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Old 11-19-12, 12:58 PM   #1
joedog
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Lew's

Today, the Lew's brand and its many well-known trademarks are under the ownership of Do Outdoors Inc. Owner, Lynn Reeves. Reeves has made the promise and commitment to return the Lew's name to its place of prominence in the industry, keying on the same principles by which Lew Childre originally founded the company ... building innovative products that are faster, lighter and stronger.

Input wanted.
Reviews of products wanted!
Anyone have/had Lew's equipment? Review wanted.
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Old 11-19-12, 01:40 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joedog View Post
Lew's

Today, the Lew's brand and its many well-known trademarks are under the ownership of Do Outdoors Inc. Owner, Lynn Reeves. Reeves has made the promise and commitment to return the Lew's name to its place of prominence in the industry, keying on the same principles by which Lew Childre originally founded the company ... building innovative products that are faster, lighter and stronger.

Input wanted.
Reviews of products wanted!
Anyone have/had Lew's equipment? Review wanted.
Joe, while I'm not at all sure that they meet thier mission statement, as in are they any more innovative, faster, lighter or stronger than most other brands, they do build a good product.
Tavery5 used lews reels for a while. I remember at the time that he was very happy with them and commented that they cast as well or better than other reels he had used. I'm not sure why he had a change of heart, but he recently switched back to his old favorite brand of Abu Garcia and stocked up on the Revo Premier reels. Perhaps he will read this and expand on that. I don't remember him ever being disapointed with the Lews reels. I used one of his Lews reels for a while one day and was impressed with how easy it cast and the distance you could get with little effort. They evidently have a good spool design and use top quality bearings.
I have now worked on servicing several lews reels and as far as innovation, I'm not impressed and I'm not discouraged. The basics of the inside of the reel are a copy of the many similar pure fishing brands of reels already available. Some of that is good and some of it could easily be improved. I did notice one issue that was a little discouraging with the Lews early on. That was the method used to make the tension knob click when turned. Lews used a plastic tabed part and it seems to be very common for the tabs to break and it then stops clicking. Now, that doesn't hurt the performance of the reel and you really don't need the tension knob to click, but I just didn't understand why they didn't copy the thin brass tabed part common in revos when they were already using many of the same parts in other areas. I also don't see why they didn't make a change and start using a better part there when they started seeing that it was common to break. Other than that one part, I have not seen or heard of any common issues with the lews reels.
The original lews reel was a marvil of new thinking and engineering for it's time from an innovative designer. The current lews owners may share the desire to build a great new innovative reel, but it seems to me that they basically copied an existing platform and perhaps just made a few minor changes and improvments. It's still a great reel though and is priced fairly.
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Old 11-19-12, 02:01 PM   #3
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I used the Lews reel for two seasons, I owned 3 of the Tournament Pro, and a lesser version for a crankbait reel. I found them to cast as well or better than many of my other reels, and they were smooth on the retrieve. I did not have any major issues with the reels, other than the clicking feature of the dragstar broke, it is a strange design. I contacted Lews and they overnighted me the parts to repair the reels without question. In fairness I will say that I had to contact them twice.

The main reason I quit fishing the reels was that I did not feel they offered any advantage over the reels that I have fished for quite a while, in fact they were very close clones of the reels I normally use, and in some cases used what I consider cheaper materials. The biggest difference was the use of a 1 piece spool, they say they want to be inovative but this design is older technology and no doubt cheaper to build.

I could recommend these reels to anyone wanting to use them without hesitation, they are a solid reel in their price range, they offer a lot of options and there is reel in their line up that will meet your requirements.

IMHO, head to head, Abu makes a better reel.
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Old 11-19-12, 02:41 PM   #4
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How about their rods?
Is Abu and Lews at the same price point?

Thanks for the great input Kevin and Toney!
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Last edited by joedog; 11-19-12 at 02:46 PM.
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Old 11-19-12, 02:44 PM   #5
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Joe I bought a Tournament Pro and the basic Speed Spool a while back because I had fond memories of the original BB 1N and lucked into a .60% deal. They cast good and are very smooth. I bought a couple more of the basic ones just to keep the miles and wear and tear of my Curados.

Like T and them said though I don't see any earth shaking innovations (yet) (if they can keep selling a bunch of them and bank some money then they can afford to hire some innovators)........but IMO anybody that wants a solid reliable user friendly baitcaster for 100. should def look at the SS

Clueless on the rods except for the "build your own rod from scratch while you wait" marketing from back in the 70's we talked about on another thread.
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Old 11-19-12, 02:51 PM   #6
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Ken, thanks!
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