Which Shimano Calcutta should I use- 100B or 200B?

[bertschb]

I'm new to this forum and new to Kokanee fishing. I've spent many hours reading posts in this forum and others trying to decide which rod and reel to get for Kokanee fishing. I plan to fish a downrigger. Based on advice from this forum, I chose the Lamiglas CGR-762L rod.

I also bought a Shimano Calcutta reel. But, I chose the 200B model based on feedback from the sales guy at the store. He said I could use the 200B reel for other types of fishing because it was larger so it was more versatile. I know a lot of you folks use the smaller 100B or even 50B model for Kokanee.

I now feel like I bought the wrong size reel. I want to get the best reel for Kokanee but we do have German Browns in the lake I fish (Wickiup and Paulina Lake in Central Oregon). I'm new to fishing so I don't know if it's likely I would catch a Brown while trolling for Kokanee. The Brown's get pretty big in these lakes.

Sooooo, should I return the Shimano Calcutta 200B and get the 100B?

 

[SuperD]

What's the line capacity rating for the 200B?

Okay, I looked it up and if I read it right, the 200 has line cap. of 230 yds @ 8 lbs. Unless you want to get into running braided line I suggest you stay with the 200B as a more versatile reel. If you are going to have trout reels and koke reels you'll have room to drop down in size but the 200 is going to do it all for you. Just my feeling though.

 

[MMDON]

I have 8 of the 201B's and another 8 of the older 251's. Great reels and they work as well for koke fishing as they do for chasing steelies!

 

[Excaliber]

That's a great reel if you are going to use it for things other than just Kokes. IMHO is way overkill for just Kokes but it's a darn nice reel.

 

[skookum9]

I agree with the others here. I too have a 201 and just love it. I wouldn't trade down unless I wanted a dedicated, koke only reel. And even then I'd probably still choose the 201. I think the deciding factor for me though would be the fit and feel of the rod. If the 200 feels good, in balance and form, on your koke rod then by all means keep what you have.

 

[bertschb]

Thanks for your input guys. I'm going to keep the 200B for now. If I decide later it's too big, I'll just buy a 100B. BTW, I used it today for the first time and got some NASTY messed up line on the reel. I have to be VERY careful while letting the line out. I have to keep some resistance on the reel as the line feeds out. If I don't do that, I get a rats nest of line. That happened to me three times today. The first time I didn't know better and wasn't expecting it. The last two times I thought I was being careful but I guess not. Rookie mistake.

Also, I wish this reel had a clicker so I could hear if a fish was on. It's hard to drive the boat on a windy day and watch the lines at the same time.

Caught 5 Kokaneee though on my first try!

 

[SuperD]

I would imagine that your reel ha a casting tension knob that might put a little tension on the line while you release but you really need to thumb the spool all the time while you release.

 

[skookum9]

I think it lacks the clicker because it is considered to be more of a casting reel than a trolling reel. If you want a clicker then you will need to buy a reel that is meant primarily for trolling.
If you don't want the birds nest then as SuperD suggested simply tighten the freespool drag on the side. If yours is like my older one, then there are two different freespool drag mechanisims you can play with. I would recommend the screw knob one to cure your problem. You can always set it back to a lighter setting if you decide to make a cast with it later. I hope it works out for you.

 

[bertschb]

YES, there is a tension knob for the spool! I'm sure that will do the trick. Thanks again for your help. It's very frustrating being new to this stuff. I'm pretty well versed in a lot of different hobbies but fishing isn't one of them.

 

[Mark McWillis]

I use 50/51 size Calcuttas for Kokes.