I asked the same question on here several years ago. I bought a Diawa Fuego. I have four of them now. Great reel for the price.

Thanks for the help everyone, some great feedback. I’ll do a little more research on the suggestions and let everyone know what I went with

If you are looking for something you can cover water a lot faster with I recommend the Shimano Spirex reels. I have two of them. They have a bail trigger and a double crank handle just like a bait caster. This speeds your re entry into the water up quite a bit. I've got two other trigger style spinning reels I use but they don't make them anymore.

As stated in another similar topic, or two, the Pflueger President reels ROCK! IN65

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Im a Shimano fan but my Daiwas have out performed my stradics

I have a ton of Shimano from the old tx series to a single stradic. For the price the Sahara is budget (30'ish) and very well made, nasci is a step up. Can't go wrong with them. No comparison with the stradic but the smoothness of the reel isn't catching the fish, but rather the angle when your fishing freshwater. In salt, I think it is made to last. I am 100% Shimano so when I used to go thru the cheap TX spinning reels, I would just keep the spool for extras. Haven't broke a reel from heavy use since the last 90's. Later (2015'ish) my son had a bad problem with setting his reel down in the sand and water fishing for Sandies years ago. Even with this, the rubber seals on the spool and inner workings of the nasci held up well. I would just do the rod and reel plunger movement in the creek and keep reminding him to be careful where he sat his rod down. I eventually had to polish the spool from all the dings but the reel held up, and I am still using it today. Back in the day it was all about budget, and return with my available funds. Now it's all about budget, and available funds however I haven't retired a Shimano spinning reel since the 90's. I have gifted many away, and paid it forward. As for baitcast reels, only one Shimano reel was retired because the reel seat broke, so that reel became a parts donor. I was blessed recently by a fellow TFF'r who contacted me about some old Shimano reels he had, he is "good people" and basically gave them to me. With servicing I will not be buying any more reels for my lifetime. A reel is like a pocket knife. Don't buy a knife you can't sharpen or maintain.
With all the YouTube videos available you can repair or service practically any reel.
The 2 best tips I can ever give you about cleaning and servicing reels are: 1. Never work on a reel above carpet. Things disappear easily. 2. All the oils in the store are too thick (IMO).

It's crazy but I can throw down $ for a reel and not blink, but it's painful to buy clothing or shoes.

Shimano Vanford. Very light, balanced and smooth.