Ed.

Jon, if your question was directed at me, the 150A one I sold with my last boat and it was still going strong and at least 5 years old, the 135A was about 4 years old when I had a problem, turned out it wasn't  being charged up enough, so had it put on a decent charger and so after a decent charge it is now still going strong.
benno573,  the company is still advertising so don't know about the belly up thing. As for rubbish reviews every product on the market will have rubbish reviews and rarely do you see enough good ones to judge them  but how many bad ones are out there will sway someone away from that brand. For me I can only go by my limited experience with that brand and the few I have had is no guarantee of their quality or if they are a problem. Too small a sample size.
A bit like my Jeep, after the first one which was a bit of a lemon I had to think very hard about getting another Jeep, but the second one has been the best car I have ever had. So at 50% excellent and 50% total rubbish.

Perhaps one of you fine gentlemen down her way should introduce those to Kat, that will really confuse her.  Spinning reels or baitcasters/overheads that will be  the decision. So many choices.
Sorry Kat couldn't resist.
I actually started off with baitcasters, then on to overheads but spinning reels also have their place and I only own 3 of those now but those don't get much use.
 

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Perhaps one of you fine gentlemen down her way should introduce those to Kat, that will really confuse her.  Spinning reels or baitcasters/overheads that will be  the decision. So many choices.
Sorry Kat couldn't resist.
I actually started off with baitcasters, then on to overheads but spinning reels also have their place and I only own 3 of those now but those don't get much use.
 

Perhaps one of you fine gentlemen down her way should introduce those to Kat, that will really confuse her.  Spinning reels or baitcasters/overheads that will be  the decision. So many choices.
Sorry Kat couldn't resist.
I actually started off with baitcasters, then on to overheads but spinning reels also have their place and I only own 3 of those now but those don't get much use.
 

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

Kat, you do realize that your on the slippery dark path now, now that you have started looking at different reels and rods and have more than one, next you will be thinking that you will need another set  for a different class of fishing and so it will go on and on! 😀. There are birthdays, X'mas,  Mothers day and more and the justification to treat yourself to a new set will be easy!😉

It gives us a chance to catch up and relax so small price to pay, besides its only once a fortnight and she goes to the Gym about 3-5 times a week and I do like like Coffee and Cake. We have an exceptional place we regularly visit which has fabulous home made cakes. So have to support the local store and I am willing to take one for the team!😄

It gives us a chance to catch up and relax so small price to pay, besides its only once a fortnight and she goes to the Gym about 3-5 times a week and I do like like Coffee and Cake. We have an exceptional place we regularly visit which has fabulous home made cakes. So have to support the local store and I am willing to take one for the team!😄

Some items you have to feel the item to appreciate whether they are good or not suitable. Rods in particular , most of the main rods makers are terrible in respect to where the guides are located on the blank. I have seen some from even the likes of Shimano, Daiwa and Shakespeare  where the guides are out by 15-20 degrees to where they are supposed to be. Or not enough guides so under load the line will rub on the blank. Not so much an issue with spinning rods but critical on overhead rods.  Same goes for reels whilst some may look good on specs and on the advertising blurb, some of them, the way they feel and operate just grate on my nerves when turning the reel, with loud anti reverse dawgs making a constant racket and some just feel much better when in your hand.

Stores such as BCF do not carry the full range of the brands they sell, so they only stock what they think will be popular and ignore the other models, hence I like to go and see what each has and whats new, I take the misses to the Gym occasionally so have an hour or 2 to kill before picking her up and going for a "Coffee and cake" afterwards. So in my area there are the Big 3 stores within 5 minutes of each other so I kill the time and do the rounds. Usually I do some research and know what I want to buy before going to get it anyway.

If that is the service you get from them in that store  then fair enough, but not my experience with some of their other stores.

If that is the service you get from them in that store  then fair enough, but not my experience with some of their other stores.

Gets rid of loops/minimizes them from the line (big spool) when casting as far as I know but I have never used an Alvey.

If you want to save some money narrow down the reel/rod you like and check out the prices from the various stores , also E-Bay is good to get a feel for what those items are being offered at as most stores nowadays have an online presence. For example my Penn Spinfisher VI2500LL is selling for $219 at BCF and at Dinga you can get it for $160 including free delivery if you sign up for a free membership. My Okuma Makaira 50W was $540 at Freddys and everyone else had it close to $850, so look around and save some cash.

Last time I went to BCF was about a week ago and their range had diminished greatly due to Covid-19 and unable to get new stock from China?.

Personally I rarely just go to BCF only, especially if your budget is tight, they are rarely the cheapest and often are more expensive. I would go to them to check out what they have and then also check out Freddys, Outback Adventures, Anaconda and any others that are near you. Everyone will stock a slightly different range and have different prices for the same gear, in some cases the price difference can be huge for the same item.

As Hamish said,  practice... However if you use circle hooks you need to wait for the fish to swallow it before setting the hook.  so you may need to let the fish run and then set the hook slowly, that is one scenario where live liners are great.

You can sometimes tell by the fight the fish gives you, head shakes, a slow constant peel of line, tail slaps, comes with experience but it is still a best guess as each fish fights different. Setting a hook is also different as each fish will be different so again a best guess. Some fish if you don't strike at the first nibble you will loose your bait, others if you do that you will pull the bait and the unset hook out of their mouth. It comes with practice, you win some and you lose some.

You still have to play with drags no matter which reel you use, just that the live liners/bait feeders give you a few more options which are easier to preset, but they do cost a bit more and are a little bit heavier that the standard reels.
As I mentioned once before you have to choose a reel/rod that is comfortable for you to use  but still do the job you want.

One thing you should be aware of as the line gets peeled of your spool because you have a big fish on it then the drag will also increase due to smaller circumference (leverage on the spool) and you need to make sure you don't exceed the rated lines capacity or it will snap. It isn't a problem if say you are using 40lb braid and your reel can only put out 10lb drag, if that is the case you will just get spooled and once that happens you will be still connected unless it is a really big fish,  also the angle of the line will also increase the drag to so when the fish runs away from you and then does a 90 degree  and keeps going the belly of the line will increase the drag too.