Quality Reel

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

Sharkman, are you looking at a conventional reel or a spinner?

I've used an ABU record for beach and pier occasionally but not for dunking the reel in the surf (I dont do that) I like the reel but would not use it for sharking (which we don't have here anyway)

I've also looked at the smaller version of the Truth reels as I heard they are capable of good casting distances but have not bought one (yet)

Spinners is a different story

[0119]

For me its toughness number one.  Fishing for me is most often wading thru mangroves and brazilian peppers to stand shin deep in mud in the back of some old mosquito control ditch.  Modern baitcasters weren't up to the task.  Spinners are less maintenance but line management is the pits. Hate braid and it scares snook and baby tarpon as it flies over their heads in 1 foot of clear water.  After getting tired of shimano changing models and not offering parts by the time I needed them, I discovered old Ambassadeurs.  Haven't looked back since.  Middle age now creeping past the half century mark I'm feeling the pains of age and sometimes its difficult to use the heavy Abu's for long periods.  Starting to mostly play with Ambassadeur 2500/1500 baitcasters and lighter line for the sake of my wrists.  Drag has never been a huge concern of mine, thats why God gave me a thumb.  I just want simple, tough and a smooth reel. Smooth not in the ridiculous number of ball bearing way but smooth in that rythmic gear mesh kind of way that old Ambassadeurs have that leave you feeling that you sense what the reel is doing.  I hate the new "soft" smoothness of new low profile casters that leave you not feeling any sense in what the machine is doing.

[sharkman]

Reinaard van der Vossen I am looking for spinning reel. 

[Reinaard van der Vossen]

Spinners: I have a penn sargus that performes wel on the budget end. The gears are not that strong, the drag is not that high. I have changed the felt dragdisks for HT100 carbon for a little more drag than I need. The reel is might not be that durable either but it already performes for 5 years. The Penn battle is with HT100 dragdisks from the factory. Ususally parts are easy to obtain and easy to service. Not a super reel and not for big fish but for the money very usable. Gears are cast zink or so.

I'm considering a new real wich would be used for fishing seabass (european seabass) and that would be an okuma trio high speed. I hear good stories about the reel.

I own several (5 different) mitchels. Some of them would be branded Pflueger on your side of the pond. They are more finesse an maybe not intended for the rigours of surffishing, Nevertheless I have used some of them for just that purpose and they are still ok. Weirdest one might be an 40 year old mitchel 301 but I use a Mitchel big mouth 4000 frequently of the pier for smaller fish ( bass and fint).  Only one carbon dragdisk but it is still good and performed well for yers now. For large work I still own a Mitchel 488 but that is more for slapping 7-8 oz sinkers as far as possible. over 30 years old and still going strong.
Shimano saragosa is used when I need a stronger reel. It has good strong gears and a multidisk carbon drag. This is a very good spinner with plenty of power when your budget is good for mid end spinners. The spheros reel seems to be almost the same with one or 2 less bearings.

For heavy stuff, which I use very rare with spinners I have an Finn nohr lethal 100. Heavy, lots of drag, strong etc but it remains a budget reel. Quality is ok but not comparable to the high end super spinners. I serviced it pre first use but not anymore since.

I own a lot more spinners but they are only freshwater reels.

I do not own a super spinner (i.e daiwa doghfight, shimano stella etc.) because I do not use spinners for real heavy fish

What I look for in a spinner:
- materials should be designed for saltwater
- Good drag, smooth, not necessarily extremely high but sufficient for the purpose. when available carbon discs but sometimes Japanese Felt is good for lighter drags (except for water intrusion)
- Can I get parts (more of an issue in Europe than in the US)
- smoothness of the gears (and strength of the gear, depending purpose)
- Weight (for the purpose)
- Body strength (depending purpose)
- Seal to prevent sand and salt intrusion (depending onf the purpose)
- good anti rust bearings if possible

Having said that, I sometimes use a budget spinner with a smile on my face that has almost none of the above but still is good to go.

[MarkT]

The new Daiwa BG's might be worth a look as a cheaper reel.  It's getting good reviews. The prior version has been around for a lot of years so hopefully the new one will as well.
I have a Penn Battle 6000 that has caught YT, YFT to 30#. Another cheaper reel that has done fine.  A guy on my 10 day last year got a Wahoo on his Battle 8000.
I'm not a big spinner guy so didn't want to spend big bucks.  I did get a Shimano Saragosa 10000 this year for throwing poppers. I got a YT and a YFT on it. Both were under 30# so it wasn't much of a test.

[handi2]

Its hard to recommend a 2000 to 2500 sized spinning reel for surf fishing. Most of them are just not up to handling that abuse.

In my area of the Gulf surf fishing is a big thing. Most are using Penn SSV reels without the Live Liner function.

One family that goes anytime its nice outside use a handful of cheaper Okuma spinning reels. I don't remember the model. They are mostly white with black accents and are mostly composite material. No corrosion on anything for 3 years that I have taken care of them. No failures either.

They look like the old Mitchell Great White reels.

The smaller Penn Battle, Sargus, and Fierce are all the same inside. The finish on them corrodes easily if not taken care of. For the surf the Fierce would be OK. It has a nylon bushing for the line roller, its cheap, and you can always upgrade the drag with Carbontex.

If you buy a combo at Walmart for just a few dollars you can get a 2 or 3 year warranty.

[mley1]

The new Daiwa BG's might be worth a look as a cheaper reel.  It's getting good reviews. The prior version has been around for a lot of years so hopefully the new one will as well.
I have a Penn Battle 6000 that has caught YT, YFT to 30#. Another cheaper reel that has done fine.  A guy on my 10 day last year got a Wahoo on his Battle 8000.
I'm not a big spinner guy so didn't want to spend big bucks.  I did get a Shimano Saragosa 10000 this year for throwing poppers. I got a YT and a YFT on it. Both were under 30# so it wasn't much of a test.

I've been using a 4500 and 5000 BG in the surf, and on the piers. I really like the BG line up. I have them all from 8000 down to the 3500. I have the 3500 on an Ugly Stik Inshore medium light 7'er. I just got it for Christmas, so haven't put her to use yet. My plan is to put 20lb braid on her, and use it for throwing lures and jigs to the trout, reds and flounder in my area's. I enjoy using 1/8-1/2oz jigs with Berkley Gulp shrimp tails on them or the Gulp swimming shads on them. The Berkley Gulp is almost as good as live bait. I buy the stuff by the tub.

[Donnyboat]

I am not keen on shimano reels, very hard to get parts after 10 years, still get parts for very old Pen & Diawa reels, cheers donnyboat.

[Gfish]

Spinners. Limit myself to 5 items; 1) "good" line roller(havn't found acceptable one yet, but exp. limited, probably by $)
                                                  2) full aluminium body, rotor & spool.
                                                  3) good line lay(Fin Nor lethal, out)
                                                  4) brass/bronze gears or better
                                                   5) given worst case senerios, gotta relatively easy/fun to service any system on the reel. e.g. Shimanos- out, good engineering but too complicated(esp. that Baitrunner 6500B!). Sealed or Mag sealed, such as Van Stahl and Diawa. Servicing these and replacing seals? - Out!

Best reel based on these attributes, havn't found it yet!
Recomendations?
Gfish