I bought my son (not an avid fisherman) a Daiwa Revos 2500 LT and paired it with a SC Mojo Bass to use when he goes fishing or if one my friends need to borrow a reel/rod.  I've had the reel for a couple of years now and I personally used it for a long weekend of fishing recently.  Wow, I was very surprised at how much I liked it.  I've been a Shimano Stradic guy for over 20 years and until last summer have not even bought a different spinning reel (I did purchase the Diawa Tatula and Ballistic which I didn't care for).  For less than $ 50.00 the Revros felt like a much more expensive reel.

I just recently upgraded my rigs, and one was my finesse rig with a Daiwa Revros LT2500 on a Fenwick HMX 66M-FS rod. I opted to try it as the reviews looked good. To say I was surprised is an understatement. It is extremely smooth and seems to be a very well-built reel for the $42.94 it went for on Amazon Prime. I'm very pleased with it!

Yes sir... recently made some spring gear purchases and was very surprised.  Picked up the 7'1 Heavy Tatula rod and Wow! Bought it as a back up and wow, I use it all the time now.  I still like my 744 DX rod for jigs, but that Tat was a great surprise. Fairly light, a little stiff but great for big topwater baits and for heavy t rigs.  I also picked up 3, 13 Origin C reels, for 55 bucks each (they run 100) it's not my brand and never used them.  it was a great deal and I figured if I didn't like them I can make my money back.  2 of them went to my son, the other is on my 7'1 heavy tat.  I was more than surprised, actually impressed.  Good reels at their price point.  Nothing fancy about them at all, just good work horse reels and they dont feel cheap.  Pretty smooth too.  The daiwa xt 7'MH I got for my son was also a pleasant surprise.  Very good rod for 80 bucks.  We are both pleased with it.  Nothing Daiwa makes should surprise me anymore....but it does. The quality of gear at mid and low price points is wayyyyy better than it was 15 years ago.  (That just my opinion) 

I've heard nothing but rave reports on the iRod swimbait rods, so on a whim I took a chance and ordered one of their conventional tackle rods. Bought their $100 fiber series, figured if I didn't like it I didn't spend much. Put a huge smile on my face the first time out, I loved it. A few weeks later I bought another, but upgraded to the Crusher series, and it's seriously just hard to put down. 

 

 

Last winter I picked up a St. Croix Eyecon 76MLXF2 spinning rod for an excellent price. Love the reel seat and especially the light soft tip. The sensitivity is ok being a SCII blank. I got my eye on the Legend Extreme 76MLXF. I'm not sure if it has the light, soft tip but I'll find out.

I upgraded all of my rods and reels in the last 2 years. Mainly nrx’s and glx’s, a few exprides and 2 imx pro’s paired with chronarch mgl’s, bantam mgl’s, metanium mgl’s and stradic fk/fl/ci4+. 
 

I help my dad and buddy with two set ups more budget friendly. My dad got a stradic fk before the fl was released and paired it with the daiwa tatula lt. For the money the rod is super light, great balance, exceptional sensitivity! I was very pleased. 
 

my buddy got his first casting set up. Sold him my old zillion rod, and paired it with a fuego ct and once again incredibly impressed. Best beginner reel in my mind. Smooth, super easy to tune, handles and feels very comparable to the daiwa tatula sv I had. Casting distance was great! 

I'll add on to the Daiwa bandwagon here. Admittedly my experience is very very limited, but I literally just got (as in two days ago) a ML Aird X rod and Daiwa Regal LT reel (1000 size). I wanted a ML setup to fill in the gap between my M and UL spinning combos. After fishing for one session I am very impressed with both the rod and the reel at around the $50 price point. Especially the rod, paired with Sufix 832 the rod is extremely sensitive. Also very light compared to other non-prime rods I have owned. 

Just a few of the things that I didn't expect much for the price and that I ended up liking quite a bit.

 

The Daiwa Revros 2500H being one of them. Another is the 11'2" Mod. action BPS Crappie Max rod I put it on.

a Fenwick Eagle 8' UL-Mod. action spinning rod..Both of these rigs are great for early spring Walleye on rivers below dams, throwing 1/8 oz. spinners ashore during the shad spawn, and of course Crappie spawn.

