After immersing myself in this forum’s archives, googling numerous websites and reviews, exhausting youtube videos, I think i have decided to get a lexa 300 hd in either 8.1 or 7.4, For my finesse musky/ bass swimbait setup. It was over the tranx 300. Good decision?

either reel will be fine, its more up to user brand preference.

 

My question would be why do you need a 8.1 for swimbait fishing?  I'm not sure on Musky, but for bass usually the bigger the bait the slower you work it.

I would go with the Lews super duty wide spool over the Lexa.and the tranx over everything.

   If you've handled them both, the decision is yours to make. If you haven't handled them both, then I suggest you find a way to do exactly that. In the end, you're going to have to satisfy yourself, not other people.

 

   Good luck!     jj

I’ve owned 6 tranx and 3 Lexas and in my opinion the tranx is far away the better reel. Smoother, better casting distance, lasts longer, much more compact, amazing torque for its size. The tranx 300 almost feels like a bass reel in your hand but has the gears of a real musky reel. With them costing pretty much the same I would go with a tranx 300hg any day of the week. If you want some more info go look at some real musky stuff like muskiefirst and you’ll get the same answer.

Those were the final two in my swimbait reel derby. The Tranx is much more compact than the Lexa, and for me, size matters. 

 

The biggest downside of the Tranx that I am aware of being that sometimes the latch securing the non-driveside plate cover can accidentally get flipped to the open position. On my rod, it is tucked in so far that it is very difficult to open intentionally let alone accidentally.

 

I heard reports of the weight of the oversize handle on some Lexas putting the reel into gear on hard casts, thus snapping off some expensive swimbaits. The latter may absolutely be due to user error, but given that I already preferred the smaller profile of the Tranx, I opted not to personally find out for myself.

On 9/16/2020 at 7:42 PM, camman said:

either reel will be fine, its more up to user brand preference.

 

My question would be why do you need a 8.1 for swimbait fishing?  I'm not sure on Musky, but for bass usually the bigger the bait the slower you work it.

I actually just ordered the 7.4 lexa 300 hd. Good point with 8.1. I decided I would rather have a little more power to reel fish than a little more speed retrieving lure.