KastKing Speed Demon Elite Fishing Reel, World's Fastest 10.5:1 Gear Ratio/Deadbolt Baitcasting Reel, 10+1 Shielded Stainless Steel BB, CNC Lightweight Aluminum Frame, Available in Skipping Version

I picked this reel up for baits that I like to fish fast like buzzbaits. I'm really impressed with the quality of the reel and even the packaging it came in. The reel is light weight and fits nicely in your hand. All the edges are smooth and feel like a higher priced reel.The speed is crazy. pulling in 42" of line with each turn of the handle is absolutely wild. You can crank once, pause, crank again, or just burn your bait along. I need to try it out with some other types of baits, but chucking around a 1" jig in grass with a reel this fast would be fun too.

The Speed Demon reel has become my ONLY reel that I use. I fish from a kayak, and am constantly changing direction, fighting the wind, dealing with passing boats/wakes, etc. The ability to quickly reel in your line is quite the thing for me. I have also adjusted my retrieve accordingly around the speed of this reel. I have qiven all of my other reels away at this point, and own five of these reels along with the KastKing Royale Legend Pro Bladed Jig pole. Couldn't be better.

I have Spartacus, Royale Legend II, Whitemax and now the Speed Demon. Is there a difference between the Speed Demon and the lower tier? That is an easy answer is a blind fold test when you spin each real. I bought it to try it out to see if the difference in price worth the value. There are much more differences when free spooling and reeling in the fish with the speed demon. The Speed Demon is absolutely so much smoother and you can feel there is "no play". You really don't know/aware the "no play" until you spin the Speed Demon vs the lower tier e.g. Spartacus/Royale Legend II. It seems there is no tolerance/vibration in the spinning mechanism. I had trouble later with braided line after 30 min of using it and got worse after further tuning it: would get bird nest on every cast if I am not maxing out 10 on the braking system. And yes, I adjusted the free-spooling drag correctly! Not sure if it is the centrifugal brakes system related though I really like the magnetic system in the lower tier: definitely need more time to play with braided line. Thing really changed to be better when I swapped to 12lbs monofilament. These pictures show what a fun time I had this last weekend of catching shads. I filled up the 85qt cooler in 4 hours. If anyone had done shad fishing, you cast out every 3-5 minutes and I got zero bird nest with monofilament. I am not a die-hard fisherman but this last weekend it was cloudy and the fish was not biting close to shore but the long cast with this Speed Demon was biting almost on every cast. Other fishermen with their spinning rod setup were very jealous the non-stop action I was getting! At the moment, it was a good time and a good experience (beside the braided line incident) so definitely worth the money. I will update any resolution I have on the braided line if anyone want to ping me for a follow up!

The Good: Love the brakes. This was my first KastKing reel that features centrifugal brakes, and I'm happy to learn that they are much stronger than the magnetic brakes. I also like the easy fine-tuning you can do with the demon eye dial. I didn't have enough braid to properly spool up for a test, so I used some bulk leader material as my mainline. Though using much heavier line than I would normally use, I still got some nice distance on my casts. Additionally, the reel is light and looks good.The Bad: Mine came kind rough feeling. I stripped it down and lubed it. Getting some oil in the level-wind especially seemed to help. It's smooth now, but I would rather it have been so out of the box. Still, I don't know how long it had been in storage, so I can't really hold that against KK.The Ugly: What I can hold against them is one of the handle grip assemblies being either over-torgued or thread-locked down. The end cap covering the interior screw and two bearings is never going to open. With enough force, the whole assembly starts to turn instead, so I just backed off. I've never actually had to touch those bearings before on a reel, so I'm just going to leave it. It annoys me though. No possibility of switching grips without replacing the whole handle. That's what lost a star.

I mean, you will see me reviewing all things KastKing, I absolutely love this company and every time I need some new reel they are always my first stop. This reel is no joke, it is HELLA fast so please get ready when you are pulling in your senkos. I made the mistake of not paying attention and just reeling like a "normal" reel just to look up and the dang worm was skidding across the surface, lol. I have not had much luck with the bass yet since it is winter but wanted to let any Christmas shoppers out there know that I got this for myself and really think it is a great addition to my collection. KastKing quality makes casting a breeze. Super nice and sturdy. Great reel!!!

The media could not be loaded. Bought the first reel first time out. Made 3 casts and hooked a 5 lb largemouth. Seemed to do fine on retrieve. Landed fish and went to cast just to have gear freeze up when trying to cast. Thought maybe big fish stressed the gear. Took a chance on straight exchange got second reel had just got finished spooling it up with braid to go fishing today and checked the drag and there practically isn't one. Watch video so this reel is directly out of box doesn't work and the kicker to it all, is its been like a month and a half since recieving It, so not eligible for return. Maybe after this review they will give my money back very disappointed and will not be buying any more kast king products. Will try to contact seller but once again very disappointed.