Okay, I'm kind of giving away one of my secrets here...

 

All nine of my casting reels are these

 

 

They just work. 

 

Three were purchased new back in the 1990's, the remaining have been picked up via eBay and FB marketplace. Found used right around $50. Citica's are 5:1, and the Curado's are 6:1 (or something close). Lately I have found myself leaning more towards the Citita's and the 5:1 ratio. 

 

Good luck!

21 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Okay, I'm kind of giving away one of my secrets here...

 

All nine of my casting reels are these

 

 

They just work. 

 

Three were purchased new back in the 1990's, the remaining have been picked up via eBay and FB marketplace. Found used right around $50. Citica's are 5:1, and the Curado's are 6:1 (or something close). Lately I have found myself leaning more towards the Citita's and the 5:1 ratio. 

 

Good luck!

Yep, they just work.  Old reels are built like tanks.  They may not have super fast gear ratios or long handes but they typically have larger diameter spools that help to increase IPT and you can always change out the handles.  I use both of these 20+ year old reels with some cosmetic updates and they work as well as any of my new Daiwas and Shimanos.  

4 hours ago, the reel ess said:

And beware the very cheap Lew's reel that they're selling for the ridiculously low price of about $30. My buddy bought one and there's something wrong with the spool release. He has to hold it down when he casts or it pups back up. Someone who works on reels may be able to fix it.

 

Hmmm... I'd say design flaw starting with flexible plastic frames that do not hold parts in tight tolerances within the reels.

 

A buddy of mine purchased a brand new Lew's for $110, and it never did work right, right out of the box. It cast OK but when he tried to reset the reel, gears were jumping teeth due to more than likely plastic flexing allowing tolerances to change on demand within the reel itself, and it made a clicking sound.

 

I put him the car and we drove that reel back down to the store where he got a full refund for it, and I turned around and handed him two Bass Pro reels I had laying around the house unused because I primarily use Shimano, so I gave him a Johnny Morris and a Rick Clunn reel, both with solid metal frames and he still uses them to this day.

 

Metal frames on baitcast reels may be heavier, but they make a difference in the quality of function and operation in my opinion and more importantly for durability and reliability over long years of use. Plastic reels simply do not hold up- even right out of the starting gate out of their brand new boxes.

 

When someone is choosing a heavy duty use reel as you mentioned, metal frames do matter in my opinion.

 

So that $30 reel may not be fixable if it is a plastic materials problem. My buddy's $110 Lew's with plastic frame making that noise it made right out of the box was not something I would even attempt to repair. Nope. Return it. Get something worthwhile. And he did.

 

I attribute part of this problem with the market demanding reels and rods that weigh less and less. Anglers demanded it, and they got it, and now we are not happy with a lot of those results of now having cheap plastic reels and reels with increasing quantity of plastic parts inside of them that simply do not hold up. Looks like a case of we got what we asked for, and now living to regret it. So when you see people putting more and more plastic parts inside of reels, is it a good thing to shave ounces off of reels? Reliability and durability says no.

 

I am to the point of already wanting to turn this market around and go back in the other direction and demand heavier reels with better quality metals used inside of them. We are a long ways from that turning point. We are still on the downhill side sliding into more and more plastic. Not sure if the fishing reels will ever recover from what we anglers have demanded of all the various brands.

 

My grandfather and father got to live through time periods of solid metal reels. Myself and my children are now living in the age of cheap low quality reels WITH built in obsolescence which was not there in my grandfather's and father's time period. They had heavier quality reels of solid metal. It is myself and my children who have to navigate today's reels designed to fail on purpose using inferior materials they know will not hold up over decades like dad's reels did. They do this to us on purpose because corporate profits want more income. And if reels lasted for decades they don't get return sales.

 

I don't know about you, but if a brand did this to me there would be no brand loyalty to them from me. Even Shimano has crossed that line with me. One of the greats and I saw Shimano stradic reels coming across my workbench in less than 2 years from purchase when new. 2 years. Meanwhile at my house was 20 year old plus stradics still working flawlessly for decades. I used one last night and was grateful to have it. An older stradic 4000FH.

 

I like how BigBox99 put it in his comment above.... all you gotta do is change your perspective on this subject when he said "if you view the reel as disposable." There! Problem solved.

 

 

12 hours ago, Columbia Craw said:

Dobyns Mavericks can be had on Amazon for under twenty bucks depending on the day. Ten plus bearings with supported pinion gear.  100 mm handle, braid friendly, good drag and cast well once cast controls are adjusted.  

Where? I looked at Amazon, and the only Dobyns Maverick reel I see is $85.03. 

2 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

Where? I looked at Amazon, and the only Dobyns Maverick reel I see is $85.03. 

Amazon.com : DOBYNS RODS Maverick Casting Reel/Size 100 / Gear Ratio 6.5:1 / Ball Bearings 11BB+1RB / LH/Blue : Sports & Outdoors

 

P.S. Stick a reel in your cart, send it to save for later, then let it sit for a few days. Often it will come down in price. Check your cart daily to see. My last one came down to $18 and change from $45.

 

On 9/16/2025 at 9:32 AM, Kirtley Howe said:

Where? I looked at Amazon, and the only Dobyns Maverick reel I see is $85.03. 

That reel is discussed in this thread too.  Turns out the really cheap price is for a plastic frame one and not the alloy frame one on TW.  Still pretty cheap for a reel.

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/267631-kastking-baitcaster-quality/

 

I'd still recommend the Seasir Megacuda over that reel since they are the same price.  They're both Aliexpress reels.  I've owned the exact reel as the Maveick in plastic and alloy frame I got from Aliexpress before the Dobyns ever offered to sell one.  

2 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Turns out the really cheap price is for a plastic frame one and not the alloy frame one on TW. 

AFAIK, the one on TW was plastic too. It's no longer up. I'll assume Dobyn's parent company is simply blowing them out via Amazon. Guess they're done with the reel experiment.

 

They're still up on the Dobyn's site, but with a reduced price. Says nothing about the frame material.

The Dobyns Maverick Casting Reel Series - Dobyns Rods

46 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

AFAIK, the one on TW was plastic too. It's no longer up. I'll assume Dobyn's parent company is simply blowing them out via Amazon. Guess they're done with the reel experiment.

 

They're still up on the Dobyn's site, but with a reduced price. Says nothing about the frame material.

The Dobyns Maverick Casting Reel Series - Dobyns Rods

Did CERN fire up the LHC again?  In my timeline the Maverick had an alumimum frame.  The Doybns Maverick is like my very own Mandela Effect. 

 

4 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I attribute part of this problem with the market demanding reels and rods that weigh less and less. Anglers demanded it, and they got it, and now we are not happy with a lot of those results of now having cheap plastic reels and reels with increasing quantity of plastic parts inside of them that simply do not hold up. Looks like a case of we got what we asked for, and now living to regret it. So when you see people putting more and more plastic parts inside of reels, is it a good thing to shave ounces off of reels? Reliability and durability says no.

 

I am to the point of already wanting to turn this market around and go back in the other direction and demand heavier reels with better quality metals used inside of them. We are a long ways from that turning point. We are still on the downhill side sliding into more and more plastic. Not sure if the fishing reels will ever recover from what we anglers have demanded of all the various brands.

Yeah, I have an older Johnny Morris reel, probably early 2000s. One of those that were all shiny chrome metal, at least it was at he time. It's fantastic quality and precision. I stopped using it because the retrieve is 5.2:1 and I wanted 7:1 or higher reels for pitching, frogs, etc. Now I keep it around as a spare and use it and another spare reel to turn the braided line around on other reels to use the unused end.

to this day, i still check garage sales and all the bst pages for left handed "purple" rick clunn reels. Those were some of my favourite reels and purple is top of the list for my favourite colour.

This old reel is in great shape for 40 something bucks shipped.  It's a 6 gear and huge but mint.  BPS used this same platform for some of their late 90s and early 2000s reels including a silver Rick Clunn reel.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286742918783?i

1 hour ago, wolfe_ohara said:

to this day, i still check garage sales and all the bst pages for left handed "purple" rick clunn reels. Those were some of my favourite reels and purple is top of the list for my favourite colour.

 

The blue Rick Clunn signature series reels ended in 2009. Bass Pro kept on making this reel after ending the Rick Clunn series. Bass Pro made the exact same reel with same RCX model number and the only difference was the purple color.

 

But technically it is not a Rick Clunn signature series reel, but kind of still is a Rick Clunn reel. An old timer here on the forum no longer around Goose52 posted it here back in 2011:

 

 

And right now there are still two blue lefties on ebay. I bought the third one on the way to me in the mail now for $25.

 

This reel and other Bass Pro reels like it actually has a weak plastic part inside that could fail. This is the reel I had that same part, 3 of them, custom made at a machine shop. Wish I still had those parts. I may have to do it again. Its the plastic piece that slides through the frame and into the thumb bar. Over years of use it tends to bend and I've seen them break. So keep it lubricated to reduce pressure on that one part and these will last for years.

 

This one and one more are waiting on you!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/336145029836

 

4 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Did CERN fire up the LHC again?  In my timeline the Maverick had an alumimum frame.

The space/time continuum hasn't distorted. Just watched a utoob breakdown of the reel from 3 years ago. Coarse self-tapping screws, so it was plastic then too. Also confirmed in the comments. Oh well.

I'm also keeping an eye on one of the blue Rick Clunn reels on eBay just for fun—I’d probably give it to my kid once I win but I rarely do. However,  I just need to get one cuz he LOVES BLUE and this is PERFECT for a 5 year old boy. 

 

By the way, some of you are actually using 6.x:1 ratio gears for frogging? I’m a little surprised—unless I’m mistaken, as some of you were referring to older models as all-around reels.

4 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

This old reel is in great shape for 40 something bucks shipped.  It's a 6 gear and huge but mint.  BPS used this same platform for some of their late 90s and early 2000s reels including a silver Rick Clunn reel.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286742918783?i

I bought it.  It's too mint to ignore for $46 shipped and I'm pretty sure I owned the Walmart spec version of this reel at one time in the late 90s or early 2000s as a Pinnacle Tara that came on a Walmart combo.  It looked had the tan color of the Solene but had the name Tara or I am vastly misremembering my teens.  Whatever.  This the same platform but super clean and cheap.  I didn't even get to use the reel for long.  I somehow managed to break the tip off the rod high sticking and then dropped the side plate in the water while on a boat.  It remains the only reel I have ever done that to.  Its all I remember from it other than the image of the combo new on Walmart shelves still burned into my memory.  New memory unlocked: My PB football shaped spotted bass from October in Tabletock in 2003 also came on that combo from an FLW Arkie Mirror Glow spinnerbait.  I broke the rod and lost the side plate sometime after. 

Maybe I had a Solene combo and the Tara sat under glass at the counter.  Next up is the Vision round reel and my midlife crisis/2000s Pinnacle related stroke will be over.  OP, just buy a used Fuego CT.  They're great and the will be parts around for the next 100 years considering that Daiwa platform was in production from 2013 to today.  There is one on eBay for $49 rn.

53 minutes ago, Falkus said:

By the way, some of you are actually using 6.x:1 ratio gears for frogging? I’m a little surprised—unless I’m mistaken, as some of you were referring to older models as all-around reels.

 

I asked AI about reel speeds for frogging:

 

"For high-speed frogging reels, look for a baitcasting reel with a gear ratio of 7.5:1 or 8.0:1 or faster (like 9.0:1 or 10.0:1), a strong drag system, and a large line capacity to handle heavy braided line. The high speed allows for quick line recovery to extract bass from heavy cover and weeds, while the power and line capacity are crucial for controlling and landing these fish."  

 

I don't buy into that idea that you have to have a high speed reel for frogging. I can do that technique on any speed really. Its only used for line take up anyway. I fight the fish with the rod and I can take up line at any speed really. 5 to 8 is primarily where I am at and can do fine with a 6 if need be. Its all about the rod for me.

 

That said, I am guilty of having purchased the only SHLA Rick Clunn reel on ebay right now. Those other two lefties are HLA speed reels. But its not mandatory in my opinion to focus solely on the highest speed reels for that technique.

14 hours ago, Falkus said:

I'm also keeping an eye on one of the blue Rick Clunn reels on eBay just for fun—I’d probably give it to my kid once I win but I rarely do. However,  I just need to get one cuz he LOVES BLUE and this is PERFECT for a 5 year old boy. 

 

By the way, some of you are actually using 6.x:1 ratio gears for frogging? I’m a little surprised—unless I’m mistaken, as some of you were referring to older models as all-around reels.

IMO the reel ratio is much less important than the rod. You want that rod to turn the bass and lift it to the surface and ski that bad boy across the mat. That's even harder from a kayak because you're sitting at water level. But I do use a 7-something:1 Lew's reel.

Gotcha, I'm majority shore fisher as I do not own a boat.  Those insights that you guys provided me are useful.  I'm still keeping an eye out on that Rick Clunn on ebay lol ...

 

 

I am going to use a Lews KVD 7.5. Personally like BPS Carbon Lite 2.0 7.5 (lighter weight). BPS Pro Qualifer will work, but I think the slightly more expensive Carbon Lite is worth it.

On 9/15/2025 at 7:08 AM, FloridaFishinFool said:

Here's another one. Bidding is at $8.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/127371855160

 

 

@FloridaFishinFool  Behold! My soon-to-be precious, captured from eBay at a bargain. I’m never letting this one go and all MINE!

 

 

Just got my Rick Clunn reel in and she’s a beauty! Works great—came spooled with braid, but it feels a bit too thick, so I’ll probably strip it off and save it for something else. Overall, an absolute STEAL!

 

for something else. Overall, an absolute STEAL!

Nice find!  Line looks like it's more for Marlin....or Great Whites...tree stumps...cars!  

 

I've a Gen1 STXL that's a fine reel.  An older Cabela's Prodigy (made by Daiwa) that feels like a tank.  Still have one of the two old aluminum frame Trions.  Not a small reel.  Not a BFS reel, but excellent casting for 'normal' weight lures.  Daiwa Procaster 100HN is another solid feeling reel with aluminum frame.

The nice thing about a frog reel is that you don't need anything special. As long as it holds enough line and casts alright, you should be fine. A higher gear ratio is nice, but not required.

 

If you fail to find something on the used market, an Abu Garcia Black Max will work,.

^ What Boomer said - my frog reel is is just a Fuego CT-XS. Relatively low price, aluminum frame...good solid reel.