Posts Tagged ‘Shimano Calcutta’

Fishing Leader Systems: An Introduction

June 16th, 2011 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Fishing Techniques

Many sports fishermen choose to make use of Fishing Leader Systems as their tool of preference. There is a unique reason to use every type of leader, depending on what you are fishing for. Whether you are a novice or a experienced veteran, acknowledging that leaders (the line attaching bait and mainline) are a valuable implement under certain circumstances will help you be better prepared to find out what leader is best suited to benefit your fishing trip.

Do I need Fishing Leader Systems ?

You may doubt whether or not a leader is actually needed.  Although it’s not required in every situation, a leader can assist with keeping your main line in one piece.  Not making use of a leader can result in a sheared line during a fight with an aggressive fish.

Using Fishing Leader Systems

If you are dealing with a species that is a bit line shy, a leader can be invaluable. Because leaders can be made from any type of line, for line-shy fish you’d be best served with a fluorocarbon leader.  The reason for fluorocarbon leaders is two fold – fish such as false albacore, bonito and mackerel have extremely good sight and they tend to also have great visual acuity.  If for any reason your bait looks at all out of the ordinary, these fish are simply going to by-pass it and move on to other areas.

The primary motivation for using fluorocarbon is clear: Fluorocarbon offers a minuscule amount of light refraction, a clever way of hiding the line from the fish.  A twenty-pound fluorocarbon leader is perfect, since the fish that you’d fish for using this kind of leader for have a tendency to average less than ten pounds. Seeing as these fish have a propensity for going after baitfish as their most important food source, a fluorocarbon leader can be the top tool to get the most out of your day’s haul.  For most favorable results, make certain that you use a lead between three and four feet in length.

Braided line admirers will discover that monofilament fishing leader systems are preferable. This kind of leader is less visible than a braided line and more flexible than a braided line.  Monofilament leaders suck up the shock of an aggressive fish, and are invaluable for those preferring the lighter graphite or fiberglass rods. A monofilament leader should be constructed with a bare minimum of three feet and a maximum of five feet in length to lend a hand with snagging a big fish on a small line.

Sports fisherman especially those who enjoy pike, barracuda, bluefish and muskellunge are fully aware of the oversized teeth these breeds sport.  Combine these teeth with their love of a fishing line and chances are that you’re preference would be a steel leader.  Steel leaders are crafted from twenty or thirty pound weight – and are highly visible.  For more aggressive fish like bluefish you’re safer with a forty to sixty pound weight and if barracuda is your preference you’re better of with something even heavier as a barracuda is likely to snap through a single strand of eighty pound leader as if it were regular line.  The lighter weight is ideal of pike and muskies (they have needle like teeth) and the heavier the better is ideal for bluefish and barracudas.

Do not make a judgment error and use the wrong type of Fishing Leader Systems for the fish you are hoping to land. The correct leader will just about always mean the difference between a victorious fishing expedition and a fruitless outing.   Keep in mind: the wrong leader can make the difference between a fish tale and having fish for dinner (or bragging rights).

There are a large number of great fishing reels out on the market today. Some are more popular than others. Some of the more popular reels include Daiwa BG90 and Shimano Calcutta Spinning.

In fact, many experienced fishermen have learned that it doesn’t hurt to bring a selection of Fishing Leader Systems in case the opportunity arises to make use of them.

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Striper Fishing With Live Bait

May 18th, 2011 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Fishing Techniques

Start Striper Fishing seriously in May

Striper Fishing is popular and you can catch big stripers up and down the East Coast each year, using a variety of methods and many kinds of Try striper fishing for striped basstackle. If you wish to take full advantage of your chances for a striped bass longer than 40 inches, then live bait on a 3-way rig is your best option. Standard baits in the New England region are eel, hickory shad, scup and menhaden, also called porgy or bunker. Live baits work well no matter the time of day or day of the week. Start Striper Fishing seriously in May, and you can keep on until ice becomes a problem on the boat’s deck in late November. Big bass over 60 pounds have been caught at night or during broad daylight.

