They're water tight, the bodies are cast out of XCraftic Aluminum Alloy, so they're virtually indestructible.

The "water tight" part is where I had problems with my Curados...if water got in 'em, they were done for a while. Rvrfshr and SkyGuy, with their $275 300's, fished with me during a sideways sloppy snow storm and got to watch my $80 old Ambassadeur cast 30 feet farther than them in one zone...and the fish were lying about 20 feet farther than they could cast.

I think the difference was that the Curados are so tightly machined that when they got wet it created a vacuum in between the spool and the side plate and it just wouldn't turn properly...my rickety old Ambassadeur had so many loose spots that there was no chance of that happening.

The Toro is water tight, so no water can get in there...plus, besides the very excellent line capacity, it's got a serious drag rating...far better than any other casting reel on the market. It's not like you actually will need 22 pounds of drag, but think of it like a killer stereo...you get an amp that will way overpower your speakers, and then you run it at about "7" to get maximum sound and sound quality...I'd rather rack up a drag to 12 pounds when it can go to 22, than rack up a drag to 12 pounds when it can go to 14...much smoother and better performing.

Also, as you can see from the pics that Twitch and I put up, the Toro 50 is about the same size as a 200, with double the line capacity, and quite a bit smaller than a 300.

That's my thinking on it, anyways...for what it's worth.

Fish on...

Todd