Megabass luvito 256, not bad at all

The Megabass Luvito 256 an excellent reel both cosmetically and performance wise. Unfortunately if you look at the reviews, everyone writes about their dissapointment that a bushing was installed on the spoil shaft instead of a bearing. Who could blame them, at a price point of over 400 dollars, most of its competitors have a bearing. So what I decided to do is 2 reviews, one stock and one with a bushing replacement. Yes, like the Calcutta 250 I replaced the bushing with a bearing.

Let's talk about cosmetics, the reel is visually very pleasing, it's got plenty of bling to set it apart from most other reels in your locker. You can see Yuki Ito worked with daiwa since this reels borrows some designs such as the hollow air bail like some Daiwa models. The reel also has an aluminum reel handle, which coming from the soft paddles of Shimano, took a little while to get used to. The spool has some porting around the skirt but nothing like skeletonized spool of the Racing Condition. Still it comes it at 7.5 oz which compared to other high end reels, is not bad at all.

Let's talk about where it really matters, performance. The reel with the bushing performed excellent. It casts and reels very smoothly, it also felt pretty solid all day and even though my biggest bass was around 2 lbs.  I still put it through its paces with a mixed bag of swamp dwelling pickerel, bass and the errant bluegill. Had no problem with the drag at all. It was very smooth on the startup and had no initial jerk before it engaged. The one feature though that was missing was the back reel lever. Not a big deal to me but some people like to utilize it.

I then replaced the bushing with a bearing, which makes it a 10BB reel, not bad at all. Did it change the reels performance. Not really. Did it feel a little more solid or tighter, not really. In fact in a blind test I probably would not be able to tell. Where it will come in handy is keeping the shaft straight when the reel in under load.

This reel would be a great addition to anyone's reel arsenal. Even though it is made in Thailand, which also makes people gripe that its not made in Japan, it still performs great.

Once closing thought is that this reel like every other reel, well maybe not evergreen, can be found for less then the MSRP. I purchased mine brand new for a little over 300 which was a great deal.

Specifications without the upgrade are
9BB, 1RB
4.8:1 Gear Ratio
28in line/handle per turn
7.5 oz.
6.6 OZ. of drag
4lb. 185 yards, 6lb. 110 yards