Anybody fishing a Bates bait caster reel

[foakes]

Since these are made of Asian parts, mostly —-

And, there are only about 5 manufacturers that supply generic parts in China for fishing reels —- but likely around 150 various companies with neat names that all source their parts from these (5) firms.  Including firms here in the US.

Reels are brought to the market based on availability of components, lowest bidder, sharp looks, and the chance for a quick profit.

All that changes is the colors, names, and a few plastic trim parts.

Parts will never be an issue —- just buy (2) of these reels.

With any reel manufacturer —- parts are of course important.  Along with service shops, longevity, performance, and value.

The one thing missing in most of these "component assembler" new companies is the mindset that the successful reel makers of the past brought to us —- pride.

Pride in a product.  Pride in a solid product with longevity built in.  Pride in workmanship.  Pride in a service network and parts availability.  Pride in a good value.  Pride in making a reel to last past a lifetime of fishing memories.

Not knocking this new product —- just relating 45 years of experience in nearly every brand and model of reel.

I hope it works well for those who choose to try it out.

Best, Fred

[jtwill98]

break down the reel

Here's a video showing the internal gears -

[johndtuttle]

Don't hold your breath. I speak about the concept in general.

The only modern reel I actually use anymore is my SP4000XGSW, but I'm not anti-modern. In fact as I attempted to say above, quite the opposite. There's just really nothing on the market in my budget range that grabs my interest. This "bates" reel is out of my price range.

But i too would love to live vicariously through the impartial review of this reel if anyone wants to rise to the challenge.

The current generation Shimano Spheros SW is an excellent case in point. There may be new spinning reels out there right and left but the bone crushing all-around excellence of this reel cannot be beat. It's just the complete package for the coin.

There are good reels below it (with less features) and better reels above it (with more features/higher quality solutions) but the balance of feature to benefits for the price is remarkable. This the value that we receive from a behemoth maker.

Back to the Bates Goat: if in fact it is all machined that is a benefit, surely. But what are the gear train alloys? The coatings on the level wind bits? Dose bearings yo'? Many of parts inside bait casters are as generic in form as imaginable, they all **look** the same on the inside with all the parts doing familiar jobs. It's the quality of the components and their engineering that matters.

[johndtuttle]

break down the reel

Here's a video showing the internal gears -

Absolutely nothing of note on the inside. I would be interested in wear on the line guide.

Revo Toro Beast has superior components and engineering on the inside. Shimano better sealing. Lexa best value for the coin. Komodo still probably the toughest but is otherwise not that exciting.

Put the Revo Toro Beast insides in this frame and then you would have the GOAT, imo, though these reels look solid but not exceptional on the inside (generic parts).

For the price, $299 and $325 respectively for the Bates and Seaborn, they are not cheap for a small baitcaster (150 size) that only holds enough line to catch a Kelp Bass or tell a story of getting spooled by a schoolie tuna.

[jurelometer]

break down the reel

Here's a video showing the internal gears

Good find.  Thanks for posting. 

The guy was struggling a bit on the tech and materials, but at least give him credit for publicly displaying the internals of the product he is promoting.

Notice that there are backup ratchets in the reels, but I saw no dogs -eek!  You can even see him spin the main shaft backwards.  It looks like the sound was edited out when he was fondling the ratchet in the Bates model .  Probably wondering out loud what the heck that ratchety part was for. 

An aluminum main gear (eek!) and aluminum main gear shaft (quadruple eek!)  in the Bates, replaced with brass (half eek) and stainless in the Seaborn model.

The rest of the guts are the standard mostly plastic low profile design.

It is also strange that they went for this machined bar stock aluminum frame but had to have a foot held on by two tiny screws.  Kind of negates the whole argument for a "rigid" bar stock frame, as the foot/frame junction is the where the load concentrates. My guess is that machining an integral foot was probably too difficult/costly. But in reality, the maximum load on a reel this small probably makes it a moot point beyond yet the salt corrosion issues.

I agree with John, and would be voting "nope" on this reel, especially  at a premium price point.

-J

[Gfish]

Thumbs down on the Bates. Aluminum gear and shaft—-no! Even though it's the FW version. Seems like it'ed be too weak.  2 nylon level-wind gears, one is good enough, if something jams the level-wind, I wouldn't wanna replace both. Didn't see the back-up dog either, but it's good to have one. I like the level-wind ball bearings to reduce friction there, but overall too many ball bearings that will slow down service time.
Seems like they designed it for weight savings/build expense at the cost of strength.