In the market for a new spinning reel for drop shots, neds, and other finesse.  Mainly shore fishing fairly shallow waters for SM.  It was brought to my attention that the Pflueger President XT Limited Edition is on sale for 49.99, which is the same price as the Daiwa Revros 2000 (been eyeballing this one and hoping for maybe a black friday sale).

Which reel is better for the money?  Also, i know the President XT LEs are smaller so would I want to go with a 30x or 25x? Could i put 10lb braid on those still?

 

Thanks a bunch! 

IMO President XT is a better choice than Revros. Mine is 5 years old and still kicking. And if you only plan to put braid on it, I don't think you'd need 3000 size. 

 

But for spinning reel under $100 I would recommend Daiwa BG. It's a saltwater/freshwater reel with a little higher MSRP, but you usually can get it on sales for 60~70 dollars. Its 1500 size is same as 2000~2500 size of other brands. 

 

If you open it up, you'll wonder how Daiwa could still make money with so many high quality components inside, components usually only in their $200+ reels. For example, I believe it's the only reel under $100 that has bearing supported drag. It's not an essential part for bass fishing, but it shows the "luxury" level with this reel. 

 

I own several Pflueger spinning reels and pushed them here and elsewhere for years as the best value in spinning reels on the market. But they’ve had a lot of QC issues since they got bought by pure fishing and I’ve gotten to the point that I’ve sworn off buying any more. So I’d have to say go with the Diawa. 

22 minutes ago, Oklahoma Mike said:

I own several Pflueger spinning reels and pushed them here and elsewhere for years as the best value in spinning reels on the market. But they’ve had a lot of QC issues since they got bought by pure fishing and I’ve gotten to the point that I’ve sworn off buying any more. So I’d have to say go with the Diawa. 

So you don't own any post 2004 Pfluegers?

 

That's when Pure Fishing acquired Pflueger.

I'm a huge fan of the older presidents...but somewhere around 2018 or 19 something changed. Revros all day everyday. I've got a size 25 president xt I got a few years ago and it has always felt sluggish. Cleaned it relubed it..no change. Heard more than a few stories of the same. I have a 1000 size revros and am very impressed with it for the money.

Revros and it's not really close. I loved my older Presidents but the newer ones I've bought in the last 5 years or so, did not last and 2 were rough right out of the box. I've got one Revros that's over 5 years old now and still going strong after lots of use and abuse. Bought 4 more since for various uses and they've all been great. They perform well above their price range IMO. The XT was a little bit better and I do still have one in the rotation, so I'm not saying it's a bad reel, but I'd much prefer the Revros of the 2. 

2 hours ago, Oklahoma Mike said:

I own several Pflueger spinning reels and pushed them here and elsewhere for years as the best value in spinning reels on the market. But they’ve had a lot of QC issues since they got bought by pure fishing and I’ve gotten to the point that I’ve sworn off buying any more. So I’d have to say go with the Diawa. 

 

Pure Fishing has a habit of doing that imo....which is highly annoying.

 

They buy up nameplates then "tier" them.

 

Presidents used to be the cat's meow...along with Garcia.

 

But under pure Fishing, they kind of ruined the namesake by outsourcing everything to China.

6 minutes ago, CrashVector said:

But under pure Fishing, they kind of ruined the namesake by outsourcing everything to China.

Worse than that - the only casting reel left is the President XT - all the rest have been removed from Pflueger's site. Shame since I love my Patriarchs.

 

Also, they're removing the anti-reverse switch from their spinners - so no turning off the anti-reverse anymore.

 

PF is ruining what use to be a great line - I've had Pfluegers since the early 70s.

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

So you don't own any post 2004 Pfluegers?

 

That's when Pure Fishing acquired Pflueger.

Not sure how you came to that conclusion - if all of my reels were pre-PF era then I’m not sure I’d have any complaint.
 

They were once a very dependable reel but have since gone downhill. I think I mentioned here the other day that I recently had to rob parts off of two other reels just to keep one operational. 

Dont forget about the Daiwa Regal LT

For ten dollars more than the Revros,  the regal is lighter and has more bearings.

It has a bearing supported spool and knob.

Also in the 2000 size there is little to no stem flex.

It's hard to beat for $60. 

The bass pro Carbonlite 2 is almost the same reel in a white color.

4 hours ago, mrpao said:

Dont forget about the Daiwa Regal LT

For ten dollars more than the Revros,  the regal is lighter and has more bearings.

It has a bearing supported spool and knob.

Also in the 2000 size there is little to no stem flex.

It's hard to beat for $60. 

The bass pro Carbonlite 2 is almost the same reel in a white color.

I can vouch for the Carbonlite, I bought mine and used it last year and it’s super smooth.

One thing to note also, is that I found a $10 off coupon and also $10 off for a new customer....bringing the cost of the Plfueger President XT Limited Edition down to $29.99.  I took a stab at it for that price...worst case im not a huge fan and it can be a backup reel or one of my trout reels!  

 

I will have to take a peak at the Regal and Carbonlite reels as well!  Thanks for all the input!

Spinning reels you should add Shimano to your list within your price point. Sedona F1 is a good reel.

Tom