The 9 Best Spinning Reels for Every Angler

Bass Pro Shops sells enough fishing reels to have its own house brand line of spinning reels, and the quality is on-par with other name brand reels. Because of the sub-$100 price tag, the Pro Qualifier 2 might feel like a run-of-the-mill reel, but it offers all the features and build quality of more expensive reels without the name brand.

The 5.1:1 gear ratio is a good medium retrieval speed, and the 5.5-pound maximum drag is enough for your average angler’s pursuits. Still, the reel is light and precise enough to handle a range of applications, be it pan fish or bass.

A bad reel equals a bad time on the water, and line problems often drive beginners away from the sport because they don’t have the skills (yet) to quickly resolve issues. A good balance of price and performance is ideal, and for that, I recommend the Daiwa LT (light but tough) reel that offers smooth operation and spooling without breaking the bank.

The light weight and high-speed retrieval make for easier fishing for novices. And if for some reason you find that fishing just isn’t for you, Daiwa reels hold their value. You should be able to sell the reel for a decent price to an angler that knows what they’re getting with the brand.

I own this Sienna for ultralight fishing, and it’s a smooth-running, quality Shimano reel despite its budget price tag. The reel casts farther than its lighter weight would lead you to believe, and the front drag and the Super Stopper II anti-reverse system stop any back play quickly.

At around $35, it makes it easier to justify owning a separate setup for ultralight fishing specifically. The Sienna also comes in a range of sizes, so if you’re fishing for a mix of species, you can go a bit heavier with models up to the 4000 size, which can handle 12-pound test line.

Walmart might not be the first name you associate with quality, but over the years, I’ve been happily surprised with some of the products from its house outdoors brand, Ozark Trail.

This basic spinning reel features a graphite and anodized aluminum frame that’s corrosion-resistant alongside machined aluminum internal parts that help it last longer than a summer. The specs make it a good middle-of-the-road option for beginner and intermediate anglers, and the sub-$20 price makes it palatable to buy one for each member of the family.

The roughly $100 sticker price might feel steep to folks who are used to buying cheaper rod ’n’ reel combos off the shelf, but this is a quality reel meant to last more than a couple summers of light fishing.

It has features usually reserved for higher-end reels, such as a sealed drag system and anodized aluminum for corrosion-and scratch-resistance. The Black Anodized body and cover, according to Daiwa, translates to better adhesion to the aluminum and will not chip or peel like a painted surface.

Like most youth fishing reels, this offering from Ugly Stik comes as a rod and reel combo with a 5-foot-6-inch rod. Unlike most youth setups, however, this combo has an open-faced spinning reel. Although this does bring a slight learning curve, the open-faced design enables young anglers to learn how to use the bail system rather than trigger-operated spincast setups that can teach bad habits for life.

The smaller size fits smaller, weaker hands and arms, but this set has all the same features as the adult GX2 models. It’s a medium-speed and medium-weight reel that should serve a young angler until they’re big enough to graduate to adult-sized reels.

At the extreme high-end of prices for reels, you’ll expect certain things like precision machining, smooth casting and spooling, and maximum weatherproofing. The latest in Shimano’s flagship Stella line delivers all of that and more. Shimano has a reputation for quality Japanese engineering, but they’ve made lots of improvements that can be hard to understand if you aren’t versed in the inner workings of spinning reels. And most of us aren’t.

But here is the takeaway for everyday consumers: the company’s improved gearing with the InfinityXross system improves both durability and performance when reeling in under strain, i.e. when you’ve got a fish on the line. The InfinityXross drag system retains the brand’s excellent line stopping performance, but Shimano claims it has increased the system’s durability by a factor of 10.

As someone who used to repair fishing reels, I can confirm that quality parts make a difference. Build quality is notoriously hard to quantify, but Shimano has at least given its commitment to it a name: HAGANE.

This design philosophy extends to the whole reel design but focuses on a no-machining forging and is implemented here in steel gears and a magnesium body. You can get great performance from cheaper reels, but what you’re paying for here is long-term performance—what Shimano calls “eternally smooth reeling.”

Baitcasting reels used to be the choice for bass fishermen, but improvements in spinning reels for bass have more bass anglers reaching for a spinning reel such as Daiwa’s lightweight Tatula LT. Spinning reels are much more familiar to most beginner and intermediate anglers and are usually cheaper, which makes them more accessible to recreational anglers.

Baitcasters are also usually lighter than spinning reels, but Daiwa addresses this in the Tatula LT, with a weight of about 7.5-ounces thanks to a light-yet-strong carbon fiber body and “Air Rotor” system designed to shave weight without losing structure.

The “LT” stands for “light and tough.” The light is found in the Zaion body and materials—a carbon strain, according to Daiwa, that is said to be 20 percent stronger and 50 percent lighter than traditional nylon and aluminum construction.

The tough part is the Machined Aluminum Alloy Digigear, which puts precision gearing to work for power transfer from the handle to the spool for the hard fights put up by bass species.

The latest iteration of Penn’s famed Battle spinning reel builds on its reputation for strength and durability. This is a heavier reel for bigger fish— up to 25 pounds. There’s also greater capacity for the bigger line required for those large fish, and the Battle III can spool 230 yards of 20-pound test monofilament.

The Battle III is built to withstand exposure, and it's favored by both freshwater and saltwater anglers thanks to a sealed 5+1 bearing system.

There are plenty of size options for the Battle III, but the 6000 is big enough for most larger freshwater species, and it is the smallest in the tier of Battle sizes that upgrades to both brass pinion and gears for durability and strength when fighting trophy fish.

Perhaps, best of all, the cost is just over $100 despite the burly build.