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Great deal and I have 4 of these I purchase two years ago and needed another. I use year around here in fl and fish large lures. These are Durable compared some of the top brand.

Fishing for bass got a brown ! Works awesome,

First off, I didn't get this product for free, nor was I asked to write a review. I also waited until I had a chance to use the reel before writing this review. I also want to add that I've now used this reel on 3 occasions, so I can't really speak on longevity or durability. Also, to qualify myself, I'll mention that I normally DO NOT go cheap on fishing gear. I own 10+ Shimano reels (Curado, Chronarch CI4+, Calcutta), and 5+ Lew's reels (BBZ1, Tournament Pro, Speed Spool), and have them paired on Loomis, Dobyns, Powell, Falcon rods.I purchased this reel specifically for throwing lipless crankbaits and swim jigs. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a reel that won't get used year round. I wanted the fast line retrieve for ripping lipless out of grass. After you rip a lipless, it's important to be able to quickly catch back up to your lure before it falls back in the grass. I'm telling you this so you understand what I do with the reel, because not all uses/techniques are the same. I also use 30lb braid with a mono leader.Casting - I can cast this thing a mile. Again, I'm throwing a 3/8 - 1/2 oz lipless bait, which are amongst the easiest lures to cast. How this reel would do throwing a 1/4 oz crankbait, I don't know, but I'd guess it may be a little tougher. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it casts (I'm not a beginner, so there was no learning curve. If you've never thrown a baitcast reel, expect to be frustrated no matter what reel you buy).Smoothness - It's OK in this department. Not the smoothest for sure, but for working a heavy bait quickly it does just fine. I can slightly hear and feel the gears moving when I retrieve a cast, but not grinding or anything like that. It's about what I'd expect from a reel in this price point. If you want a "buttery" smooth reel, you're going to pay a lot more money. I know, I have them. They're fun to fish, and you just marvel at how smooth they are. However, there's one thing they don't do any better than this reel...and that's catch fish! This reel will cast a lure and retrieve a fish the same as any of my other high dollar reels.Drag - I'm just going to say it, the drag is not smooth. If you plan on using light line and needing to really play a fish, you may want a smoother drag (you could probably upgrade the drag washers). I'm using braid and have the drag locked down pretty tight, so this isn't an issue for me. The drag settings are also very fast, meaning there are fewer settings. With a few clicks of the drag dial, you go from loose to tight (again, for me this is great, but not so much if you really need to fine tune). How durable the drag is if you use it a lot, I can't say. I'd guess it won't last too long if you're getting line peeled by big stripers or something. A drag upgrade might fix that, but again, not my territory.Braking - I didn't really play with this a lot. I typically set mine very loose and use my thumb to control the spool. There is an exterior brake adjustment, and I assume it works OK. I'm guessing it probably doesn't have a ton of adjustments, similar to the drag.Fit & Finish - This reel feels great in the hand. I like the handle knobs, they're very comfortable. Nothing stood out to me either way, it's a reel and feels like a reel. I'm not one of those guys that says "it just didn't feel good in my hand." I guess if you fish tournaments everyday, this might come in to play, but for an average Joe I doubt you'll feel a difference in hand between this reel and a top dollar reel. I have it paired on a Falcon Bucoo 7' med heavy rod. It feels just fine to me, and I didn't really notice any difference between this reel or the Lew's BBZ1 I had on there previously (as far as balance, etc..)Another thing I'll mention, is that I did remove the bearings and strip the old oil before using the reel. I always remove the stock oil/grease and start fresh. I find that most, if not all, reels come packed with too much oil. You only need one drop of oil, or a touch of grease on a bearing. How well it would have casted before I did this, I'm not sure. I assume for a heavy bait it would have done just fine. There are also 2 different size bearings. The bearing on the outside plate is a standard size (same size you'll find in a Curado or Lew's), but the bearing under the spool tension cap is smaller (and looks less quality). A bearing upgrade would probably do wonders for this reel. If I were going to use this for lighter baits, I probably would upgrade the bearings.Final thoughts: I'm very happy with this reel. Again, if I were going to be using light line, trying to cast light baits, or consistently fight big fish needing a lot of drag, I'd probably go a little higher quality. For heavier baits, and not using a lot of drag, this thing is excellent. You aren't going to say "Oh my gosh, feel how smooth this thing is!" and you probably won't impress anyone. If you just want a reel that will sling a bait way out there and bring it back VERY quickly, this is a great option. I would 100% buy this reel again (any may pick up more if I need additional technique specific setups). Hope this helps.

