Antares MD DC?

[jrk]

Anyone have experience with this reel? Didn’t much like the Antares DC 2016, as I thought the braking was to aggressive compared to my previous Calais DC’s, but am interested in the MD for various reasons, such as min lure weight, swim bait usage, etc.

[Winstondry]

I just picked one up last week, it's matched to a Valkyrie VKC74H+. I mainly have it for throwing smaller sized glide baits and smaller Hudds. I was throwing a Huddleson 68 with it this past Saturday and it was a match made in heaven. I also have the Antares DC as well as the Exsence DC, they are all the same body and size, just different braking systems and spool for the MD. I plan to throw the ABT Suicide Glides and Gancraft 178's with this combo.

[jrk]

Thanks for the reply. I'd be curious as to what you feel is the minimum weight it can throw well? I'm torn between this, the new Calcutta Conquest 200 DC or the Daiwa Steez A. Looking for an all purpose reel that can thrown a large range well.

1. I've owned two Calais DC's in the past, and loved them for their distance on all of my lures. I've not had much luck with the newer Antares 2016 DC...feel like the braking is too agressive. If the MD is a little better at this, and I'm pretty sure it will handle my swim baiting due to its reason for being, I'd like to try.
2. Lusting after the new Calcutta Conquest 200 DC. I love round reels if they can cast a mile...not sold on the slower ratio, but if someone can indicate to me that it's a caster, this would be my first choice.
3. Don't know much about Daiwa, other than the Coastal I own for inshore and light surf. This thing will throw a country mile, and is extremely stable with heavy lures at high spool speeds. I'm sold on the TWS, as all of our surf/distance reels are without line-level...mainly due to the better distance achieved without the extra friction during the cast.

If you have any feelings on how your new guy casts, lighter and heavier lures, I'd appreciate a little more of your time.

[Winstondry]

I never thought about how light of a lure the MD can throw as I have other reels for that, same goes for heaviest. I would be leery about throwing too heavy of a bait especially if you're throwing straight braid, if you happen to get a bad backlash on the cast, you can damage the gears pretty bad just like was said in another recent thread about locking down drags and trying to break off line when you snag your hook. I imagine the damage would be worse with the sudden jerk from a backlashed swimbait at 4+ ounces.

Anyway, you piqued my curiosity on the lightest so I took a break and tested out my MD. I put the reel on my Edge Black Widow 703 (7', rod rating 4-12lb, 1/8 - 3/8 oz) and attached a 3/16 lead dropshot weight to the line. Current line is 65lb PowerPro and a 8' leader of 20lb Abrazx fluoro. I consistently casted 20-25 yards with ease, and not really trying to launch it in case the DS weight came off, I didn't want it flying into any of my neighbor's cars or homes. No backlashes due to the lighter weight. I would say it would be safe to say with lighter line, the reel would cast as well as any other DC reel I have. Heck, it might even cast the lighter weight better than either of my Calcutta 100DC's, the original US models, not the Conquest.

Can't help you with the new Conquest 200DC, but from the youtube videos I've seen, it's another nice addition to the DC family.

Hope this helps...