My Spinning Reels Are Worn Out…Here’s What I’ll Be Buying Next… 

Daiwa fuego is cost effective(110ish), anti reverse, 3000 size, bulletproof, and smooooth

I do a lot of saltwater fishing offshore and surf. I got hooked on a spinning reel manufacturer I don’t see on the tournament circuits, and that’s Penn.

Hi Randy! Big fan of the channel and in your corner. Let us know what you decide on. I think the bearing count is deceiving marketing gimmicks these days. Shimano and Diawa put their money into precision machining the gearing. The engine of the reel matters most followed by a handful of quality bearings that matter most.

Also, I believe it's the QUALITY of the bearings and the placement more than number ofbearings.

Awesome App. Great knowledge. 😂😂

Thanks for the information about spinning reels Randy. I’m going to be buying one.

Most spinning reels with 10 BB are in the 400-500 dollar range and are anti reverse. Mostly it's the bargain reels that still have the ability to back spool. Drags improved so much over the last 10 years or so, reverse isn't popular now according to the reel companies. Hope you find what you need!

Daiwa Procyon AL LT is on sale right now at Tackle Warehouse...just picked one up to replace an older Daiwa I have.

Hey Randy big fan. I just wanted to thank you for the Ben Parker Spoon modification.I caught my PB Brown Trout with that knowledge. I wasn't going to post the video because I screwed up getting the fish in the frame of the shot but I posted it anyway because it captures my favorite part about fishing. "The Element of the Unknown". That's a legendary fishing term. Thank you for that also! You are one of the best in the game.

All my spinning reels except for two are Shimano Sedonas. I have 2 original models (that I've used for 20 years, although they are old and worn they're currently attached to live bait setups) I have one 2000FC, a 2500FD, a 4000FD, a 2500 FE, a C3000FI and a C2000S. The other two are Shakespeare reels that came with Ugly Stick Combos that I use for trolling. Sedonas are solid, affordable, basic reels that meet all my needs. If I had to get another one I would buy another Sedona.

The Shimano Vanford is the best spinning reel for the money, unless money is no object, then I would say go for the Shimano Stella. I'll address 2 things you mentioned - #1 Ball bearings. Yes, more is better, but you must also take into account the quality of the bearings because they are not all the same from brand to brand. Shimano bearings are good quality. #2 Anti reverse switch. I never thought I'd buy another Shimano again when they started eliminating that switch. After talking with Shimano I found out that the reason for this is for the longevity of their reels. Eliminating that switch almost completely closes off the inside of the reel to water and debris. After using my Stradic Ci4's for almost a decade, I can say that these reels are currently almost as good as new. You will get used to it and after a while, it'll mean absolutely nothing. I'm a spinning reel nut and I think if you get a Vanford 3000XHG you will be very happy.

Hello Randy... To the best of my knowledge Shimano and Diawa are the only two Large Companies that have their own Factory to produce their Reels. These two companies have been at the forefront of technology for Decades ! Therefore, it's an easy choice for me. In regards to your comment about wanting a more durable reel, Shimano makes two categories of Spinning reels: The Power series and the Finess series. It sounds like you would prefer their Power Series of Spinning reels. Keep up the Great Content and Best of luck with your Reel Search. Robert Bently George

I used to use Shimano and Pflueger spinning reels. However I have switched because they are eliminating the anti-reverse switch. I'm a back reeler and want to be able to back reel for several reason. I bought a Daiwa BG spinning reel and fell in love with it. I'm now 100% Daiwa on all future reels, spinning and baitcasting.

Bought the shimank nasc ii 3000 and it’s been great. Bought it since it was recommended for both salt and fresh water. Smooth great drag and no complaints so far.

I fish for King Salmon in the salt. Those pull hard. I use Shimano Stradic reels. I have 9 of them. They have 6 or 7 bearings I think. Smooth as butter and all I have ever done to them is oil and grease them once a year. I have had them about 10 or 12 years. Those are good reels.

I have that same reel and it is my absolute favorite for the price.

Bearing placement and quality is more imprtant than overal number. You need a good +1 for FC, but on small reels not using high drag pressures spool bearings arent nescacary, especially if you back reel. JDM Daiwa LT are the reels to look at if you want to back reel.

I have 3 of the Lews Spinning reels you showed. Two are 2000 and one is a 3000. They are fantastic reels for the money. I it the 2000 size in my Med Lite rods and the 3000 on my 7’3” Medium rod. If I ever have to buy a new reel, it will be the same reel I have now.

I agree 100% that you need to have the ability to back reel on our spinning reel. I bought my first reel that did not do that last year and used it 4 or 5 times. I was so frustrated with it that I went out and got another reel that could back reel. Never going to the new ones again.

I backreel also. Daiwa still has the anti reverse switch. They also have a 3000 size.

Anyone remember the Mitchell 300 spinning reel? Not sure if it's still made, but i had 1 that last over 15 years...did the job without all the high tech things on reels today...

