Shimano Charter specials
 

Think of switching my trolling gear over the winter to Shimano Charter Specials. Anyone running them?

I have about 7 of them. I like them alot but if you are hooking into very large fish they don't seem to have enough drag, but I have boated fish up to 45" on them with no problem. We hooked into a fish about 2 years ago that even at full drag, strike was set at 20 lbs, the fish did not stop and almost spooled the reel before the line broke(40 lb mono).

Tfunny you say that as I currently run all 330 gtis and they have a lot less drag than a charter special. The charter specials have like 22lbs at strike vs the 330gti which only has like 16lbs at strike. I was going to spool with 50lb braid. I currently run 30lb diamond line on all my reels and have boated fish to 48" .

Considering I dont use near the spool capacity of the 330s I thought it would be a perfect reel given the smoothness of the reel, its high drag, higher gear ratio, cost etc.

I appreciate your feedback! :)

Does anyone know if the star drag version of the reel holds as much drag as the lever drag version? I can get a good deal on them.

nevermind, I was told that the charter special star drags are now called the tritons and they are not nearly as nice of a reel as the charter specials.

The drags on the charter specials, as with any lever drag reel, can be adjusted to whatever you want. I have my strike set at 50% of line strength (40 lb mono) so if a fish pulls coming up to the boat there is give. At full, the drag is approx 110% of line strength. I don't know what the total drag (lbs) ability is. Never checked, but even 20 lbs, I feel is a lot for most fish in the bay. I like the lever drags because the ability to adjust the drags and knowing what stress you are putting on the line without guessing.

Paul

when I update, I will go with the lever drags. Thanks for the feedback!

Greg, charter specials have always been lever drag. Tritons were the old heavier offshore reels.They still make a TLD star drag though.

Save the 330 gtis
 

Greg:
If you haven't already done so, consider upgrading the drags on your 330 gtis.

This modification makes a tremendous difference in the drag performance of this reel.

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=10.0