I was really keen on buying a Curado 201E. Just my luck that my transaction was denied on a black November Sale. No matter! I’ll get a better one. A pal, Razvan, keeps insisting that I take a look at the Abu MGX, because he has read only good things about it.

I search the Internet for the next 2 days, and I finally get the feeling this is what I want on my lighter than air custom Kistler LTX 2 rod. It’s the lightest reel ever, weighing in a hammering 154g, and winner of ICAST Best Freshwater Reel.

I didn’t think too much about it, and placed the order. I am a lefty and luckily I’ve found a lefty for myself. I was desperate to have it. Lighter than a Steez, cheaper than the Steez, I was beyond inpatient. I opted for the 7.1:1 gear ratio. I know it had a smaller diameter spool, but 7.9:1 just sounded too fast, even if it was comparable to the regular reels that had 7.1-7.3 gear ratio’s. Mine would recup about 72cm/handle turn. I’ll be using it especially for fishing plastics, and spinnerbaits.

Two weeks passed and I finally got it. The “magic” black box that has “Abu Garcia For Life” written all over it. I hope not to fall into Abu’s trap, with the “For Life” thing. I kinda love diversity.

First impression (Design/Feel): As light as a feather. Matte black – I love it! Man this reel is light…crazy light! I’m just checking the weight of the reel, to see if I’ve got what I was promised. And what do you know? That’s exactly what I got, but half a gram lighter (not that it would make a difference). A 153.5 g reel.

Abu MGX - 153.5g

The detailing is impeccable. It is very smooth, considering it had oil “leaking” of all it’s pores. It was over greased, but that was an easily solvable problem. It was very smooth, especially due to the 9+1 bearings.

Abu Garcia's Logo - on the tension knob

I’m tightening the brake up… it works. More than that, it’s a clicking drag star. As on any other respectable reel. The tension knob, the same: clicking tension knob. With all these features you might wonder where did they shave all of that weight from, considering the extras.

The reel, as small as it is, is very comfortable, easily palmable. I’m already ecstatic. And I’m just 10 minutes into observing the reel, maybe even less.

Now lets take a look at the adjustable centrifugal brake – Infinitely Variable Centrifugal Brake System (IVCB-IV). It’s the first exterior adjustable variable braking system I’ve seen and used so far. The interesting thing about it is that the brake blocks act vertically instead of horizontally , as in the rest of the centrifugal braking system that other competitors use.

Abu MGX - Externally adjustable centrifugal brake

The carbon handle is equipped with EVA knobs, which seem more comfortable than the Shimano or Daiwa knobs so far. The handle is a swept design, which is a plus in what looks matter, at least from my point of view. Some still prefer the straight handle over the swept one.

Inside the Abu MGX (Gears and Durability): If anyone thought I might be sitting and observing this reel any longer, they might rethink it. I’ve had to open it up, degrease it, and regrease it. The worm gear seems to be DurAl, with a hard protective coating. The main gear seems to be made out of some sort of brass alloy. Seems to be the same material used in the legendary Abu Morrum’s.

MGX's Gears

The plastic support for the worm gear has a metal reinforcement, unlike what I've seen in other reels.

The brake disks seem to be some sort of carbon material, which Abu calls Carbon Matrix Drag System. It’s utilized in all of Abu’s Revo reels.

Only one washer in this reel

The spool weighs in at an impressive 11g, bearing included. Impressive, considering the Daiwa Sol’s spool weighs in at 16g. I’m already starting to wonder how it does, casting wise. I doubt it’ll cast better than the Curado 51E, but I like imagining me casting it a country mile:). I bet it’ll be much more controllable than the Sol, and probably about the same as the Curado.

Really light spool!

With all its guts out, I forgot to mention that only the frame is made out of actual metal. It’s made out of the X-MAG Alloy, proprietary to Abu, while both side plates are C6 Infused Carbon, which I guess is about the same material as the Zaion from Daiwa or the Ci4 from Shimano. This is where it probably shove most of the weight off. The reel seems sturdy, and doesn’t have the airy feel, you’d expect from this reel. Let me tell you an advantage you haven’t thought about for the C6 carbon side plates. Let’s just say that during winter months this reel is the most comfortable of them all. It won’t absorb the heat out of your palm as a metal reel would.
E.g.: I was fishing the reel without gloves, while Razvan was fishing both Abu Morrum and Daiwa Zillion with gloves . I bet you haven’t thought about it this way.

