Calcutta/Luna/Record Casting Reels - Trying to Decide

[Hammer]

Congrats Kpeace. Should be agood reel for you. Sorry about the late reply.

The drag on the luna will be more than enough for most saltwater species. (unless your targetting large sharks, mackeral and marlin )

[kpeace]

Had a great time fishing in the St Pete/Clearwater area. The bait fish were all over the place so plenty of fish around. We got skunked on the snook but did catch a puppy drum/red fish with the luna. Drag kicked in very briefly as it was only about a 4 pounder but it performed well. Tasty fish. We were going out at night and the tide was not right for snook as the water was moving slowly and was low. That's my excuse anyway.

Only gripe with the reel is that it does not have a non-disengaging levelwind on the cast. Seems to take off a little distance but overall, I like the reel a lot. I still want to catch something larger with it at some point......

Using my buddy's boat rods and reels plus my Daiwa slosh 30, we caught 2 king mackeral, spanish were very thick but were trolling for kings so we only caught 5 of those with a small a spoon, a 5-6 foot black tip shark which was very fun to fight. Also went bottom fishing about 30 miles out and caught about 5 undersized grouper 16-18 inches. Good times were had.

That is about it on the Luna......hopefully, I'll be getting some more bass pro bucks so I can buy more equipment.

Peace Out

[manasota]

You'd better check out a Quantum Cabo PT-CBC30 instead. Spool it up with 300 yds. of Power Pro and you can go after some of the tarpon at the Skyway Bridge. Don't try it with any of the reels you mentioned or they will smoke that sucker. Match it up with a 7' MH Cabo rod and you can go after anything that swims in those waters. Except maybe the 14' hammerheads that munch those tarpon like minnows. The Quantum has better saltwater protection and a ceramic drag as well as an unbelievable warranty against corrosion.

Oops, looks like I'm too late. I see you've already bought. Well, like I always say, you learn from your mistakes!

[BARRAMANIAC]

the 300 size luna has the non disengaging levelwind and a ratchet. bit hard to beat the abu`s for value for money though.

[kpeace]

I picked the Luna 253 since I am land locked and wanted something that I could use in both freshwater for bassin' and saltwater for inshore/light species. It's a tweener reel that I can use a lot. If I lived closer to the ocean, would have probably went for the 300 or another heavier type reel.

It is now my favorite piece of fishing equipment......hope to use it for many, many years.

Thanks all.

[manasota]

I picked the Luna 253 since I am land locked and wanted something that I could use in both freshwater for bassin' and saltwater for inshore/light species. It's a tweener reel that I can use a lot. If I lived closer to the ocean, would have probably went for the 300 or another heavier type reel.

It is now my favorite piece of fishing equipment......hope to use it for many, many years.

Thanks all.

I think the Cabo might actually be a tad smaller than the Luna.