Ardent reels (Made in the USA)

So I wanted to support my country by buying a made in the USA reel and bought a Ardent Edge Elite baitcaster for $330! I don't know what other people think about Ardent reels, but I can tell you this much. Stay away! The reel is smooth reeling overall, but the side brake cover is impossible to open, and the star drag seems junky. I've just spent the last hour trying to open the side cover in order to spool up my new reel for a Field test tomorrow. Never have I ever had such problems with a reel. For $330 you'd think ardent would make it easy to open the side cover. My fingers hurt from all of the attempts to open this reels cover. Why on earth would I want to fish with a reel like this if its so hard to adjust the brake system?! That's kinda a big deal when throwing different sized baits. From now on I'll be sticking with my shimano's and Abu's. They may be made overseas but at least they work! I wanted to do the right thing and buy American made and I've been let down in a big way!

Sorry that you have had that problem... I run Ardent Edges and taking the side plate off is hard at first but I can tell you when you catch your first fish with it... Your opinion of the reel will change... If you have any more problems let me know, I can help ya with your problems. I used to use Quantums and Abu's and I will never go back... Even if they were free... I rather buy an Ardent reel over any other reel. And their customer service is WAY better then all the other companies on the market. Send it back and in a week you will have it back in your hands!

I agree. If this is 'The best' that we can make in America then we are in big trouble. I was stoked to get this reel in the mail today. It sounded very high quality and it's American made. It's just a shame that a $330 reel is (for the most part) junk right out of the box. I have several Shimano Curado's, Chronarchs, Abu Revo's and one Quantum Smoke. All those baitcasters are great reels, easy to operate and very reliable. Shame on Ardent for passing off low quality reels at a inflated price. The thing that really gets me is the drag system on this reel. It hardly turns clockwise or counter clockwise. WTF is up with that? The only 'good' thing I can say about this reel is that it does seem very very smooth. But if you don't have a good drag system or you're unable to access the brake system then what good is this reel?... I'll be taking it back and probally get a new Revo or maybe a KVD Quantum baitcaster this spring. I just hope that other folks read this and do some research on the Ardent company before spending big money for low quality.

I've handled several Ardent reels and if this is the best that American manufacturing can produce this country is in BIG trouble. I've found them to be comparable to $40-$50 low end baitcasters regardless of the cost of the Ardent reel.