I'm looking around as well, have two Daiwa's I'm not wild about. Was looking at the wide spool concept, and although I usually will have braid on spinning with a leader, I may try a micro spinning rod and thus may not use a leader.

Anyway for the money the JM looks decent, I haven't see a US Reel but will look for one along with the Arbor. The Carbonlite gets horrible reviews so I crossed that one off the list. I though I read that lews was going to get on the wide spool train but I haven't seen any evidence of it. Love my TP's, however so if I could find a Lews I'd probably pick it up.

Oops maybe this is the Lews they were referring to... http://www.amazon.com/Lews-Tournament-Speed-Size-Spinning/dp/B004XDTCB8/ref=sr_1_4?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1353579552&sr=1-4&keywords=lews

Definitely the pflueger arbor. Great smooth reel with lots of power and is exactly what you are looking for.

mike d

I owned the 30-series Arbor when they first hit the market, and it was a decent little reel...but definitely not what I'd consider a large spool reel. There was very very little difference in diameter between the Arbor's spool and the spool of the Shimano Symetre 2500 I owned at the time.