KastKing is expanding to first class player of baitcasting reels with its the KastKing Kestrel Elite Finesse Casting Reel. Coming in at an unbelievably light 4.4-ounces, it’s the lightest reel in BFS reel arsenal.
Here, I'd like to do some 'Actual Combat' tests on it. By 'Actual Combat', I mean they are not some casual castings at pond and then draw the conclusion 'The retrieve is smooth, the reel is nice',so on and so forth., but the long time field fishing, disassembly, or other tough usage to unveil the real performance, defects, good or bad properties.
Let's begin with some words from Kastking Official.
After driving 6 miles, I begun the fishing with Kestrel at a beautiful mountain creek.
I have been fishing with this reel for months(it's launched in April 2022 here, earlier than it did in US) , this is my experience of it.
Basically it's nice reel, much better than Kastking's other reels. But there are several faults.
I feel it is not very smooth, there is a small noise because the gears are not very precise(I disaseembled a new Kestrel reel and found this).
I don't like its star drag, small reel with a bulk star drag. Aesthetically unappealing
My kestrel reel's drag adjustment is not linear, its hard to set to high end, Max drag is obviously smaller than indicated 13.2lb, estimately about 8lb.
Other than that, it is quite comfortable to use.
As for the brake system, The braking system is somewhat aggressive, I mean it's overbraked, but overbraked is better than under in my opinion.
it is quite comfortable to throw 5-7 grams with brake setting to 1.
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