What is the baitcaster you have or had that most surprised you with performance and durability for the price?

low profile abu garcia ambassadeur eminence - have three of them that are still going strong and cast like they were brand new. Now they are very very heavy compared to today's low profile reels but they have never let me down.

Team Lews Pro. I paid $150 for it in the half price rack at SW parts about 8 years ago. It’s been used so much the paint is worn off and the spool release is worn into the metal. Works great.

I have three Pflueger Supreme baitcasters that are ten years old and still work great with just annual cleaning/oil/grease.
Think they were around $65-80 each in 2011.

Penn Squall/Squall 2's(all size 20).................the standard Squall's are a real steal right now and are great reels.Passed my original Sqall's down to a couple grandsons who love fishing but especially chasing big blues and flatheads with Poppa.More than likely those reels will still be in great working order when I pass down or they inherit those S 2's.Bought them each a Squall 2 in size 15 when I caught them on sale the other day thanks to one of our contributors here.They have a great little channel cat hole almost right out their back door and those size 20's were a little big.

Long story short.........Penn

Lews SC 600. Still absolutely the smoothest reel in my line up.

All Time Sleeper Reel ( for me )

Quantum Crankin Reel

My Piscifun Chaos XS60 catfish reel. $60 One of the smoothest castings reels I ever owned. Still waiting to test it on a 50lb fish.

Quantum Accurist

Daiwa fuego ct, noisy as hell on a cast but could consistently throw a spro frog 50+ yards. Paid 75 for it on sale at academy a few yrs back, got stolen out of my boat at Rayburn 2 yrs ago.

$99 Lew’s speedspool LFS.

I have had more expensive reels, but this just feels the smoothest, most reliable, and easiest to use of any I have had.

An Okuma I got at Oshmans before they went out of business. Got it half off, like $53. I love that reel.

Penn Squidder

Abu Black Max. Disposable at 50 bucks but it throws more line than my Quantum's and Shimano's with the same set up.

I have 3 of these that I use every trip. I have higher priced Lew's reels that have another bearing and are a little smoother, but I doubt they have ever resulted in me catching a single fish that I wouldn't have caught if using a LFS reel

quantum energy pt

Abu pro max it just won’t stop working

Piscifun Alloy M reels. Have only owned a few for the last 3 or 4 months but for reels I got in the $70.00 range they feel and preform like some of my $200.00+ reels.

Lews American Hero. I received several as door prizes at tournaments. Those $50 reels are amazingly smooth.

Abu Garcia Ultra Mag 1. picked up several for $25 at a K mart close out in the 80's and they are still working good as new.

Shimano Curado CU200's I have several that are getting close to 20 years old and all I have ever done is clean them and replace a pawl every now and then.

Ryobi V-mag 40! Picked them up (a total of 6, all tolled) back in the 80’s for $29.95 ea. when BPS was closing them out. They’ve NOT had an easy life these near-40 years, but they continue to chug along perfectly with just a little cleaning & lubrication. I love the things!

De Oppresso Liber

I'm seconding the Shimano Curada CU-200 and Citica CI-200. Have had them 20'ish years. They went unserviced for much of this with no problems. Now I'm servicing them yearly, have replaced the bearings with ceramics and the drags with carbontex and they are all working flawlessly

Easily the 1st gen Daiwa Tatulas for me. At an original price point of like 129.99 retail, and having fished many high end reels I just didn't really try one with much expectations.

The casting performance of these is just outstanding, and the gears on all the ones I've had have remained smooth for years. There's little performance things you can get here and there with some other reels that cost a lot more, but the amount you're gonna pay to do better than these is crazy.

I have always fished with premium reels. Shimano Curadoes, Chronichs, and Scorpions. Even though those reels were great they did not give me quite the casting distance I needed fishing as a co=angler from the back seat of 20-21' bass boats. Particularly when the boater is pointed at the bank.

In 2005 I had bought two used Shimano Scorpion Metaniums. Those two reels were my very best casting reels. Around 2021 when I became a co-angler I started looking for more pf them. And I found like new out of Japan on Ebay for around $100 plus shipping. Over the next year I bought fiive more Scorpion Metaniums. Then I decided to try just the plain Metaniums. Even better.

Most of you would not want these reels because they are all lefty's. But I assume the right-handed ones are just as good.

