New Spinning Reels - What am I doing wrong?

Hello,

It's January and I am trying to get all my gear ready for spring bass
fishing.


In the past I have always picked up a couple of cheap rod/reel spinning
combos. By the end of the season they are in pieces...


This year I did some research and decided to get some better equipment.
I was excited when I purchased 2 Shimano Sonora reels and a couple of
simple berkeley rods. (the Sonora is the bottom end of the line but has
gotton good reviews as a value reel)


As soon as I got them married up and started fiddling with them, two
things become apparent - and seem quite odd to me.


First, after a cast, when you turn the reel handle to close the bail,
you have to really, *really* give a ton of effort to do so. So much
that the whole assembly twists in my hands. Both reels seem identical
in this regard, so it must be intentional. Is this common? Is this
configurable? This alone makes me likely to return the pair. The effort
required seems ridiulous.


Secondly, (this may be tough to describe) in the past, just before I
open the bail to finger the line and cast, I "backup" the spool to the
right position - the reel seemed to know where it should be and only
will reverse to that point - these reels do not seem to work that way.
They have the obvious two settings that I can see, either no backup
whatsoever (no reverse spin), or full 2 directional free-spinning in
both directions. If set to no backup, which is what you what when
normally fishing, the only way to position the spool seems to be to
carefully "eye it to the right point" when reeling in originally. This
is very tedious.


OK. All the cheap ones I have had in the past:
- Let me flip the bail closed with very little effort (click),
- Allowed me to quickly and mechanically line up the spool for
my next cast with an effortless, and habitual reverse backup of
quarter turn or so and provided a nice "stop" at that point.


Please let me know what I am missing here. I am entirely self taught in
the casting department so I may be missing major things here.


Am I just a dolt that should stay away from the real reels?


Thank you for helping a novice,
tonyM