishing, that’s different. And I match the site and application and reels. And have different reels and different rods for wherever I go and I’m already into the upgrades on some of those first purchases. You live, learn and adapt. As a matter of fact I’ve been eyeing a new addition to the reels, and probably will get it. I want to get it for just a certain rod. I have at least two if not three decent reels I could put on it, but it’s my favorite inshore rod and so the heck with it, it’s getting a new reel to try on it. It got a new reel just last year dedicated for it and now i'ts getting another one to try. lol

OK that was a lot of absolutely not relevant typing.

But I looked at those reels you’re wanting and just looked at them again and the specs. I don’t see where you can go wrong with either, when you add up the pros verses any cons including the price. So either should be a good choice. Even if you get buyers remorse after the fact of getting one and wish you maybe should have got the other. You aren’t getting stuck with a bad choice either way as I can see it. And I’m not meaning to insinuate, wow those are expensive! I have reels and rods approaching those prices.

Good luck

haoz
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Re: Help with new reel purchase

Post by haoz » Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:06 pm

depends on technique.

if you cast all the time, Calcutta D.

if you're always on a boat and jig, or does a lot of baiting, then trinidad. I will chose the smaller sized Trinidad although they seem mighty small alr.

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