Casting: The OG 100 is my first real look at a Bates Fishing Company reel, so I wasn't familiar with the brake setup on their other reels. The Hundo is advertised with an Adjustable Dual Matrix Braking System. To me, that sounds like a combo of magnetic and centrifugal brakes. The OG 100 is listed with simply "Magnetic Braking." No fancy names or catch phrases, just the simple reference. I wasn't very optimistic, because to me, when a manufacturer uses a simple description like "magnetic braking" for their casting system, I envision that radial arrangement of magnets nestled within the side plate, acting against a flattened surface on the spool. Now, there's nothing wrong with this system, it's just simple and more common in entry level reels.

The type of braking system I expect to find when a manufacturer simply states "magnetic braking."

However, when I removed the non-handle sideplate to investigate the brakes on the OG 100, what I found was more than I anticipated. The OG 100 has a magnetic braking system reminiscent of Daiwa and ARK Fishing where a rotor extends from the spool into the sideplate's array of magnets. I later came to find out, after catching up with Zander on the water, and showing him the brakes on my OG 100, that his Hundo has very similar brakes. So then my question is, why the difference in terminology? Honestly, my first thought after seeing these brakes was Bates Fishing Co. has built a potential Millionaire killer.

What Bates Fishing Co has installed in their OG 100

This more dynamic braking system in the OG 100 coupled with its super light spool make it capable of presenting baits down to at least 5.8 grams (0.2oz) in weight. That's what I was able to cast in Bagley Bait's Rattlin' Honey B Squarebill. To push things even further, I swapped one of my OG 100s over to a BFS stick just for kicks. I then attached a three and a half gram (3.5g ~= 1/8oz) drop shot weight to the line to see if it would cast that. It did! Based on this result, I'd describe the OG 100's casting performance as BFS adjacent. All that's really needed is a shallow spool option and Bates Fishing could have a BFS capable platform right away.

The OG 100's spool weighs just 10 grams

After all that, casting conventional style baits was a no brainer. In fact, I found performance there mostly very status quo (that's a good thing). While fishing braid, my brakes were usually set somewhere around 3 - 4 (on a scale of 1 - 8) depending on wind conditions. Note, there were times, casting a Donkey Slayer with combined lure weight (Donkey Slayer + trailer) of one point seven ounces (1.7oz) that I almost spooled the reel, so I don't think I'd rely upon the OG100 for tossing big baits. If Bates builds an OG150 or OG200, that'd be a much different story.

The OG 100 is able to cast micro-cranks like these from (left to right) Bomber, Bagley, and Evergreen International relatively easily

Now on one trip, I did have a professional overrun that resulted in an on the boat re-spool. To clear the overrun, I had to cut away a portion of my precious Monster PE Si-X (like over half). I just happened to have a spool of 22lb Seaguar Tatsu packed my tackle box for backup leader material, and used that to backfill the reel. When all was said and done and I went to make a cast with my refreshed reel, I found I had to turn the brakes up to maximum to tame the fluorocarbon. That was unexpected, but entirely reasonable given how Shimano's iDC settings work - you have to pre-set the brakes based on line type with fluorocarbon being the most aggressive brake setting.

Once dialed in I was able to tame fluorocarbon with the OG 100's brakes

Retrieve: Click the handle over to engage the spool and the OG 100 performs very well with solid, smooth engagement. The surprising aspect here? It comes with a 7.1:1 retrieve ratio. That's faster than Shimano's Conquest 100HG (6.5:1) and slower than Daiwa's Millionaire SV70SHL (7.2:1) in specification. However, in practice, the calculated inches per turn (ipt) is in the OG100's favor (29max vs 26.5max). This is due to the OG 100's larger diameter spool. Either way, the OG100's retrieve ratio is very relevant and suitable for a host of different applications.

The OG 100 is equipped with a 7.1:1 retrieve ratio

The OG100's retrieve ratio is suitable for a host of different applications

Power: Despite it's compact palming profile and light weight, the OG 100 packs plenty of torque. To test, I tied a snap to the end of the line on my original combo and pulled out some of my big, heavy crankdown baits - not to fish, but to test the OG 100's power. Big crankdowns provide just as much resistance, if not more, than a deep diving crank and are easier to use in this situation, because you don't have to be in deep water. The result? I struggled more trying to my rod tip down than I did cranking the reel. The OG 100's handle turned very easily. This reel has good power.

I had zero difficulty cranking this Lunker Fighters Grenade Gill (7.5", 6.1oz) through the water like it was a giant squarebill

Drag: Bates Fishing specifies the OG 100 with a fourteen pound (14lb) max drag. It is composed of what seems to be a prototypical mix of metal and carbon washers - by today's standards anyway. The interesting thing was, I could not easily remove the keyed washer beneath the first carbon washer. Given my unfamiliarity with this company's product, I chose to simply take a close up photo so you can see how the drag is composed. I didn't want to risk bending or tweaking that keyed washer before having an opportunity to actually fish the reel.

The OG 100's drag stack is somewhat prototypical by today's standards. It's simple and effective.

Out on the water, I found performance of the OG 100's drag to be smooth and consistent. Adjustments via the dragstar are micro-click enabled helping keep your adjustment in place. The dragstar itself has nice, flat edges that don't dig into your thumb or finger during adjustments.

The keyed washer is really wedged into the main gear. So rather than pry it out, I took a close up photo to illustrate the presence of at least one more carbon washer on the other side of the keyed washer

The OG 100's dragstar has flattened edges making it very comfortable to adjust

A small accommodation Bates Fishing makes, and that I greatly appreciate is in the implementation of their audible drag. Instead of a spring loaded pin nestled somewhere in the drag star assembly or within the drag stack itself, Bates uses a v-shaped pin that extends out from within the top, metal washer of the drag stack. This extension acts against gear shaped ridges within the main gear to produce the clicking sound. So, when disassembling the reel, there are no miniscule spring loaded pieces to fly out and become lost. Not only does this make disassembly worry free, but reassembly is much less problematic as well.

I appreciate how Bates Fishing has implemented the clicker on the OG 100's drag with this integrated V-shaped pin sticking out of the drag stack's top washer. No micro springs and pins to lose, no other parts to misalign

Next Section: Design and Performance