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Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 11:39 am
by Cal
Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Introduction: Bates may still be a relative newcomer to the tackle industry, but with the Hundo 100, the reel company is making a serious push into the premium low-profile reel market. Built on a CNC-machined aluminum frame and priced competitively the Hundo focuses on refined performance. After testing which included an unexpected a real-world issue that also let me gauge their customer service - I came away impressed.
Complete Article:
https://www.tackletour.com/reviewbateshundo100.html
Re: Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 5:46 pm
by Jeffbro999
It’s funny that they are being transparent about the origins now, but not at all when they first released. I’ve had multiple people from Texas book a trip and I hear over and over again about how they were lied to. Just had a guy last month that still thinks they have a manufacturing facility in Texas, because that’s what they told him at one of the big fishing shows in Texas. When I showed him the Loongze site and the Trika reel, he was shocked.
Re: Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:35 pm
by dennis_rf
What a coincidence, I received the Chinese version, the Loongze 100 Pro „Uranus“ a week ago and was planning on sharing my thoughts.
Disclaimer: I’m based in Germany so there is no Bates around here. Importing from the US is extremely pricey (add shipping + 23,4% import Tax)
Family member was on a work trip over in China - price there was roughly 260 USD including the shallow spool on a domestic marketplace.
I’m pretty impressed - first and foremost the size. The frame is tiny while housing a big capacity 34mm spool. It’s super duper tiny, I used to consider the old Aldebaran or Bantam small reels, not anymore. Did I say tiny is comfortable, yet? It is very much so.
Casting is excellent, filled deep spool is lighter than on the 70 Met (15,5g with braid) and very free feeling, incredible distance. Have to do a head to head distance check with the Metanium 70.
Retrieve: straight out of the box adding pressure on the spool with my thumb I could hear a slight buzziness. Brand new Shimanos are buttery silent, Daiwas often even stay that way. However on the water, finding that exact resistance and cadence that produces the buzzing wasn’t that common. I was using the shallow spool with tiny jerkbaits, top waters, jighead keitechs, the deep one with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, 140mm glidebaits. No buzzing noticed. Nice. I really hope it doesn’t go Metanium and stays that way forever.
The shallow spool is pretty light at 8.5g but with the 34mm diameter, it doesn’t offer the startup speed like a 30/28mm would and hence I do see some side drag casting 6g hardbaits. I can adjust for it with my release point but if I’d be alternating between other ML combos with faster spools, I’d had to adjust every time. Not ideal.
Now I’m stuck with 2 problems:
- it’s so tiny and light, it fits a ML rod perfectly, but it feels great replacing the Zillion on a MH as well. Can’t decide.
- when’s the next trip to China, I need more
Re: Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2025 3:46 pm
by LowRange
dennis_rf wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:35 pm
What a coincidence, I received the Chinese version, the Loongze 100 Pro „Uranus“ a week ago and was planning on sharing my thoughts.
Disclaimer: I’m based in Germany so there is no Bates around here. Importing from the US is extremely pricey (add shipping + 23,4% import Tax)
Family member was on a work trip over in China - price there was roughly 260 USD including the shallow spool on a domestic marketplace.
I’m pretty impressed - first and foremost the size. The frame is tiny while housing a big capacity 34mm spool. It’s super duper tiny, I used to consider the old Aldebaran or Bantam small reels, not anymore. Did I say tiny is comfortable, yet? It is very much so.
Casting is excellent, filled deep spool is lighter than on the 70 Met (15,5g with braid) and very free feeling, incredible distance. Have to do a head to head distance check with the Metanium 70.
Retrieve: straight out of the box adding pressure on the spool with my thumb I could hear a slight buzziness. Brand new Shimanos are buttery silent, Daiwas often even stay that way. However on the water, finding that exact resistance and cadence that produces the buzzing wasn’t that common. I was using the shallow spool with tiny jerkbaits, top waters, jighead keitechs, the deep one with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, 140mm glidebaits. No buzzing noticed. Nice. I really hope it doesn’t go Metanium and stays that way forever.
The shallow spool is pretty light at 8.5g but with the 34mm diameter, it doesn’t offer the startup speed like a 30/28mm would and hence I do see some side drag casting 6g hardbaits. I can adjust for it with my release point but if I’d be alternating between other ML combos with faster spools, I’d had to adjust every time. Not ideal.
Now I’m stuck with 2 problems:
- it’s so tiny and light, it fits a ML rod perfectly, but it feels great replacing the Zillion on a MH as well. Can’t decide.
- when’s the next trip to China, I need more
Great pics capturing the frame size. When you have reels side by side the camera position can bias the size but those look spot on. In the quest for the tiniest, lightest reel with the biggest spool possible the machine barstock construction is definitely the ticket. Just look at how thick the frame sides are on the Alphas and how narrow the spool is because of it compared to the Hundo.
Re: Light and Refined - The Bates Hundo 100 Baitcaster is the Real Deal
Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2025 3:05 am
by LowRange