 

Falcon HD rods and Falcon Expert rods. I went on a trip with my son this spring and we swapped gear for a day. I was blown away by how good these rods really are. The HD is better than any cheap rod I've ever fished at $70 and better than most of the <$150 rods I've used. The Expert gives my ST. Croix, Daiwa BL and some Megabass rods a run and it's only $199.

 

KastKing Sharkey II spinning reel. I once ordered 6 KK reels at once just to see what the buzz with these guys was. The 5 bait cast reels I had no use for. This Sharkey spinning reel on the other hand, while it won't replace your Stradic, did compare very well with the rest of the cheap but decent spinning reels I have such as the Pflueger Presidents, Trions, Revros etc.

 

Daiwa Laguna 100 reel. Sure it's a cheap carbon frame BC reel, but it works very well, and seems to hold up to long term use. It's a great reel for beginners. I've got a couple of them NIB stashed away for the Grand kid's first Bait casters.

 

Daiwa Laguna 6'6" ML XF spinning rod. I don't much care for any of the other cheap Daiwa rods I've tried. But this one I liked. Most of the cheaper Daiwa rods feel like broomsticks to me. The XF tip and 6-6 length on this one somehow made for a surprisingly light and sensitive rod.

 

There have been many more, but these come to mind easily.

 

 

On 6/18/2020 at 5:50 AM, Randy Price said:

I bought my son (not an avid fisherman) a Daiwa Revos 2500 LT and paired it with a SC Mojo Bass to use when he goes fishing or if one my friends need to borrow a reel/rod.  I've had the reel for a couple of years now and I personally used it for a long weekend of fishing recently.  Wow, I was very surprised at how much I liked it.  I've been a Shimano Stradic guy for over 20 years and until last summer have not even bought a different spinning reel (I did purchase the Diawa Tatula and Ballistic which I didn't care for).  For less than $ 50.00 the Revros felt like a much more expensive reel.

I also recently bought a Daiwa Revos 2500 LT and paired it with a Dobyns FR 702sf. I was expecting the rod to be great and it is, but the reel wow. I had been avoiding spin gear because of some bad past experiences with spinning reels, the Revos feels great and has exceeded my expectations.

 

I'm sure that there are some advantages to be had with more expensive reels but if I don't ever touch one I'll be happy with this one, hopefully for a good long time. The 150.00 saved over say a Stradic, feels good in my wallet.

Most definitely! This spring I bought a Berkley lightning rod 7ft medium moderate fast. These have always been great budget rods but this is hands down the best version I've used. This rod has been great for small squarebills like a 1.5 or bomber square a. I've got it paired up with a kastking assassin and I've gotta say for $85 it's a good budget combo. I've got much "nicer" squarebill rods like a pair of the old falcon bucoo micro guide trapcasters...but I'm loving the lightning rod lately.

49 minutes ago, Hewhospeaksmuchbull said:

I also recently bought a Daiwa Revos 2500 LT and paired it with a Dobyns FR 702sf. I was expecting the rod to be great and it is, but the reel wow. I had been avoiding spin gear because of some bad past experiences with spinning reels, the Revos feels great and has exceeded my expectations.

 

I'm sure that there are some advantages to be had with more expensive reels but if I don't ever touch one I'll be happy with this one, hopefully for a good long time. The 150.00 saved over say a Stradic, feels good in my wallet.

I don’t know what the advantages are, either. I’m sure there must be (longevity, more precise drag settings, etc), but I am really pleased in how smooth it is on the retrieve. It looks and feels like a much more expensive spinning reel. For less than $50, it’s well worth it! 

The quantum Icon Pt is another sub $50 reel that is an absolute steal. Sure it’s not pretty, has weird EVA knobs, and comes out of the package weighing nearly 8 ounces but it’s a casting machine and very smooth. It has no problem muscling a 4lb fish out of grass either. Aluminum frame, brass gears, supported pinion. It’s a keeper

I've purchased a good pile of reels over the past year which are all known quantities for the most part. While a few have been slightly disappointing regarding particular ergonomic quirks, none of those peccadilloes truly affect their on the water performance. I like them all.

