Chinese Reel - Kastking Mela 3000

[Scraglor]

Hi all, I figure, most things are manufactured in China these days, including the higher quality fishing reels. So there must be some better quality reels floating around, at a cheap price point. The hard part is sorting out the 99% of rubbish from the 1% of stuff you might want. Up until now, every chinese reel I have ever used (non name brand) has been utter rubbish, and after losing a decent snapper too a seized drag a few years ago, I vowed to never use them again.

Anyhow, after doing a lot of poking around, I stumbled across a few reels that looked OK, so I thought I might give a couple of them a try, and maybe find something to use at the budget end other than a Sienna, seeing as they have changed. I expect all of them to be bad, but its more of an interest thing, so I figured I may as well share it with the forum.

The first reel I have gotten direct from China is the Kast King Mela 3000
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Bran ... 19231.html

It had all the standard alarm bell claims, crazy high drag amounts, too many ball bearings for the price, etc, etc, but at $26 USD, it looked pretty cool, so I figured why not.

I got it today, and on first inspection, it feels pretty solid and well made, if slightly heavy. Has an aluminium handle and spool, and it looks awesome. It feels pretty smoothe, but its brand new, so chances are it will seize up after the first use. We will see. It does have one problem, being that the anti reverse isnt as instant as a Sienna, but it isnt too bad.

The drag feels fairly smoothe, but I will have to see how it goes after being spooled up.

I'll be taking the boat out tomorrow, so will give it a run to see how it fares. I'll keep flooging it over the coming 12 months, and it will either go the distance, or fall apart. I'll update this thread as it goes along, and if it falls apart, i'll look for a new one to try.

Also, if anyone has any info to share regarding chinese reels, and OEM off the shelf reels that the big brands re badge to use for their own, I'd love to hear it.

PS: I reckon this reel would look insane on a gen black rod, although I doubt it would do the rod justice.

[skronkman]

Does look cool. Interesting to hear how it goes. I agree that 90% of price is paid for branding. Sorting through the crap is the hard bit. Obviously the Chinese like fishing too and they aren't likely spending a montbs wages on a shimano or diawa. Must be some acceptable stuff out there.

One thing I will say though is that the new sienna is a much better product than the last model. I have both. And I was lucky enough to pay only $25 for the new one. Used it a few times and it's good for the price I paid. Obviously the internals aren't going to be great quality but hey, it still catches fish and I can afford to buy a new one next year! My original sienna spat it's guts after several heavy egi sessions.

[fishpod]

The price says $269.90, carbon drag system, 9kg drag and 11 ballbearings, are you sure your looking at the right reel?Looks pretty good to me

[Scraglor]

The price says $269.90, carbon drag system, 9kg drag and 11 ballbearings, are you sure your looking at the right reel?Looks pretty good to me

Yeah, price is wrong on that page. If you look it up it isnt that much. I took the photos I posted there myself of the reel I recieved.

[Lightningx]

Interested to know how it goes tomorrow mate :thumbsup: the reel itself does look nice.

[Rustie]

Hi Scraglor,

I have a few chinese reels sitting around and i wanna say, not all of them are bad quality.. some do..

Remember i posted a CR that i caught a 110cm gummy on a whiting rod? (couple weeks ago) yes, it was on a chinese reel but diawa whiting rod..

and it was a 2000model reel if im not wrong as the words on the spool seems to fade out..

some of them are pretty good and some are just utter rubbish.. just have to try n error..

[ducky]

Definitely looks like it's styled on the megabass lin258

I'm a simple beast. Good and cheap = sienna. I don't try and find alternatives haha. Although there are thousands of different reels out there. There may be something better.

[Scraglor]

Definitely looks like it's styled on the megabass lin258

I'm a simple beast. Good and cheap = sienna. I don't try and find alternatives haha. Although there are thousands of different reels out there. There may be something better.

Haha. Me too dougie. (I have 13 Sienna's, love them) tbh I don't really need more reels. I'm doing this as more of a hobby, more of than anything else. And if it helps out some new or budget conscious members then great. There is definitely some good stuff made in China, it's just extremely hard to work out which is which. If I have to go over again for work I'll ask the boss for a couple of extra days to see a couple of fishing gear places.

As an aside, just spooled the reel up with some cheap 10lb rope/braid. Line lay isn't perfect, slightly tapered towards the bottom. But it's not terrible. Looking forward to hopefully dragging some fish in with it tomorrow. Chances are now I will donut. Haha

[Scraglor]

Also, it makes a slight whirring noise when reeling at high speed (I think it's the line roller, as it didn't do it when it had no line on it) it's not very loud tho.

[Boonanza]

Ducky hit the nail on the head good=cheap a sienna is the way to go. It may be a good reel at best but you don't want to be thinking I hope it's not a dud when you have a cracking fish on the other end and the drag dosen't do what it's meant to.