Anyone have any experience with any of their offerings?

Their parts diagrams look like they're the same reels that Pure Fishing sells under so many different names - only without the name-brand price.

https://www.piscifun.com/

Toying with trying one out and trying to match its parts to a bass Pro Qualifier - I have a sinking feeling they're basically the same.

No experience, but see a lot of hype about them.

Watched a bit of youtube on the Phantom and called them to confirm they have 7075 aluminum used for the helical main drive gear!!! Most of the other internal parts are metal as well, very impressive looking.

Far better construction than any of the reels I currently own, not to mention worlds lighter @ 5.7oz. I'll be buying one to try out, if nothing else as a lightweight upgrade for my BPS Pro-Qualifiers assuming the fit & finish is comparable.

What's the cheapest you found so far?

I'm game to try one too.

Amazon for $69.99

$69.99 + 10% coupon right now. https://amzn.to/2plvunx

Fedex smartpost is the WORST shipping method on the planet!!! It's going to take 10 days to go from northern NJ to western CT. How? Do they ship it all the way around the country first? And this is all assuming they don't lose it as they've done in the past.

So how do you like it? Also, do the knobs come off or are the caps just for show?

I bought the KastKing version of it on a whim and I don't care for it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXOZFKB/
It's just a cheap reel. Sure, it's certainly light, but the tolerances suck, it's noisy, and the casting distance is subpar compared to all my other name brand reels. I would say it offers a better value over other reels in the same price range, but not over more expensive offerings. Dollar for dollar, I still like the Academy store brand H2O Express reels better.

Thus far they're fantastic. I did a detailed review on it in the review section (I think you access it through the tinboats home page). Casting distance is excellent, no more noise than any other reel with a centrifugal brake which can't be helped because you do have shoes rubbing on the inside of a brake hub during the cast.

I haven't handled a kastking so I can't compare, but I did tear this apart side by side with a 3rd Gen Abu Revo Sx and its internals are (IMO) better designed and built with superior materials than the Abu. Time will tell how well the graphite frames hold up.

I just read your review. Interesting to say the least. Can you shed more light on the company itself?

Not really - I've only spoken to them in emails. They're responsive, for what little that's worth. I haven't had problems with them, but to be honest they've been sidelined since mid-January when the ice ended my open water season.



None of the Piscifun knobs are for cosmetics only - each is functional and has a positive click adjustment to it.

Taking a closer look at that KastKing I see a few differences - according to the diagrams it doesn't use a bearing to support the main crank shaft through the side plate - so all the rotational loads are born on the anti-reverse bearing rather than a second ball bearing. I can't tell the quality of the bearings used, but given your experience with the casting range I suspect there may be some corners cut there too. There appear to be non-shielded bearings in it, which require a sealed operating environment and proper lubrication which might not be achieved if the fit/finish of the side plates to the reel body isn't tight. I also don't know about the fit and finish of the main drive gear and pinion, if the reel is rough there may be some need for TLC there. This is an area where a higher cost reels perform better than a lower cost option with literally the same internals - it simply takes employee labor time (and the associated cost) in order to tidy up the gears to get the best performance out of them.

It appears to use a similar dual braking system to the Piscifun using a centrifugal brake and a magnetic one. I'm pretty familiar with these setups - so I can adjust them very well, I don't know what your experience with them is nor have I used one of those reels to get a feel for how sensitive the adjustments are so I'll walk you through my approach.

With centrifugal brakes you should clean and lube the inside of the centrifugal brake drum (no matter who manufactures it) straight out of the box - this will help a lot with the noise associated with these brake systems. Clean and lube the magnet contact surfaces, polish them if you're dealing with a really rough reel, so that you minimize the effect of friction between the magnets and the spool (I didn't do any polishing on the Piscifun). Also, when using a dual brake system, start with the magnet totally off and adjust the centrifugal brake so that you find the setting which allows it to cast without backlashing using only the centrifugal system. Turn the centrifugal system down one level of stopping power, this will still allow it to backlash without application of the magnet. Then fine tune your anti-reverse adjustments as needed with the external magnet adjustment dial, hopefully settling with it set in the mid-point of its adjustment range.

Ideally this approach should give you a degree of flexibility to be adjusting the external magnet to account for changes in lure weight and windy conditions.