Mettle vs Manic

I've been reading about Academy's H20 reels and I see where most guys are talking about the Mettle. They also have a Manic (also a 6.3:1) which is $20 more but I'm not sure why? Anyone use this one and have any recommendations?

The handles fall off get the mettle h20 reels have been the only exception were cheaper is better .You won't be disappointed!

i've had 4 mettles for years and never had any issues

Manic is smoother, other than that its a toss up.

Go with the mettle

have 8 mettle's and never a problem.

manic is definitely smoother...casting and retrieving. I have 3 mettles to 1 manic though...go with the mettle, the drop off is not enough to make up for the price difference, plus I hear the mettles are on sale for 25 bucks right now. I'll be going to buy a couple more today.

What Basstoes said.
Have 1 manic and 3 mettles.
All good reels. Manic is a little smoother, other than that, not much difference. 25.00 for the mettle though is an awesome deal.

I have never used a maniac, but have a few mettles and a menace and haven't had any problems with either. the menace is the $90 one and has a better drag system than the mettle, but both are excellent reels

where did you find them for $25 cause i wanna get some to

The $25 Mettle's are listed in the Academy Black Friday ad and according to that ad, the price is a "one day only"

http://www.black-friday.net/academy-sports-outdoors-ad-scan.html

Black Friday they are 25 at academy.

thank you

yeah, just one day deal. Found that out the hard way today. sorry.

Its funny you say that about the Manic casting smoother because the specs say that it only has 6 bearings vs. the cheaper Mettle having 10. Can't really find any reason (from reading) why the Manic would be more $$. Thanks guys for all of the help! Now I just have to talk my wife into standing outside of Academy next Friday morning.

You dont have to stand outside, you can buy them online today.... picked up 4 for that price.

Just checked. "Currently not available online."

Interesting, as I just bought mine this morning online at 4am, and the site said, "buy your Black Friday gifts online today"
guess i got lucky, as I looked again and now it says not available, but I already have the invoice for my (4) with free shipping.

H2O XPRESS™ Mettle Low-Profile Baitcast Reel Right-handed
Shipping method — Standard Ground (November 25, 2011)
4 $24.99 $99.96

same here bought 2 of 'em for 24.99 and a spool of braid...free shipping...

You get what you pay for...if you hook a big fish, you will probably break off because you purchased the bargian fishing line as well. Good Luck fishing for BlueGill.

if you call these bluegills then yes!! the mettle's are great for the price...so is that cheap spool of line i use...

H2O mettle did the trick for this one!

I've caught bass past 6 pounds, redfish to 7 pounds, 3 pound flounders, and 20"+ specks, etc on mettle reels. I don't doubt the quality of the reel at all.

I bought 10 early this morning too. I got an email during the night and went online at about 4 a.m., then didn't complete the order because I thought I would go to the store Friday morning (that instant gratification thing). Then thought about it again and pulled the trigger online. I plan on using them for lighter line applications so I can just change reels depending upon where I'm going. I'll use my expensive reels for lakes when I expect to catch better fish. I have a Menace I like too, but for $25, I'll take a chance on the Mettles. I went to the nearest store near me yesterday to check their stock and they had several cases behind the counter. So most stores should have a good early selection. But now rather than doing the Black Friday deal, I'll go fishing.

I've caught tons of quality fish on a mettle many 6+ and even a 10 definitely quality reels also brought in huge gar that have grabed my crank with no problems.

I have used the Mettle's on Falcon with nooooooo problem. Used an Ambassadeur 4600 and broke the anti-reverse!
For the money they can't be beat.

i snagged a 30 lb carp on a mettle, drag was fine. I hate the manic though.. it is horrible compared to mettle