Penn Baitcasters vs Daiwa Lexa

I own a bunch of daiwa lexas  all of em have had a tough life... they’re gonna need rebuilds...

Came across the new penn baitcasters  anyone dabbled with these yet?

Are they better workhorse ? LMK

Does Penn just outsource manufacturing or do they own the factories?  I read that the expensive ones are still mfg'd by Penn.  Daiwa owns their factories and hence the quality remains fairly high regardless of country of origin.  Well that's what the Internet says at least.  Just curious. 

Was just on the Penn site - the Squall and the Fathom look pretty good.  I might just give one a go...

Penn got bought out by the pure fishing group, they own a number of other well known fishing brands.  Their internationals and Torque series reels are still built in the US.

Since Pure fishing owns abu garcia they were able to rebadge the abu revo low profile reels under the penn banner.  I’m not sure what the squall equivalent was but the fathoms are revo toro beasts with corrosion inhibiting coatings that make em better for salt.  Made in the same factory in Korea.

I have 300 and 400 fathoms, only had em out on a couple dozen trips but I like em so far.  Used primarily for casting bass swimbaits in the 2-16oz range but I’ve had them out on 1/2 day trips down south and rockfish trips up here.  They’ve handled well, feel good in the palm and bomb casts a freakin mile.  Wouldn’t hesitate to use the 400 on larger model fish.  Time will tell how they hold up. Not sure how it compares to a Lexa, the short time I owned a lexa I wasnt into the ergonomics of it, kind of long and the bearings were kinda loud, performed fine just not my cup of tea. 

Did not know that about penn, considering the revo beast are kinda over priced, these have comparable hardware with less the cost. I’ll give one a try. Thanks for that.

I actually have a lexa sitting in my garage that I haven't used yet, but I do use my squall 200 low profile almost every time I go out. It has survived a surf tumble and still casts and reels great (still need to grease the washers). I mainly use it for shallow rockfishing