Recommend a freshwater reel?

[Bustercluck]

what exactly is breaking? i haven't seen any reels with the retention pin you mentioned, sounds like it might be a cheaper production design....all of my spinning reels are threaded into the main gear, or thumbscrew on opposite side of the body....but it sounds easy enough to pin it again? also can get cheap replacement handles on amazon that would likely work, if you don't care about matching the colour/style perfectly

Yeah, I was expecting it to be threaded too. I honestly didn’t spend more than 10 seconds looking at it. It was brand new so I just returned it, but it was definitely a pin missing and everything was tight before I sent him out fishing. I’m not into triaging a brand new anything for the company that made it. I’m going back there to pick up a different reel, maybe I’ll grab another reel off of the shelf and take it apart in the store

This other reel is missing the bail wire. A screw fell out somewhere. I cant even remember where it went missing or what I was doing. My brother seems to think we were on a canoe trip a few years ago. This reel is also pretty new.

[BRvalley]

yeah makes sense if it's that new, just return/exchange it

with a Shimano reel even their cheaper reels are worth repairing imo, parts are cheap and easy to source, and they have shipped me a few things free of charge before too

[Bustercluck]

what exactly is breaking? i haven't seen any reels with the retention pin you mentioned, sounds like it might be a cheaper production design....all of my spinning reels are threaded into the main gear, or thumbscrew on opposite side of the body....but it sounds easy enough to pin it again? also can get cheap replacement handles on amazon that would likely work, if you don't care about matching the colour/style perfectly

I took one apart at the store yesterday and it was the pin that lets the handle fold down to stow. It is threaded, but the female threads are in the rod that was pinned to the handle. I picked him up a shimano and it’s quite a difference in quality compared to the other rods I have.

[BRvalley]

I see what you mean now....easy enough to pin again, but shouldn't have to on a new reel...and can't say i've had that failure on any other reels

good luck with whatever reel you choose next

[britman101]

Manufacturers just bundle cheap reels with their rods to get them out the door. Reel is probably just a knock off reel from China with parts in it that are not meant to last. As others have mentioned get a quality reel like Shimano for instance and it will last you a lifetime.