While fishing this morning one of my Curados give up the ghost. From one cast to the next it lost probably 80ft of distance. Same lure same line never even put rod down. No backlashes or kinks in line, even let all line out behind boat while moving and reeled back in. Same thing. Went from 110-120ft cast to 35-40ft max. Eyes on the rod are all fine, levelwind on reel is fine. I'm clueless. Any ideas??

You're going to have to take it apart to diagnose the problem. It sounds like it is not fully engaging into free spool mode when you cast. Quick test: Back your cast control all the way off with a heavy bait on it. Hold the rod in an upright position and hit free spool and dont thumb it at all. If it does not backlash when the bait hits the ground, then there is something binding on the spool.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to check that next time I'm back down at the cabin. I'm betting you're right because my son picked up that rod when I was tying up the boat and it didn't backlash when he tried to cast and he doesn't know to thumb the spool.

If it’s a new curado then I would say it needs a little oil.

It's far from new. It's one of the older 200 E7 models but it definitely might need a little oil. It's my favorite spinnerbait/chatterbait rig so it gets used a lot.

Have you checked the screw cap under the reel handle, If it's too tight it won't cast far. Check if paw track needs grease too.

You talking about the cast control knob? I run very little tension on my reels, but that was one of the things I checked. I'll have to check the paw track next time I'm at the cabin. It's just strange how from one cast to the next everything changed so drastically.

Maybe one of the plastic washers (not sure what they are called)came off on the left side. Since you're getting 40 feet still that seems logical to me

Mine done the same thing. Pull the side plate off. See where the red plugs are. If they are all out slide all but 1 in. Be gentle. It may explode until you get it set.

Well

I waved the white flag after riverrat sent me a pm guaranteeing me 200ft casts if I let him tune it up. I think you or dnolen was probably right and I'd rather send him a whole reel to work on than a bag full of parts.

I sent him a bag full of parts, he can make make a good reel out of it.

Both of y'all win the trophy for helping fix my reel. After the post office told me how much they wanted to ship 5 reels and 1 rod I decided to give it a go and fix it myself. Sure enough it was the lil doohickey thingamajigs under left cover, simple enough fix and the reel is casting even farther than before. Two thumbs up and many thanks.