 

There's one standout based on it exceeding all expectations and then some: The Quantum Tour S3. Fit and finish is tight. It's a smooth cranker with it's fully supported drive train which is up to par in it's basic layout with a Curado K or Zillion. It palms great and is reasonably light at 6.4 ozs. The real kicker is it's turbo charged long casting capability due to it's tall 36mm spool and quite good stock spool bearings. The braking system seems to be calibrated in such a way that allows one to hammer casts for distance without choking the ascent all while maintaining control. The fact that the side plate doesn't need to be removed to engage or disengage it's centrifugal brake blocks is just icing on the cake. I really enjoy fishing with this reel, especially when I want to hit targets that are typically out of reach when I'm working from the shore or wading.

16 minutes ago, GReb said:

The quantum Icon Pt is another sub $50 reel that is an absolute steal. Sure it’s not pretty, has weird EVA knobs, and comes out of the package weighing nearly 8 ounces but it’s a casting machine and very smooth. It has no problem muscling a 4lb fish out of grass either. Aluminum frame, brass gears, supported pinion. It’s a keeper

I agree. Priced at $159 originally and being blown out due to it being replaced by the Vapor, it's hard to beat at the auction site price.  Mine's on a smaller swimbait rig with 20lb Big Game. Seems to have no problem pulling high resistance wakes. Very solid feeling and another bomb caster from Quantum.

16 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

I've purchased a good pile of reels over the past year which are all known quantities for the most part. While a few have been slightly disappointing regarding particular ergonomic quirks, none of those peccadilloes truly affect their on the water performance. I like them all.

 

There's one standout based on it exceeding all expectations and then some: The Quantum Tour S3. Fit and finish is tight. It's a smooth cranker with it's fully supported drive train which is up to par in it's basic layout with a Curado K or Zillion. It palms great and is reasonably light at 6.4 ozs. The real kicker is it's turbo charged long casting capability due to it's tall 36mm spool and quite good stock spool bearings. The braking system seems to be calibrated in such a way that allows one to hammer casts for distance without choking the ascent all while maintaining control. The fact that the side plate doesn't need to be removed to engage or disengage it's centrifugal brake blocks is just icing on the cake. I really enjoy fishing with this reel, especially when I want to hit targets that are typically out of reach when I'm working from the shore or wading.

And TT gave it a 'Great' rating.  Know where I can find a LH for about $140? 

Back a few years ago, St Croix was blowing out their remaining stock of the "Rage Line" of rods. 

I have, fish (And Love) the St Croix LTB line but at that point, did not own any Rage sticks.

I was in the market for a Mod Fast Jig rod so I took a flyer on a very attractively priced 7'6" MH Mod-Fast 

wand from the Bargain Room.  After one day on the water with it, I went back and got another, (last one unfortunately).  Totally dig this one - especially The Handle !

Sad part is that if I want to add to the inventory or even upgrade a few stick to get that handle,

I'll need to jump all the way to the Extreme Line, which a fairly monumental jump in $$$;

especially since I snagged the Rage sticks for like $80 American each.

Love The Rage.  ( Pulls double duty as my A-Rig Rod as well.)

A-Jay

 

 

The early generation daiwa exceler. MagZ with a free floating spool. I bought 4 or 5 on closeout at gander, mostly for beater reels for my nephews. Still have 2 of the PG on cranking rods to this day. Great workhorse reels.

I bought a Revros 2000 a few years ago when Pflueger sold out and the Presidents went in the toilet. Liked it so much I've bought 2 more since and plan to keep replacing my Presidents with them as they die out. I bought one for my son for his first nice combo and paired it with an Aird X rod. Both black and gold, it's a sweet looking combo.

Daiwa Fuego 3000LT spinning reel.  The more I use it the more I realize it's performance is much like the much more expensive Ballistic LT.