Anyone have any experience with this reel? Anyone know spool weight or if it can cast down to bfs-ish territory?

They seem to be really proud of the frame and not terribly concerned with braking system/internals. Wonder where these are even made?

https://batesfishingco.com/blogs/news/baitcast-reel-manufacturing

 

They are made in Korea. Buy one and let us know, I'm pretty curious how one piece aluminum frame = 5 ounces. 

Waiting for TW to get the left hand Hundo in. I'd like to get one during black Friday sale. I thought Bates reels were made in the U.S.

Designed in Texas but machined and assembled overseas according to their website. 
 

https://batesfishingco.com/blogs/news/baitcast-reel-manufacturing#:~:text=Everything related to design and,transferred to our milling house.

Buy it could be a collectors item in a few years.😎

Tom

10 minutes ago, WRB said:

Buy it could be a collectors item in a few years.😎

Tom

Haha what makes you say that?

Couple of reasons, they must create a standout brand name that becomes very well known for excellence when they increase their price point and not lose market share.

5.0 oz total reel weight sounds fishy.

As a engineer 6061-T6 isn’t easy to machine and hold dimensional stability or as strong as 7075-T6 and question that choice for this application. 

Tom

PS, I was named Thomas for a reason.

Got to handle the raw frame and a production reel.  They're unbelievably light, feels like an aldebaran but it's solid like Metanium.  Not to mention the size, it made a Tatula 70 look huge.  The model I handled was a lefty as it was the last 1 they had.  If you get 1 in you're hand it's hard to walk away.

Did you buy it?

Tom

18 minutes ago, WRB said:

Did you buy it?

Tom

On 10/29/2023 at 1:44 PM, uno said:

They are made in Korea. Buy one and let us know, I'm pretty curious how one piece aluminum frame = 5 ounces. 

Sorry for being late af to this thread but for those still curious the actual answer is wonkier than you thought.  They’re made in china by loongze.  Loongze reels share the same braking system as the hundo + some internal parts (big thing unique to this manufacturer is that red clutch plate with the threaded posts).  I really don’t care or mind where a company produces its reels as long as they’re honest about it.  The amount of posts Bates share and acknowledge that claim they’re made in the states kinda rubs me the wrong way.

Hella Bread, No Way! I want to buy this round BFS CDM reel and it's the same company that makes the Hundo!

 

Check this out:

 

 

On 10/30/2023 at 12:44 AM, WRB said:

Did you buy it?

Tom

I did not

The whole ProjectTM seems like an answer without a question, and an upscale marketing effort.  

The same money spent on Lew's or JDM Shimano or Daiwa will probably make you happier.  

But who am I to talk, with predelection for old-design bench round synchro reels and S-glass rods (at least part of this, I love tinkering the reels, and the S-glass does skip-cast better than everything newer).  

19 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

The whole ProjectTM seems like an answer without a question, and an upscale marketing effort.  

The same money spent on Lew's or JDM Shimano or Daiwa will probably make you happier.  

But who am I to talk, with predelection for old-design bench round synchro reels and S-glass rods (at least part of this, I love tinkering the reels, and the S-glass does skip-cast better than everything newer).  

They put in a bit more effort than the average oem sourced reel company considering the factory doesn’t offer any low profile models in its standard catalog which probably suggests bates has exclusive rights to that body design but outside of that bates is operating like every other oem sourced reel company.  Lots of effort went into marketing and the branding.  Side note loongze/bates reels are stupid light for a full alu bodied reel which would make me decently worried about how it will hold up.  We all know there has to be a trade off getting the weight this low and the route they took seems to be thinner than normal wall thickness on the frame and side plates.  

Also found it kinda weird/funny they featured the use of NMB bearings as a marketing point when they’re pretty much the standard across the industry.  

Timely.

 

 

@Hella Bread 

You'd be hard-pressed to say Lew's doesn't spec or Q/C their Doyo-built reels - they also support them with a future.  Doyo is a major player, supplying parts to both Shimano and Daiwa.  

 

No question marketing is the biggest effort, and Bates initially approached the China company to batch-build reels to their spec.  Probably began with him handling and liking the Loongze round reel.  Likely a few trips to China to work out prototype details.  

 

I had a friend who answered a small-niche fly reel for cane rod market (he already had a China-import fly business going - the biggest China complaint then, they copied cane rod tapers of living rod makers and sold using their names*).  He went to China for this, I helped him work out the bezel for the red agate.  I suspect the process worked the same way - Tom saw the CAPS reel he liked, knew he had a cane-fisher market adding the red agate.  He sold 2000 reels, half-RH, half-LH, and the project was done.  Years after these were gone, people were listing WTB in fly forum classifieds.  

 

I had S/N 001 until it was too easy to sell to an Australian buyer.  

* AJ Thramer was known for quietly repairing the China rods bearing his name that were "returned" to him for warranty issues.  

