High quality spin reels VS cheapo

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Ryno91

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Hey fellas I've been fishing for a while, started in Mission beach fishing around islands and since moving to Brisbane I haven't had much of a chance to fish because it's so damn far to find a good spot.

Anyway I just bought a 10 ft Penn Rod with a "Defiance" reel as a combo for $100. Now I am by no means someone who knows all of the technicalities of fishing gear I used to just go out and use whatever Dad and I had at the time. Do more expensive reels have better gearing to allow a smoother reel in when hooked on? I noticed this one I bought is pretty rough and hard to reel in even on smaller fish, just want to know if it is worth spending $200 on a good reel or if I would be wasting money.. cheers!
 
I quality reel will defiantly make a difference I'm looking for some decent gear at the moment what I'm wondering is where dos the price for quality stop and paying for a brand name come into it I've been thinking buy some cheap rods and good reels
 
i have all jarvis walker rod and reels and they are smooth and work very well

not bad for 50 from kmart
 
Its all in how you fish. I have used cheapo stuff for years and had no problems. If you take care of the gear i.e washing every time after using it in salt... it will last long. In saying that my first baitcaster was a shimano which after 12 years still goes well!

Same goes for rods. I have rods made from 2 different top/bottom and still catch fish
 
This is a really good question. I have always belived that you don't waste your time and money on cheap gear. A mate of mine always buys cheap stuff. 3 weeks ago up the bribie passage, he caught a 12.8kg jewfish on an 11 dollar rod/reel combo including line!!!! It definately made me rethink spending big money thats for sure.
 
for me i couldnt justify the price of more expensive rods because i dont go fishing often enough, maybe once a month
 
It's the old story--"you get what you pay for". But you can go too far, forking out over $1000 for a really fancy reel might be great but with over 60 years in the fishing game and having used (and wasted a lot of hard earned money on) the whole range from el cheapos to el very expensiveos I have found you can find really class stuff for a really good price.
 
i think for bait fishing, the cheaper stuff is okay, but of course its not going to be anywhere as nice to use as a upper market reel and you really should keep on the maintenance with them. the bearings can corrode pretty easily.

lure fishing i reckon it pays to go up a few models, casting and retrieving all day tends to really test the gear out. I do a fair bit of barra fishing in the fresh and salt and always use a half decent gear, like a $200 reel and a nice graphite rod.

i just brought a new abu garcia the other day and the bloke at the shop showed me to top of the range daiwa, zillion, baitcaster. it felt amazing, smooth, lite and the adjustment was unreal but at $700 it stayed with him! The abu for $500 less will do the job and then some for what i do!

its seems the better quality reels starts coming in at around the 200 mark. if you buy the reel in a combo, the rod almost comes for free most times when compared to the reel on its own.
 
It's interesting as some of the cheaper shimano gear is not to bad and they still give a 10 year warranty with it, for example as a Fishing guide which is what I used to do based out of Cairns I personally took a cheaper reel, Sienna 4000 up to Seisa and was onboard a Mothership working from about halfway from Seisa to Weipa as a fishing guide for a 7 day tour, the reason for taking this low end reel was to do as topic suggest's, see how it held up and compare.

Now with this reel we gave it a thrashing, and in that 7 days was most likely to cop more punishment than a lot of people would give there reels in a lifetime, I spooled it up with 20lb braid and it had tuna, jacks, barra, cods, reds, nanny's and a lot more screaming line of it during the trip, never got a proper wash or service apart from a rinse down at the end of the day and was in the salt the whole time, what I did notice was it the reel did loosen up a bit in the handle and spool area but not a great deal and was still very functional and working as it should, didn loose much of it's factory smoothness, was a good talking point with the customers and they were amazed at this little spin reel and it's ability considering some of them had the very high end gear of stellas daiwas and the like, best bit was this reel cost me $45 and held its own given it's competitors at the time, sure it's not a stella or other top notch reels nor is it the price either.

I still have this reel today and gave it a good service after the trip, and wasn't to long ago I was using it at the beach trying to spin up some Salmon, still working fine and as it should. Mind you I would use it again no probs on a trip up north but would also pack a back up, as I have seen a lot more expensive reels let go under those conditions and wouldn risk being left stranded on a trip like that with only one reel in the kit any way.

My conclusion would be always buy the best you can afford at the time within reason and intended use, sure this sienna @ $45 at the time with a 10 year warranty held up but it still isn't in the same company of the well known and well priced brands out there.
 
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Ive still got a Mitchell 499pro that's 30 years old works as good as the day I got it,they were about $100 new,there asking about $200 now on flea bay.
 
For a great reel at the price. Daiwa opus bull. Mine cost about $180 and has caught 15kg kings and much larger bronzies no worries.
 

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