How often can you honestly say that anyone strong enough – from a child to your grandmother – to land one of these monsters can have a great day Striper Fishing!  Some of the heaviest bass from 55 to 78 lbs have been caught in New England.  Valiant Rock, Sugar Reef, Plum Gut and the Sluiceway have all bragged about stripers in the weight range of 55-70 lbs while Al McReynolds landed a 78 lb striper at a jetty in New Jersey using a 3-way rig. The next big catch was made at Montauk Point and the proud fisherman that day was Captain Rod Rochetta who was also using a three-way rig.  These rigs have made Striper Fishing so simple that with a few pointers, anyone can land a great fish once you find out where they like to be.

If you think that a Striper Fishing three way rig is hard to fashion, think again, it’s actually quite simple.  The name explains it all – the starting point is a three way swivel, one from your main line, and two leader lines.  One of these lines is created from a dropper loop – simple enough to design, a loop to attach your sinker to which allows bounce during a running tide.  Experiment with weights – depending on the area you are fishing you can utilize as few as four ounces or as many as twenty.  The second line will be home to a fluorocarbon leader generally about five feet in length. Remember to balance out your line – decide if you’re looking for the unobtrusive approach or if you’re looking for a stronger approach. It’s not that difficult to find the right balance between the two.  Generally a fifty pound line is best for this leader as it offers exactly the right balance for most.  Depending on the weather, you might find that a thirty pound fluorocarbon line is best for Striper Fishing on a day that’s especially clear and you’re in clear water.

This Striper Fishing rig can get very expensive and this is one downside of it. However, you can control costs fairly simple to avoid turning this fun hobby into one that requires massive spending.  When you factor in the cost of Gemakatsu hooks, Seaguar Fluorocarbon line, and a three way Spro Swivel, you can soon find your costs mounting up.  But, if you set your rig up so that your main line is your heaviest (55 lbs is ideal), your leader line is heavy (around 50 lbs) and your dropper loop is your lightest (30 lbs is preferred) you can cut down the cost of losses by merely snapping the dropper loop losing only your sinker.  The bottom line is that the sinker is the least expensive item on your rig and is the easiest to replace cost-wise.

For Striper Fishing main line, use naught but braided line. Using braided line has a few distinct benefits for this application. One is that its smaller diameter offers less resistance against a moving tide, letting you use less weight to keep the bait in the strike zone. Possibly an even bigger advantage is that braided lines offer minimal line stretch. With monofilament, you can typically expect up to 10% line stretch. With almost no stretch with braid, you can feel everything that is going on, and you get excellent hook sets. You can plainly tell if you are fishing over a sand bottom, mussel bed, or boulders as a result of the line’s sensitivity. There are many effective brands available, such as Fireline, Stren, Daiwa, and Power Pro. The definite advantage that Daiwa has is that the braid is weaved from eight strands, while many others use four. Most braids feel as though you have to break them in before they are useful, but Daiwa is a very limp and smooth line.

There are many reels on the market which are great for Striper Fishing, some of the more popular ones include; Shimano Calcutta Fishing Reels and BG90.

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Shimano Calais DC

March 4th, 2010 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Low Profile Baitcasting Reels

Calais DC

Shimano Calais DC

The world’s first digital low profile baitcaster, the Shimano Calais DC.

Shimano has proven itself time and time again when it comes to sophisticated engineering. In terms of technology they showed just how far advanced they were with the introduction of the Calcutta TE DC. Since then we’ve all known it was just a matter of time before the technology made its way into a low profile baitcaster.
Shimano proves yet again that when it comes to unifying technology and innovation into reel design they lead the pack.
What I like best about the Shimano Calais DC is that Shimano didn’t simply port the Calcutta’s digital circuit into the Calais 200.
Instead they built a next generation circuit that directly addresses the applications that a serious baitcast reel would address.
The multi-modes available in the Shimano Calais DC do a great job covering the spectrum, and the ability to further fine tune the settings in each of the four modes gives anglers unprecedented control over their casting.

