I received mine a couple of days ago and was waiting for my ACE HAWK AG Venom 1.68m to arrive which it did yesterday (surprisingly fast shipping from AliExpress), I got both on sale. I spooled the reel up last night and mounted it on the rod, It was too dark to take a test cast. First, light this morning after doing my Puppy duties I did some test casts, My driveway to my neighbors across the street with a 2.5 G weight after a couple of bird's nests dialing the brakes in all I can say is WOW I am impressed, Shame on KastKing for bringing out the Kestrel at that price they did not do themselves a favor in the customer goodwill area. I am bummed my only solace is I bought the Krestel on a flash sale from KastKing at 179.00. Right now I see no reason based on my micro test for speed bearings on the Eagle II. KastKing definitely did work on the braking system on the Eagle. Sorry for using your review platform but I am strictly an amateur and am anxiously awaiting your valued and trusted review. IMHO this setup rod and reel is the best around 100.00 combo in the BFS field right now.
Birds nest? That means the brakes is certainly weaker than the Kestrel. That's good news! Price is definitely bad and it's also wrong for them to price aliexpress products at US Msrp. This is a global market place and now it's become unfair for people in other countries. Shame on KK
@@rawrfishing Jimmy - I don't have a Kestrel but you can clearly see the metal ring around the brakes on the Valiant Eagle 2 - the Kestrel lacks that ring. Assuming that it shields the spool from the magnets' impact somewhat, thus decreasing brake power.
Glad to see a new budget reel unboxing. Thanks for making a thorough review. I always like to hear pet peeves with new products. Otherwise we are just watching an advertisement video. The question on my mind... does the valiant eagle 2 beat the kestrel in casting distance with the updated brakes. I went with dark wolf ultra (updated static brake) during the 11.11 sale. Passed on the VE2 because of my pet peeve with the tolerances on Kastking's loose handle, sliding knobs, and AR bearing. But I might still buy a VE2 depending on upcoming reviews.
Thx man! I am not gonna to be able to test anything this weekend. Forecast of crazy wind gust to 50 mph coming. But the goal is to see if this reel is still over braked. If it is the same magnets... We may expect to see similar results... As mentioned, minor differences with how it is mounted, but seeing how far in the magnets are... We don't know until we are on the water
I hope it's not over braked. My BK2 / DWU are still the king and queen, but I would consider to give KK another shot if you tell me it's not over braked.
Sure, i'll let you know as soon as i take it out! :) DWU ftw. not a fan of the kyorim's quality. but if you get lucky with a good one... then that's super!
I order one last mo. It well be here 30 Nov. Being I live on a big pond it well get a work out. Also thanks for the heads up on the side plate lock lever location.
The reel-bearing retainer pins on KastKing reels are tapered, If you are unaware of that you could push the pin out in the wrong direction, It is a very slight taper, I put a micrometer on them before removing the pin.
Yeah it's micro tapered. So eyeing it won't help u know which side to push it. And both sides are just as tight. So flip a coin and guess lol... But if u have a tool... Definitely be better. I wished they marked it
How does this compare to the zephyr reel? Does it completely outclass it? Wish I got the Valiant Eagle 2 instead during their Black Friday sale on AliExpress. I just didn’t see any reviews on it yet! Lol
They are in different class, so u cant say one out class the other. One is better UL and L where as one is better L and ML. Zephyr is the latter. Ke and VE2 is better for lighter
Lol, does that new mic make me sound a bit sick? Although I have a bit of a sinus thing going on, the sound of myself do sound differently. Also louder too. i had to turn it down during editing lol. thanks for asking :)
Just ordered a valiant eagle 2 and the new kestrel light casting rod. Hope it's a good rod for it or should I have gone for the ultralight kestrel rod? I'm mainly going to use it for bass and walleye and maybe trout.
Gotta read the specs! Choose the one that fits your weight range most. But L sounds right of ur gonna fish for bass and walleye. Let us know how that rod works. I may get one
I couldn't find any specs on the ve2 other than the exploded view picture of it. It's not even listed on their U.S. web page. Maybe I'll buy the ul kestrel rod too.
Well.. Reels are harder to throw specs on. But I was referring to the rods. There is usually a lure weight range. Although UL can handle the lower of the L rod, it's probably better to use a L rod so u can handle bigger lures and fish for the river. But as a bfs fishermen... I will believe that you WILL end up getting both rods lol...
It u can afford and get the slx, I would get the slx as it is a better quality. However.. The size of the spools are different and would be used differently. Check out my curado bfs reel videos to see it what it is capable out of the box and when you upgrade it with other aftermarket spools. This budget reel can do UL to ML where the slx can do upper end of UL to ML. Note the bigger spool on the slx does better on the heavier stuff
@@rawrfishing yeah expecting it to be here tommorrow or saturday. as it says its on our local UPS already. how about the centron rod unboxing? I'm also eyeing the 4ft version of it.
There is no need to compare the reels based on the body. I covered that in this video for that opinion. The only thing we should be looking at is how different the casts and hope the brakes have been altered.
I am not sure. But it doesn't have a magnesium alloy Frame like the Kestrel Elite, so I would say it is a better choice. Do your usual cleaning routines after each trip and it should be okay
@@rawrfishing well I have the zephyr but doesn’t cast the lighter lures too well I’m trying to throw lighter lures like 1.5-2 gram jigs for trout I’d assume the ve2 won’t be able to cast 1g trout magnets too well
It can cast 1 gram, but it's pretty over braked. Some modifications and changing to micro bearings will make it good for that! The Tsurinoya Dark Wolf Ultra and Genius both are great alternatives for trout magnets as well. Swap micro bearings and boom
@@rawrfishing ok sounds good so u would recommend the dwu over the ve2 it would just need a bearing swap vs the ve2 needing magnets removed and bearing swap?
@@faced2much yep! Although I help made the Zephyr and help kastking get into the bfs market... I still strongly recommend Tsurinoya brand over kastking until they get mature in the niche