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

The whole ProjectTM seems like an answer without a question, and an upscale marketing effort.  

The same money spent on Lew's or JDM Shimano or Daiwa will probably make you happier.  

But who am I to talk, with predelection for old-design bench round synchro reels and S-glass rods (at least part of this, I love tinkering the reels, and the S-glass does skip-cast better than everything newer).  

One day in the distant future, somebody will be digging up artifacts and find an Isuzu buried somewhere in Texas, spool it up, and go fishing!

20 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Hella Bread

No question marketing is the biggest effort, and Bates initially approached the China company to batch-build reels to their spec.  Likely a few trips to China to work out prototype details.  

 

I had a friend who answered a small-niche fly reel for cane rod market (he already had a China-import fly business going).  He went to China for this, I helped him work out the bezel for the red agate.  He sold 2000 reels, half-RH, half-LH, and the project was done.  

 

I had S/N 001 until it was too easy to sell to an Australian buyer.  

Yeah it’s pretty normal behavior in this industry the only thing I personally don’t like is the lack of honesty when it comes to these things bc i swear to god I couldn’t find country of origin marked anywhere on the bates packaging. (not sure if that’s even legal to exclude). Any there’s excitement over a new reel company coming onto the market people just gotta remember outside of niche ultra specialized reels (ie: fully sealed spinners like the visser/zeebaas/vs or tournament casters) there hasn’t been any new reel companies offering fully original designs with in house manufacturing in a very long time especially in the low profile department and it will continue to stay like that for a reason.  The amount of time money and effort that would have to go into setting up a facility and engineering from the ground up is literally not feasible/possible for any new company.  

There are a few companies bench-building reels in the US

https://irtreels.com/

https://www.seigler.fish/collections/conventional-fishing-reels

look what my friend JD Wagner does in fly reels

http://www.wagnerrods.com/wagnersmallbatchreels3.html

 

My opinion, Bates has made a suave marketing effort to ride their coattails.  

27 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Hella Bread 

You'd be hard-pressed to say Lew's doesn't spec or Q/C their Doyo-built reels - they also support them with a future.  Doyo is a major player, supplying parts to both Shimano and Daiwa.  

 

No question marketing is the biggest effort, and Bates initially approached the China company to batch-build reels to their spec.  Likely a few trips to China to work out prototype details.  

 

I had a friend who answered a small-niche fly reel for cane rod market (he already had a China-import fly business going).  He went to China for this, I helped him work out the bezel for the red agate.  I suspect the process worked the same way - Tom saw the CAPS reel he liked, knew he had a cane-fisher market adding the red agate.  He sold 2000 reels, half-RH, half-LH, and the project was done.  Years after these were gone, people were listing WTB in fly forum classifieds.  

 

I had S/N 001 until it was too easy to sell to an Australian buyer.  

doyo gets a lot of undeserved hate most of the time, I think they’re fine and my top pick out of the main oem factories.  The only legitimate complaint I had was the lack of a fully supported pinion across all models but idk if that was just a gen 4 revo lineup specific quirk and/or if that has been fixed in all current doyos

1 minute ago, Hella Bread said:

doyo gets a lot of undeserved hate most of the time, I think they’re fine and my top pick out of the main oem factories.  The only legitimate complaint I had was the lack of a fully supported pinion across all models but idk if that was just a gen 4 revo lineup specific quirk and/or if that has been fixed in all current doyos

Actually scratch that they deserve all the hate I still blame doyo for the discontinuing of zpi spools to sell completed reels 😂 

2 minutes ago, Hella Bread said:

Yeah it’s pretty normal behavior in this industry

Exactly. Nobody concerned with country-of-origin sourcing has the first clue about which parts come from where which are used in your favorite brands. Time to move on with this type of thinking. It's so far out of our hands.

8 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

One day in the distant future, somebody will be digging up artifacts and find an Isuzu buried somewhere in Texas

Perhaps you're old enough to remember when buying anything from the conquered Imperial Japanese was a sin? Cars made from recycled beer cans? Now they're held in the same regard as Sweden or Germany. BTW, I "liked" your post.

1 minute ago, PhishLI said:

Exactly. Nobody concerned with country-of-origin sourcing has the first clue about which parts come from where which are used in your favorite brands. Time to move on with this type of thinking. It's so far out of our hands.

Perhaps you're old enough to remember when buying anything from the conquered Imperial Japanese was a sin? Cars made from recycled beer cans? Now they're held in the same regard as Sweden or Germany. BTW, I "liked" your post.

The issue isn’t really the country of origin itself I could care less about where something was made so long as the product is good evidenced by the fact I happily pay for and use megabass and steez rods both which are made in china but they don’t actively try to hide this fact, it’s pretty clearly stated. issue that pops up is when companies either are flat out lying about the production origin and/or purposely obscuring the **** out of it while pushing the image and branding it was designed and produced somewhere else.  It’s an honesty thing at the end of the day.  Most people don’t like being lied or misled.