Quote Originally Posted by Dutch552 View Post
The differences between the Shakespeare ATS and Magda Pro DX reels are not enough to justify the $10 higher price of the Okuma. I have fished the Magda reels since 2009 and the quality took a dip when I bought the last batch in 2016. I could repair the older Magda Pro 15s but the latest reels I've received have cheaper internals than their predecessors and aren't worth the time or parts to fix something major. I've transitioned to Shakespeare reels for my dedicated crappie crankbait setups because I feel like you get the same performance for $27 vs. $37 having had both reels apart on the workbench. I did receive a dud ATS from Northwoods that had a bad counter out of the box and their customer service was awesome, receiving a new reel within two days of calling. I'd check Northwoods or Franks's Great Outdoors to see who ha the better price-Franks runs some good reel sales at times.
i have used the Both quite a bit and feel the okumas are way better than the shakespeare. I gladly pay the 10.00 more for the Okumas . Never had issues with okumas . Both are cheap , but Shakespeare are REALLY cheap made , haven’t held up for me as well as okumas.