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Thread: Piscifun Phantom review

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Menifee
    Posts
    1,221

    Default Piscifun Phantom review

    Spent the day today with my new Piscifun Phantom reel that I got from Amazon for like $69. Lots of inexpensive reels are showing up on YouTube including Kastking and Six Gill etc. But one channel "The Reel Test" isn't a paid endorsement and does some good controlled tests. He had really good results on casting distance against some well known Shimanos and Daiwas. I had just trashed one of my reels and needed a new jerkbait setup so I decided to try it. This thing is light. Under 6 oz. The first thing I did was the old table-top spin the spool test. Put both the centrifugal and magnetic brakes on 0 and loosened the spool tension. Spun it hard and it only spun for like 3 seconds. ???? Took it apart and gave it a drop of lube on the bearings and tried again. Same thing. How can a reel that casts better than a Tatula not have a free spinning empty spool? Well, I loaded it up with 12 lb. Red Label and headed to Skinner. Took a few minutes to get the right basic brake settings, but not too bad. Believe it or not, even with the odd table top test result, it casts really well. One thing that adds to odd feeling casts is the super light spool. It takes very little to get it up to speed. That means if you try to really rip it you can get early overrun. Just a nice easy-to-medium cast speed and it'll fly. Smoothness of retrieve is about a 7.5 or so. But for the price it's just fine. I made maybe 100 casts or so, playing with different brake settings using only a Lucky Craft flash pointer which is my go-to jerkbait, so I can't comment on how it will do with more finesse baits. In the end I'm really happy with this inexpensive reel so far. We'll see how it holds up over time.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Ventura, CA
    Posts
    314

    Default

    As you said, the real question is how it stands up over time.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Menifee
    Posts
    1,221

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by PokerFish View Post
    As you said, the real question is how it stands up over time.
    True, however in my experience, most modern reels last pretty darn long. I have a gen1 Black Max that I was told is junk, but here we are many years later and it is still running well. Heck, most reels come out of two or three factories now anyway. I plan on beating the crap out of this Phantom all summer (doing routine maintenance) so we'll see. I do like a nice Shimano DC reel, but can't afford a dozen of them on my deck.

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