After the demise of my Symtre 4000 FI, due to my own doings. I have been in need of another reel for my Key Largo inshore rod. I bought a Spheros 4000 fb this afternoon, this reel is sweet. The frame is smaller and lighter than my old Symtre, with the same line capacity. Plus, it has 22#pounds of drag. I think I going to spool it up with either 15 or 20# braid. This may become my favorite setup. Man, I can't wait for spring.

I've got the spheros 4 & 8000, the 4 has 20lb braid on it mounted on a Hurricane Redbone 7' 10/20 mh rod.

It's a real workhorse, not the smoothest but durable and I've caught some real bruisers with it.

SirSnookalot,

I played with a bunch of reels while at the local tackle shop yesterday. Most of them were Shimano's as that is what's predominately sold around here. I found that I liked the Spheros better. It came down to the Spheros, Saros 3000 which was going on a 7ft MH Clarus, and a Penn Sargus 4000. They were out of the Penn, which I found to be just a Pflueger Medalist w/ the Penn badge. To me the Spheros felt just as smooth as the Saros. It may have just been that the display was worn out. Anyway, I need brute strength and durability as I tend to be rough on my equipment. I see more Spheros reels in my future as many of cheaper reels are in need of replacement. I fear the bait monkey's evil saltwater cousin is coming. ;D

Penn is Penn and Pflueger is Pflueger and I'm not a big Penn fan, however I see way more Penns than anything else.  I love Pflueger, Medalist (smoothest reel I own 5000) and Supreme both used in saltwater, Stradic is pretty good too.  Check out a Quantum Cabo next time, IMO best in the field.

For durability it's the Cabo or Shperos, for smoothness Medalist or Stradic.

Just about all the reels will do a very good job, I got way too much stuff....