Curado 50E
Low profile bait casting reel
Price: $199.99

First impressions are the sharper line of the reel body and the overall smaller reel body profile. The graphite star drag has a nice touch of a matching paint color but not being made of the aluminum like the other Curado 200E’s was a sign of a lesser quality reel. It’s the same star drag on the Citica 200E. The reel itself when cranked was not as smooth as its bigger siblings either. The levelwind guide was different from other siblings. It is not up next to the levelwind line guide eye but was 180 degrees on the opposite side being like the way on the Chronarch 200D’s, only placed closer to the spool. It may be a spitting image of the Core 50Mg, but the design of it turns out to be a more wobbly and noisy operation. Furthermore there was looseness in the worm gear track that was very obviously felt during free cranking of the reel. A gentle shake of the reel reveal a lot of looseness and internal rattling. There was a considerable amount of handle back play. For being a smaller reel, it’s lacking much in precision tolerances than its bigger siblings.

The reel was spooled up with 6# Gamma Copolymer and mounted on a St. Croix Avid 6’6” medium power crank rod. Casting on this smaller reel was performing extremely well on a ¼ oz bullet weight. The bearings were treated with some Xtreme Reel+ lubricant. Free spool spin time was about 12 seconds compared to the non treated stock bearings of only 6 seconds. The first few casts got me roughly about 25 yards of casting distance. As I tuned the reel in, I was soon casting about 30 yards easily. I did manage a long distance cast of 40 yards. I swapped out the stock bearings for some ABEC 7 bearings treated with some Xtreme Reel+ lubricant as well. I immediately got 30 yards of casting distance. Tweaking the reel for the ¼ oz. bullet weight, I was soon effortlessly getting about 35 yards. I did manage a long distance cast of about 45 yards.

I still couldn’t get over how loosely noisy the reel was so I open up the reel to check to see if there was some loose part. Well everything seems to be in order. I did notice how large the main gear was. I also notice no ribbing support on the handle side plate. I checked the gear teeth tolerance and notice how loosely they meshed, a big time noise contributor there. I also notice how wobbly the anti reverse pawl was as I turned the main drive around. There is no clip to hold it down like on its bigger sibling. It just wasn’t sitting well, but it didn’t pop out of place either. There may be some noise contribution from this part as well. However I mostly notice how wobbly the drive shaft was. This was probably the biggest noise contributor to this reel. I also noticed how wobbly the anti-reverse pawl operated as I turned the main drive. I removed the anti-reverse pawl and put the reel back together but I didn’t notice any less rattling noise in both free cranking and gentle shaking of the reel. I disassemble the reel again and put the anti-reverse pawl back. I added additional grease to the anti-reverse pawl and the main and pinion gear. This helped reduced some noise. I also put some grease in between the reel frame and the cast control bearing to absorb some of the looseness in the spacing. I couldn’t eliminate the gear looseness and rattling noise on free crank. In the end, I held down the levelwind guide and that basically eliminated about most of the rattling noise as I gently shake the reel. A harder shake revealed that perhaps the main gear was the culprit for the other rattling noise, just simply due to weight of gear and looseness of gear mesh.

The reel comes with mixed results. I wouldn’t recommend this reel to a friend. However it’s ability to casts light weight lures is phenomenal and on basically on par with much more expensive reels. Yet final assembly and choice of use of certain components leaves me with a big question of why was some lack of precision parts implemented into the final product.

I would probably not buy this reel again. However due to the specialization of this reel, there isn’t another contender in about the price range. Ideally I feel as if this reel should’ve been price point below the larger Curado 200E’s at $179.99. I think at $149.99 would be on par for it’s out of the box tolerances, unreasonable hopeful yearning. Performance falls short of standard set by the Curado 200E and reminded me too much of the Citica 200E, I guess first run of the mill.

Update:

After some more use and finally removed the assist stopper pawl again. I can feel the reel operating a lot smoother as well as some decrease in noise. In a sense it will probably function a little more closer to the Scorpion XT1000 (Japanese version). I temporarily replaced the bearings with some ARB spool bearings from the Chronarch D and I'm trying to get a feel of a supposed Scorpion XT1000. I admit I really like the effects of it now. Makes me wonder if I should order some ARB spool bearings.

Overall seems like the reel needed a break in period. For finesse application, removal of the assist stopper pawl makes for a better feel. Still I wish that the reel would've just come with the better ARB bearings.

Update on simple upgrade: The aluminum star drag from the CU200E's will work as a replacement along with the matching star drag nut and star drag spring.

Photo's: CU200E5 on left, CU50E on right


Star drag nuts are same size, only different thickness.


top view


top view clearly showing different star drag springs sizes.


angled top view clearly showing different grooves on star drag nuts for different star drag springs.


angled top view showing springs seated in nuts.

Will the aluminum star drag fit over the smaller spring? Yes, but the spring will not seat properly on the groove inside. Functional but best not to force it.

Will the graphite star drag fit over the larger spring? Yes and no complication. There's no inside groove on the graphite star drag to seat the spring.

Update: Will the CU200E7 gear work? No.

It actually can be dropped right in and the reel can be completely reassembled just fine. Clutch and free spool seems to appear to work. Free cranking works, but somehow at the moment when you stop the handle, the spool seems to slip a little. You will hear a very audible clicking grind. Sounds a lot like gear slipping. I have made three attempts to inspect over things, but apparently the slightly different shape of the pinion gear might be the culprit to the clicking grind. So as it stands, the CU200E7 gear swap will not work.

I will note that the frame of the CU50E is stamped 10SC10 and the handle side plate is stamped 10SC1000. So it's a Scorpion frame and plates afterall.

The Curado 50E performed well for ice fishing. Although I did not use this reel exclusively, when I did pull it out, I was not dissappointed with it's performance in any way. It handled lighter lures of up to 1/32 oz and free spool very well. I didn't not even once encountered any line twist problem. Even while hole hopping with 10# Fireline Original, I was not dissappointed. Just remember to strip off ice beads from your line before reeling it onto the spool and you're fine.

At $200 retail for the price of the reel, it's way too expensive for ice fishing. Put it on a Thorne Bros. custom ice rod and it's not that far off of a specialty combo.  However it's basically the only light duty low profile baitcasting reel that allows one to pretty much just concentrate on ice fishing rathter than worry about pulling line from the spool. It's too bad that I didn't get any hot big fish bite this season, so this reel did not get as much use as necessary. There's just something about jigging with a baitcasting reel that's more enjoyable over a spinning reel.