Favorite Spinning Reel?

Reels are the hottest topic for TackleTour. Everyone wants to know what the latest and greatest is and how they compare to the old guard. What's the best for light stuff, or what's your suggestion for heavy cover. Do we really need different retrieve ratios? It's all in here.
jlang95
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Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by jlang95 » Wed Jun 01, 2022 11:10 am

Looking to upgrade my spinning reel game, I’ve got nice baitcasters but all my spinning reels are ancient Stradics and BPS Pro Qualifiers. What are you guys using and liking? I’m open to Shimano, Abu or Daiwa. Not really trying to spend Stella/Exist money but I’m fine with $200-$350 and getting a couple.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by hmnginmn » Wed Jun 01, 2022 11:21 am

I suggest looking for a used Shimano Vanquish or Daiwa Luvias Airirity. I got a brand new vanquish 3000 for 320 shipped from a japanese auction site. The vanquish is very nice, I like it more for bass fishing than my Stella FJ. Those two are VERY close to their companies respective flagship reels
Long live the Jerkbait

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by BRONZEBACK32 » Wed Jun 01, 2022 2:53 pm

I love my Stella's but I do have a new Exsence A 4000 that should be here tomorrow.

The Shimano Vanford is a pretty sweet reel for the price...

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by Kurt L » Wed Jun 01, 2022 10:50 pm

I would seriously look at the deals Digitaka has on Diawa MQ's you can pick up the Luvias MQ for around $230. and the Certate's for around $300 with free shipping. The Certate and Luvias are amazing reels and for that money they are a no brainer for sure.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by dhottle » Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:30 am

Certates all the way.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by Canga- » Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:25 am

i have a bunch of certates, a luvias airity, and the 21 exsence (along with some 15 exists, and a og vanquish and 15 twinpower) i dont think between those 3 current reels you can go wrong, i have fished my certates for a coupl,e years and they have been flawless, same with the season plus with the airity, i have only had my exsence for about a month now, but its becoming a favorite, and at 362 on digitake today its not too far from your range!

it would be a tough choice between the certate and the exsence, the shimano is a bit lighter but the certates are tanks (in a good way!). both are equally smooth and quiet in operation, IMO the exsence looks better but im a sucker for black!

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by tincanary » Thu Jun 02, 2022 10:12 am

I love my Zebco Cardinal 3, which is the US variant of the European ABU Cardinal 33. It isn't as smooth or refined feeling as the new stuff, but that's what makes it charming to fish with. Yeah, it's 7 ounces, but it's built like an anvil and will take quite a beating. One of my customers bought two of them for steelhead fishing back almost 50 years ago. One of them is still in the box unopened, never had to do it. The drag is very smooth and consistent, even more so with carbon drag washers. They can be outfitted with a plethora of aftermarket parts, but are still plenty good in factory form nonetheless. I run the Avail CD0490R spool, which is shallow and has a tapered lip to facilitate casting. This reel can also be modified to enable manual bail return and a one-way needle bearing instant anti-reverse.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by SSS » Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:56 pm

None. 100% baitcasters for a long time now.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by DirtyD64 » Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:26 am

Sometimes I regret not trying a Certate... but at the moment I really enjoy the new Stradic FL. I fish spinning reels a good amount and I feel like for $150 JDM an aluminum, rugged Stradic FL is hard to beat. Could buy 2 for the price of one Certate. I would really be fine with using all old Stradic Ci4+FA's, my oldest spinner is still holding strong, the Ci4+FB and FL are more smooth, but the FA is still a great reel.

I have not tried a $300 range spinning reel yet, maybe there is some undiscovered magic, I just don't see how they could get much better. I will say I have seen a few people talk negatively about the Luvias MQ. Not that it is terrible, just that it doesn't compare well to others and feels like a much cheaper reel. I would assume the small price jump at the moment would make the Certate the better choice as long as weight isn't a major issue...

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by Canga- » Fri Jun 03, 2022 6:34 am

DirtyD64 wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:26 am
Sometimes I regret not trying a Certate... but at the moment I really enjoy the new Stradic FL. I fish spinning reels a good amount and I feel like for $150 JDM an aluminum, rugged Stradic FL is hard to beat. Could buy 2 for the price of one Certate. I would really be fine with using all old Stradic Ci4+FA's, my oldest spinner is still holding strong, the Ci4+FB and FL are more smooth, but the FA is still a great reel.

