STELLA 3000 OR DAIWA EXIST 2500. BOTH ARE INSANELY GOOD

I'm the opposite of most of y'all on here. I believe the most expensive reel in your boat should be a spinning reel. Mostly because you use such lite line it needs a super good drag system that you generally won't find on inexpensive reels. I use a lot of 6 or 7 lbs test.

Shimano Stradic C14+. Love everything about this reel! Got it on sale last year at sportsman's warehouse. I'm a Daiwa and Shimano guy. My Shimano's have held up the best.

Shimano Sahara 79.99 at TW. That or plueger president both fairly cheap and work well!

My favorite is the old Zebco Cardinal series, smoother than a Shimano Stella. Currently I use Shimano Sahara and am tickled pink with it.

Stradic Ci4 2500
hard to beat

My wife and I like anything by Abu Garcia i still have my first one i got when i was 12 it still works. i don't use it of course because they make a lot better quality reels now. but cant beat em

Shimano Sustain 3000. Ultra smooth and great brake system. Handles saltwater reds (32+") with no problems..
with braid.Matched on "original" Falcon 7' MH spinning rod

Shimano Sustain 2500 mounted on a 7'4" G Loomis Pro Green rod. I've used it for about 3 years.

My Stellas are very sick!

Over the years, I progressed from the shimano sidestab, shimano sedona, shimano sahara, shimano stradic, shimano sustain, daiwa caldia, daiwa certate, and finally the Stella.

I currently have stellas, certates and stradics. I basically sold a bunch of reels to, in part, finance my Stellas, of which, I pretty much use exclusively when spinning.

Daiwa Fuego - I have two in the 1000 and 1500. I've got a few Stradics too, but these are so much smoother!

When I started seriously fishing light line, I used the Trions with 10 lb line. Then started using lighter line, and found out you need much better drag to do so. Next I tried the US Reel supercasters. These are great reels, especially for the $100 range. Then I started using 6lb line and traded up to the shimano sustain. Probably one of the smoothest drags out there. All these reels are good, it just depends on what level of spinning rod fishing you want to do. If I were never going to use 6lb line, I would stay with cheaper reels. Just my thoughts.

I received a new Stradic 3000fk the 2015 model of the Stradic an using 6lb line on a drop shot I caught a bunch of 3-4lb fish probably the smoothest drag system I've used its tied with the steez spinning reel I used to own.

Shimano Symetre-best $90 I ever spent.

I'm old school i still think the daiwa tournament ss is still the best spinning reel out there