Hey All, I'm new to this forum and am looking for feedback(good,bad,ugly) on the cabo 80 reel. I fish in the northeast U.S. off the coast of Maine, I mainly fish for stripers and blues but also get offshore to chase BFT's. I love tossing poppers at em' when they are all blitzed up on the surface. Right now I have some stella 8000/10000/20000 FA reels and know that these reels are up to the task. I'm just wondering about the cabo 80. I picked one up off ebay last night for $135.00 ( came in as a sniper at the end, hope I didnt outbid anyone reading this) Is this reel suitable for heavy duty use???
i was wondering the same thing. i wanted to use the 60 or 70 for tossing poppers and lures to cobia. i havent been able to play with one, eccept at kittery trading post last year. i would love to hear some reviews or testimonials.
Hey Andrew, The results I have gotten on this reel from various forums has been mixed, depending on who you ask and what part of the world they are from. Some guys love these reels some guys wouldnt give them the time of day. i purshased one a couple weeks ago for a friend gave it a good inspection and thought that this reel had great potential despite hearing numerous criticism's. I am not one to base my actions on the opinions of others, although I do welcome the input, I decided to purchase a cabo 80 to test for myself. The price on these reels is a definite attraction when compared to the stellas, saltigas, van staals. My thoughts are that if you use a piece of tackle within its limitations and care for it properly you shouldn't have any issues with it. My goal is to find out what the limitations of the Cabo 80 are.
I got to fish one back in Sept 06' on the TBB 06' trip and it was up to the pair of ~60lb YFT on poppers. The drag was smooth up to the 20lbs I put to it and there was more behind it, but that is all I used. It was spooled with 65lb braid and handled well. It will do well on a 50-60lb 7' spinning rod.
On the subject of rods, which heavy spinner do you like. I had a few cape fear tortuga 30-60 class rods that I sold because I didnt want to have to deal with any warranty issues with a belly up company. they were pretty sweet rods though