I have not tried a $300 range spinning reel yet, maybe there is some undiscovered magic, I just don't see how they could get much better. I will say I have seen a few people talk negatively about the Luvias MQ. Not that it is terrible, just that it doesn't compare well to others and feels like a much cheaper reel. I would assume the small price jump at the moment would make the Certate the better choice as long as weight isn't a major issue...
certate is an amazing reel for sure, i havent used a stradic (i have a complex ci4+ from a couple years ago that i didnt really like, not bad just not for me). i have heard some negative about the luvias MQ as well, nothing too bad but not all glowing either. i will say i picked up a Caldia MQ (jdm equivalent of the ballistic mq) at i have nothing bad to say about it, i picked it up for 170 shipped a couple months ago and its been great all spring so far. i would have a hard time forking over the extra for a luvias over the caldia without just stepping up to a certate!

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by Hulkster » Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:44 am

I would go with the latest model stradic.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by reason162 » Fri Jun 03, 2022 12:26 pm

DirtyD64 wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:26 am
I have not tried a $300 range spinning reel yet, maybe there is some undiscovered magic, I just don't see how they could get much better.
If you can imagine the difference between a Tatula and a Steez, you can imagine the difference between a Stradic and a Certate.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by DirtyD64 » Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:00 am

reason162 wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 12:26 pm
DirtyD64 wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2022 4:26 am
I have not tried a $300 range spinning reel yet, maybe there is some undiscovered magic, I just don't see how they could get much better.
If you can imagine the difference between a Tatula and a Steez, you can imagine the difference between a Stradic and a Certate.
That makes sense. I will say though that that gap is shrinking. Even more so with a Steez versus the mid priced reels. I could buy 2 of the new Zillion SV1000's for a Steez CT price. I'm not sure the new Zillion doesn't supersede the higher end magnesium reels for smoothness actually, the aluminum actually provides a better feel.

For me, my old Tatula Type R is about par with the Zillion TWS reels that share DNA with it, except they have a few more bearings and a free floating spool. Moving up from there, the next generation Zillion SV TW (Tatula CT size) was only a bit better than the old larger TWS, but they were the same price so this makes sense. From all I read and tested myself, the Tatula CT and Zillion SVTW weren't a whole lot different in smoothness/refinement (both made at the Thailand plant and free floating spool again being the big difference). Now after so long we finally get a new Zillion and it is regarded as being an amazingly smooth reel. It does feel great, but when testing in hand, the my old Zillion SVTW feels pretty good too. I personally felt the new Zillion was more smooth than my Steez A, and only a bit less refined than my Conquest ($580 US reel).

Now on the other end of the spectrum, I notice a HUGE difference between reels like the Daiwa C-series (sub $100 reels) and ProMax series versus even the cheapest Tatula or SLX models. That is where I see the biggest jumps, from sub $100 to about $150-$200 area. I don't see much as much difference going from the mid priced (+$200) to upper tier (above $350). I think the improvements/feel begin to plateau as you approach the highest prices.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by reason162 » Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:33 am

DirtyD64 wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:00 am
That makes sense. I will say though that that gap is shrinking.
The gap is larger between spinning reels. I happily fish with Tatulas and Curados, even though I have steezes and conquests...but spinning reels, once you hit that threshold there's no turning back, for me anyway.

That's why I push the Certate - to me it feels as refined as the Exist/Stella (yes even the new Stella), but at half the price. The drag might be the best I've used in any spinning reel. The only drawback is weight...but honestly on a longer rod it's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Re: Favorite Spinning Reel?

Post by DirtyD64 » Sat Jun 04, 2022 12:48 pm

reason162 wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:33 am
DirtyD64 wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:00 am
That makes sense. I will say though that that gap is shrinking.
The gap is larger between spinning reels. I happily fish with Tatulas and Curados, even though I have steezes and conquests...but spinning reels, once you hit that threshold there's no turning back, for me anyway.

That's why I push the Certate - to me it feels as refined as the Exist/Stella (yes even the new Stella), but at half the price. The drag might be the best I've used in any spinning reel. The only drawback is weight...but honestly on a longer rod it's not necessarily a bad thing.
That is another reason I almost bought my wife one. Wrote a bunch of papers for nurses last winter and made bank. She fishes a 7'6"MH spinning rod and I thought it would match well. Now that we have the baby though she never goes with me, so I am not sure I want another spinner.

Still either a premium spinning setup or another Light powered setup with a cheaper Stradic 2000SHG (or 2500SHG) will be on my radar. Have about $450 in my fishing fund and another $300-400 pending on selling old equipment.

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