Looking To Buy a New Reel

[hoTTuna]

Hi Everybody,

I am looking at buying a new reel and was hoping to get some advice and suggestions as to what I should either get, or look for in a reel. I am looking at spinners as opposed to baitcasters and hopefully around $50. I have only used a Shimano(previously) and Daiwa(currently) as these are the brands my dad stuck to.

Right now I have this reel in mind,

http://www.basspro.com/Daiwa-Regal-Bite-...813/331671

Bass Pro seems to carry a lot of Pflueger brand but I have never heard or used anything from that brand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and Thank you!

[bettercallsaul]

Pfleuger President reels are great for the price

[manitoubass2]

without any doubt in my mind, Okuma Avenger A.

Presidents are great reels too, but give Okuma a look. Best out there in my opinion

[MuskieBait]

Love my Pfluegers! I have the Solara, Trion and Medalist at home. With those reels, I've caught your everyday bass, pike, muskie, steelhead, salmon, carp, etc...and then I've caught barracuda, queenfish, Japanese seabass, redfish, bluefish...etc. They are very good reels with much better components for their price. For example, for $70, you can get the President XT with graphite body and carbon fiber drag. You not not find it on Shimano and Diawa reels at the same price points. For another $30, you can get an aluminum body reel with sealed, carbon fiber drags.

Don't get fooled by the number of ball bearings...more ball bearings does not make a better reel. Sure, it may make the reel smoother to crank, but if the drag is low quality, it is poor for fighting fish. If the body is weak, it can strain and flex from the pressure of a large, fast running fish. Make sure your reel body is made of durable, flex resistant material. Some reels components (drive gear, drive shaft, other gears) are made of lower grade metal and they may corrode.

Of course, all of this may be costly, but for the price, Pflueger offers high quality reels for a fairly affordable cost.

[manitoubass2]

(04-17-2012 08:09 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  Love my Pfluegers! I have the Solara, Trion and Medalist at home. With those reels, I've caught your everyday bass, pike, muskie, steelhead, salmon, carp, etc...and then I've caught barracuda, queenfish, Japanese seabass, redfish, bluefish...etc. They are very good reels with much better components for their price. For example, for $70, you can get the President XT with graphite body and carbon fiber drag. You not not find it on Shimano and Diawa reels at the same price points. For another $30, you can get an aluminum body reel with sealed, carbon fiber drags.

Don't get fooled by the number of ball bearings...more ball bearings does not make a better reel. Sure, it may make the reel smoother to crank, but if the drag is low quality, it is poor for fighting fish. If the body is weak, it can strain and flex from the pressure of a large, fast running fish. Make sure your reel body is made of durable, flex resistant material. Some reels components (drive gear, drive shaft, other gears) are made of lower grade metal and they may corrode.

Of course, all of this may be costly, but for the price, Pflueger offers high quality reels for a fairly affordable cost.

This is excellent advice.

As for bearings, some 3 bearing spinning reels are actually much better performance wise then some 9 or 10 ball bearing reels. Unless they are ceramic bearings, lol. Ceramic Powell Swiss take the cake, big time.

Anyhow, What I look for in a reel depends on how its going to be used. So perhaps a little more information may help garnish some more great opinions.

I'm still gonna say, for that price point, the Okuma Avenger is the reel to look at. Last time I looked, they were also half price at Cabelas, just saying.

You wont go wrong with Pflueger either, excellent reels

[MuskieBait]

Most certainly that which fish you'll target, and what kind of quality you need, will dictate which reel to get.

Do you need a Shimano Stella 3000 for your everyday freshwater fishing? Despite what all the advertisement they try to throw at you, I would most definitely say no. You don't need all that high tech to fight even a 30lb salmon. A dependable reel with a good drag system, either a felt oiled washer system, or a lightly greased carbon fiber drag system, will do more than enough. I have witness my own graphite body reel flex under the strain of a big salmon though. In fact, I have fought enough big salmon on my Solara reel over the years that the drive shaft is slightly bent. A full metal body reel would really help in that case.

Do you want to fight a hot running mahimahi with a Shimano Sahara 3000? Hell no...that's bringing a stick to a gun fight! In that case, you do really need solid components in all aspects.

Is it everyday that you need such a high quality reel? Probably not...unless you travel often and your reel gets used for its intended purposes. So it may not be worthwhile to spend so much on a high quality reel after all.

