Spent a lot more time on the water this past week, and this reel got used a LOT. In fact, with the bladed jig bite being so hot, this reel saw probably 90% of the action.
So far it has performed flawlessly with regard to fighting fish. It has performed
almost flawlessly with regard to casting.
What do I mean by almost flawlessly? Well, with 11 bearings, the spool is extremely free-spinning. So this reel requires an extra bit of tweaking in order not to backlash it. Basically what I have done is max out the magnetic brake and the internal centrifugal brakes. And then I use the spool tension knob to make fine adjustments to compensate for conditions (casting with the wind or casting
into the wind).
Doing that allows me to use it with only a couple backlashes if I forget that I am casting into high winds and forget to compensate for it.
I'm sure with a bit more use I will become more familiar with it's quirks and the backlashes will go away completely.
As far as fighting fish, I have landed at least a couple dozen bass up to 4 lbs. on it and I haven't had a single problem with it, nor do I have any complaints about how it handles these fish.
As of right now, this is looking like a great $39 purchase