The JX Raptor Plus is a great all-around size for fishing in SoCal. It covers your heavier flylining, casting surface irons, jigging, and fishing dropper-loop squid for seabass, plus plenty more. It holds about 400 yards of 65 lb braid. Avet rates it 30-60 lb and there is drag enough to push it heavier, though most people do not fish these at 80 and it would not be our first recommendation. If you’re only bringing one reel on an offshore trip, this is it.

This is the Non-MC version, the same Raptor Plus platform without Avet’s MC cast-control system. If you’re mostly jigging, soaking bait, or fishing the dropper loop rather than casting light lures, you don’t need the cast brake, and going Non-MC keeps it simpler (and a little easier on the wallet).

The Raptor Plus also picked up an ergonomic facelift: a reshaped frame that’s easier to thumb the spool on, and a more rounded side plate that’s more comfortable in the hand. Underneath it’s pure Avet, a dual carbon-fiber drag, two-speed 6.0:1 / 2.8:1 gearing, ratcheting glide plate and strike-stop button, the silent dog-and-gear anti-reverse, and a one-piece 6061-T6 aluminum frame machined and anodized in Chatsworth, California.