Snagly
02-03-2001, 02:51 AM
Stopped by the Shimano Singapore agent today and saw three things that were new:
1. There's a plastic, upsized and cheapened Chronarch for sale at $65. I was told that the traditional Chronarch wasn't made any more. I'm not certain that that's necessarily true -- a glance at the Cabela's or Bass Pro 2001 catalogs (neither of which has arrived by steamer yet here) will probably refute this.
I'm amazed that Shimano would take a quality reel and brand name and slap it on a lower-end reel.
2. The "real" Chronarch replacement is the Metanium Scorpion MG with a magnesium "wiffle" (holed) spool, and the price is X-rated ($250+). I happened to own a predecessor reel of this type and my experience is that (a) it casts a good 20% farther than the standard Chronarch; (b) the mag spool has zero tolerance for saltwater (Shimano actually writes in the accompanying literature that it's for fresh water only, but the fellow who sold it to me didn't mention this detail!); (c) other wise it is identical to the aluminum Chronarch. (I'm not certain if the MG version has a magnesium casing -- my model is aluminum.)
3. There's a new family of Calcutta's out with perforated cases, outsized handles and wiffle spools. Called the "Conquest", I picked up a C200 version. Has 6.2x gearing but from memory that's pretty much what the C200/ C250 have in any event. The asking price was $300 or so. Can't imagine how one of these could be worth two ordinary Calcutta's.
Anyway, these reels may already be for sale in your neck of the woods and well known to you. If so, let me know what works and what doesn't. We gear junkies have to stick together!
1. There's a plastic, upsized and cheapened Chronarch for sale at $65. I was told that the traditional Chronarch wasn't made any more. I'm not certain that that's necessarily true -- a glance at the Cabela's or Bass Pro 2001 catalogs (neither of which has arrived by steamer yet here) will probably refute this.
I'm amazed that Shimano would take a quality reel and brand name and slap it on a lower-end reel.
2. The "real" Chronarch replacement is the Metanium Scorpion MG with a magnesium "wiffle" (holed) spool, and the price is X-rated ($250+). I happened to own a predecessor reel of this type and my experience is that (a) it casts a good 20% farther than the standard Chronarch; (b) the mag spool has zero tolerance for saltwater (Shimano actually writes in the accompanying literature that it's for fresh water only, but the fellow who sold it to me didn't mention this detail!); (c) other wise it is identical to the aluminum Chronarch. (I'm not certain if the MG version has a magnesium casing -- my model is aluminum.)
3. There's a new family of Calcutta's out with perforated cases, outsized handles and wiffle spools. Called the "Conquest", I picked up a C200 version. Has 6.2x gearing but from memory that's pretty much what the C200/ C250 have in any event. The asking price was $300 or so. Can't imagine how one of these could be worth two ordinary Calcutta's.
Anyway, these reels may already be for sale in your neck of the woods and well known to you. If so, let me know what works and what doesn't. We gear junkies have to stick together!