On April 30, 2016 at 10:42 AM, lmbfisherman said:

Curious, does it flex under load?  

i've noticed absolutely no flex,  have had several pike that were in the 13 to 15lb range and numerous bass both large and smallies of decent size many in cover. i would bass fish this reel anywhere with out a worry. the only thing i am not a fan of is the newer shimano handles so all my reels get hawgtechs with septons  and a good degreasing and proper tune right out of the box. besides that these casitas's have shelved a lot of my higher end reels. 

what i find is kind of funny is that when the new aldebaran came out last year i bought 2 at $350.00 plus dollars and absolutely hated them ,  although there were smooth they just felt cheap and plasticy ( i know this prob isn't even  a word) but nobody was worried about them and i believe the reason is the marketing and price!! if shimano called the casitas something other than composite like molecular ci7+ or whatever and charged $349.00 for it people wouldn't be worried because it would be "high end". yes there are guys that won't even look at a reel that is not alum or mag  framed as they are proven workhorses but coming from a background in the cycling industry ,composites / carbons etc are definitely here to stay and from companies like shimano with extensive engineering knowledge of these materials i think your going to see more and more out there

good to know, thanks