Afternoon folks,

I am in the market for another spinning reel. I was going to ask about an Abu cardinal because it's in the same $$ range as the Pfleuger president which I have but, just saw on BTW a LEWS Tournament LFS that I like the looks of. I wouldn't say it's close $$ wise, but it also isn't way out of my ballpark. I've never heard of LEWS so would like your input. Thanks

back 35 years ago, lew's "speed spool" reels were cutting edge and quite popular. then, lew childre died in a plane crash and his company floundered. a family friend restarted the company and introduced a new series of rods and reels. i recently bought the new lew's tournament pro speed spool, mainly for nostaligic reasons, and have been really surprised at how much i like it. although the lews casting reels clearly share DNA with the ABU garcia revo and the bass pro shops carbonline/pro qualifier reels (all of which i also own), i like the lew's the most.

now, as to your question about the lew's speed spin, i dunno anything about it except to say that i was considering it myself. i know some people that love the oversize spool-concept on some other reels for reduced line twist. fwiw, cabelas has a smokin' deal on them right now: get the rod/reel combo for the price of the reel alone http://www.cabelas.com/product/Lews-Laser-Tournament-LFS8482-Speed-Spin-Combo/1192884.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dlews%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts&Ntt=lews&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

If the spinning reels are on par with the bait casters, they should be good. I still have two of the old 1980's speed spins. They were the first ( as memory serves ) to advocate the large diameter spools. I haven't used them in years. Lews has a pretty decen pro staff but the jury is still out on their spinning reels.