Musky Reels

I have been fishing with large spinning reels for musky, and have aquired a couple good quality musky casting rods. What reels do you musky guys recomend? Also my son thinks he wants a left handed modle even though he is right handed. Feels he will be better at handling fish that way. Could that be true?

What kind of fishing will you be doing? trolling? casting?

What is your budget? If that isnt an issue shimano calcutta te 400
mid level reel shimano curado300 or calcutta 400, abu revo toro 50 or 60
entry level abu 5600 or 6600, Shimano cardiff 300

All above were casting reels.

Alot of musky guys who are right handed use left handed reels. What ever is most comfortable for the user. They will be casting it all day not you.

i got a curado 301 and revo 61...you would think they would be about the same but they really arent, curado is more for light bucktails and jerkbaits, revo works best throwing lures over a couple onces

also im right handed and use left"" handed reels... i think everyone else is backwards , i just have more control casting jiggin, jerk baits, gliders with my right arm

Thanks guys, I bought a st croix(up to 5 oz) and a lamaglass (up to 3 oz). Both are aprox.7'. I am rigged for spinning with 704z penns. I know they are surf reals but I like them for muskie. I just returned from Georgian Bay where I used to live and want to upgrade my tackle. I generaly fish for pike up there however I boat through world class musky water to get to the pike. In the 70's my brother and I guided and commercial fished there. Monster muskie are there and they are promoting a trophy only fishery. To keep a muskie it must be 54" long. The fella I used to commercial fish with a couple years back caught one in the nets that were set for spawning whitefish that was enormous. They wated to try to measure it however figured they would hurt it so they cleared it and will allways wonder. They boated one dead in the nets the day before that was 35 lbs. and the big one dwarfed it. These rascals are out on the shoals slurping 8-15 lb whitefish. My brother had a 40+lb pike take a 3lb smallmouth off him years ago. He fought it 0n 6lb line for quite a while. It was never hooked and still ended up with the fish. We have caught a pickup truck load of pike over 15lbs over the years. And many-many over 20lbs. However I'm getting interested in the muskie and many 50= lb fish have been taken there. There are locals and others from far away that are putting effort into boating a new world record. The MNR claims they are there. In the 70's there was a taxidermist that used to get big suckers off the commercial fishermen and rig them to catch muskie I know he caught 2 over 50 lbs in one day. We used to sell him walleys over 10 lbs so he could mount them and sell them to bars camps and lodges. He targeted big muskie for the same reason.

w.a., I have tried baitcasters for smaller baits 3/4 oz down and being I am new to them it seemed more trouble than spinning. I know if you get on to them they are great. I use one for trolling some. I am determined to give them a good effort. Oh, speaking of muskie's has anyone targeted them in P.Isle. I saw a good one working over a 26 in northern once. I was talking to another guy that told me he saw a full grown duck taken down by one.

im not sure your situation if your going to Georgian bay you should take me with you;)

My favorites: The old Pflueger Supremes, direct drive, no freespool. the Ambassadeur 5500C or 6500C. Old time musky fishing. The reels available today are much better, Calcuttas, Revo Toros, etc.

Anyone interested, check out Muskie First, Tackle and Equipment forum, all kinds of info on the casting reels that are popular now.

Am just a troller now due to age, health issues. For trolling, really like the new Penn GT1 reels spooled with 80 lb powerpro.