Baitcaster with ratchet

[nadders]

Hey fellas,

just wondering if anyone can draw on their experience and recommend a decent baitcaster with a ratchet, + thumb bar control?

i'm keen to get another bc to throw around medium sized lures for cod, flatties, jacks etc, line in the 15lb range, but i'd also like to be able to use it for some live baiting so the ratchet is key.

So far i'm leaning towards an abu? willing to spend about 150

[hairyweasel]

I reckon you've answered your own question.

[tomca]

I use a shakespeare caterva 6000 baitcaster with 16lb braid. Its used for trolling on the yak and livebaiting sharks in the river.

I picked it up on special at anaconda logan for about $50 last time they had a clearance. I pull the sides off and give it a good rinse and lube after every trip, and it hasn't dissapointed me yet

[Cowfish13]

Abu C4. See if you can get a sweden made one as well. It will never break

[Feral]

Dont know of any except medium size and up barrel ones. They are great for trolling! A Bit painful casting, heavy and slow in the spools.

[jeff f]

abu 5000c or 6000c the original barra and livebaiting reels

[planetfonz]

Cowfish13 wrote:

Abu C4. See if you can get a sweden made one as well. It will never break

yeah x 2

my abu's have lasted a long time with the ratchets never failing

funnily enough the one abu my mate purchased was a thumbcast 5600 (c3 i think) and the ratchet died after a year as it had a different ratchet system to the regular ones.

never would i buy a thumb-bar cast abu.

i bought 2 new abu 6000c's from a guy on ebay for $85 each about 6 months back. they'll last another 10 years. shop around and u should have some cash to spare from your 150

PS also dont ever buy anything ABU-BCX labelled - its abu's cheap sh%t line