im a lews guy right now, but for years ive always seen people hype about shimanos, and i dont know why. i was wondering if i were to pick up a shimano for a decent price to see what the deal was. which series should i get. ive seen the 400$ reels and thats out of the question. any help is appreciated

Look at the curados and chronarchs. I have old models of both made in japan. Best reels I own hands down and mine are old and used and caught thousands of bass.

Side note the Tatula for about $100 are pretty hard to beat.

Love my curados!

Curado or chonarch.....I use mostly curados since I've started fishing. Tried some here and there but haven't found a reason to change. I am a big fan of them. If you in DFW i will let you borrow one if you would like

Curado or chronarch E series. I do not like the newer I series as well as the E models.

I have a ton of the I curado's and I have never had a problem with them. I will say their are a lot of people that do not like the latch system that lets you adjust the brakes.

The I series reels are noisy. My 5.5-1 gear ratio ones do not make noise but all of my 7-1's do and some of my 6-1 do. It is very annoying. Im ready to sell all of the I series I have.

im actually stationed in abilene. if only i was closer!

ive heard that the G series were junk. and from what im seeing the letter is just the "year models" that came out? ive always been confused why they have letters in the sereies. i think im leaning towards curados. just not wanting to pay a lot for a reel i dont know if ill like or not

and on the curados whats the difference between the 70's and 200's????

citica is my favorite for the price and you can do just about anything you want with it

Shimano B series (Greenies) they are called are bullet proof and considered a low profile reel. You can still find these for sale from time to time. Shimano gained a huge market share with these reels. They were dark green in color and then they came out with a Super free version that were lighter in color. Later they came out with the D series which were also good reels and in my opinion they were a little smoother than the B's. Next came the E series, very smooth but in a more streamlined profile. Then came the G series that were a total flop and other brands gained in market share at that time and Lews was one of them that came on strong.

These are Curado's im talking about. Shimano also makes higher end reels that are awesome, some for the US market as well as some slightly different for the Japan market.

Im not sure about the newer number 70 vs 200 but in the past a 50 was a smaller finesse type reel and the 100 or 200 was a larger more standard version.

The E series Curado came with a 5-1 or a 7-1 version. The Citica E was the 6-1 at that time.

I gotcha. Ive been seeing good things about the i series. And some guys are selling them on here fairly reasonably. So I'm thinkin about giving it a go. So are the 200s the standard size?

We just really got into bass fishing and with three bopys and myself good equipment has been a challenge to source without getting a divorce. With that being said I have a handful of the greenies 5 or 6 or so all bought used on this site and 3 Lews, absolutely love all of them. Southwest parts overhauled 2 of the greenies fwiw.

The Shimano Citica line for the money is about as good as you can get is what I am hearing from the guys I know that are in the know.

for what its worth.

I have 12+ of the older curados (greenie. they are between 20 to 25 years old and work very well still, just clean them once a year and ready to go.
you can still find them on ebay for a reasonable price.