Ardent Edge Tournament Reel

[TeamDaiwa69]

I am thinking about buying the new ardent edge tournament reel for throwing crankbaits. I want to know if anyone has had any expirience with this particular reel and if its a total piece of crap or the best reel for the money. Any ideas?

[aavery2]

If your serious about buying one, Academy Sports has them on clearance for a little over $100.

[jj'sbassinforfun]

I have been using one for about month(4 to 5 trips). Using it for medium cranks and so far it's been holding up very well. It does cast a DT10 over 75 yards pretty easy on a 7' Powell diesel. I haven't thrown any light stuff with it and don't expect it to do much with them. Built like a tank IMHO. I am having fun beating the daylites out of it and so far its taking all I can give it! Just picked one up for my son to play with.

My only complaints are the lever to open the side cover digs into my palm a bit. Its smooth, But not silky smooth like my Revo Premier. Some of this smooth issue could be fixed when I service it this fall.

[smalljaw67]

I think you should do what you want to do, I've head good and bad about them but I've heard the same for just about every other product. I will say this, the reel has a 3 year warrany and from a friend of mines personal experience it looks as if the customer service is pretty good so you will get help if something should happen. One thing you shouldn't do though is try to compare a $150 dollar reel to a $280 dollar reel, when you gert over $250 dollars with a casting reel you get a level of refinement that you don't get in lower priced reels but it doesn't mean it won't work. For example a Quantum Accurist PT for all of the Quantum bashing going on, happens to be one of the $100 dollar priced reels that hold up year after year and work fantastic but it isn't super duper smooth or have 11 ball bearings. Or the Shimano Citica, it too works well with 3 ball bearings but it isn't a calais or Chronarch.

[jj'sbassinforfun]

I think you should do what you want to do, I've head good and bad about them but I've heard the same for just about every other product. I will say this, the reel has a 3 year warrany and from a friend of mines personal experience it looks as if the customer service is pretty good so you will get help if something should happen. One thing you shouldn't do though is try to compare a $150 dollar reel to a $280 dollar reel, when you gert over $250 dollars with a casting reel you get a level of refinement that you don't get in lower priced reels but it doesn't mean it won't work. For example a Quantum Accurist PT for all of the Quantum bashing going on, happens to be one of the $100 dollar priced reels that hold up year after year and work fantastic but it isn't super duper smooth or have 11 ball bearings. Or the Shimano Citica, it too works well with 3 ball bearings but it isn't a calais or Chronarch.

That's exactly why I bought mine and now another. I wanted something in between. I couldn't swing 2 $280 dollar reels. So I went this route. For what I spent on the Ardents, I am not complaining at all. I guess I didn't word my post right or add enough to it!. I have found that spending some time(in the off season usually) with the lower priced reels(proper service and some simple tuning) can liven up these reels. Same as what I did to my Citica E series(you'd be surprised at what a trick or two does to those!). So I can probably get this thing close to the silky smooth I'm looking to get for far less money. A couple of bearings here and there does wonders to them. I won't even get into what a supertune might do.

If I had the cash, I'd like to try one of the Elite series. Just to see what their top shelf stuff is like.

These tournament reels have the same chasis as the upper series reels. So the bearings and other parts are drop in's. Nice to have big brother to steal from to add a few tricks up your sleeve. I really have high hopes to what it could be with some TLC and big brother parts. We shall see!