Lew’s Super Duty Speed Spool Baitcast Reel Review

Lew’s is known to offer reels that are attractive, compact, and come equipped with great features. The Super Duty reel has the same qualities as previous offerings from this manufacture. The reel is superbly constructed and features an aluminum frame. At 8lb, it is a little on the heavier side, but thanks to its compact design, you’ll be able to hold it easily in your palms all day long without even a hint of discomfort.

This is a super duty reel and you expect the performance to be top-notch. Thankfully, it doesn’t disappoint. It provides you all the power you need for fishing extremely heavy or water-resistant baits and retrieving is quite smooth, too. The drag is quite smooth and consistent at different settings.

Additionally, its casting performance is simply awesome. It is super easy to quick dial in for a variety of baits. It can handle average offerings, from medium swimbaits to Senkos, extremely well, even with a little weighty 40 lb line. You can easily cast far with heavy braided lines. Other useful features include big paddle grips, 12 ball bearing system, a drag star, and a swept and ported handle. The reel has all the goodies you expect in a high-quality reel.

The Super Duty looks like a well-made reel from afar, and the opinion doesn’t change when you hold it in your hand. The frame is made of aluminum, and so is the handle-side plate. The outer-side plate is made of graphite.

The finish is silky smooth and there are no cosmetic flaws or imperfections in the frame. The reel features a glossy black swept and ported handle featuring the signature flat paddle knobs with which Lew’s fans are all too familiar. You get tight reel tolerance and there’s absolutely no flexing. All in all, you would be happy with the construction.

The reel has a reel gear ratio of 6.4:1. It gives you enough power to fish extremely heavy or water-resistant baits. The retrieving, too, is smooth and quite effortless, but, of course, not as much as a real having lower gearing. Nevertheless, this reel is quite a powerhouse and can provide some serious cranking torque.

The high strength bass gearing of the Super Duty reel performs really well with different types of baits. You can reel in deep diving cranks with considerable ease. Moreover, the big handle ensures that you get additional winching power and this helps reduce fatigue.

The best part of this reel is that it provides versatile speed for other applications, yet offers adequate power to use bulkier baits

The Super Duty reel can achieve about 12lb of drag pressure. You get smooth, consistent drag at lower settings.

At higher drag settings, some of the consistency and smoothness that you enjoy at lower settings is lost. It’s not jerky by any stretch of imagination, but you are likely to feel some irregularities and bumps when you pull the line, more so when you pull it slowly.

Pay attention to this feature when buying a new reel, because the number of ball bearings present will govern how smooth retrievals would be. With the Super Duty reel, however, you are all good, as this reel features an 11 ball bearing system. There are ten ball bearings in the body and one in the line roller.

In the layman’s term, this is a pretty awesome arrangement and you can expect extremely smooth retrieves. And one more thing: all the ball bearings are double-shielded premium stainless steel bearings. This means these bearings will last up to 10-12 times more than normal ones. That’s awesome, isn’t it?

Conclusion:

The Super Duty reel is a great product at a reasonable price from a manufacturer who has been producing reels for over 40 years.

The reel is strongly built, casts a long distance, has an efficient drag system, and provides a lot of power. If you are looking for powerful reel, give the Super Duty a shot.

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