Brand loyalty (reels)

[Jar11591]

Lew's for bait casting.

Pflueger for spinning. 

[*Hootie]

I am "ME" loyal. I buy what I want, when I want. I may ask for opinions, but they rarely change my already made up mind...lol.

Hootie

[new2BC4bass]

5 minutes ago, *Hootie said:

I am "ME" loyal. I buy what I want, when I want. I may ask for opinions, but they rarely change my already made up mind...lol.

Hootie

X2.  My sentiments exactly.  I own more Diawas than any other brand, but fish something like 7 brands.

[WIGuide]

I'm not overly brand loyal when it comes to reels even though i have more of one brand than the rest. They were all reels I got deals on but I have no problems with sampling from other manufactures. 

[Master Bait'r]

I like to think I don't, but as time goes on all I want are Shimanos.  It's a pretty clear preference in my mind but I don't disparage any other maker and quite enjoy my Ito.   

[drew4779]

I've owned at least 7 different brands of reels and in the end I always reach for my shimanos or daiwas first.  I still fish with the others, and they are nice too, but I will put the lures I have most confidence in on the shimanos and daiwas.

[Scarborough817]

i own daiwa, abu, shimano and bps personally i love my tatulas but the citica is so d**n comfortable it's hard to beat as a cranking reel. but for flipping and pitching nothing is better to me than a tatula 

[JigMe]

I am more of a value shopper, but most of my reels are made by Shimano or Daiwa.  I feel like those reel will last longer and better quality overall (personal opinion). I got an old Shimano Citica that’s probably 4-5 years old, and it works like new with regular maintenance.

[byram bassturd]

Prefer round reels. Really like the Shimano Conquest and the Daiwa Millionaire platforms.

[stkbassn]

14 hours ago, Western-Mass-Bass said:

Are any of you anglers out there brand loyal to your reels? As far as baitcasters anyway. I currently have 4 revo models that I use and was curious if Im missing out on some other cool stuff out there like diawa, shimano etc.   The competition and technology must be close so these brands can remain in the top of there market....... Right?

I love my Shimano's but I have Abu's and Daiwa's too. I like all of the reels that I own but Shimano is still my favorite. I am not loyal to any brand since no one sponsors me or shows me special attention.  LOL.  I get what I can with the money I have available. I've even bought some cheaper reels lately that I am quite fond of. The Silver Max and Pro Max have impressed me so far!! Both great casters and relatively smooth so far! I still like my Scorpions better but that matters not, I will use em' all happily !

 

[Fishes in trees]

I own several different brands of bait casters.  Other than Shimano, the other brands are in the "retired" or semi-retired" pile.  Currently, there are only Shimano's in the starting line up.

In a nod to multi-species action, I have 2 Quantum IR4CW reels and 2 old BPS "David Fritts" bait casting reels.   These reels handle 17 to 25 lb line very well and are great cat fishing reels.   They can throw half ounce to upwards of 4 ounces of weight as far as I want, for the most part.   If I have to go long distance (60 to 70 yards or more) I have a different rig for that.    Some years those rigs don't get busted out at all, but it is better to have them and not need them than otherwise.

[webertime]

I've owned all the major brands and I keep coming back to Daiwa and Shimano (Zillion/Fuego/TDZ variants and Citica E's).  I still have one Quantum on a Frog/4th string flipping rod and an Abu Royal Express on my swimbait rod and they are fine for those purposes.  I love the consistency Shimano and Daiwa products have, if I get one I feel confident there won't be an issue.

[Felix77]

To me it's more like "if it isn't broken ... don't fix it".  When I first got into tournament angling I took a charter and he was using all Abu Garcia reels.  When I started my collection I began buying Abu and it has become my primary.  With that said I also own 2 BassPro Pro Qualifiers and a Shimano Citica because the deals were just too good to pass on them.  I love them all.  

Especially my Abu's

[Darren.]

As far as baitcasters, I'm down to two in use,
my Shimano Chronarch 50e (sold my other one),
and a Diawa Lexa (used by one of my boys).

