Bigbox99

Not a review. I'm just sharing my newest find and purchase in really cheap aluminum frame reels as well as some on the water initial impressions. I usually wait year or two to do a review. The reels are the Sesir Megacuda and Leydun G6. Both reels are the same with different branding and colors. You see this with OEM reels a lot and especially on Aliexpress. Eventually these Aliexpress reels get picked up by a major brand and end up for sale on the US for a significant price increase such as the Dobyns Maverick (Histar Black Mamba) but these are sort of a hidden gem for now. They are aluminum frame 6 gear 36mm deep spool reels with a 110 power handle and a cone shaped level wind. They cast really well with the heavier baits I have been throwing like chatterbaits, 6 inch magdrafts/cullshad and 25 to 30 foot deep cranks. Leave the spool tension set to just eliminate side to side play as they came out of the box and set the dial to max and I was casting into the wind no problem and making spool emptying casts with the wind at lower magnetic dial settings. I have 15 pound Big Game on one and 12 on the other with no conditioner and the line is able to flow freely out of the reel thanks to that cone level wind. The ergonomics are really good for a 36mm spool reel with a cone level wind placed far from the spool. This usually makes the reel rather long but these are pretty compact and small palming for a 36mm spool reel and palm smaller than a TD-Z or TD Zillion. It reminds me of an Alphas TW or Tatula 80 but taller with 36mm spool. The smoothness is pretty good too. There is some gear mesh when winding under load if you hold the reel off the rod and drive your thumb onto the spool to simulate winding under heavy load but once on a rod cranking a super deep crankbait I just don't really feel it palming the reel or through the knobs. I really only pickup a slight buzz when winding in a cullshad but it's very uniform feeling and in the background. It's not unpleasant at all unlike a black max or every other plastic frame reel I have and I have many that all feel horrific and make horrible sounds when wind under load. These cheap aluminum 6 gear reels have so far been quite nice. Time will tell how they hold up but they were actually greased out of the box unlike most of my Aliexpress reels so that's a good start.

The foam thing in the reel seat doesn't really bother me since most rods that appear to have an exposed blank do not. What we see as an exposed rod blank is often an insert to adapt the bank OD to the ID of the reel seat. To actually have an exposed blank you need to make your rod blank diameters match the reel seat which typically means a proprietary reel seat. It's one of those things that people assume to be true based on outward appearances. Same thing with the one piece USDM Shimano rods that are actually a two peice joined at the handle like the JDM models but have been glued together because two piece rods don't sell.

Just buy a quality reel and a quality rod individually. Combos are almost always a rip off.

If its more of a scraping sound it's the anti reverse bearing. It's It's a uniform buzzing sound and vibration then it's the gears meshing and perfectly normal for that reel.

You would like the Antares. The T Wing and braking profile of the Steez is helpful with stiff plastic lines and sending baits to targets along cover but you use braid and are bank bound. The Antares would be great for you considering it's the new 70 and a fair trade to the Steez A2.

Ser the spool tension to just eliminate side to side play and adjust the brakes to your liking. Also, what are the centrifugal brake settings on the bps reel?

For me it would be the Steez for all around. I prefer the braking profile and spool swap options for all around use. Centrifugal reels like the Antares are chuck and wind on open water kind of reels which is more of a specialty to me than an all around. I don't know how skip friendly the Steez A2 spool is but there is the option to drop in an SV spool if needed. To me, that's a huge advantage for the Steez.

There are absolutely cheap weird/no name brand reels that are miles better than a Black Max or any other plastic blister pack reel from Walmart. These aluminum frame reels cost $60 or under at times and include: Histar Black Mamba Max Seasir Megacuda Johncoo Ares Piscifun Alloy M (at sale price) I own all 4 and a Black Max.

Are these typical Aliexpess rods or are these special amongst the others? I've owned Aliexpress rods from brands like Kuying but they have all been light or ultra light rods.

Two new cheap reels to try out. They are aluminum frame 6 gear reels with 36mm deep spools and a 110mm handle with big foam knobs. I've fished the silver one on the Lightning rod and it's a free casting reel for a linear magnetic. 15# BG flowed out of it easily with no spool tension. I liked it so much I bought a black and red one for the Lightning Rod and a 76H Vengence to try out as a cheap deep cranking rod. Reels are the $37 Seasir Megacuda and $40 Leydun G6. Both are the same reel in different colors in diffrent brands. You see that a lot with Aliexpress reels. I suspect Leydun might be the OEM but I have no idea. The Seasir one is popular with many reviews on Aliexpress if you want more info. Palming plate side view. The spool dimensions are the same as an old 36mm spool TD-Z or TD Zillion but the reels feel more compact like 36mm Tatula 80s if that makes sense.

Loosen the spool tension to the point that it just eliminates side to side play. Leave it there forever. You will likely have to adjust the brakes. The problem is that your gears have worm and become buzzy and loosening the spool tension is a free and easy to help reduce some of that buzzy feeling since a tight spool tension really amplifies this feeling and a looser setting may reduce the intensity of the felt vibration. It's an easy and free thing to try. Another thing you can do that is free is to move the reel to a bottom contact setup where the primary means of moving the bait is with the rod and the reel is only winding in slack line. You're not going to notice the buzz as much when you are winding in line without load of a high resistance bait and when it's a fish you are usually too occupied with that to notice the buzz. Beyond that it's time to grease the gears or replace them. If I remember correctly the brass gears from the same generation of Vapor fit the Smoke and were an upgrade some would do assuming this is a case of aluminum gears getting buzzy. I'm not familiar with this reel.

