Shimano Catala 200 Baitcaster

OK – A fantastic baitcaster for the price you pay. Good value for money. If you are chasing bigger fish than 5kg try something else. I used it on a 12kg barra in Darwin and almost broke it to pieces! The smoothness of this reel is fantastic. It is the first thing that strikes you when you reel it for the first time. The sooth drag is great as well. The… Read more

casting system is good and it appears to get less birdsnests when casting. The build quality of mine was substandard. 2 Screws were loose and a ball bearing was missing. Abit dissapointing butit may not be Shimanos fault.

Good – I own the Shimano Catala 400 which is the largest of the Catala range, a range which has been out of production for a few years now, replaced by the virtually identical Shimano Corvalus. The Catala/Corvalus was/is a cheaper model of Shimano's round baitcaster range topped by the superlative Calcutta range. While cheaper the preformance of the… Read more

Catala isn't that far behind the Calcutta, which is probably more durable for a longer life. The 400 carries a wider spool than the 200 (I used to own 200 as well) and has line clicker, but the gear set/drag is identical to that of the 200. The Catala is great as general purpose boat reel for strayline fishing and casting lures. I use mine in conjunction with a fast action 7' carbon fibre rod.

Unusually for a Shimano I did have to do a little work to get the reel operating correctly. I discovered studying the schematic that a small spacer was missing from the spool release thumb-bar, which meant that often the release mechanism wouldn't full disengage and thus woulnd't engage when I wanted to strike at at a fish!!!

Overall this is one of my favourite reels and I'll keep it until it dies, which with regular servicing, it may never do. Smooth drag, good line capacity and retrieve rate. Excellent general purpose round baitacaster type reel Had some problems with gear engagement, clicker switch (mine is a Catala 400) was stiff and hard to use until modified.

Excellent – best small baitcasting reel I have used, you can cast light lures without the fear of backlash, matched to the BC60A ugly stik it makes the perfect 4kg outfit you can cast into the wind without worry about backlash, beautifully balanced with a nice drag