By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

We graded each reel on a 1-5 scale in three areas:
1. Price
2. How the reel felt and reacted as the motorcycle sped away
3. How we like handling the reel

Then we made “judges deductions” for any beefs we had about the reels.

1. Price/Features
$450 in the “Monsoon” model. A light, anodized black aluminum reel with a slick self-enclosed drag system.
Score: 4 out of 5

2. How it “Met the Street”
Butter smooth at the startup, and no wobbles during the run. A very consistent and even pull – we saw a very stable, well-defined arc in the rod from early start-up to the finish of the run, with minimal vibration.
Score: 4.5 out of 5

3. Functional Review
This is a relative newcomer to the market, but it performs beyond its years. It has a very smart self-enclosed drag system, with an easy mechanism for popping off the spool. Machined with extremely tight tolerances, minimizing grit penetration.
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Knocks
They run a tad large for the sizes advertised. In other words, the 3-Plus model is actually a killer 5-weight trout reel; the 7-plus is capable of being a 9-weight reel, etc. Hatch could also amp it up a tad on top-end drag power. For the most part these reels are rock-solid.
Deduction: -.5

Total Score: 12.5 out of 15

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