Which to buy? (Tica Abyss TL) or (Kastking Kodiak)

[fresh2salt]

Has anyone had any experience with these reels? I have one of each that I am watching both items, the tica costing $70 (normally $110; $40 off from msrp) and the kastking $80 (normally $90; $10 off) just deciding whether to get one over the other.The kastking being a newer model reel, do you guys think it would be a better purchase than the tica, being that it is a newer reel. I'm not too sure about build quality, so it would be great to know people's personal experiences with them. I do hear that kastking makes some pretty good gear for their price point.

[akfish]

I occasionally see TICA reels in my shop. I can't say anything good about them...

[FatTuna]

Personally, I'd stay away from both. I've worked on and fished a few Tica reels before. Wasn't impressed. Pretty sure that everything branded KastKing is really a Chinese rebrand. Check out Alibaba. I wouldn't be surprised if they have clone KastKing reels on there selling for less.

[alantani]

x2!

[fresh2salt]

Thank you for the feedback. It looks like I won't be getting these and will be going for a LC reel from shimano, penn, or daiwa.

[FatTuna]

Thank you for the feedback. It looks like I won't be getting these and will be going for a LC reel from shimano, penn, or daiwa.

For level winds I really like the Daiwa Saltist. It costs a bit of money but it's a beautiful reel that you will get a lot of mileage out of. For budget reels, I like the Penn 320GT2. You can pick those up used on Ebay for around $40 if you do some hunting around. The Penn fathom is a great reel too. For my purpose, I wish the gear ratio was a little bit higher but I still like it. It's my go to bait jigging reel. Been using it for years without a single issue.