I will say that I agree with the 300size reel but I do have a old diawa 1500 that will keep up with any of my larger open faces so I bought a 7ft telescoping pole and put in the side bags of my motorcycle

All of my spinning reels are Quantum and they have 8+ bearings, the Ti bail and some have the magnetic bail return. I do have both the 2500 and the 3000 sizes and you are right, the 3000 size reels do cast further than the 2500 series reels. I mainly use the 2500 series for pan fishing and they work great! Hope to see what reels you decide to go with and all of my reels have the anti reverse switch, won't buy a spinning reel without one. Thanks for sharing these tips!!

Plus they're Lews. So, they weren't much to start with.

Shimano Stradic

Nice video Randy. I would've recommended getting the 17' Exsence C3000MHG but it doesn't have the back-reeling feature. I do have the 18' Daiwa Tatula LT 3000-CXH. It seems to be exactly what your looking for. It has the back-reeling feature, 7 BB, 6.6oz., 22LB. drag and holds 160yards of 8LB. or 130yards of 10LB.and has the big handle your looking for. Shimano also has the Sahara with the back-reeling feature but in the 3000 size it may be too heavy.

I'm a huge fan of the Okuma ITX Carbon...if ya have a ton of money the Vanford is awesome

Diawa Fuegos for the win and you can use them in saltwater. I have four of them.

I bought a Shimano Vanford last year and was blown away by the Zero Inertia deal. It takes SO MUCH LESS EFFORT to get started reeling. I'm the opposite on handles and spools; I like them as small as possible. I use the 2000. It's the same gear ratio as the 2500, just an ounce lighter. I use Gliss, so I promise, you WON'T outcast me with a 3000!

I just purchased my first Penn reels (2) and noticed that there were no reverse switch.

For me, bass wear out way to easy to worry about back pedaling, drag works just fine. I use 2lb for for specks and my old school cheap ass reels have a reverse that is better than the drag that is either free or locked. I got these reels from Kmart in the early 80’s.

Daiwa Sol particularly if you get the spare spool with it 🤗

Daiwa looking at the Kage for the bearing count and anti-reverse but only up to a 2500 size. The Tatula LT has 6 bearing but can be had in 3000. MQ line removes anti reverse so that takes a bunch off the table. Nothing from Shimano for years has anti reverse. I believe balance of your choices are made in contract manufacturing facilities in Korea, Doyo or Banax, and China, Haibo. Probably a ton more. For an old school option. Recently bought a Daiwa BG that's build like a tank and have been eyeing a SS TOURNAMENT® LONG CAST REELS. Both have been around decades. Noticeably heavier and very proven. Good luck

I usually drill and pin my drags and then back reel

I just bought the lews custom lite 300

Daiwa tatula lt for spinning, shimano curado for casting. Thats my 2 cents.

That Lews 3000 looks more like a 7000.

How much for ur used fishing reels Randy? I'm looking for one or two :)

Still with you on that live scope shitz.

I Love the Shimano FSCI reel. Awesome reel for $99.00.

If I might ask, what did you end up going with for spinning reel ?

I would go with the kastking have many from 1000 to 5000 use often fresh and salt very reliable

Get a stella or an exist. Worth the money if you fish it all the time.

What’s your thoughts of Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Platinum series? Mostly because I have a few combos and wonder if they’re worth it? It’s got the features you need? Other big name pros use them and make them work.

I hear people bad mouthing Lew's spinning reels. I have several of the Speed Spins and they've been bullet proof, in addition to having 9 ball bearings and are only about a hundred bucks....Plus their customer service is unmatched. I closed the pickup door on a brand new rod that had never been used. I couldn't find the identical rod at any retailers, so I contacted the company and admitted my stupidity, and they remarked, " Oh, that's no problem, we'll send you a new one.!"

Randy buy any Shamino and you can’t go wrong. Shimano is the coke of spinning reels. Anything else is Pepsi.

I have noticed a real difference in casting distance and less frequency of backlashes with my more expensive Lew’s baitcasting reel compared to my budget priced Abu Garcia, Okuma, and Shimano baitcasting reels. I think, with baitcasting reels the higher cost definitely translates into noticeably better performance. I do not think there’s a similar correlation between performance and price with spinning reels. I have never noticed any difference attributable to a reel in terms of casting distance, and I don’t get backlashes with decent line that’s properly spooled on a spinning reel. I’ve only had one spinning reel ever seize up on me and that was a very old one that had repeatedly been dumped in the water, and I had never done any maintenance on it. The only difference I have ever noticed when handling and reeling more expensive demo model reels at stores is a very slight difference in how smooth they are when reeling. That is not something that would give me any increased satisfaction, and certainly would not be worth an extra $50, $100 or $200 just to have a slightly smoother sensation when rotating the handle. I have no doubt that more expensive spinning reels would have a longer life and be more reliable under heavy use, particularly in saltwater. I think they also have heavier drags. For a professional angler or someone who is targeting trophy size fish, multiple days per week, I am sure the added investment would be worthwhile. But I am lucky if I get out 30 days a year so for me a less expensive Shimano, Quantum, or Lew’s spinning reel does a perfectly fine job. One reason that more expensive reels are not of interest to me, aside from merely the value proposition, is that it seems most of them do not have an anti-reverse switch. That is something that I use repeatedly every day that I fish. I have a Penn reel That I originally bought for the occasional ocean fishing I do but I replaced it with a Shimano because Penn reels do not have anti-reverse switches. I understand one is supposed to loosen the drag, then pull the line off the reel, but that is an inconvenience and I can’t help but think it eventually will wear out the drag.

