Keep in mind I am at very best a novice to fly fishing but I recently went to Cherokee with some coworkers who are far more experienced with fly fishing than I. I have a maximumcatch (which is the same thing as the piscifun) and one of my coworkers had an orvis battenkill. I used his for a little while because I wanted to see what the difference would be and I honestly didnt notice hardly any difference.

Of course like anything else on this site, pride of ownership does play a role. As far as function goes, I think any reel can get the job done to some degree, but you arent going to wow anybody with the amazon reels.