‘Easy Flippin’… with the Shimano “Convertible” Castaic
 

Total Score: 8.33

Introduction: Looking to purchase a decent flipping reel, but not quite sure you want to deal with the inevitable and ever irritating backlash?  Shimano’s Bantam Castaic may be what you’re looking for.
 

Impressions: I more or less stole this reel from my dad about eight months ago.  Ever-since, I’ve been teaching myself how to use a bait casting/flipping reel the hard way; which turns out, wasn’t so hard after all.

If you’re familiar with a standard casting reel, then you should easily identify the difference on this Castaic.  Instead of a single directional clutch bar, Shimano designed in a bi-directional one.  So rather than stopping the spool with your thumb after completing a cast, you can stop the spool from spinning simply by flipping the clutch bar back to the ‘lock’ position.  More accurately, there is a thumb switch that is located above the clutch bar in which you move your thumb forward to engage the spool to the drive gear.  Shimano calls this “INSTAGAGE”.  With the “instagage” switch, actually stopping the spool instantly is much easier than on a standard casting reel.  For me, I thought this feature would be sort of like training-wheels, getting me ready for a “real” casting reel.

The details: The first nice and surprising feature of this reel is the ‘flip-open’ thumb rest.  I actually didn’t find out about this feature until I had my first major backlash mishap.  The thumb rest easily opens up to fully expose the line guide, making it less of a task untangling nasty backlash and looping the line through the guide.  This feature is really a necessity though since the “instagage” bar takes up about three eights of an inch over the spool.

One thing to remember about this reel when shopping, is when you see the “Super Free” sticker, it doesn’t always mean that it is really “Super Free”.  As is the case with this reel, there is a sticker on the spool that indicates that it is “Super Free”.  However, it is clear that it is not “Super Free” at all.  You can test this a couple ways.  You can take the spool out to examine the drive or you can simply spin the spool with your finger to see if it spins quickly and for a long time with little resistance.

What is Super Free?: The SF system is basically a bearing supported pinion gear. When the reel is cast the pinion gear is disengaged and stays in alignment so there is almost no friction with the spool shaft. This combined with a lightweight spool allows the Angler to cast farther simply because the spool is spinning faster. 
 

Looking at the Castaic in more detail, especially after analyzing it after a several months of use, I can only commend excellence of the craftsmanship and quality.  It demonstrates the same quality that I have always come to expect from Shimano since I started working with their bicycle components years ago.  I have not been easy on this reel either.  I can recall dropping it several times both on the ground and in my canoe.  So some paint was dinged off, but it still looks pretty good.  All the mechanical aspects of the reel are still in excellent working condition.