Value

I received the Sougayilang red version of the 'energy' model August 7th 2022I took it out of the box and wrapping for inspection, I opened the spool cover and removed the spool, I weighed the spool on my digital scale this spool with bearing attached weighed in at 16.2 g (so my guess without the bearing the spool weighs 15 g) I inspected the inside of the frame and the bearing races for anything abnormal, everything looks good, the frame for this real is a plastic composite as far as I can tell the whole thing is made of carbon fiber impregnated nylon like most of the other plastic reels on the market. (I was hoping for a alloy frame) I put the spool back into place and then proceeded to string the spool with 4 lb berkley Trilene monofilament line approximately 30 yards worth of line.I put the real on a 5 ft 2 ultralight casting rod made by Rosewood the model is called the tracker. It definitely is a ultralight rod parabolic flex the tip will load 2 gram lures but I tested the real with a 4 g.- 1/7oz custom-made casting weight I drove to the lake which has a large green space and I proceeded to get familiar with the rod and reel. the real was set up basically the same way I set up the Kastking Zephyr mounted on a 6 ft ultralight rod made by the same company that makes this Sougayilang reel.I quickly realized the deep spool size of this 'energy' model reel was going to give me a hard time trying to use it in a BFS situation.It took me a bit of trial and error to minimize bird nesting and maximize my casts, I had to really relax the spool tension definitely to where there is play back and forth on the spool and probably a half a turn past that point on the spool tension knob to get proper fall rate on 4 g casting weight, I set the brakes to where there was no loops when weight hit the ground. (that was too much) I had to pretty much sidearm cast minimizing wrist flick at first to keep from backlashing I could get about 40 ft off of the 4 lb test ultra light rod and 4 g weight I could hear the spool whine as it's spun off that small weight (which is the size and shape of a nickel so it mimics a lot of lures with its aerodynamics) after slowly backing off the spool tension knob a little more where I could hear it kind of bounce around speed reeling the weight back in I slowly backed off the brakes as well and the longest cast I got was about 25 yards with the 4 gm weight.I'm sure the real could do much better with heavier line and a longer rod and a heavier lure but that's not why I purchased the reel,I purchased this real to see what the quality of this company's baitcasting reels is because out of four rods that I bought here on Amazon from Sougayilang I only found one that I really liked for a BFF situation which was actually similar to the rosewood rod that I used for testing today.I do not suggest this reel for a BFS situation the spool is not made for casting lightweight lures and especially not ultralight lures below 2 g the physics is wrong in the design for BFS.However this real is comparable to the major JDM mfg's base models and maybe has a better braking system because of how many magnets it uses in its braking system I believe they use 10 magnets.Let's Segue into talking about the braking system. Adequate to cast and control the spool for 4 g lure it is probably great for heavier lures as well however you cannot really tell where you are at with the brakes because of the very tiny red dial that you have to turn is in the center of the break cover mechanism there are little itsy bitsy numbers but there's nothing on the red disc to tell you where you are at with the brakes so you're basically figuring it all out by Braille if you're new to baitcasting it will probably lead to much frustration as well as anger from bird nesting and blowing up your spool too many times.Let's talk about the drag the drag clicks when you are adjusting drag but is not a clicking drag if your line is going out on you.($40 reel)Let's talk about aesthetics.It's hot rod candy apple red, it looks good on the rod that I have it on because the accents on the rod are red as well, probably not for all people, but for some people it will be right up their alley. The retrieve arms are nice, sturdy and the retrival knobs are very nicely done in a cork composite material which is comfy on the fingers, very nice! There were no weird squeaks or grinds in my reel on retrieval (I never caught a fish on it so I don't know how it would sound fighting a 4 lb Bass) however you could hear it whine just a little bit when you're casting lightweight lures at great speeds (it is to be expected) the retrieval was smooth and did not feel janky whatsoever, it is a nice little package as far as looks and size go, it is on the smaller side as far as casting reels go.Is it worth 40 bucks? I don't know you can get a Black Max and rod for not much more which is a great starter rod and reel for baitcasting. It would depend Sougayilang stands by their products and makes it easy to exchange or repair their equipment rapidly and without headache or fuss.It would be nice to see them make a BFS reel, however I think they are just figuring out how to enter the market in America with the products that they have, only time will tell if this company makes a great product is trustworthy and reliable. (So far 3/4 stars product QC)I do not know what the longevity of this reel is going to be because I am going to replace it with something else by a different manufacturer which will give me better performance for my needs with BFS.Thanks for reading this review I hope it helps you in your decision making process searching for a low budget baitcasting reel, it is a decent quality entry level baitcasting reel in my humble opinion.Nice entry level reel Sougayilang, keep up the great work.

A nice reel for the price

Showed up nice and throws pretty good just has a problem with slipping gear and not wanting to lock in after throwing

as long as you adjust the spool tensioner each time you change baits, lure and or weight, (or cast into too much wind) then it is perfect and no backlashes unless u do previously mentioned mistakes. most of the time i do not even stop the spool. begins to backlash but if u let it go and pull back a tad at same time then no need to stop it. (my first with a braking system need xp with it, but yea has the control to the spool brake on the side) i have mine paired with a 17lb expedite telescopic rod. holds a fair amount of cheap nylon line and quite a lot of better brand nylon. the worst thing to mention is the paint on the reel has chipped in a few places, not much though, my fault for leaving it standing for people to knock it over. it is my beautiful baby for heavy weight casting from shore. very smooth, quiet when reeling, not much sound when casting but can be heard 30ft away. even if i do get a backlash, its easy to deal with, never had to cut any out. a few times nearly gave up but after a moment its ready to go again. the magnetic brake helps a ton.