Okuma Convector CV45 L.
Written: Feb 10 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A good price. Looks the business.
Cons: Has failed on me after very limited usage.
The Bottom Line: Maybe a good downrigger reel, but I have questions about it's hardiness, and also it's line capacity rating!
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| cruzion's Full Review: Okuma Convector Line-Counter Downrigger System CN-... |
I bought this relatively inexspensive reel to go with a 30-40lb test stand up rod I had sitting around. I wasn't going to use it as a downrigger, as my boat isn't big enough to be taken out to blue water. I live in south Texas, and it is flats for miles. You have to travel a fair distance to get to deep water.
My main uses for this reel, was to put it out as a shark set-up, while I was beach-casting. On calm days, we would take the kayak out, and drop it past the 3rd bar, and just leave it. There is also a deep water channel near here (44ft) that I would use it at, for big drum and reds or cravelle. If we didn't have the kayak, I would wade out and lob it. Being a downrigger, you can't really cast this thing. My particular model does not have the line counter on it.
I've never caught anything of the size that it is intended for on it. Small drum, croakers and hardheads. The handle feels nice when cranking,and it performed smooth, even though it is only 3 ball bearings, but I wish I could have tested it under a heavy load(gears have a 4:0:1 ratio).
This was a very occasional rod/reel combo I used. I mainly use 10ft Tsunamis with Abu Garcia Ambassaduers, which handle pretty much everything on their own. Even saying that, with it's limited use, this reel has broken. Now when i reel in, it slips a quarter to half a crank. Not good. I haven't bothered to open it up yet to see what is going on, so I have no idea how fixable the problem is, but that'a a bad sign for owning the reel 1 year, and very limited use. It seems the more pressure i put onto the line, the more the gears slip when I crank. I would have been upset if this had of happened with a big kingfish or jack crevelle on it!
As I've said, I'm not using it in the application it was designed for, which is trolling or straight-down deep water fishing, so I can only asume it's a very bad thing to try and lob with this reel.
The spool looks huge, especially in comparison to my Ambassaduers, but this is deceptive. I spooled it up with 30lb Yozuri Hybrid, and was dissapointed with the amount of line it took. I could have switched to 20lb, which would have given me enough line to not get spooled by a runner, but at the exsense of losing a third of the backbone needed to turn such a fish. The box rates this reel for 320 yards of 30lb test. I achieved no where near this margin. I would say about half that is nearer the mark. The obvious option would be to spool up with a 30lb braid, which is a fairly exspensive option in itself, when you consider the thickness of braided line, I would need at least 300 yards, but more like 500 yards to fill this reel. So on average, braid is around $25 for 300 yards, or around $60 for a 1000 yard spool. When you factor that cost in, this reel gets a lot pricier!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
cruzion
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Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 0 members
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