To much grease - and the trigger mechanism has more plastic than you'd probably want in a reel. This is what happens when you need to shave weight and $$ of...

The trigger mechanism is mostly plastic, and a few key parts made out of metal. It seems to do the job for now, but we’ll have to see how it does in the long run.

If you’d expect a Japan made reel, than you’re definitely mistaking. The reel is actually made in Korea. I’ve seen a lot of very well made reels in Korea, and with the right supervision, some might even surpass Made in Japan quality.

Made in Korea sticker

Almost forgot to mention that it has an oiling trap door, that permits lubrication to the gears, if you don’t like to open the reel up to often.

Under the 7.1:1 gear ratio inscription, notice the trap door for lubrication

Retrieve: Considering the whooping 153g it has, I’m testing the lightest reel on the planet. You’d expect it to feel a bit on the geary, or airy side… You should feel it’s something different, than a entirely metal reel, but it doesn’t feel that different, except the weight.

It’s very smooth. You don’t get the geary feeling, while it feels a bit aerated at times. The smoothness comes from all the bearings, and from the 4 bearings supported knobs (2 per knob). I’ve fished it with almost everything, except deep cranks. It handles the heat without any problems, and still feels as smooth as when I’ve bought it.

2 bearings / handle knob = silky smooth reel

The funny thing about it being so light: for e.g. I was fishing spinnerbaits for pike the first time, and because of it being so light, and the C6 Carbon side plates, I get the feeling it acts as resonance chamber that amplifies the vibrations transmitted thru the line and rod. I mean that the entire reel acts as a resonance chamber. Until I actually got the feel of it I thought something was crooked, thinking it couldn’t handle the pressure, but what I was actually feeling was the vibration of the spinnerbait in the reel, which is an entirely new feeling, at least for me it is. I have no other reel that amplifies the vibrations from the lure. To feel what’s happening at the end of the line both in the rod and the reel needs some getting used to. It takes sensitivity  (at least when fishing spinnerbaits) to a whole new level. You need to get used to it, in a good way…

The 7.1:1 gear ratio feels as powerful as the Curado 51E, but much smoother than the Curado, and very little back-play in the spool/overall, compared to the Curado (when you lock everything down).

7.1:1 Gear ratio - is just about perfect.

After fishing it for a few months, it still feels silky smooth, and even smoother then when I bought it, after changing the spool bearings to Boca. Who would’ve thought that changing the spool bearings would make the entire reel feel smoother.

Line lay: The reel lays the line well, and evenly, so there’s no issue in this department.

Casting: As I’ve said earlier, I’d pair the MGX with my Custom Kistler LTX2 rod. The entire combo weighs in at 260g (9.17oz.), with the line aded to the reel, less than a Shimano Calais DC reel . The entire combo is lighter than you’d expect. Everyone who had it in their hands couldn’t just stop praising it.

Casting it with the 4 brake blocks was a breeze. Such a breeze, that after the first fishing game, I had to remove 2 of them to see how much further I could cast. Of course you can cast it further, but you won’t be able to set the brake to the minimum setting after this operation. I’ve casted everything with it, from 4″ fluke’s (Fin’s Shad – from Lunker City), rattle traps, and swim baits without a hitch. It casts just perfect, everything you throw at it.

I removed 2 brake blocks - notice the line lay as well....

Small bass are very hard to come by these days

I’ve went the extra mile and changed the spool bearings with ABEC 7, Orange Seal Boca’s. If the reel already was smooth to start with, now it’s in the ultra silky smooth league. It casts better, and further. Pitching is a also a breeze with this reel, while, skipping, with 2 braking blocks removed seems to be a bit harder to do, not to say… very difficult . It was doing well with all the 4 braking blocks, if it matters. If you want to do skipping with the reel, I’d advise not to remove any of the braking blocks.

