The New Shimano Caenan!

Introducing, the all new Shimano Caenan Casting Reel! All I can say is “WOW!” Ok, that’s not ALL I can say but you will understand what I am getting at! If you are a fisherman, you can and will, say the same thing when you try this reel out! First let me say that I am a HUGE Shimano fan, and no I do not get paid to say that!  I have fished with many reels in my 42 years of fishing and Shimano, in my opinion, makes one of the best reels you can buy for less than $200 and now this new Shimano Caenan is out at less than $100! I’m all in! Now before you ask, I have been using this reel for a little bit now and have put it on some strong fish to test it out. One thing I can tell you is if you have any doubts as to whether you have a good quality reel for inshore bay fishing, go put it on some 25-30 plus inch red fish! You will find out in a hurry just what you have! Don’t have access to salt water? Go after a largemouth bass! Both of these fish can pull like no tomorrow!

 One of the things that also sold me on this reel is it’s ability to handle braided line. “What does that mean” you ask? "Can’t you put braided line on any reel?" As a matter of fact, yes, you can put braided line on any reel you wish. You can also put alcohol in your gas tank and transmission fluid in your power steering pump!

I bought these reels at the George R Brown Fishing Show and actually got to talk to someone that knew what he was talking about and took the time to better explain some things to me about this. I asked the sales rep “what makes this reels ability to handle braided line any better than the Curado or any other reel for that matter?” He took the time and showed me. He took out a reel that runs $3-$400 and sat it next to the Caenan. Very similar in size and weight, both held the same amount of line, only the spool itself was different. On most reels that are designed to use and be able to handle braided line, the spool is solid, not whiffled like the Caenan and a lot of other reels. By ‘whiffled’, I am talking about the spool with holes in it. The higher end reels have solid spools because they have brass bearings in them and cannot handle getting wet and the brass handles the heat better. The Caenan has stainless bearings and can handle the stress and heat and also resist the eliments! Now, this does not mean that you do not have to rinse the reels after use, you should do that with ANY reel that you fish with!

 “Why go through all of this just to use braided line?” I only use braided line on my Bass equipment. I have friends that use it in salt water with shock leaders but I prefer mono. “What’s the difference?” you ask. First and foremost, the fish’s ability to see the line, second, the structure I will be fishing around and third, the sensitivity. When fishing for Bass, most of the time I am throwing a weightless superfluke. If you read my article “Choosing the RIGHT artificial Lure”, you would probably guess that! When using this bait, I throw it into forbidden territory! Places where you think to yourself “even if I get a bite in there, how am I gonna get him out?” A wise man once told me “you get the fish on, then we’ll worry about getting her out”.  Words to live by! Since then, I have drug fish through some pretty thick stuff! This way of fishing cannot be done with monofilament line! I repeat, “This way of fishing will NOT work with monofilament!” There is no worse feeling than to set the hook into a fish that you KNOW is a HOSS, only to have your line break from the friction on a tree branch that is down in the water!

So now you know the reason for my interest in the use of braided line, “what gives a reel the ability to handle braided line?”  When using mono, you will more than likely have the drag set on your reel so that when a fish pulls hard enough, he will pull line out instead of breaking the line. This is fine for a fish that is in open water! Fish like a Largemouth Bass head for cover, if not already in it! They will rub their face against anything they can find to try and get your hook out of their mouth. This will cut mono every time and you will be ‘that guy’ at the boat ramp talking about the one that got away! When using braided line, you can stop this by tightening the drag so that the fish cannot pull your line into these areas. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the reel!

Now, I told you all of that to tell you this, “that is what separates the Big Dogs from the little ones when it comes to fishing reels!” The ability to handle the pressure of a ‘tug-o-war’ between man and fish! This new Shimano Caenan can take the pressure! Some reviews have labeled the Caenan as “A workhorse of a reel!”

If you fish with high end bait cast reels, you will be familiar with some of these reel features:

• Backlash-preventing VBS casting system
• Smooth, six-bearing drive
• Shielded, stainless steel ball bearings
• Lightweight, high-strength aluminum Low-Mass® spool
• Super Stopper roller bearing

The new Shimano Caenan, in my book, is a Keeper! Go try one out and see!