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Posts: 2361
| I am curious. With the advent of a heavy proportion of low profile reels, they are starting to show a distribution from expensive to cheap and I doubt any of us are buying and using enough to really judge what's out there. I am perfectly ok with buying a $80 reel or less if it holds up pretty well. But it is getting tough to figure whether you are buying an expensive piece of junk or quality at a low price.
I have talked to the bass guys and the bass shop guys(not named Bass Pro Shops) and they are pretty much endorsing a Lews model, 11 bearing job, which retail generally at the $89 range. Evidently there are a lot of them out there and they are holding up well vs their price point.
Anybody casting for muskies with the low price spread that can talk about 100 days or so on the water with them |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | I bought a Cardiff last season for my "guest" rod. Things is smooth and has taken the abuse so far. 100 days of fishing... not yet. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Probably ok if you treat them like a Bic lighter one or two years and chuck them. If you do a lot of fishing I might avoid you dont want your reel to freeze up when you have your PB on.
My 30 year old Abu's are much better reels than the ones purchaced in the last few. |
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Posts: 97
Location: Pickering, ON | The Cardiff 400 has been a great reel for lures that are not heavily abusive to tackle - for ex. topwaters.
The Abu 7000 (big red) has been a workhorse for a lot of things. Easy to clean and lube, simple design, some upgrades available.
There seem to be a few decent options in the $125-$200 range. As for under $100, forget it - they won't even hold up for us weekend warriors. We're not talking about chucking 1/4 oz jigs, 1/2 oz crankbaits, and 3lb green fish here.
If you musky fish 100+ days a year, with one rod+reel all day, and/or solely with lures that are heavily abusive to tackle, you're almost certainly better off in the long run to invest in higher end stuff. It's the same principle as many other consumer goods.
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Posts: 582
| i agree. i have a few cardiffs and they hold up pretty well. They are worth the $109. The only thing i don't like about them is the small handle they come with. |
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| Nothing wrong with a Cardiff. It won't throw the heaviest lures or the hardest pulling lures, but it still has a place in the boat. Mine is going on year number 4, and to date I have had no issues. I have no complaints on the handle length. |
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Posts: 2361
| I would pose this question assuming one is not throwing double 10's or a lot of heavy or heavy pulling baits. Most low profile bass reels would handle 90% of my presentations easily, but the question would be, how many days in a row will they handle them. The proliferation of low profile reels make it hard to sort through when you are only seeing one reel, and for a relatively short time at that. I have had good results with a bass reel for a couple years, but just have no idea how long into the future it runs. I like it's overall lightness and performance, and no problems even with big fish, after aprox 50 days for musky. But I'm curious. |
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Posts: 147
Location: Chesterton, Indiana | The cardiff is a very good reel for the $109.00 you will spend on it new. It too is my guest set up in my boat on a compre rod. The guest who comes without a rod and reel most likely doesn't anticipate on throwing monster rubber or double 10's so this works great. Give them smaller lures so they don't start off hating musky fishing right out of the gate. |
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Posts: 323
| i bought a BPS Pro Qualifier at a garage sale for $2.50 and it lasted me 5 years and i never once cleaned or greased it.. i used it for smaller bucks,gliders,top waters and even small cranks.. i was fishing about 35 or 40 hours a week back then.. the reel still works just doesn't engage all the time so it's getting shipped off to pikemaster.. most of the BPS reels will hold up great for smaller baits.. if you start trying to rip a 10" pearson plug with one you will have problems.. |
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Posts: 440
| I am king of cheap. My 5500 and 6500s are holding up just fine and if something goes down I usually have parts on hand to fix it. No way am spending $500 on a reel. Not in my current situation anyway. I am going to spend big here soon for burning reel. Okuma Cortez is about $110 on ebay right now.
I am just getting into using my bass type equipment for muskies. It seems to work just fine and is quite a bit more comfortable. Just going to pick my spots for the smaller stuff. Also going to create more small stuff times on purpose. |
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Posts: 8782
| Expensive reels are a luxury, and not at all necessary IMO unless you are guiding or you are out there 100 days a year or more.
I've got a Cardiff that has held up well, and 4 seasons on a C4 before it needed any repairs, which were cheap and simple to do myself. Having a $250 reel is nice, just like having a Lexus is nice, but there are far cheaper options, that will work just as well for most people. If you're only going to have one combo, I'd buy the best reel you can reasonably afford. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have bought 3-4 of the same cheap reel, a few extra parts (gears, pawl, worm gear...) and be done. is a reel breaks, you've got another one handy. Fix it in the cabin that night, and you're good to go. Now, I am sure reels like the Tranx are amazing. For $500 it better be. If i had unlimited money to spend, I'd buy a few of them. But I'd never limit myself to one reel, because even the best will fail eventually. and when they do, if it's your only reel? You're done fishing. |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | I have some Lew's that date back to the '70's when they were made for LEW's by a little unknown operation called Shimano. They were always a decent reel, earlier models were PAW eaters, but a handful of replacements and you were good to go for year or two. I doubt if the early models had anywhere close to 11 bearings in them but I always liked them. They used to make a larger model to that would be considered "light Muskie" sized. |
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