Van Staal VR125 Bailed Spinning Reel

Excellent reel. The first night I used it landed four snook and reel performed perfect. I would highly recommend this reel. I also sent it to Van Staal to have them install the manual pick up(bail less kit included) and Van Staal customer support was excellent. Highly recommend!!! Great reel

Excellent reel for surf fishing

Drag is smooth as butter.

I know people don’t like to read long review, good or bad but in a few words I may state this is one of the best fishing reel I have been using.

I just received the VR125 and it appears to be exceptional in terms of build quality and function. The fact that Van Staal does not provide an owners manual or instructions of any kind is amazing and very disappointing. One of the reasons I purchased the reel was the ability to convert it to a bail-less operation, but there are no provided instructions. Van Staal does have a video on their website for the conversion steps that is very well done, but the conversion is far from easy as claimed without step-by-step written instructions with illustrations. By calling Van Staal I found that they don't even have such documentation available on line. There are also no maintenance procedures provided. Also the bail-less conversion requires blue Lock-tite which is not provided. The conversion back to the bail is a nightmare without instructions, and there are no photos, videos or instructions even online. I called Van Staal for help several times during their normal business hours and got a recording that they were closed each time and they never returned my calls. I don't recommend buying their reels.

Excellent reel. Top quality. Extremely smooth retrieve and strong smooth drag

So disappointed. The Box looked legit but that is about it. I included some pictures of the fake. it's not even a good attempt, it's so bad that even I, someone who is rather new to Van Staals spotted it as soon as I opened it. First, it is a gunmetal gray vs silver. Second, the gearbox isn't round, it's the standard elongated spinning reel body. Third, the logos aren't in the correct places. Forth, the handle and knob are totally incorrect. And lastly, the drag knob isn't the wingnut shape, it is the standard spinning reel shape which is hard to turn and you can't get proper leverage on it. BAD BAD BAD. SAD SAD SAD. I returned it and bought my repalcement from CHAOS fishing through amazon.