However, getting a decent quality reel that can handle a little more than a 20lb salmon consistently will give you great freedom in case you find yourself on a family vacation and there are tarpons rolling on the beach, or if you happen to be bass fishing and there is a 30lb musky cruising looking hungry. At least then you don't have to hesitate to make those casts.

I have to say though, I'm not a big fan of composite spools, especially if you intend to load the reel with braid. A lot of stress is put onto the spool when you load with braid, and even more can be put onto the spool when you fight a fish. I would always much prefer an aluminum spool.

If you want a baitrunner style reel, look at Daiwa Regal Plus Bait N' Run or Okuma Epixor Baitrunner. The Shimano Baitrunner D is a great reel but it is not cheap (but not overly expensive for its quality). Unfortunately, my favourite Pflueger does not make a baitrunner reel

[manitoubass2]

(04-17-2012 10:34 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  Most certainly that which fish you'll target, and what kind of quality you need, will dictate which reel to get.

Do you need a Shimano Stella 3000 for your everyday freshwater fishing? Despite what all the advertisement they try to throw at you, I would most definitely say no. You don't need all that high tech to fight even a 30lb salmon. A dependable reel with a good drag system, either a felt oiled washer system, or a lightly greased carbon fiber drag system, will do more than enough. I have witness my own graphite body reel flex under the strain of a big salmon though. In fact, I have fought enough big salmon on my Solara reel over the years that the drive shaft is slightly bent. A full metal body reel would really help in that case.

Do you want to right a hot running mahimahi with a Shimano Sahara 3000? Hell no...that's bringing a stick to a gun fight! In that case, you do really need solid components in all aspects.

Is it everyday that you need such a high quality reel? Probably not...unless you travel often and your reel gets used for its intended purposes. So it may not be worthwhile to spend so much on a high quality reel after all.

However, getting a decent quality reel that can handle a little more than a 20lb salmon consistently will give you great freedom in case you find yourself on a family vacation and there are tarpons rolling on the beach, or if you happen to be bass fishing and there is a 30lb musky cruising looking hungry. At least then you don't have to hesitate to make those casts.

I have to say though, I'm not a big fan of composite spools, especially if you intend to load the reel with braid. A lot of stress is put onto the spool when you load with braid, and even more can be put onto the spool when you fight a fish. I would always much prefer an aluminum spool.

If you want a baitrunner style reel, look at Daiwa Regal Plus Bait N' Run or Okuma Epixor Baitrunner. The Shimano Baitrunner D is a great reel but it is not cheap (but not overly expensive for its quality). Unfortunately, my favourite Pflueger does not make a baitrunner reel

Some more great info!!!! Great post, much appreciated!

[MichaelAngelo]

This is absolutely amazing advice, MuskyBait you make a great point. There's only so much inshore tackle needs to handle... offshore's a different story .

Because I like fighting fish I've seemed to have gravitated to light line to maximize the experience. I also would like to keep my gear light and compact. Would you guys know of a reel that does small/light matched with the big spool I'd need in case I hooked a 20lb runner? All the ultralight reels I find have tiny line capacities =(. Maybe I'm overestimating how much line I need...

All you guys that've seen me out on the water or read my reports know how classy my current set-up is

edit: let's see if my preferences change once the heavy weeds grow in LOL

[MuskieBait]

MA, there is a lot that a light reel can handle. My friends in California often fish for 3- to 4-foot leopard sharks and guitarfish using 2000 size reels and 8lb test. They can do just fine on those reels, even in a surf environment.

In saying that, I prefer to go a little larger personally. To me, a few more ounce of weight from the reel is really a small sacrifice to trade for versatility. I don't have money to spend on a lot of gear (saying that...I do have over 20 combos at home from ice rods, fly rods, surf rods and float rods...). Most of the time, I'll try to buy something that can handle the bigger fish. I hardly go smaller than a 3000 size reel. I much prefer to have larger gears in my reel (stronger guts to fight stronger fish), a bigger spool capacity (in case of a big fish that takes out 100+ yards of line), and also the bigger spool diameter (to cast further and more line retrieval).

I'll use the Pflueger President as an example...

