There’s a new player in the game

[zell_pop1]

15 hours ago, redmeansdistortion said:

They don't mention that they do, but they imply it such as Abu with the Magtrax name for instance.  Magtrax was developed by Abu in the early 1980s and they own the trademark to it, so they apply it to their OEM partner offerings that use a magnetic brake.  If St Croix truly does own the tooling, they can assemble in Mexico since labor costs are similar to Chinese costs and cheaper than Korean labor.

The last part is my point all along, and yeah Abu Garcia has name trademarks like Xcräftic but I never seen them claim what St Croix just did, sure maybe it's implied but not definitive. 

[Blaine Donders]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:19 PM, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

Haibo is new to me, who goes through Haibo? I have one Lews, it's fine. I also have an abu Cardinal 35 that is the best spinning reel I've ever used.

 

Regardless, for baitcasters I've become enthused by Daiwa. Tatula sv103 is bonkers. ZILLION tw sv g is killer too, but the white plastic spool part thing broke. I'm sending in for warranty. But it is a dream to fish with.

 

If Ida known better I woulda jumped on a Tatula Elite deal I found, but was trying to think of the new job and new budget... decided against it. Hopefully I'll see a deal similar again when I can afford it.

There may be more, but two lines that I know are Haibo are Ardent and Ark.

[OG Crankster]

If St Croix wasnt a sponsor........we wouldnt be reading this thread right now.

[garroyo130]

19 minutes ago, OG Crankster said:

If St Croix wasnt a sponsor........we wouldnt be reading this thread right now.

 

Agreed, but you can think about it 2 ways: 

 

1: No one would be touting this reel as the greatest thing ever and therefore this thread wouldn't exist. 

 

2: Without sponsorship funding, this site might have died long ago

 

[waymont]

Any way you slice this loaf, these reels don’t have a metal frame and can not be as sturdy as one. I bet they are pretty good, and are in the budget lots of anglers stay in. 

[txchaser]

I have no dog in the hunt here, I'm a Daiwa guy, IMO they have the best tech and someone here mentioned that they still have a patent on some of their cast control. 

 

However, hatin' on outsourcing the actual manufacturing is hating on most of the reels on the market, and on Megabass' rods, etc. At this point you can pretty reliably target quality with how much you spend from these major players.

 

To spool up a full design and reel from scratch, and then build the manufacturing capability to make them is economically unrealistic, given the volume one would need to sell. Tooling is an actual investment, even if you use some shared parts. Like you probably need to sell thousands of $120 reels just to pay for the tooling. I'm pretty sure companies that make a million reels a year can turn out a consistent product. 

 

Time will tell if the feature set they pack in at that price point feels like similar price point reels, or better, or not. Maybe they dumped all the money into cast control, or the handle knobs, or whatever. I think they have an advantage in that people seem to like st croix and they stand behind their rods, so many will give them a shot. 

 

Bates is getting a lot of love for their $300+ machined aluminum reel, it's assembled overseas too. Probably the same company that does the st croix reel. They just picked features and parts that fit their price point. 

 

120 bucks is a pretty competitive price point with lots of options. There's a decent shot they made a $150 reel and will sell it for $120 to get people to try it out. Or they will find out there's just no room for them in the market. It's really hard, given all of the choices. 

 

Source: a friend has been through this process on spinning reels and casting reels

 

[12poundbass]

After running this reel through it’s paces this fishing season I figured I’d give it an end of season write up.

 

I know some are turned off because it doesn’t have a metal frame but that doesn’t bother me the slightest. The reel is compact and fits very comfortably in my hand. The brakes work very well and easy to get dialed in. I was casting larger baits into the wind with confidence and no worry of a backlash. I’m not saying it won’t backlash, I’m not that naive. @Bluebasser86 has reassured us backlashes are possible with this reel. 😁

 

It casts with great distance and the retrieve is exceptionally smooth. I’ve been quite impressed with this reel so far and plan to add more to my arsenal in the future as I phase out older cheaper reels. In my opinion this reel ranks up there with reels in the $150+ range yet it’s only $120. 
 

Kudos to Seviin for knocking it out of the park with theirs reel!

 

 

[garroyo130]

12 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

After running this reel through it’s paces this fishing season I figured I’d give it an end of season write up.

 

I know some are turned off because it doesn’t have a metal frame but that doesn’t bother me the slightest. The reel is compact and fits very comfortably in my hand. The brakes work very well and easy to get dialed in. I was casting larger baits into the wind with confidence and no worry of a backlash. I’m not saying it won’t backlash, I’m not that naive. @Bluebasser86 has reassured us backlashes are possible with this reel. 😁

 

It casts with great distance and the retrieve is exceptionally smooth. I’ve been quite impressed with this reel so far and plan to add more to my arsenal in the future as I phase out older cheaper reels. In my opinion this reel ranks up there with reels in the $150+ range yet it’s only $120. 
 

Kudos to Seviin for knocking it out of the park with theirs reel!

 

 

 

What reel would you compare this to, or say it fishes closest to?

[Hulkster]

Are these made by Doyo (the factory that makes all the Pure fishing, bass pro, lews etc) reels?

 

just curious 

[12poundbass]

1 hour ago, garroyo130 said:

 

What reel would you compare this to, or say it fishes closest to?

I’m the type that if I find something I like I stick with it especially when it comes to expensive things, so I don’t have a bunch of different reels. To answer your question the best I can though I’d have to say it’s right there with my Tatula 150. 

54 minutes ago, Hulkster said:

Are these made by Doyo (the factory that makes all the Pure fishing, bass pro, lews etc) reels?

 

just curious 

I have no clue where they’re made. I don’t go down the rabbit hole of where reels are made, are they an original design, material types, and so on. I give something a try and if I like it I’ll tend to stick with it.

 

It’s worked well for me to this point.