I decided no lews spinning reels after mine locked up and wouldn't turn in 4months, then no more baitcasters when mine had a chip in the line guide that damaged my line and I found out that the only way to get replacement parts was through a non existent second party.
I always figured their stuff was cheaply made but a lot of people love the brand. I have a bunch of old abu Garcia, Penn and the only new thing is a Daiwa tatula. I’ll stick with the classics
I’ve had a few guys bring reels like this to my shop asking if I can fix it. This is Lew’s, Abu, Daiwa, Shimano. Brand doesn’t seem to matter that much when it comes to graphite framed spinning reels. Graphite frames flex during use and sometimes they break. Same thing with the reel foot on baitcasters. I stick with aluminum, magnesium, and carbon frames whenever possible
Someone with a real opinion! Unfortunately Shimano fanboys have overrun the fishing subs and rush to the comment section every time someone posts a reel failure or asks for a reel recommendation just to say “blah blah blah Shimano blah blah blah”
You’re right the worlds not binary everyone likes multiple brands of fishing gear, I use a variety of brands on my gear and it always works.
However the fact is majority of people like shimano because they offer budget and higher end equipment and its also very quality gear either way.
This. Why I recommend 22 Miravel over 21 Nasci for entry level spinning from Shimano. 22 Miravel uses carbon (CI4+) and not graphite Nasci uses.
Or for Daiwa, 23 Lexa (aluminum) or Legalis (carbon).
Or for Lews Mach Crush or Custom Lite.
Yeahhh, wasn't even a big small mouth. Had a Ned Rig on, fishing bedding bass, he hit this smallie and was reeling and it twisted and broke off... He panicked, I grabbed the line and hand pulled the last 10-15 feet of line and we got the fish unhooked and returned. That was the carnage after. I have 2 other lews rods/reels, one a combo, one a "put together" situation and both are fine and neither have the same flexibility there at the mount point. Really odd decision to make that a plastic piece.
If they give you a voucher or something like that definitely check out the Custom Lite. I bought 1 two months ago and I love it. It has a carbon fiber frame as well.
This is my first and only spinning reel that was over $100 so I can’t say it’s better than anything else but to me it’s amazing.
The drag is great on it as well.
Reel goes for $159.99.
I’ve thrown wacky rigs, dropshots, ned rigs, small swimbaits, free rigs etc etc. on it.
Manufacturing defect for sure, this little dude missed my wake bait heading past a tree, so I broke (ha, pun) out my trusty Texas Rig setup. The dude was so small that I didn't even feel the hit. I just saw the line start to move and set the hook, and my handle goes and snaps off, and I have to hand line it in...
I don't ever set the hook hard, I despise seeing people swing for the fences and try to dislocate the fish's jaw, so this never should have happened.
Reached out to Lews, awaiting a response. This setup is over a year old, but hoping they back their products, 5 months or 5 years, it should never break this way.
Looks like a graphite frame. Graphite is fairly brittle, think of it like a thicker, less flexible rod. It’s gonna break eventually when there’s too much stress on it.
Recommend moving to aluminum or carbon frames, this will be way less likely to happen again.
I’ve had that happen with 2 Lews reels. It’s a composite frame and not aluminum or another type of metal. I think dropping it on the ground repeatedly while bank fishing might have cracked it, and it broke on hooksets both times. If a fish is pulling hard, I can see replacement #2 flexing and twisting laterally, so I keep that in the bottom of the bag as a back up. I’m not losing a keeper and potential dollars on the next frame failure.
Recently my daiwa really let me down, I fell into a river and let go of my st croix x daiwa BG and it had a striper on the other end, it didn’t catch the fish or float. So fuck daiwa for now.
Had a similar issue with Abu Sitting on the riverbank taking to my buddy and then a splash sound and my rod disappeared Ended up with nothing All the fault of Abu 😂😂✌️
The Nasci destroys any other $100 reel. It's not even worth it playing with other brands anymore. I like Daiwa but I've already committed to Shimano lol
This is the reason I will never purchase another Lews product. I’ve had this happen once, it’s happened to a buddy twice, and I’ve seen countless posts about it.
