the best for that price is the 6500 cl c3 mag elite ... magnetic backlash control or you can find one of those guys who can modify the 6500 c3 with a rare earth magnet but the absolute best distance reels they discontinued many years ago which were the abu ultramag III reels ... last ones I had I sold for $250 but they were modified for competition casting. The reel isn't really all that important when distance casting anyhow ... there is no magic bullet or magic reel that'll turn an average caster into a casting god ... the main thing is the rod .. you must have a fairly stiff rod in order to cast a long ways. My longest cast was 312 yds on a practice field and longest recorded cast was on my second tournament where I beat all the former national champs that showed up ... I think there was 9 of them and 2 former world champs showed up ... I was only 12 ft out of first place. The most important part of the long distance casting is the rod ... the reel doesn't make that much difference as my first competition I took my regular fishing equipment which was a lamiglas 14 ft rod and abu 7000 c3 levelwind reel and casted 630 ft that day ... I picked up a sponsor on my first compeition and the following tournament I had competition casting gear and did much better but it was the rod ... not the reel .. breakaway rods are about the best ones you can get in the US ... I've got one of the new LDS rods and it's amazing .. using a 7000c3 I was hitting 745 ft with it with a 150 gram weight or 5.3 oz weight. So you need to think more of the rod and less of the reel when trying to cast further.

Tiny has spoken and (He the Man) all I can concur/add is(its the caster)..You can have the same equip as.Tiny called magic bullet..Kinda like the car race where all the cars /motors/tires are all same the only diff is driver and there all pro drivers (I forget the name of Race) Someone wins and someone looses..So in other words you can have the best Eguipment tuned perfectly and the best caster will make the diff...So get best equip and PRACTICE and practice.. From a average caster but very accurate.