Thought that I had surely entered dinosaur-dom when shopping for new spinning reels a few years ago. I’ve always back-reeled instead of relying on the drag. Glad to hear I’m not the only one.

I would be really interested to see what you think of a Piscifun Carbon or Carbon II spinning reel Randy. For the price they are worth checking out.

😮😮 Randy if you need a reel with: - Many bearings pref CRBB - An anti-reverse switch - Low friction THEN GOOD LUCK FINDING THAT UNICORN - REEL 🎣😁😬 bc you can NOT find such a reel easily 😅😅

A proper drag is much better than back reeling. Tension is more consistent. Now if you are talking about small fish of less than 10lbs I would not care. Big fish and salt water fish will ruin your day without a proper drag.

Is backreeling is better than using the drag because of line twist?

Korea or taiwan made reels seem to be much better than made in china reels. I have had great luck with Shimano fl stradic's.

I just stick with cheaper spinning rods and reels. I upgraded this year and got 2 kastking medium rods and reels for $110 and a bps megacast mh rod and reel for $45. I got an ozark trail ugly stick gx2 knock off combo for $27 too. Before that I just had old super k mart combos and I used them for like 20 years. I got them when I was like 20 and Im 42 now and still use them. 😂. I caught hundreds if not a thousand fish on the 1 rod and reel combo from perch to bass to walleye. I figure I'd rather get multiple combos than just 1 rod and reel for 500 bux. I got way too many lures and techniques to be using just 1 setup! 😂 The same goes with fly fishing. You can make stuff expensive and buy a 700 dollar rod and reel but I caught plenty of steelhead on combos that cost less than $100.

Anyone like Pflueger?

Shimano every time.

Randy would you consider selling your old stuff if so leave message

Yeah live scope is completely ridiculous.

What are your thoughts on anti-reverse switches on a spinning reel? I use that switch numerous times every single day I go out fishing and it is a significant convenience to me. I bought a Penn reel for saltwater fishing, discovered it does not have the anti-reverse switch. I don’t like having to loosen the drag and then strip line out by hand, which is an inconvenience. But it seems that most higher-end spinning reels lack the anti-reverse switch. Is that something that a “real” angler is not supposed to need, or is it a silly, affectation and adaptation like how so many people play the patticake - hand swapping game by casting with the right hand with their bait casting rig yet use a right-handed reel instead of the more sensible left-handed crank? EDIT: OK, I pretty obviously did not watch the entire video before posting my comment, and did not catch the reason why Randy prefers having an anti-reverse switch. That makes good sense to me. But I don’t get why there is a trend for most higher quality spinning, reels not to have that switch. For me, it is simply much more convenient to flick the switch and pull some extra line out to get to the length I want for casting or tying on another lure. In retrospect, if I had been doing things the way, Randy does with the spinning reel, I might’ve landed a trophy size smallmouth last year. I was flipping a small crappie jig around on my ultralight trout outfit trying to catch a few panfish when the biggest smallmouth I’ve ever seen, bigger even than almost any I’ve seen on a RU-vid fishing video, hit it and jumped out of the water four times. It was more than a 20 inch fish. It outright snapped my 5 pound test line before I could shake off being dumbfounded that such a big fish hit such a tiny lure and loosen the drag.

I was always told ball bearing # does not matter … it’s more about the individual quality of the bearings themselves. Can anyone verify that?

Let’s us know what you end up choosing

I broke 3 of those speed spins last year. Wont buy another.

Daiwa Exist solves all problems, but can’t backeeel. It is frictionless.

Hey randy sell me all the reels you don't want I have a feel repair and service business I will buy them

Just so you know; the reason why most big reel company moving away from the anti-reverse gimmick is because it is a weak point to the reel, so to address the weak point; they simply just eliminated, plus vid simply souley your biased opinion and nothing more

You missed the biggest part for most any reel to improve longevity, a metal frame. Stay away from graphite.

Next vid, my rods are worn out here’s what I’m buying next

This guy has no clue about how far drags have come. I caught many 10-13lb steelhead using a spinning reel with 3 and 4lb leaders in open water using pure drag to fight it. Talk about closed minded.

Randy, how are your spinning reels worn out? All I ever see you do is talking, not fishing…