GravelGavel

I’m afraid all I can do in honesty is add to the “jerk”. There’s a lot of relatively easy bait casters out there (I learned on an Ambassador 5000D…NOT an easy one!). However if I had a 250 up budget and was buying for a beginning loved one it’d be a JDM Zillion. 247.28 to your door via FedEx (likely on Wednesday) from Digitaka. If you go Digitaka, don’t forget to sign up for an account so you’ll accumulate points and get their 5% off coupons. As said, use a credit card, preferably with a no or 1% foreign transaction fee. There are several other great JDM dealers I’m sure but I started with Digitaka and they’ve never given me a reason to stray. 3 Zillions and an Alphas from them all in 3 days or less.

Be careful! They are addictive...in the last year I've ended up with three of them and an Alphas. Seriously, awesome for the money especially with the current exchange rate.

With the exchange rate of the yen what it is of late run, don't walk, to a JDM Ultegra or Stradic. They are both a real treat to use, well engineered and smooooth. Pick your favorite JDM dealer but Digitaka is my personal favorite. As of this writing I think the Stradic is 150.00ish and the Ultegra around 25.00 less. Beware though, nice reels at the current pricing are addictive.