I want to get a new Shimano spinning reel for bass fishing. What is their best reel for the best price? Suggestions welcomed!

[WisconsinWhitetail]

I want to get a new Shimano spinning reel for bass fishing. What is their best reel for the best price? Suggestions welcomed!

[Greenhead]

Spinning or baitcaster?

[santa]

The Shimano spinning reels that I have experience with mostly have spool diameters which I consider a little too small. The reels themselves are of good quality and the bails seem to be strong enough to not bend even if stepped on lightly while laying on the deck of the boat. (I lay several rods and reels pre-rigged at my feet when bass fishing and have bent a few bails before by accident). I do not care for one way bearings on spinning reels, but I do like them on my baitcasters. It would take a whole page for me to explain the reasoning behind this, but it has to do with line twist. I have been building a new drive handle with a clutch built into it which cures line twist in spinning reels. I have a good friend, Casey Childre, that owns the patends for the double clutch reel handle. He even built double clutch reels and sold them at one time. I just took his ideas and redesigned them to bring them up into the 21st century. We, both he and I have been testing my updated design now for three years and it does cures line twist but it has to go on reels without a one way bearing. Now back to the Shimano reels, all spinning reels twist the line when you cast them. One twist is put into the line for evey wrap of line around the spool. So the larger the diameter spool, the less wraps a given amount of line takes to fill it. Less wraps means less twists so I personally would look for the largest diameter spool that I could find. Currently my wife uses the Johnny Morris signature series JM20's and JM40's from Bass Pro because of the large diameter spools.

PS, I have been designing, building prototypes, and repairing reels since the early seventies. I was on the design team that designed the first baitcast reel that Shimano ever built. I even still own a spinning reel that the Shimano brothers personally gave me back then as well as #6 of the first ten proof of tooling baitcast reels that they ever produced. So I do know just a little about Shimano, but I still think that their spinning reel spool diameters are a little too small.

[buckhunter]

Went through two Stradics in two years. Have purchased a lot cheaper reels which have lasted a lot longer.

[Kenton]

I have the Spirex 2000 and 2500. They have the quick fire trigger that makes casting very easy. Costs around $60. I've been using them for years and really like them.