First day out with the Revo MGX

Compared to the Curado 51E, it doesn’t cast as well, but close enough. The Curado is in a class of it’s own when it comes to casting.

Brake: The Carbon Matrix seems to do a very good job. It’s much more powerful than a Curado, Sol, Zillion or a Fuego. It can handle really good pressure. I haven’t fished it with 60lb test braid to see how much it can take, but it’s definitely much powerful than the above. You have to clean the brake washers, and regrease them for your liking to get it consistent. When I bought it… I had to jerk the line to get it rolling out at a constant pressure. Now it can handle 5.7kg of pressure, if you really tighten it up, that’s the equivalent to 12.5lb, a tad more than advertised.

Conclusion: This is a reel I’ll definitely keep for a long time. It’s not casting as well as the Curado, but not one reel I’ve had so far is. It’s light as a feather. It has lots of backbone, and is silky smooth. What more do you want from a reel?

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →

I used to be a Daiwa extremist… saying: “Ahh! Shimano is a bike manufacturer !” But with all the hipe going on around the Shimano Curado, launched at ICAST last year, I just couldn’t resist. The movies, the pictures, all the great feedback, at a lower than 200$ price range, was more than enough to convince me. I was actually thinking about the JDM version of Curado, the improved, Scorpion 1001XT, but after analyzing in detail both models, I actually had to have the small sleek Curado E51 (you got me… I’m a lefty). I had to know what it punched at 199.99$, even though I got it cheaper . Of course I wanted a faster “finesse” reel than my actual Sol, which in many cases seemed to be slugish, especially when pooling fish out of dense structures.

I even had parts ordered from Mudhole and Matagi for a rod, with the special purpose to match it with the reels color.

Design: The shape of the Curado is actually the exact same as the Core 51, and the Scorpion 1001XT, with the gearing sitting as low as possible, to get the reel profile height from the reel seat as low as it can actually go. I’m not that excited with the greenish color, but can overlook that in the end. It’s a color that really doesn’t match with almost anything out there in the rod industry, and I’d rather not have a rod specially designed (colorwise) for a certain reel, even though it’s a lot of fun.

I personally think a black handle would’ve made the reel look more appealing, but does that matter in the end?

The clutch takes about 1 minute to get used to, if you're a Daiwa fan

The reel is also equipped with a clicking star-drag, that in this case is graphite. I really don’t worry about it’s durability, but would, as well as many, prefer something that felt more solid.

Feel: First impression sometimes count. The Curado as it turned out didn’t feel that sleek right out of the box. It didn’t feel as smoth-going as I thought it would feel, but this is a problem that got easily solved as soon as I’ve opened the reel up. The handle had a little bit of backplay, but after a good tightening (don’t be afraid to tighten it up a knotch) of the handle screw it got from some backplay to none.

Notice how low it is on the reel seat... really confortable

As far as ergonomics go I’ve heard some people complain about the extrusion, that lets the spool side plate spin whenever you open it. It seems to incomodate some fishermen when fishing this reel. I couldn’t understand how, as my hand doesn’t touch that part at all, but than again, this might be because I’m a lefty, and don’t swipe the rod from a hand to another when casting. It seemed very confy for me. The Sol feels more comfortable though, but the Curado certainly is more robust.

Inside gears & durability: We’ve opened the reel up so you can see for yourself what you get from a under 200$ Japan made reel. Check out the video below:

I especially feel confident about the brass gearing, and would take any day of the year brass over any other light alloy in much lighter reels. What I must mention is it only has 1 SA-RB and 1 A-RB, and the rest are stainless steel, one of the reasons it’s so cost effective. That won’t be a big problem as long as you don’t do a lot of saltwater or brackish water fishing. I clean my reels thoroughly once a year, and other than that I just clean and lube my spool bearings for the rest of the year. It seems to do the trick, as I’ve seen no problems with my gear bearings after more than 9 months. If I ever see some rust going on inside there, I’ll go ahead and order a full set of corrosion resistant ball bearings, but I guess that will never happen.