6925 size - gear ratio 5.21, line capacity 4/110, max drag 6lb, line recovery 22.4"/turn, weight 7.2oz

6930 size - gear ratio 5.21, line capacity 6/145, max drag 9lb, line recovery 25.2"/turn, weight 8.3oz

6935 size - gear ratio 5.21, line capacity 8/185, max drag 10lb, line recovery 27.4"/turn, weight 9.9oz

1) Line capacity - A lot of people consider a 10oz reel to be heavy...but seriously the 2.7oz difference between the 6925 and the 6935 reel is small. But you can gain a lot from using a larger reel. Notice that if you step up from 6925 to 6935 size, you gain a lot of line capacity. You can only likely only load 8/75 on the 6925 size reel. Well, 75 yards of line is not a lot. I had a salmon at Bronte Pier stripped off 2/3 of my spool of 8lb test within 30 seconds (probably about 130 yards). I was already using a 3500 size reel!

2) Max drag - You could argue that you can use 8lb braid to get more capacity. As abrasion resistant as braid can be, it is poor for sharp edges. Line diameter offer you more abrasion resistant in that case (there is a reason why large game surf anglers still use heavy mono as a rub leader). Anyways, even if you decide to use 8lb braid and a heavier rub leader, when you have a hot running fish, you are still limited by a limited drag pressure. Okay, most times, you are not likely to even use 5lbs of drag. However, if you need to drag a bass, pike, musky or carp away from weedbeds or snags, you would want to have a little more drag just in case. In saying that, I have yet to crank down the drag to full lock down drag. I do not like to lock down the drag. Looking at max drag is really only worth of discussion when it come to some of the faster running fish like carp, salmon and steelhead, or inshore species like bonefish, snook, striped bass, bluefish and tarpon. Most definitely, when you intend to go offshore, then you definitely need to look at max drag...but that's beyond the interest of the readers here.

3) Line retrieval rate - This brings two benefits with one increase. Note how the line retrieval rates (inches per turn) increases quite dramatically when you go from 6925 to 6935. You may argue that the increase of only 4" per turn. However, if you cast an average of 50 feet (that's 600 inches), it takes about 27 turns to reel in with a 24.4"/turn retrieval rate. However, it only takes about 22 turns to reel in with a 27.4"/turn retrieval rate. If you are say fishing for steelhead in streams and you need to reel in every time your float is downstream and at the end of your drift, or you are bottom bouncing in the river for walleye, the higher retrieval rate is to your advantage. Over the course of a day, reeling in faster and with less cranks allow you to increase your fishing time a lot (look, you went from 27 turns to 22 turns...that's a saving of 5 turns per drift...or a saving of 18%...or roughly 1/5). There is also advantage when you are fighting a fast running fish and you need to reel in fast to keep tension as the fish is running toward you. The higher retrieval rate allows you to keep tension much faster.

4) Casting distance - Line generally flows off the spool during a cast much nice with a larger diameter spool compared to a small diameter reel. When using mono, most mono will have quite a bit of line memory which cause the line to conform to the spool. With a smaller, narrower spool, your line will have many more smaller curls. With a larger, wider spool, your line will have less and larger curls. It is to your advantage to have fewer and larger curls as the line flow off the spool and through the guides much nicer, reducing the friction on the equipment. This allows you to cast further. It may be a significant increase in casting distance, but a few feet can often make the difference.

Of course, you can say that I ignore discussion between balance of the rod with the reel. For me personally, I prefer to have a butt heavy feel over a tip heavy feel, so having a heavier reel helps to provide that butt heavy feel for me. With a butt heavy feel, I can keep my rod tips up better to give much better sensitivity. However, it is almost impossible to balance a butt heavy combo as compared to a tip heavy combo. For a butt heavy combo, you may have to saw off sections of your rod butt to lighten the weight, where as for a tip heavy combo you can just add washers to the butt to increase the weight. But like I said, I personally prefer a butt heavy feel and for most part, I rather to have some smaller sacrifices but gain more in the factors I mentioned above.

I guess this is not a simple decision between small vs. large reel...but all of this is to demonstrate that reel selection is really depending on your fishing targets and intended use.


I have yet to find my perfect reel yet...I don't think there will be one as some factors are conflicting...unless you are willing to go very high end or custom reels...

[bfisher]

(04-17-2012 04:31 PM)hoTTuna Wrote:  Hi Everybody,

I am looking at buying a new reel and was hoping to get some advice and suggestions as to what I should either get, or look for in a reel. I am looking at spinners as opposed to baitcasters and hopefully around $50. I have only used a Shimano(previously) and Daiwa(currently) as these are the brands my dad stuck to.

Right now I have this reel in mind,

http://www.basspro.com/Daiwa-Regal-Bite-...813/331671

Bass Pro seems to carry a lot of Pflueger brand but I have never heard or used anything from that brand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and Thank you!

pflueger president is nicer than some shimano reels.... real smooth drag..