I've had this reel for about 2 years now. Time for a review. It's an aluminum frame plastic handle side plate compact 32mm spool reel with a long carbon fiber handle. They run about $69 on average but can be sometimes found on Aliexpress for as little as $50. If you are fans of the Lews LFS or other similar magnetic brake reels then this one may appeal to you. I personally find the brakes to be on the weaker side forcing me to use spool tension to control the fall rate of the bait which is not something I like to do. Spool tension should be set to eliminate side to side play and the reel should be able to handle normal casting with normal lines like 15# fluorocarbon. I find that the narrow level wind and close placement to the spool do not allow stiff lines to flow out of the reel freely on hard bomb casts. My fix to this was to switch to braid to leader. I tried spool tension but that made the reel stiff and gearing feeling. To some people using spool tension to set the bait fall rate is normal but I grew out of that long time ago. Thankfully braid saved the day and reel has been quite pleasant to use casting and pitching jigs and worms with a palming while casting grip. The reel really takes the shape of your hand when palming with two fingers in front of the trigger and the high thumb bar let's you enter free spool by pressing the bar with the base of your thumb while palming the reel and and using your thumb pad to thumb the spool. It's been a real pleasure to use for punching, short target casts and pitching.

Walmart Lews Hank Parker M rod and a Daiwa Regal are about as good as budget finesse spinning is going to get. Those prepared combo rigs you see are a borderline scam pairing garbage tier reels to a garbage tier rods and charging a premium for convenience.

Brother in Christ, nornoids can't even fathom changing a reel handle to a different one and think you have to throw the reel away and buy another one with a bigger handle. Changing braking profiles with spool swaps and maintaining a list of spools that are compatible in their minds was never on the table. You're literally going to die if you spend any more time here. Return to TT.

JDM met. JDM Zillion if you also skip weightless plastics with your jerkbait rod.

A $44 Lews Hank Parker M from Walmart would be a huge step up.

I too prefer my reel be yuge and to feel like crap.

How are the rods?

Yep, 3 spools of different capacity and weight. A shallow, medium and deep. Aliexpress fishing is a bit of a mind trip. Just dive in and hold on lol.

I've had this reel for about 2 years now. Time for a review. I buy these super cheap reels off Aliexpress or Amazon just to try them out and see if they are any good. Basically to see if there is a better reel for under $60 than a Black Max or any other plastic Walmart reel many end up buying. This Histar reel is the same platform as the Kastking Royal Legend II and many other reels if it looks familiar. I don't know if Histar is an OEM or yet another brand using this reel but theirs has an Aluminum frame and handle side plate with 3 spools for $60 and sometimes as low as $50. Getting an aluminum frame reel at this price let alone one with a handle side plate and double supported pinion is almost unheard of with the Johncoo Ares 300 being the only other reel I can recall. I also own the graphite/carbon fiber (plastic) frame version of this platform under a different brand and it feels horrible compared to the Black Mamba. That aluminum frame and side plate deaden the gear mesh vibration and give the reel frame a high rigidity when cranking in high resistance baits. Histar does put the gear ratios behind a trim level pay wall meaning cheapest configuration will be a 6 gear reel with the high trim being an 8 gear. I have the 6 gear reel and have been using it as a chatterbait, spinnerbait, buzzbait. plopper and 6 inch Cullshad reel. I like it and for under $60 I can recommend it if you want a 6 gear reel for moving baits. You can get Tatula 100s on Aliexpress right along side this reel for around $110 at times so it's hard to justify spending over $60 on this reel. The Tatula is just as solid feeling winding under load but is far smoother with the Hyperdrive gears and lighter. That said, I'd take one over a Back Max by far.

Their 24 Tatula 100 prices aren't any better than Amazon Japan but the 150 and 200 can be had there for under $100 at times.

Basically if it's not the 24 model and not from 2013-2015 then it's either the last gen 100 or a Tatula CT, which share the same spool dimensions anyways.

Get the 24 Tatula. The Tatula 150 is good too but it's a bigger and much older reel dating from 2014. It and the 200 are an oldie but a goodie. Also, if you do want one of those then get them on Aliexpress. They have the best price by far.

All of my hyperdrive Daiwas are equally smooth from my Tatulas, Alphas to the Zillions. I don't consider handle spinny free time to be part of smoothness since brake setting and brake type (like SV) will slow the handle when spun. Smoothness is smoothness under load and they all so far feel the same. Maybe in time the Tatulas will get rougher than the Zillions or Alphas but so far they are indistinguishable from each other.

For a right hand reel I hold in my left I use my right hand to grab the fish because I am right hand dominate. This also allows me the ability to depress the thumb bar and feed line to the fish if it pins the rod to the side of the boat and goes under since i am holding the rod while paming the reel. For my left hand reels I move the rod and reel from my right hand into the left gripping the blank in front of the reel and use my right hand to land the fish. I don't have the ability to pay out line in a controlled manner this way but I only use lefty for bottom contact baits and the fish typically get stuck pretty good and don't come off.