Favorite Reel brand?
And If you will please tell us why you picked this brand as your Favorite.
Well my FAVORITE reel WAS the Shimano Curado Super-Free. (late 90s, "metallic pea green" with gold spool) Those reels just are PERFECTION to me, I have 4 of them and would love 10more if I could find them NIB but the blasted things are still bringing more money than they did new so I guess folks still lovem.
I used to swear by Shimano but after they quit making the 90s/early00s Curados and Chronarchs, they seemed to start smoking crack with their pricing and to me the reels weren't actually as smooth as before. So I guess the last 6 or so reels I've bought were actually Pflueger's and I gotta say I've had NO problems with them! Every January after deer season, I respool all my reels and then clean and lube them so I haven't had any problems with them and they are still butter smooth.
Honestly if I were buying a brand new reel today I have NO clue what I'd get as I just literally HATE the newer "tiny reels", I mean the blasted things are gettin so small there just aint enough to hold onto and they just don't feel right to me so I keep running the "90s/00s" tech reels.
One thing I've seen with ALOT of reels over the last 20yrs is that propensity of most of them to be packed full of GREASE instead of properly oiled where they should have oil and greased where they should be greased. I guess it's a combination of being made in the orient and the reels makers knowing MOST folks don't do squat to the reels so they pack them full of grease so the reels will at least make it 2-3 seasons before they conk out. My annual maintenance schedule has proven pretty failsafe, I have some reels I've had since I was a kid in the 80s and except for the laughable performance/tech they had back then vs newer reels, I could still use them tomorrow if I needed to!