Shimano Calcutta 700S

If thats the biggest calcutta, then on 2cool, i saw a pic of some guy fighting big sows with a calcutta, for kings, I would say maybe, only because they are fast fish, reds sure, might be a lil heavy, put some 40# spectra on there.

 

the calcutta 700's are nice snapper reels and will work for kingfish. the only problem with fishing them for snappers is that when bottom fishing your in grouper territory and they don't have the drag system to handle getting larger groupers out of structure. as you know the 700s doesn't have a levelwind so it will do just fine when a smoker kingfish makes its run. i have never had a level wind fail on the calcutta's but it is only something else that could go wrong with a nice fish on.

i will be going out of port fourchon from the 15-19 of feb. i am sure that we will be fishing the same area as most of the obats out of venice that time of year. we are hauling a boat over and don't mind the run from fourchon if the seas are right. post up more when the time nears and maybe we can visit while sitting on the lump.

i am fishing out of venice the 18-21 of january and if the conditions over there have improved enough we might do venice in february instead of port fouchon.....rick

 

I have a 700 for casting topwaters or freelined sardines, primarily at kings. I love it. Loaded with 20# mono on a 7' kingfish rod. It is a blast to fish with, but I don't use it too much on the party boats for obvious reasons.

 

I have caught kings to 36lbs on bass tackle!!!!(could catch bigger but the monsters havent hit my bass rods yet) A curado can handle a king! That 700 will smoke a king, ling, red, crevelle, and even the snap you mention. The only problem would be if you hooked into something big on the bottom as Rick said, then you would have a problem!! The 700 has a large line capacity and a decent drag, it would take a record king to rape that reel of line.
As far as a rod goes, I put mine on a Heavy trevala and have used this rig pretty often for jigging or bottom dropping for snaps. A few months ago I had a buddy land a 6-7ft bull shark on this setup. The setup mentioned above will be very light and can be fished for long periods of time. There are times when I wish I had a little more backbone but this combo has done me well in the situations that I have used it.

 

I own a bunch of 700s. Great reels for all inshore fishing. I bought rods made by penn that are no longer available. They have a slick butt with gimble and a line rating from 17 to 30 pounds. It was called designed by Workman and has aftco light roller guides throughout. I believe they were called Penn Kingfish series by Dave Workman. Keep an eye out on ebay for them. They are a perfect match for the 700s. Just fill it with 20# Big Game mono and there is nothing within 35 miles offshore that will strip it.