Your favorite reel brand

[done]

Alright, when it comes to reels I am really just getting into it. I had thought my first couple were alright (they were mainly Shakespears).

Then I accidentally bought a Abu Garcia Cardinal reel. The difference in how this thing works compared to my others, night and day. Really smooth, easy to set drag, loved it. Became my favorite.

Then I was over my mothers house fishing her Bass pond and borrowed my step-fathers rig as I forgot to bring mine. He had a Mitchell on that. it was even better than my Cardinal. Just loved it, so I went out and bought one.

So all that being said, I obviously am just getting into this, I was curious, any specific brand names/models some of our more seasoned folks out there would recommend? I generally go open faced reels (I suck at bait casters, and get nothing but rats nests out of closed faced reels. I would love to hear some feedback on other reels out there though from folks who have really used them.

Anyone?

[bilgerat]

Let the fun begin

It's all personal preference. Personally, I like Pflueger. I've fished a lot of different brands over the years, I've settled on them for now. I find them extremely well built and durable. I feel you get more than you pay for.

Read product reviews, get opinions here, do your research. If possible, go to a store and play with as many different products as you can. That's the best way IMO to decide.

Beware of the "anything but a Shimano/Daiwa/Abu/Pflueger/ etc. is crap" mentality. The fish don't give a rat's back end what brand you fish with.

[bigfruits]

anything but shimano is crap

depending on your budget i'd go for sahara, symetre, saros or stradic in the 2500 size.

i think the daiwa tierra is pretty good for the money too.

i have used all of these reels and highly recommend them.

[chris fenk]

Shimano

[cbreeze22]

Starr see the board topic currently being displayed Best value reels. Lots of posts on that to get you going in the right direction. I like the Shimano Symetre 8-)  

[Maxximus Redneckus]

ABU garcia and shimano a close second

[Sam]

Shimano.  

[ArcticCat500]

l love my Curados but DAM my Flooger Supreme spinning reel is smoooooth.

[bjohnson]

I think it is hard not to form a bias view towards one company when you get use to using that brand all the time you start to trust them. If you would have asked me 6 months ago I would have said Abu only. But now I have a Shimano, BPS, Shakespear (spinning) and I like them all. But the more you pay them better they feel up to a certain point.  

I don't have much experience with Spinning Gear but I have played with some at BPS, and it seems after certain price point the differences get smaller between each model.

Also>.... I did get a BPS extreme baitcast originally that I hated, I then assumed all BPS reels were junk even though most loved the reel. I wanted to give BPS reels another chance so I purchased another one of their cheaper BPS baitcasters and loved it so much I now have two. I think I may have just gotten a bad extreme reel. So don't let one bad reel sway your opinion either.

But if I could only have one Spinning reel: Shimano Sustain SO SO SMOOTH

[KYntucky Warmouth]

After getting my Patriarch, Pflueger  is in the running...we'll see how my new curado works out though.  

[Daniel My Brother]

No favorite brand, but a couple of favorite models for the money.

Spinning: Pfluger President

Casting: Cabelas Prodigy

[Jimzee]

I don't think you will go wrong getting Pflueger, Abu Garcia, Shimano, or Daiwa.  All of them have strong points and weaknesses.

I use Daiwa.

[FordNFishinLover]

Shheee-man-----ooo! I aint afraid of a diawa neither!

[TrippyJai]

SHIMANO!!!

[The Rooster]

For me, the only spinning reel out there is a Pflueger.

But I want to say that even though Pflueger is owned by Shakespeare, and you can sometimes see a lot of similarities in their products, there is a night and day difference in overall performance.

I got some cheap Shakespeares before and liked how they worked but they did not hold up any time at all, handles begin to come apart, reels made noises and actually had the anti-reverse fail in one of them, then the bail started not closing down all the way either.  I loved the reel at first but in the end I hated it's performance and how short a time it lasted.  So I wanted another one to get back to the way they were when they were new but also wanted to skip another experience like that as it was getting frustrating to repeat.  I saw the Pfluegers and how similarly designed the were but was hesitant to pay twice as much for a Pflueger that was so much like the Shakespeare cause I thought it would be wasting money on another reel that would do the same thing all over again.

Not so at all!!!!!

I finally bit the bullet and got a Pflueger Trion and a Pflueger President the same day, paid $100+ for the two of them.  Have caught dozens of fish on each of them and they are holding up extremely well.  Solid construction, smooth operation, never fail to work and work tightly!!  These might share the same overall design as the Shakespeares did but they are NOT the same.  Pfluegers are the only spinning reels I will consider at the current time.......but again, that's just cause of me and not to say that a Shimano or Diawa won't be just as nice.  I just like the current Pflueger design the best, that's all.

[roadwarrior]

The Symetre is considered the "best value" by many Shimano

fans. The Stradic 2500FI was chosen by ICAST as "Best In Class".

Shimano's motto is: Strong, smooth, silent and reliant. Although

I have given reels away to friends over time, every Shimano reel

I have ever owned is still in use and performs as well or better today

than the first time out of the box.

I fish Shimano, I recommend Shimano. When you join the Posse,

this Bud's for you!

http://unattributed.net/html/whiskey.html

[ChiCityBasser]

For me my Choice is Quantum with Daiwa/Cabelas a close second and third. I know some people often mention the weight of the Quantum spinning reels but for me they workout just fine.

[burleytog]

There are reels other than Shimano?

[bass wrangler569]

There are reels other than Shimano?

Yes I have heard of these "non-Shimano" reels. The best place to locate non-Shimano reels is the clearance bin of your favorite retailer, or if you watch patiently, a non-shimano reel may be commonly seen in the hands of a misguidedd angler waiting in line at the returns counter hoping they will take back his worthless non-shimano reel in hopes of purchasing an actual Shimano reel.

[bilgerat]

Yeah, there are other reels besides Shimano. And believe it or not, people ACTUALLY CATCH FISH WITH THEM !! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. It happened to me once

I guess George Perry's record is a complete fraud because it wasn't caught on a Shimano. Cut me a freakin' break.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

I have preferences with different reels.

Low profile: Abu Revo, BPS

Round: Shimano and Abu

Spinning: Shimano and Pflueger

I am not really brand loyal, just really like what I have.

[roadwarrior]

There are reels other than Shimano?

Yes I have heard of these "non-Shimano" reels. The best place to locate non-Shimano reels is the clearance bin of your favorite retailer, or if you watch patiently, a non-shimano reel may be commonly seen in the hands of a misguidedd angler waiting in line at the returns counter hoping they will take back his worthless non-shimano reel in hopes of purchasing an actual Shimano reel.

[firefightn15]

RW, I am looking at the Stradic for this spring, are you inferring that I'm gonna get a beer out of ya if I do get one?

[roadwarrior]

If you make it to the Roadtrip, you bet!

[firefightn15]

Now that's upping the ante.  Now I'm gonna try harder for April!