Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
I've never been much of an equipment geek when it comes to my salt chuck fishing....I have two old British made knuckle busters that I got on eBay for $ 100 each. I'm going on almost two decades with these two reels so I think I've gotten my money's worth and I have zero plans of upgrading them
For gear fishing in rivers for steelhead and salmon I use the old tried and true Shimano Curados. They're over a decade old, I've lost count of how many fish I"ve caught on them so why upgrade those?
This past fall while fishing coho, however, I had a guy with a spinning reel clean my clock because he was tossing really light gear long distances where the fish were....my bait casting reel just could not get near the slot that was holding fish and I saw him get six fish to my one.
So I researched the new gear on the market to see if there was a bait casting reel that could cast like a spinning reel. I settled on the Shimano Metanium. It's more of a bass type reel but the idea of throwing a split shot 50 meters had my attention.
I ended up ordering one from Japan. When I opened the box I sucked in my breath...this is a very small reel !
So here's the report...once you dial them in it's the smoothest most effortless casting reel you will ever have in your hands.
I took two trips for winter steelhead. The first one was tail end of November. I hooked a sizable hatch buck in fast water. If I didn't chase the fish downstream, there was a good chance he would have gotten all my line....the downside of the Metanium I purchased is the line capacity is only 110 yards
So I just got back from the same river last night. Using nothing but a single split shot I hooked three fish....all on long casts....all with zero backlash on the cast. The Metanium is an engineering masterpiece
Yesterday I got skunked....I hiked into a canyon but the water was still too high to get at the fish. But fishing all day with a reel that sophisticated and so effortless to use makes a skunk so much easier to take
For gear fishing in rivers for steelhead and salmon I use the old tried and true Shimano Curados. They're over a decade old, I've lost count of how many fish I"ve caught on them so why upgrade those?
This past fall while fishing coho, however, I had a guy with a spinning reel clean my clock because he was tossing really light gear long distances where the fish were....my bait casting reel just could not get near the slot that was holding fish and I saw him get six fish to my one.
So I researched the new gear on the market to see if there was a bait casting reel that could cast like a spinning reel. I settled on the Shimano Metanium. It's more of a bass type reel but the idea of throwing a split shot 50 meters had my attention.
I ended up ordering one from Japan. When I opened the box I sucked in my breath...this is a very small reel !
So here's the report...once you dial them in it's the smoothest most effortless casting reel you will ever have in your hands.
I took two trips for winter steelhead. The first one was tail end of November. I hooked a sizable hatch buck in fast water. If I didn't chase the fish downstream, there was a good chance he would have gotten all my line....the downside of the Metanium I purchased is the line capacity is only 110 yards
So I just got back from the same river last night. Using nothing but a single split shot I hooked three fish....all on long casts....all with zero backlash on the cast. The Metanium is an engineering masterpiece
Yesterday I got skunked....I hiked into a canyon but the water was still too high to get at the fish. But fishing all day with a reel that sophisticated and so effortless to use makes a skunk so much easier to take
Last edited:
