TackleTour

I've been frog fishing a long time and have used several reels spooled with my line of choice (50# sufix braid). I believe long casts with frogs give you a chance to cover more water (of course this isn't always the case but generally it is for me). When they came out I really liked the ardent 1000 for distance and used it for several years - right now I am favoring an old shimano calcutta 250 which just keeps amazing me wih its casting distance and durability.
I am looking for a new frog reel and am looking at the tatula tws sv and the new shimano curado - would either on of them be a better choice over the other - or are there others in the $200 range that I should be looking at - I have a tatula and a curado which do okay but can't outdistance the old 250 - but it has a pretty slow retrieve ratio.
lame post but looking for distance for around $200

If distance is your priority then the Curado K would be best imo. I have the Tatula SV and can cast 60+ yards with heavier more aerodynamic frogs but I have to throw it hard to get the distance. The Tatula SV would be better a skipping then under low hanging branches and casting to targets along the bank but the Curado K should beat it at pure distance or at least match it with less effort. I've got #50 Trilene braid on my Tatula SV and can cast all the line off it with a Termintor Walking Frog but I really have to lean into it to do it.

I use a Tatula CT for frogs. More or less the same size as the Tatula SV but it's a non-SV spool that holds more line than an SV spool. I use 50# and #65 Sufix as well. You can probably get two of them for your $200 price range.

I used to use a Tat CT for frogging. That thing would right out spool with 65lb braid.

Zillion Type R is often recommended, and what I am using. But they are getting hard to find, and expensive to boot. Reality is, any solid frame high speed reel would work, and you don't need to break the bank. The Tatula 8x variants, or even the Zillion TW 9x would fit the bill coming from the Daiwa camp. Lews Superduty another good choice. Prob Several Shimano's too I'm just not up to speed on them.

The zillion tws (1516) is a solid reel without breaking the bank. Aluminum frame if you wanna avoid the composite reels and also enough weight on it to balance out with them hefty frog rods.
Slap some HH air HDs on it and you’ll be bombing two country miles.

JigginOG wrote:The zillion tws (1516) is a solid reel without breaking the bank. Aluminum frame if you wanna avoid the composite reels and also enough weight on it to balance out with them hefty frog rods.
Slap some HH air HDs on it and you’ll be bombing two country miles.

Spool capacity could be an issue if using 65LB braid.

I’ve got both the tatula sv and curado K and I’d pick the curado for a frogging reel personally!

I have never tried tatula but this low profile frog reel, Pe Special 6.3 has served me more than 5 years with no problem at all . Regards,
WW

I’m a Curado K fan. Love the retrieve

I prefer the Curado K as well. Comes in 7 and 8 gear. Big power handle and big gears for dragging fish out of the slop.

I love my SHIMANO EXSENCE DC for frogging. Also love Suffix 50lb performance braid.

LgMouthGambler wrote:

JigginOG wrote:The zillion tws (1516) is a solid reel without breaking the bank. Aluminum frame if you wanna avoid the composite reels and also enough weight on it to balance out with them hefty frog rods.
Slap some HH air HDs on it and you’ll be bombing two country miles.

Spool capacity could be an issue if using 65LB braid.

Disregard this post, I was thinking of the wrong reel. This would actually work well.

I use a tatula tw sv, powerpro 50lbs. The reel is fast enough to pick up slack and stopping the fish from diving deep enough into the pads.

I still use an OG Tat Type R 8.1 with 65# J-Braid on a Tat 761HFB. I can almost spool it, but not quite. Great setup for frogging and flipping/pitching vegetation, as well as Carolina rigs and big topwaters. Solid, tried and true reel. All I've done to it is replace the handle with a 100mm Zillion TWS. I still see them NIB for ~$100.