ABU GARCIA BLACK MAX $49 at Wal-Mart or Academy
I own 8 of them. Only reel I use.
Landed plenty of 7+ pound fish.
They will throw any line you can spool on them.
I just threw my first one away after using it for 3 years. Not just whenever, but 3 years of hard fishing.
IMHO they are really hard to beat.

I have H2O Mettle and the BPS Pro Qualifier. Love both of these.

Shimano Citica 200E

BPS Pro

Hands down lews lfs.bps is a good reel too. Look at the trading posts too. Sometimes you can find great deals. I've seen some citicas on evay for around $109. Abu black,silver,or pro max are junk. I don't care if the parts come from the "same" factory. Lews don't break constantly and are no where near as heavy or clunky.

Lew's, hands down. I have made the jump to an all Lew's setup and will stick with them until something convinces me otherwise.

I've used the Pro Qualifier and currently have a Carbon Lite, no problems with either one, easy to set up.

This. I'm pretty sure they are more around $50 during their fishing classics. Best bang for the buck

Lews and BPS both make some quality "cheaper" reels

http://www.usaboatstore.com/Abu-Garcia-1...wrkIaAo4z8P8HAQ


Again, no reason to worry about not liking the max line reels when you are discussing the orra line's pricepoint of $100 or less. If you've never used $300+ reels, the Abu Garcia Orra and Orra Winch will leave you slackjawed. They feel like they cost 3-4x as much. Even the Promax doesn't feel like a "cheap" reel imo, like I said, mine is my good luck charm and has single handedly caught more fish than any other piece of equipment I own, as well as been rescued form the lake one a couple of occasions.

BPS PQS go on sale for $49.99 and are great!

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Daiwa_Aird_Casting_Reel/descpage-DACR.html
I have been very pleased with this. I used it to cast a zoom wacky worm with nail and 12 lb suffix. Not much weight but never back lashed.

Shimano Caenan


I'd give this reel a try. Very underrated

Zebco 33