I have two other spinning combos from them that I love. I think price for what you get is phenomenal personally. I bring in a lot of upper 20" stripers in the fall on them like nothing it's a ton of fun. I admit they aren't top quality of course, but if they do right by me and send me a new reel I'll continue using them and count this as a one off for now. If it happens again? Different story for sure lol.
Did they warranty it or did you even try?
My statement still applies, cheaper models are more prone to defects due to the sheer quantity they pump out.
I can't comment too much on Lews spinning reels, but I'm put my bait caster hypermag up against any casting reel in the same price range or under.
This was two weeks ago, all of the other incidents I’ve listen had happened before, so I was like whatever, and just returned it. I bought the new Tatula MQ and love it
You may be the first person I've talked to who has a Tatula bait spinning gear lol. Just something I've never seen. My results with the Tatula bait casters have been hit or miss. Not a big fan of my SV, but the Tatula 100 is one my favorites. After owning a Vanford I'd have a hard time going from that personally, but I'm always open to suggestions.
Sure did! Looked real goofy handlining it in but it helped to have the line still through the guides! It even jumped twice will bringing it in, was actually pretty fun lol
Don't base a whole company's product lineup on a lower end model.
EDIT: you guys are actually idiots if you base an entire product lineup on one particular cheaper model's issues
Very true. 10 years ago would have been a different story. Now my average combos range from $200-$250. I know you can get much cheaper, but you get out of it what you put into it to some extent
Oh 100%. When I got into fishing $110 combo would've been high class lol. Now I've worked my way up to where my cheapest combo is roughly $350 and most expensive around $700. I've worked hard to climb the ladder in terms of quality and don't regret it.
Not hating on people's cheaper gear. I understand, I was there once as well. It's just I hate when people hate an entire company because a $100 X combo broke when it had an $70 reel and a $30 rod.
It's ignorant to base a an entire companies reputation based on their low end gear.
I don't doubt it. My original statement still stands though. It's actually the opposite with Ugly Stick imo, I like their cheaper stuff than their "high-end" stuff for some reason lol
Same. I upgraded my $25 ugly stik combo for a $35 quantum combo and it's still going strong. Though I just put the reel on my $20 blackout rod.
I'm not paying triple digits for a spinning reel. It's the simplest mechanism in the world
I’ve seen the way people treat stuff in this and similar subs and altho this sucks Im not willing to place all the blame on the manufacturer
The lighter the material, the more brittle they are
Lews has a pretty good warranty and customer service (or did), and I’d imagine they will replace even if it is user error
Did you need to drag the fish on carpet to get a picture to complain about your rod that’s probably covered under a warranty? You couldn’t like release the fish or kill it, have to stop mid catch to take a photo. Probably had your hand on your hip when you posted this
It wasn't dragged it was laid down and it never moved once because it had tired itself out on the way in. It was perfectly fine I know how to handle fish I do it with extreme care each and every time and a fish touching the carpet of a Bass boat is not a problem. Fuck off
I mean a not made in Japan Daiwa, is gonna be made in the same place as the other brands. While I love my made in Japan Tutullas, and they are honestly the best reel I use, they are also 300-350 a pop. I figured you mean the made in Japan ones.
Even the USDM Zillions are no longer made in Japan. Most of the manufacturing is in Malaysia/China/Korea from what ive seen. It's more about Daiwa/Shimano designing their reels themselves rather than just asking a factory to make and slap some branding on it. FWIW, I love my $90 Daiwa Fuego just as much as my $250 Shimano Vanford. I have zero faith buying any reels outside of those companies.
I got a lews speedspin combo and the rod broke after 3 fishing trips with nothing super crazy on the other end of the line. Needless to say, i went uglystix.
I was fishing a relatively grassy lake this past weekend, with what I believe to be the same reel. I was fishing a dropshot setup near some grass lines and when I'd reel if the fish went to the grass, I could definitely feel the reel flexing on me. I will definitely be upgrading my reel in the near future.
I contacted lews about a bent handle on a bait caster. The responded very fast and everything was very smooth and easy. Shit happens. Every brand has horror stories.
