Posts: 242
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota | Over the winter I picked up one of the new conquest md’s and was more impressed with it than any reel I have ever used. Used it for all of my rubber fishing where in past years I used a tranx 500. I fish 2-4 days a week and just made my last trip to vermilion of the year and spent the last 5 days throwing 1.5lbs bulldawgs and pounder dusas, and the rest of the year mostly throwing pounder/husky sized stuff with it. Still feels the exact same as it did in June. Even my 500’s by the end of the year started to feel pretty grindy so this is the first reel I have ever owned that held up to rubber as good if not better than a 500. Even if it isn’t truely as durable as a 500, to have a reel this comfortable and small that can compare to a 500 is incredible. Although it’s a stupidly expensive reel, it is no question the best reel I’ve ever used and you can get them from Japan for a lot cheaper than from a US store.
Only negatives I had was I really didn’t like the handle so I put a power handle from an old 400 lexa on it, has the same handle threads as any Shimano/diawa/piscifun big reel so there’s a bunch of handles that work with it. The other thing I noticed was with the non disengaging level wind the casting distance is cut down a bit especially with smaller baits. For rubber or heavy jerkbaits it isn’t noticeable at all, but I did notice it when I used it a bit for throwing bucktails. Because of that levelwind and the breaking system I don’t think I had a single legitimately bad backlash the entire year though, even with all of the breaks turned off.
The question I have for other people is do the older conquests have the same non disengaging level wind? With how much I liked this reel I think I’m going to buy one of the previous gen ones that has the 6.2:1 gear ratio and use it on a more all purpose xh rod. Even if it is the same levelwind I’m going to still get one since I’m sick of breaking 400 tranx, but it would be good to know. |
