Burn It Like It's Hot, KVD Style

 
         

Specifications:

Perfect plastics reel

We’ve been testing the Quantum Tour KVD Burner reel for a while in various fishing situations. The reel has a lot of nice features that will make fishing an enjoyable experience for anglers. At the end of the day, we spend our hard earned money on our tackle and the last thing we want to do is fight with it while we’re on the water.

The ACS 3 is probably the most notable feature on the reel. This is the third revision of their adjusting cast system. Basically as the cast starts, this is when the spool speed is at its maximum. The brakes are engaged fully to reduce overwind. Then as the trajectory and speed of the bait change during the cast, the brakes decrease their pressure on the spool.

The Tour KVD reel was made for long casts and quick returns. A football jig casts like a rocket with this reel. But a small popper was equally easy to cast. Even putting the reel in free spool with no brakes didn’t affect the fluid long distant casting of the reel. The more advanced you get with a baitcaster, the less you have to use braking systems. And it’s nice when a reel doesn’t get out of control for more advanced anglers who opt not to use brakes.

Where this reel really shined was fishing plastics, namely Texas-rigged lures. The reel proved its worth when it came to casting lightweight baits. But where it really made its name was with pitching applications.

The smoothness of the free spool coupled with the braking system allowed for easy pitching and roll casts. Then you could turn and fire a cast to a distant piece of cover. The flexibility in the handling of the reel makes this perfect for close quarter casting with plastics. You need the flexibility to make short pitches with no splash but still be able to make a long cast or skip around other targets. That’s sometimes hard to do with a lower-end reel.

Add the 7.3:1 retrieve speed, and pitching will be a lot more productive. When you can make long pitches with lighter baits, you give yourself more options and stand less of a chance of spooking fish. But the key to pitching and flipping is hitting as many targets as you can in a day. We found we could pitch and quickly get our bait back out of the water and on to the next pitch with the Burner ratio. Also when we got bit, we took slack up quickly and didn’t miss any fish.

Performance when wet

As an interesting side note, we were using the reel on a trip to a lake in Illinois. Long story short, the rod and TKVD reel went overboard and into the drink. Miraculously, Terry caught the rod and reel with a crankbait and believe it or not, it had a fish on it still.

The more amazing part was the reel actually seemed to handle and perform better after going in the drink. I think because the fluorocarbon on the reel had got a little stiff and wetting the spool and line seemed to make everything even smoother the rest of the day. We’ve owned cheaper reels that were absolutely trashed after getting dunked in the lake. This reel seemed improved.

We’ve fished with 14-pound monofilament, 17-pound fluorocarbon and even braid on the reel. It handles all very well. We think this is a great reel for any bait that you impart action. Lures like a frog, a topwater, plastics and jigs are all perfect for the speed and size of this reel. It’s not really an ideal reel for just straight casting and winding because the burner speeds we felt force you to reel too slowly. It doesn’t feel natural cranking a crankbait or spinnerbait because of the lack of torque needed for those baits is lost with the high-speed gear ratio.

But for everything else, it’s a phenomenal reel. For our favorite combo, say a casting jig or plastics rod, it’s one fine piece of machinery. It looks sexy, operates exceptionally well, and if you’re not very fluid with baitcasters, we always say buy a high-end reel to make your life easier. Some people give up on baitcasters because they buy a cheap reel and fight with it the whole time.

Save yourself the grief and get a high-quality reel like the Tour KVD Burner Edition. It will make learning to cast a baitcaster a lot easier. And for the avid angler, this reel will maximize your efficiency with its long casts and quick returns.