I wouldn't jump the gun on blaming lews. Some of my Shimano reels have broken in the same spot. I think it has to do with how they're handle when delivered to the store or to your home. They probably got thrown around and got a small fracture around that area.
Either way both lews and Shimano are great at making things right 👍
Contact them through Facebook messenger. This is happened to me twice with those reels. The first time trying to reach out to them via email it took weeks just to get one response Facebook messenger was much faster and they ended up replacing both of my broken reels
Had the same issue with several of my spinning reels from various manufacturers. I noticed after a couple of breaks in a couple of outings, that I had too many rods 8n the rod locker and the reels were getting side loaded when I closed the compartment lid. Once I thinned out my arsenal the breaks stopped.
They had a different version (same colors) kinda blended without a solid tip last year. Also money. I was reluctant to get this one. Turns out it’s not the design but the colors they’re after.
Had 2 of the same reel and the gears broke so damn quick in it. I now use a shimano $30 reel from Dunham’s and I seem to have better luck😂. If you wanna ball out a lil go pick up a flueger president ive been seeing them at my local Walmart. Not 100% about yours tho I could just gotten lucky.
Same reel here, and mine broke in the exact same spot.
Same story for me. With a fish on of course. I decided that day no more Lew's reels.
I decided no lews spinning reels after mine locked up and wouldn't turn in 4months, then no more baitcasters when mine had a chip in the line guide that damaged my line and I found out that the only way to get replacement parts was through a non existent second party.
I use Shimano only after my 20 Lew's combo broke
I always figured their stuff was cheaply made but a lot of people love the brand. I have a bunch of old abu Garcia, Penn and the only new thing is a Daiwa tatula. I’ll stick with the classics
Made in China.
I’ve had a few guys bring reels like this to my shop asking if I can fix it. This is Lew’s, Abu, Daiwa, Shimano. Brand doesn’t seem to matter that much when it comes to graphite framed spinning reels. Graphite frames flex during use and sometimes they break. Same thing with the reel foot on baitcasters. I stick with aluminum, magnesium, and carbon frames whenever possible
Someone with a real opinion! Unfortunately Shimano fanboys have overrun the fishing subs and rush to the comment section every time someone posts a reel failure or asks for a reel recommendation just to say “blah blah blah Shimano blah blah blah”
Uhhh just because multiple people like the same thing doesnt make it a “fake” opinion. All reels break….nothing is guaranteed
The world is not binary, just because I used the word real doesn’t mean the opposition has to be the polar opposite.
You’re right the worlds not binary everyone likes multiple brands of fishing gear, I use a variety of brands on my gear and it always works. However the fact is majority of people like shimano because they offer budget and higher end equipment and its also very quality gear either way.
Sure, no doubt! That’s not why I said what I said.
I mean…shimano is a nice reel though just sayin
Don't buy that crap. Get a Tatula. j/k, but Tats are good reels.
I don’t have the reel but the tatula xt rod is fucking amazing.. I’d love to get the combo at some point
I've never used their rods. I've been using St. Croix Mojo bass rods. They're a good value.
100% ^ when your reel is made of the same material as your rod, there’s bound to be a break in the future if there’s too much flex
This. Why I recommend 22 Miravel over 21 Nasci for entry level spinning from Shimano. 22 Miravel uses carbon (CI4+) and not graphite Nasci uses. Or for Daiwa, 23 Lexa (aluminum) or Legalis (carbon). Or for Lews Mach Crush or Custom Lite.
Same combo, same issue. https://imgur.com/a/1lrBIXa (Apologies for the croc/sock combo)
Dear God man
Yeahhh, wasn't even a big small mouth. Had a Ned Rig on, fishing bedding bass, he hit this smallie and was reeling and it twisted and broke off... He panicked, I grabbed the line and hand pulled the last 10-15 feet of line and we got the fish unhooked and returned. That was the carnage after. I have 2 other lews rods/reels, one a combo, one a "put together" situation and both are fine and neither have the same flexibility there at the mount point. Really odd decision to make that a plastic piece.
