[Salty]

I asked Shimano which one of their high-end baitcasters is best suited for coastal fishing. The reply e-mail is interesting.


Salty,



Hm, Chronarch, Core, or Calais? They all have their advantages and disadvantages. The Chronarch is probably the most reliable of the three but a little heavier. The Core is lighter but you have to baby it to prevent it from corroding. The Calais is super smooth and casts a country mile but the tolerances are so tight that if you wade with it you will have issues with contaminates/sand.

If I had to choose I would probably go with the Chronarch because weight isn't a big issue with me, it has a brass drive gear instead of the anodized aluminum (problematic) one in the Core, and I can wade with it and not worry about the grains of sand slowing the reel down.

The Core does not match up with the Calais. The Calais is smoother and more durable. The down side is that it weighs more, has more bearings that are susceptible to saltwater (potentially rusting), and the tolerances are very tight.

Honestly, if you fish from a boat or dock then the Calais is the way to go if you can afford it. But, if you plan on getting in the water and wading then it's not the reel you need.

I must say this, I haven't see one bit of frame corrosion on the Core. I have seen bad drive gears and corroded ratchet but the frames seem to be holding up for now. They haven't been out that long so only time will tell.

Saltwater and magnesium do not go well together. Shimano came out with the Chronarch 50MG in '05 and labeled it as "saltwater safe". There have been a lot of issues with that reel corroding. They originally thought that the protectant coating would prevent corrosion but it didn't. When they first started seeing problems they said that the coating was applied too thick on the first production run and it was chipping off causing the magnesium to be exposed to saltwater. So, with the great customer service that Shimano has they offered to replace it under warranty.


If you have any more questions just let me know.

-Matt