If I were to buy again, it would probably be another
Shimano, but the new, smaller Tatulas look great.

As far as spinning reels? Shimano. Tho we have
one Lexa, used by same son who has the Lexa 
casting reel.

So I'm loyal to Shimano as far as they have been
the reels I've liked most in terms of how they felt
in my hands when testing them out. They just 
felt right to me, so I stuck with  them and have not
been let down.

[buzzed bait]

i get around....  especially on rods, but reels too.

i currently have shimanos, lews and pfluegers.  but i think i've had about one of most the major manufacturers at one point in time.  to me they all have pros and cons, so i'm more of a bargain hunter than a loyalist.

[SwampLife]

I own two quantum smokes and 7  lews 

3 speed spools 

2 tp 

1 tournament mb

1 tournament 

all I'm buying from here on out Is lews

 

[Hog Basser]

Can't be the reliability and toughness of Abu Garcia round reels.  I have several in my arsenal.  I recently purchased a Lew's (haven't tried it out yet) and I have almost 20 year old Shimano Curado and Quantum reels that are back ups and need a little cleaning up.  I'm not particularly loyal and will try anything, but feel most comfortable with Abu.  In fact, I just picked up my first Abu spinning reel today to use with a Ned Rig set up.  

[Jrob78]

I've got no preference at all as long as my reels are Daiwa or Shimano.  

Right or wrong, I have no interest in the other reels that come out of the same couple of factories.  I'm not denying that they make a good product, they're just not for me.

[fvogel67]

Shimanos for me

[eyedabassman]

There are alot of good reels out there. I am not putting any of them down and I own alot of the high end bait cast reels and some top spinning reels. I had been a guide for over 15 years and if I could do it all over again I would have only Lews reels on all my rods!

[tander]

14 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Lew's for bait casting.

Pflueger for spinning. 

What he said !!!

[Bankbeater]

I am not brand loyal.  I have used Abu Garcia, Shimano, Daiwa, Lews, and BPS reels over the years.  I have had issues with all of them.  Right now a majority of my baitcasting reels are Abu Garcia, and my spinning reels are Pflueger Presidents.

[robster80]

Shimano for me. .ive tried Lews and couple others but they did nothing for me... i did have a tatula i sold recently (just too big of a reel) and just picked up an OG Zillion so we'll see how it does 

[ww2farmer]

I am not brand loyal, until a reel company starts paying me to use and endorse them I will buy a little from everyone.............I have Daiwa's , Lew's, Abu's, Quantum's and Pflueger's. I used to have quite a few Shimano's until they started raising prices, putting fancy names on $200 graphite framed reels, playing games like painting the E series Curados white, calling them Chronarchs and charging more for them etc...Shimano was also has given the me the worst customer service of any of the major companies. For example...........I lost  small parts out of  Daiwa and Abu reels before.........my fault, I expected to fully pay for it, but BOTH companies sent me replacement parts free of charge, Shimano on the other hand.... I once sent a Citica 201E in that shortly after being purchased NEW made terrible noises, it came back worse AND I was charged to have it fixed (I guess they don't really have a warranty)......... I called them, they wanted me to send it back, and pay to have it fixed again, out of frustration, I sent the reel to Mike at DVT and he reported back to me that the Shimano techs installed a RH gear set in a LH reel, and he fixed it for me for a fair price................I mean come the heck on Shimano!!! That was the last straw for me and Shimano, at least for a while. Shortly after this I sold all of my Shimano's................even my favorite little reels, the Curado 51E's I had. I don't go out of my way to bash Shimano, as I am sure my exp. with them is out of the norm, but it's just an example of how one company can get soured in the eye's of a lone end user........................now ask me how I feel about Rapala products LOL.

[roadwarrior]

Well, that is a terrible experience and I would be mad, too! However, my experience has been quite the opposite.

Over the past few years I have acquired several Pinnacle reels which have both impressed me initially and held up well. Still, the bulk of my gear remains Shimano (17-3).