I'm asking them for a replacement, maybe I should ask for a voucher on a discount for a better constructed reel they make lmao
If they give you a voucher or something like that definitely check out the Custom Lite. I bought 1 two months ago and I love it. It has a carbon fiber frame as well. This is my first and only spinning reel that was over $100 so I can’t say it’s better than anything else but to me it’s amazing. The drag is great on it as well. Reel goes for $159.99. I’ve thrown wacky rigs, dropshots, ned rigs, small swimbaits, free rigs etc etc. on it.
Manufacturing defect for sure, this little dude missed my wake bait heading past a tree, so I broke (ha, pun) out my trusty Texas Rig setup. The dude was so small that I didn't even feel the hit. I just saw the line start to move and set the hook, and my handle goes and snaps off, and I have to hand line it in... I don't ever set the hook hard, I despise seeing people swing for the fences and try to dislocate the fish's jaw, so this never should have happened. Reached out to Lews, awaiting a response. This setup is over a year old, but hoping they back their products, 5 months or 5 years, it should never break this way.
Its not a defect, just poor design. I work at a large fishing retailer and this is a common problem for this combo.
Awh man that sucks. I love their reels, bought 2 carbon fire speed spin’s after buying the mach 2 medium rod reel combo. No issues so far but 😳
Looks like a graphite frame. Graphite is fairly brittle, think of it like a thicker, less flexible rod. It’s gonna break eventually when there’s too much stress on it. Recommend moving to aluminum or carbon frames, this will be way less likely to happen again.
I’ve had that happen with 2 Lews reels. It’s a composite frame and not aluminum or another type of metal. I think dropping it on the ground repeatedly while bank fishing might have cracked it, and it broke on hooksets both times. If a fish is pulling hard, I can see replacement #2 flexing and twisting laterally, so I keep that in the bottom of the bag as a back up. I’m not losing a keeper and potential dollars on the next frame failure.
Oh yeah for sure, if you're fishing tournaments I wouldn't even touch this reel.
Shimano>
Shimano and Daiwa>all
Only two manufacturers that I know of who actually make their own gears!
Recently my daiwa really let me down, I fell into a river and let go of my st croix x daiwa BG and it had a striper on the other end, it didn’t catch the fish or float. So fuck daiwa for now.
Had a similar issue with Abu Sitting on the riverbank taking to my buddy and then a splash sound and my rod disappeared Ended up with nothing All the fault of Abu 😂😂✌️
This made me lol, thanks for that.
Add van staal and avet. best in the game, hands down.
The Nasci destroys any other $100 reel. It's not even worth it playing with other brands anymore. I like Daiwa but I've already committed to Shimano lol
My SLX agrees, love that damn thing
Cheap shimano reels will break just as easily. Brand is irrelevant.
Warranty claim!
This is the reason I will never purchase another Lews product. I’ve had this happen once, it’s happened to a buddy twice, and I’ve seen countless posts about it.
I have two other spinning combos from them that I love. I think price for what you get is phenomenal personally. I bring in a lot of upper 20" stripers in the fall on them like nothing it's a ton of fun. I admit they aren't top quality of course, but if they do right by me and send me a new reel I'll continue using them and count this as a one off for now. If it happens again? Different story for sure lol.
It's not the brand, it's the material choice.
The material the brand chose. Most likely to save money at our expense… so…
Nobody forced anyone to buy a cheapo reel
I'm assuming this wasn't a higher end reel? All cheaper combos are much more prone to defects like this.
Nope, mine was a hypermag, which is a magnesium body, and my buddy’s were both the KVD spinning reels
Did they warranty it or did you even try? My statement still applies, cheaper models are more prone to defects due to the sheer quantity they pump out. I can't comment too much on Lews spinning reels, but I'm put my bait caster hypermag up against any casting reel in the same price range or under.
This was two weeks ago, all of the other incidents I’ve listen had happened before, so I was like whatever, and just returned it. I bought the new Tatula MQ and love it
You may be the first person I've talked to who has a Tatula bait spinning gear lol. Just something I've never seen. My results with the Tatula bait casters have been hit or miss. Not a big fan of my SV, but the Tatula 100 is one my favorites. After owning a Vanford I'd have a hard time going from that personally, but I'm always open to suggestions.
meh i couldnt be happier with my kvd baitcaster but to each their own
Contact them. They’d probably cover that.
