I was looking for a new baitrunner spinning reel for halibut off the pier. I looked at Shimano and I don't care for their new stuff, made in Malaysia. I looked at the Penn Slammer Liveliners and they too are not the same as when they made in the U.S., China made. So then I looked at Okuma, granted they are made in China also but Okuma has reallly stepped up their product line as of late. Since I won't be holding the reel for long periods, weight was not a factor so I went for overall strength. An aluminum bodied reel was what I wanted. The Cedros Baitfeeder CJF40 would fit the bill. I looked at Okuma's web site and their msrp is $145. I looked online and everyone is selling them at close to the msrp. I fianlly went to ebay and found it for $113 with free shipping and no tax, what a deal. It showed up in 4days from Florida.
(http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt119/dimpala95/OkumaCedrosBaitrunnerCJF40.jpg)
My first impressions are very good. The reel feels really solid and Okuma decided to equip the reel with a dual drag system. The have a regular 3 washer stack on the top of the spool as most spinning reels have. The improvement is they added one giant drag washer under the spool. They claim #20 of drag which is far more than I need since I'm loading it with #12 test Big Game mono.
Since I can't leave things stock I immediately changed out the stock felt drag washers for HT 100's for the main drag and one Carbontex for the under spool washer. In hind sight I should have tested their drag claims. I know for a fact it's holding more than #15 as that's what the #12 big game breaks at when I tried testing the drag. I'm going to try out the reel this weekend for stripers and I'll let you know my real world impressions.
So far it's 2 thumbs up from a technical stand point. I think Okuma is one of the only reel companies right now that's listening to what consumers want and they're making it.
I like the coronado bait feeders, no dual drag but that would be nice. I use a 30 and a 50 for catfish and sturgeon. switching out the felt drags to CF is a must do. They are simple to tear down , a good pre service would be a good idea for salt water use, especially the bail trigger bar - these rust in fresh water.
The Coronados do have a dual drag system. The only real difference between the Coronado and the Cedros is the body material. The Cedros is aluminum and the Coronado is graphite.
The coronados only have a 10mm od washer that sits on the spool clicker star wheel under the spool. They have a 5 stack in the spool. Okuma must have upsized that star wheel in the dual force drag models. Ive been picking up a few more of these lately in the $30 range, new.