Five Seconds and More with Quantum's EXO PT

Total Score: 8.42 - INNOVATION AWARD!

Introduction: We mentioned, at the beginning of our review of Abu Garcia's new Revo MGX, a recent poll on both our discussion forum and Facebook Fan Page featuring a non-all inclusive list of the reels slated for review this coming year on TackleTour.com. We asked readers to vote on which reel they would like to see reviewed first. The Revo MGX was the early leader, hence its recent review. Checking back on our Facebook poll reveals the Shimano Japan Scorpion XT DC overtook the MGX so you'd think that reel would be next up. Surprisingly one reel that really caught our interest at ICAST did not fare so well in either poll. Could it be consumers had seen enough from this manufacturer and are therefore jaded against any new product regardless of how intriguing it may be? It's quite possible.

One reel was a unanimous choice amongst the TT Staff for further investigation and testing post ICAST 2011.

To be honest, even yours truly has been wary of reels from this manufacturer in the past, but part of the responsibility of being a TackleTour editor is to put any feelings or bias aside. It's called being objective. The trick is, even though we can be unbiased and present our findings on any product we fish, we have to actually fish the product in order to write it up. Given the amount of product we see, in order for a product to get time on the water with us, we need to be either intrigued or inspired to string it up, toss it out and crank it up! This is the reason for the majority of positive reviews on our site.

Five seconds is usually all it takes to judge whether or not we want to fish a reel enroute to an actual review ...

Quantum is as much maligned as any fishing industry giant can be. Year after year, they introduce product that is priced right, engineered acceptably, but in the end, they're just not up to snuff with Shimano and Daiwa. Whether they care to admit it or not, everyone making reels for the bass fishing industry is chasing these two titans. Manufacturers like Abu Garcia, Okuma and Lews have made some serious headway eating into sales, but take a look at our Fishing Reel menu page or even more extreme, our Enthusiast menu page, it's almost all Shimano and Daiwa.

This reel just took one look and we knew we had to fish it.

So what exactly are the characteristics that make a fishing reel worthy for us consumers and why do Shimano and Daiwa dominate the market if not literally, the at least figuratively? It's really not terribly complicated. A good bass fishing reel needs to be reasonably light (between five to seven ounces), it needs to have a good drag, a brake system that is not terribly complicated to use, have good power when turning the handle, is smooth, noise and vibration free, when turning the handle, holds a good amount of line (honestly 70yds plus or minus a few yards of your favorite line is more than sufficient for the purposes of bass fishing), is styled attractively (yes, no matter how much you may think looks don't matter, they do), and is built with quality inside and out.

It is the EXO PT ...

Naturally, it's that last factor that is so very difficult to assess when picking up a reel at the tackle store but all the other factors and more come together at that moment you pick up a new reel to give you the good or bad impression of quality. For us here at TackleTour, that moment is typically all of about five seconds. That's how much time a manufacturer has to grab our attention on any new product. If it does not intrigue us within five seconds, it goes to the "long term, if ever" review pile.

Some of the most effective designs are also the simplest in concept.

With fishing reels, we pick one up, get a feel for its heft, spin the free spool to get a feel for casting, turn the handle to get a feel for smoothness, lock down the drag, thumb the spool and spin the handle to get a feel for drag smoothness and power and frame rigidity. If in that five seconds a reel makes any unusual sounds, shakes, vibrations, or has a hitch in its giddy-up, it's game over, we will likely never fish it let alone buy it. Sound harsh? It is. When you see the amount of product we do each and every year, you grow to be that way.

And yes, this is a Quantum.

We go through this drill each and every year at ICAST. While we report on just about each and every product we see, actual on the water reviews are reserved for those products that excite us the most. So which reels intrigued is at ICAST 2011?

There were a few. We've already reported on several: Daiwa's T3 baitcaster, Shimano's Curado G, and Abu Garcia's Revo MGX. But there was one unanimous pick amongst the TackleTour staff of a reel that has the potential to be a game changer and it's not from Shimano or Daiwa. Presenting our look into Quantum's new EXO PT.