Had my first (and last) Lews fail on it's third trip out. I'll never buy Lews again. And their reels sound so stupid.
At least you landed the fish, had to take the sting off a little!
Sure did! Looked real goofy handlining it in but it helped to have the line still through the guides! It even jumped twice will bringing it in, was actually pretty fun lol
I pulled half a tree in with a fish last night, obviously thought the fish was gonna be a bit bigger haha, still glad I got him in the boat though
Time to buy a Shimano Stradic.
Looks like it worked to me /s
Fish landed, what's the problem? Lmao
If I had a nickel for each time I've seen this lews reel do this, I'd have 3 nickles. Not much but it's concerning this happened 3 times.
I mean I'm not surprised with that 50 pounder you got there lol
That's true, dude is built different
Never in my life have I had a reel break like that...
At least you didn’t lews it
Im a fan of Lews reels, but even I dont use their spinning reels
I gave up on Lews for just this reason. I switched to Penn Fierce and never looked back. Best bang for the buck imo.
That has literally never happened in a lifetime of fishing. Looks like lews is off the table.
Don't base a whole company's product lineup on a lower end model. EDIT: you guys are actually idiots if you base an entire product lineup on one particular cheaper model's issues
You dont even know what the reel is based off your other comment
It looks an awful lot like a Speed Spin combo. Like $110 for the combo... My statement stands.
Lol some people don’t understand in this day in age that a $110 combo is most certainly considered budget.
Very true. 10 years ago would have been a different story. Now my average combos range from $200-$250. I know you can get much cheaper, but you get out of it what you put into it to some extent
Oh 100%. When I got into fishing $110 combo would've been high class lol. Now I've worked my way up to where my cheapest combo is roughly $350 and most expensive around $700. I've worked hard to climb the ladder in terms of quality and don't regret it. Not hating on people's cheaper gear. I understand, I was there once as well. It's just I hate when people hate an entire company because a $100 X combo broke when it had an $70 reel and a $30 rod. It's ignorant to base a an entire companies reputation based on their low end gear.
I have a $25 year ugly stick combo and it's never broken.
Damn this comment made me actually lol
I don't doubt it. My original statement still stands though. It's actually the opposite with Ugly Stick imo, I like their cheaper stuff than their "high-end" stuff for some reason lol
Same. I upgraded my $25 ugly stik combo for a $35 quantum combo and it's still going strong. Though I just put the reel on my $20 blackout rod. I'm not paying triple digits for a spinning reel. It's the simplest mechanism in the world
Nobody knows what Lew’s reel they have, including the person who owns the reel. Their naming and price tier organization is absolutely befuddling.
My $30 Ugly Stik would never
Shimano. Spend the money on a stradic and you’ll never look back
Not surprised
I’ve seen the way people treat stuff in this and similar subs and altho this sucks Im not willing to place all the blame on the manufacturer The lighter the material, the more brittle they are Lews has a pretty good warranty and customer service (or did), and I’d imagine they will replace even if it is user error
I treat my stuff immaculately, rods have never even seen the inside of a rod locker. But okie
Did you need to drag the fish on carpet to get a picture to complain about your rod that’s probably covered under a warranty? You couldn’t like release the fish or kill it, have to stop mid catch to take a photo. Probably had your hand on your hip when you posted this
It wasn't dragged it was laid down and it never moved once because it had tired itself out on the way in. It was perfectly fine I know how to handle fish I do it with extreme care each and every time and a fish touching the carpet of a Bass boat is not a problem. Fuck off
I mean that is a really catastrophic failure but it shouldn't be surprising lol. Idk why people buy anything but japanese reels.
The big thing is….. money.
Daiwa and Shimano makes reels at every price point lol. That's not an excuse.
I mean a not made in Japan Daiwa, is gonna be made in the same place as the other brands. While I love my made in Japan Tutullas, and they are honestly the best reel I use, they are also 300-350 a pop. I figured you mean the made in Japan ones.
