Ardent Reels

[jedimaster]

Well I went to the sportsman show wanting to replace my 6 to 1 Quantum Tour baitcaster that I use for crankbaits with a 5 to 1 reel. I held a few of the other reels and I figure I would go to the show buyig another curado. I came across the Ardent booth and I was pretty intrigued by this line tracking situation the reels have. Basically when the is being spooled out the guide tracks from left and right to prevent line from crossing up on the spool, this should help to add a bit more smoothness of the drag, something critical for crankbaits. Even more so for me as I like to use braided line on my crankbait rod. Yah yah I know, I should be using florocarbon or mon, but the rod I use is the softest compsoite crankbait rod I could find, so its some give and take.

 

Back to the reel

 

When I held the bare reel in my hand to be honest I wasn't too impressed. I dunno something didn't feel right. Then I felt one on a rod and it felt alot better. It sits I would say about halfway in size between a 200 curado DHSV and a 200 E7. I found the small frame nice on the E's but they did feel a bit small on some bigger rods. and the D's I find after fishing with for a long time my hand gets stiff. Anyway the size felt just right. About the size of a 100 D curado.

 

As any fisherman would do when I got home I spooled it up and tied on a bell sinker and played around with it in the hallway. Well I am very happy with this purchase so far. I can hardly wait to get out and put it on the water. How long til bass season? What about pike?

 

The reel I got was an Ardent Edge Pro. I did want to check them out with all the rave reviews from iCast and having been a long time Curado guy I am always skeptical of a baitcaster. This reel is really nice and worth checking out for yourself. I actully wanted to buy a the Fish O flauge version, but they don't come in a right handed 5 to 1 in fish o flauge.

Made in the USA, has a 3 year warranty, 8+1 bearings. One of the other cool things it has that I didn't notice til I got home is the grooves in the bottom of the gear box that really give you an extra bit of grip on the reel.

 

Anyway if your in the market and at the show go by the booth and check them out.

[EC1]

Thanks for sharing. Might be getting myself an edge tour sometime soon.

The things that I see will be very interesting for these reels is that their weight should be good with balancing out flipping sticks a little bit better than your 5-6oz reel.

I have handled the new edge line off the water, and can say that the lower end of the edge models feel like Shimano's (Extremely smooth, no geary feeling), while the top end models feel more like Daiwa's (Smooth, but you can feel the gears).

 

Will be looking forward to using one real soon!