Quote Originally Posted by hap View Post
For the money the Echo is probably the best bet in a new reel.

All current Lamsons have the same guts... and they are very good guts.

They would be my top two choices.

I have smoked a TON of reels on big fish. I have a lot of different brands and have used about every brand out there. I have somewhere around 35 Hardy reels, for example.

Ross is a brand I simply refuse to use again, for anything. Their old models are far better than their new, but only "good".

SA, Hardy-made Orvis, and SA-made Orvis are good for the money. The SA is really heavy for the size, IME.

Sage reels are not up to the level of their rods... I use several of them, but not where big fish are possible.
Echo seems like a similar rod to the Ross Flystart/cast premium type components in a cheaper reel.
I am very intrigued by the Allen.
The mid-line orvis are mid-arbor and I would like a large arbor.
So here are my choices (minus a newcomer):
Allen Trout
Lamson Konic
Lamson Guru (if I can find one on sale still)
Hardy Ultralite CLS (I know its 100 more but the money saved with cassettes v. spools seems to make up for that very very quickly).
Any comments on these or an additional runner. Based on what I am hearing I would like: Bulletproof, big fish fighting drag reliability, sub-200 and large arbor.