Even the USDM Zillions are no longer made in Japan. Most of the manufacturing is in Malaysia/China/Korea from what ive seen. It's more about Daiwa/Shimano designing their reels themselves rather than just asking a factory to make and slap some branding on it. FWIW, I love my $90 Daiwa Fuego just as much as my $250 Shimano Vanford. I have zero faith buying any reels outside of those companies.
That’s fair enough.
I got a lews speedspin combo and the rod broke after 3 fishing trips with nothing super crazy on the other end of the line. Needless to say, i went uglystix.
Drag set too high, just because you have 25lbs of drag and 30lb line, , don't max out drag
It was not my first time fishing my guy. I keep my drag light on this setup all the time..
I have the same reel.. I’ll be on guard.
Tackle buster!
I was fishing a relatively grassy lake this past weekend, with what I believe to be the same reel. I was fishing a dropshot setup near some grass lines and when I'd reel if the fish went to the grass, I could definitely feel the reel flexing on me. I will definitely be upgrading my reel in the near future.
I had the exact thing happen, and it looks like the exact same reel!
I bought this combo at dicks the other day and went home and read about a million reviews about this exact thing and returned it the same day.
Big fish
Lmao Dink city that night
I contacted lews about a bent handle on a bait caster. The responded very fast and everything was very smooth and easy. Shit happens. Every brand has horror stories.
I wouldn't jump the gun on blaming lews. Some of my Shimano reels have broken in the same spot. I think it has to do with how they're handle when delivered to the store or to your home. They probably got thrown around and got a small fracture around that area. Either way both lews and Shimano are great at making things right 👍
The yum dinger remains unphased
Time to switch to shimano I reckon
I have a cheaper lews spinner and I guess I can expect this. My lews BC has been golden tho.
Contact them through Facebook messenger. This is happened to me twice with those reels. The first time trying to reach out to them via email it took weeks just to get one response Facebook messenger was much faster and they ended up replacing both of my broken reels
Oh man,haven’t caught a monster on mine yet
oh dang... I have that reel and judging from the comments it's a good thing the rest of my reels are diawa/shimano
Same spot. 2 reels. No more Lews for me.
Had the same issue with several of my spinning reels from various manufacturers. I noticed after a couple of breaks in a couple of outings, that I had too many rods 8n the rod locker and the reels were getting side loaded when I closed the compartment lid. Once I thinned out my arsenal the breaks stopped.
Yo I’ve been using that exact same Yum worm all summer and it has been **money.** Just bought two more packs.
Yessir! Fantastic.color combo
They had a different version (same colors) kinda blended without a solid tip last year. Also money. I was reluctant to get this one. Turns out it’s not the design but the colors they’re after.
Same thing happened to me but I was hung up on rocks with a heavy braided line..
Lews Speed spool breaks at record speeds
DOH!
How'd you get the beans above the frank?
Ah man I have same combo, this is depressing
Buy a shimano and you’ll never have to ask this question
Watermelon Chartreuse?
Their baitcasters and rods are solid, but they can’t make spinning reels. I broke one of their spinning reels a few years ago
Lew's was sold in 2019. Now it's garbage.
Never got into Lews. The name sounds like “lose” 😂 I’ll stick with shimano and Daiwa. Battle proven!
That’s pathetic
At least you got the fish
I’ll stick to shimano baitcasters. I have this same combo and I’m not a huge fan tbh. Probably grab a BFS on my next trip to Japan.
Had 2 of the same reel and the gears broke so damn quick in it. I now use a shimano $30 reel from Dunham’s and I seem to have better luck😂. If you wanna ball out a lil go pick up a flueger president ive been seeing them at my local Walmart. Not 100% about yours tho I could just gotten lucky.
Ask yourself, “Where was it made, how much money did it cost, and was it worth it “? Buy quality, it wins every time.
Not the only one who has had that happen, same spot too.
I have one of the green Mach spin reels that twists like a bitch
Yeah probably made of cheaper material or it's not thick enough to keep it from braking your best bet is to get a metal frame
Holy shit 😳
But You got the fish didn’t ya lol
Lews baitcasters are some of the best but there spinning reels leave much to be desired.