I have several whose casting performance surprised me. I can't speak about durability even though some are fairly old because none see a lot of use. And I baby my reels. Low cost surprises: Black Max 1600C, Daiwa Procaster 100HN and an old aluminum frame Pflueger Trion. Most expensive was $50. At my cost of $104 the Pinnacle Primmus XS Hi (around $229 before closeout) is a reel that not only surprised me with its casting distance, but also how well behaved it is. At my top end, the Okuma Helios Air amazed me from the first cast with it. Excellent distance and handles almost as trouble free as the Primmus.

Just a quick update from this post from last year. I now have 9 of these reels and I am still amazed at the overall quality and performance of this reel. They literally outcast my Shimano Curado 150 MGL reels and are just as smooth with aluminum frame and great brake system.
I am not saying they will last 20 years like my Curados and I have looked into what I will need to do regarding parts etc. But at 70 years old I am not sure I will still be fishing so that is not a concern. Just received my latest reel I got for $69.00 in 3 days from when I ordered it. I have really scaled down my rigs to 10 total rigs so I have one more to get although I think they have become so popular I got the last one in stock for now. If I was still an every weekend angler year round I would probably stick with the Curados but at this stage in my life fishing a few times a month and for the price point I am amazed at this option.

Citica 201E. Much cheaper than the Curado E, but performs just as well. A cheap eBay driveshaft bearing upgrade and a flush and re oil of the spool bearings with rem oil or ardent reel oil (no ceramics needed) and it will outperform even my metaniums!

I have a bunch of them for crappie fishing, I bought the first ones for 29.99 , they cost more now a days ,
overkill for crappie but nice to have when a hybrid or flathead eats a crappie jig,

MO

Shimano's Calcutta 200DC. I think I have 8 of them.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the Tatula CT, I picked up a couple for like 130-140. For price/performance they've done better than I expected. Decent bomb caster and smooth enough after a year of rigorous use. One of them had a noisy mag-z brake but a little tweaking of the palm side components fixed it. Quietest reel I own now. I also liked the Lews Tournament XP and the Daiwa Fuego baitcasters but the ones I own have issues. The tournament XP has a noisy mag brake and the Fuego is at the bottom of lake ray roberts

I have at least a dozen JDM Metaniums. Though they were the best reel made until I bought a new JDM ‘23 model Antares DC MD.

Daiwa Sol - amazing small frame reel back before others were kicking out similar offerings. When paired with a upscale rod like the Kistler Helium this made for an awesome light weight combo that was a joy to throw all day and could work a wide scale of lures..

Garcia black maxx per topic here, it just works well.

Hard to beat a Black Max for under $50.

Abu Garcia Ultra Mag reels. I still have several that are in perfect working order and each cost less than $50

H2O Mettle

Have several Shimanio greenies that have served me for years

The first baitcasting reels I purchased were 2006 Quantum Accurist 500 PTs. Nearly 20 years later they are still working with very little issue and look nearly brand new! I also bought a Quantum Energy in 5.4 gear ratio at the same time for deep cranks.....that has been awesome and has a blue/purple finish that changes color in the light that looks sweet. Think the price I paid for these was like $49/reel at the time on clearance at Academy!

Quantum Energy PT

Quantum reels always seem to be frowned upon but I used them for years and never had any issues. BPS Pro Qualifiers are solid performers especially when bought on sale.

Shimano Bantam Crestfire. I bought it from Montgomery Wards at Big Town Mall in late 80's. It was my first baitcaster and I still use it today. Never serviced it and my 16yo son makes fun of it every time I use it but have caught so many fish with it just cant let it go.

I used to fish with quantum when I was younger and never had a problem out of any of them. BPS pro qualifier is a good reel especially on sale.

I like this real a lot. First time I used it, my partner said (what reel is that?)

never can go wrong with a $99 lew's speed spool.
also, the Tatula 100 is surprisingly solid for $150

Can't speak about durability as none of my reels see that much use. First cast with the Helios Air and I said, "Man. This thing can cast!" Pinnacle Primmus HS Xi mentioned in another thread was also a surprise. Got over 50% off on closeout. Bombs a 3/8 oz. crainkbait on a 7' ML Redbone rated 3/8-3/4 oz. Has been finicky free to cast. A light, good looking reel. An older Cabela's Prodigy (Daiwa reel) feels as solid as a tank. Performed quite well with just a cleaning. Once I went to 17# line and mounted it on a HF rod, my old aluminum framed Pflueger Trion hasn't backlashed once. Hope I didn't just jinx myself. Purchased used and sent out for cleaning.

I was also surprised on how well an old Black Max 1600C would cast an unweighted small fluke directly into a fairly high wind. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was my first time using such a reel.