The reels are great when it comes to casting etc... but I’ve serviced about 8 concept A’s with broken main gears with teeth broken off. The gears are just pot metal so please know this before going and spending a ton of money on these reels. Plus getting parts from 13 fishing is a pain in the butt.
I've been doing quite a bit of research looking at a new reel for myself. When it comes to the Concept A the feedback is about 80/20. 80% negative and 20% positive. No way I would pay more than about 20 bucks for one of these reels. I'm a budget minded guy and I like the Lew's line of reels between $120 & 160. I think they give the best performance for the money.
Okay, in that case I'll share my experience with them....
Do note, I fish inshore saltwater 90% of the time, 10% bass fishing. That means I'm out wading with my reels in saltwater, reels get sprayed with salt on a rough boat ride, etc... They don't have a space place to ride in a rod box.
I own 7 13 Fishing reels (C's,A's, TX, Z, KP) one Lews Lite, a Curado 70HG, and I had an Abu Revo ALX.
To make this as short and sweet as possible, out of the reels mentioned the only ones that have given me 0 issues whatsoever is my 13 reels. My Lews has gotten "sticky" and lost performance, same goes for the Curado. That Abu, I returned that hunk of [censored] same day and got another Concept C instead.
My Concept A, I accidentally dunked in saltwater on a wade early last month. I just poured a bottle of water on it, and it's still running no issues at all as we speak today (nobody is going to believe that but I've seen it with my own eyes, lol.)
One a trip with one of my friends that was using a Concept TX, he accidentally hooked in to a Jack Cravalle on a drift. After an 1hr 30min fight on light setup, the reel didn't skip a beat once. This is what primarily sold me on the 13 reels.
The KP has been good. Only reason I got it was cause it was on sale.
One of my C's is beat to hell and has been used/abused. It was my first Concept reel, and is still my favorite one I have.
To be fair with everyone though, the one reel I'm not a fan of is the Z. I used it like twice and haven't used it since.
This is just sharing my personal experience with them.. I'm not sure how y'all bass guys have so many issues with them. If y'all put your reels in our environment they wouldn't last a trip