Shimano didn’t stop there…they also addressed the raw mechanics of the Calais DC series and made some serious performance enhancing tweaks. Improvements like the Magnumlite spool and tapered titanium levelwind insert also help maximize casting distance. Some anglers will find it strange that the Shimano Calais DC is actually a great baitcaster for beginners as the “Wind” mode all but eliminates everyday backlashes.
On the other side the “X-Treme” and “Accuracy” mode give experienced anglers the ability to cast farther or with more precision.
The design elements on the Shimano Calais DC are striking, and I absolutely love the cast control knob and ported star drag star.
The flagship Shimano Calais DC is the first domestic reel to ever win the TackleTour “Ultimate Enthusiast” Award, and while
Shimano’s primary goal is to build the best reels possible, there is no doubt in my mind that the Shimano Calais DC is the first domestic reel from the company that addresses the enthusiast tackle segment head on.
Now that Shimano has integrated the digital circuit into a baitcaster where is there to go from here? We for one would love to see an ultralight DC reel, perhaps a magnesium based Chronarch DC…or possibly even a new series?
The sky is the limit with this new technology, who knows, with reels as elite as these dads might just pass down a self charging Shimano Calais DC instead of that Rolex.

X Mode: (Extreme Distance)

When it comes to sheer distance the X-Mode will get your lure going the absolute farthest. This mode is designed only for optimal conditions and the curve does a good job casting heavy metal lures with low wind resistance like jigs and spoons. This mode is ideal for casting competitions and surf casting but not recommended for normal fishing situations. In this mode brake settings lower than X-4 should really only be used by expert casters in
absolutely perfect conditions.

L Mode: (Long Distance)

L-Mode is most similar to the original Calcutta TE DC’s system, and is designed to control backlashes immediately upon releasing the bait and analyzes spool rotation during the middle portion of the cast. This setting is great for a wide range of baits, and will serve bassmen well. It provides more control than a VBS equipped reel and adds distance to each and every cast. L-Mode is all about fewer backlashes, less effort and overall longer casting
distances.

A Mode: (Accuracy)

A-Mode does not utilize compensation braking like X & L modes. Instead, it continues to brake during all portions of the cast. This is the strongest braking mode and is designed to prevent overruns by reducing spool rotation immediately after the cast and tcontinuing to add tension after the middle stage of the cast. This mode is basically what the old circuit was lacking and is ideal for accuraccasting styles like pitching and skipping

W Mode: (Wind Mode)

This mode is designed to combat the elements. When wind hits it slows down the lure, not the spool…causing backlashes. This mode actively prevents these types of backlashes by constantly updating the amount of brake force depending on how the lure acts in the wind. This mode is ideal for striper fishing, when lures with a fixed center of gravity are used (crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, or any lure that does not cut through the air).

The W mode analyzes spool speed and adjusts the amount of braking force to ensure that the spool is spinning just fast enough to allow line to keep up with the lure but not surpass it causing a backlash.

Shimano Calais DC Specifications

Line Capacity (lb/yds) 10/130, 12/120, 16/100

Gear Ratio 7.0:1

Line retrieve per crank 31 inches

Weight 9.5 oz

Bearings 10BB, 1RB

Shimano Calais DC Additional Features

4×8 Digital control, S-ARB bearings, Magnumlite spool, HEG gearing, tapered levelwind insert, greaseless spool support bearings, super stopper, assist stopper, escape hatch, septon power grips, dartanium drag, clicking drag adjustment, metal plated finish, asymmetrical spool window, all aluminum construction

Construction/Quality
This is as good as it gets. The Shimano Calais DC surpassed our expectations when it comes to build quality. It felt as if we were looking at a true enthusiast reel…and we love the fact it is available here in the US! The quality of the reel is just superb

Performance
If casting and retrieving is your game, technically flawless. If you’re looking to present finesse baits the Accuracy mode is just a tad aggressive for our tastes

Design (Ergonomics)
The only area where the Calais DC falls short in ergonomics is sheer overall weight. This reel is somewhat heavy, but in terms of operation the reel is cleverly designed and easy to fish with. The little details are phenomenal throughout

Application
The  Shimano Calais DC low profile baitcaster can be used in both fresh and saltwater and is built to last a lifetime. Best used for topwater, jerkbaits, and power fishing applications…but good to know that the Shimano Calais DC can be also employed for some serious surf casting

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