All bearings are sealed in such a manner that you won’t be able to remove the shields in order to clean them thoroughly, unlike Daiwa’s bearings for e.g.

The frame, like the spool are aluminum, while the sideplates are graphite. That doesn’t seem to cause any problems, and it feels as sturdy today as it did when I first fished it.

The frame is extreamly light... and until now very durable.

I’ve burned, slow jigged, and even used the reel for crankbait and spinnerbait fishing during the last 9 months, and it still feels like new. No back-play, no nothing, and the anti-reverse ball bearing seems to keep up with my fishing. It makes me wonder what the…. with the anti-reverse pawl in this tiny baitcaster. It only worsens the reels action.

As you can see from the pictures, unlike the Core 51, the tension knob seats on a spring mechanism, and has no rubber band to protect water from sipping in that spot, in case your reel gets in contact with water somehow. That might ruin a good day fishing if it interacts with the oil or grease  you are using. The spring has a double role: to keep some tension on the tension knob, so it doesn’t unscrew by itself, and to keep the spool ballbearing in place. I would’ve preferred the rubber-band myself, and never thought about looking at this detail before buying the reel. I’ve had nothing to worry about for now with or without the rubber collar, even though I’ve fished the reel in awful downpour. Lets just hope it’ll stay that way.

I preferred they used the alternative - rubber band

If the handle has zero backplay now, after tightening it up, the spool has some minor backplay to it. It makes it a bit nosier than the average guy, but as long as you have your line going through your guides, the tension in the line will keep it quiet.

Brass gears = durability

As far as the drag goes, after tightening it up as much as I could, without the fear of breaking the stardrag, and it tested out at 3kg, a little under the 4.5kg expected.

Retrieve: As I’ve mentioned above. Right out of the box, the reel didn’t have that freespin, aerofeel, or whatever you want to call it feeling. It felt like the tension knob was a tad to tightened, even though it wasn’t. This is the best way I can describe it.

But as soon as I’ve opened the reel up, problem was solved. Even though Curado’s have instant antireverse gear blabbering, Shimano, for some reason, mounted the old antireverse pawl, found on older models. It beats me why they did this, but I instantly removed it from the reel, and the reel is now much smoother, and easygoing. No matter how enthusiastic I feel about this reel I won’t lie to you: there is a slight, but when i say slight, I mean extreamly slight feeling of the gearing being there, but it’s nothing that keeps me from fishing without noticing it.

The 7:1 gear ratio works just fine, especially when power fishing smaller baits, and really helps pooling those fish out of the brush.

Line lay: This is something you don’t really hear anyone mention about any reel. I consider this to be really important, especially when concerning spinning reels. I’ve seen so many expensive spinning reels that don’t spool the line as well as they should. I’t not a concern for the Curado though. It does the job extremely well.

Casting the Curado E51 is a lot of fun, and probably the easiest casting reel so far. It really doesn’t take that much fine-tuning as with Daiwas magnetic backlash control systems, even though it’s not externally controllable if you offset only 2 pins from the 6 Curado has you won’t be needing any other tuning, no matter the bait size.  What I loved about this reel’s casting abilities is it takes almost zero time to get used with it, and it casts perfectly, cast after cast.

Spinnerbaited Pike

Flipping it into bush is a child’s play, even with weightless plastics. I’ve even managed to get it skipping under brush with the Lake Fork Magic Shad, without backlashing on a few occasions, pike fishing.

It casts everything from 3-4 g up to you name it. I’ve managed to get a good distance with both Rapala Original Floater 7, and 9cm and Rapala Team Esko, Balsa lures without any long casting balancing systems. I have a really hard time controlling backlashes for example on the Daiwa Sol with this baits, even with the ZPI SiC Ball Bearings.

I know this is not what you'd expect when texas rigging - but it happens

Conclusion: As far as I’m concerned Shimano has won me over with the new Curado, E Series, and can’t wait to see what they come up with next at ICAST in 2011. If you want to teach anyone baitcasting, Shimano Curado is definitely the easiest reel to teach some casting with, as I’ve learned teaching casting a few of my friends.

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →