Probably lews for under 100$ or BPS pro qualifier

I bought a lightly used Lews tournament MG speed spool off my brother in law. It's awesome. I looked hard at other Lew's last week when I wanted a new reel. I ended up getting a BPS pro qualifier for $79.99. It arrived today and I'll try it for the first time tomorrow. I like the feel of it, though.

H20 xpress mettle or BPS pro qualifier

H2O Express and upgrade the bearings to Boca and when it wears out save the bearings and buy another you can repeat this process for the next 10 years for 200.00

I bought 10 when they went on sale for 29.99 and haven't had to replace one yet and it's been over a year.

Best reel you can buy for under 100.00 and possibly 150.00


Denny

Diawa AIRD or Tatula

Round baitcast- Abu sweeden c4 c5 and ultra cast.
Low profile- Abu Revo sx stx and winch.

Lews

Why do you say that ?
I have 10 reels, all ABU Garcia: 2 STX & 8 Black Max.
I just bought 4 BMX3s at Wal-Mart for $39.00 each.
All of my 6-7-8# fish have been landed with AG Black Maxes. I originally bought them as throw away reels as I do not clean or oil my reels at all. But the originals lasted 3 years and I am just now starting to replace them. They adjust easily, cast good with "all" weights and lures and do not break or strip out the gears. I have 2 of them on custom rods made by Ron Grantham at Reel Time Rods @ Lake Fork and don't think a thing in the world about fishing them in any tournament I enter.
YES, you can buy better/more expensive reels, but to just say "stay away from them" is BS.

For $150 you can put a AG BMX3 on a AG Veritas rod and have a very nice rig to fish any kind of lure and catch any kind/weight of fish.

Why do I say that? Because I have worked on and had more Abu max series reels returned than any other brand reel on the market. That's why I said what I said. I've also had more veritas and okuma rods return broke more than any other. I've watched 3 buddies break their black max,blue max,pro max and silver max reels on the water. my opinion on not liking Abu Garcia is my opinion. Sorry you don't like it. I'm not going to change how I feel about their low end low quality reels. When someone asks advice on the forum on a budget reel I'll push them in the h20 express mettle direction. I've used them and abused them side by side with high end reels since they've came out and haven't had one hick up. When I got back into fishing 9 years ago I bought 6 Silvermax combos from academy and took them all back by the end of the week. All broke almost the exact same way from only one week of hard fishing. And cool about the custom rods I guess? I have 6 of the same rods on bushido blanks with lews and mettle and I also wouldn't think twice about fishing any tournament, lake, or cover with my combos.

Very good answer ...... that it is your opinion.
Can't argue that point and I do respect it.
I guess for every dislike there is also a like.
I have the opposite opinion,,,, my Black Maxes have served me very well.
My AG Veritas rods have landed some very nice 7# fish on Falcon.
Maybe it was the production run of those 6 "Silvermax" combos ?

Very good answer ...... that it is your opinion.
Can't argue that point and I do respect it.
I guess for every dislike there is also a like.
I have the opposite opinion,,,, my Black Maxes have served me very well.
My AG Veritas rods have landed some very nice 7# fish on Falcon.
Maybe it was the production run of those 6 "Silvermax" combos ?

I've got a variety of reels. Of these I like my Lew's Tournament Pro and Diawa Tatulas the best. But these are for some fairly expensive. When we were fishing a couple weeks ago one of my buddies had me try a Bass Pro Shops Extreme for a few casts. I was really impressed with the long effortless casts I was making and it seemed to pitch real well also. I was thinking I would like to get my hands on one of these and fish for a few days with it. If I was near a bass Pro Retail store I would do this and return it if I decided against it. Maybe the guy had it set up just right, but I thought it performed every bit as well as my favorites and would seriously consider buying one. I don't know anything about it's durability, and I don't think my buddy had had it for more than a year. But if it would hold together I'd be all for it.