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As the dog days of summer come to a close and water temperatures begin to fall, trout fishing across the country picks up again. Autumn is also one of the best times of the year to catch giant rainbows, browns, and brookies. Which means it is also a good time to upgrade your gear to something capable of handling aggressive fish. Specifically, a reel that has enough power and drag to fight and land big trout.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been putting a handful of trout-sized spinning reels to the test on my local waters. The collection was diverse, covering a wide range of price points and features. At the same time, I’ve been going through some of my older gear, culling out and donating rods and reels I wasn’t using. While the older reels I passed along were all functional, I was struck by just how good modern spinning reels are. Even today’s budget-priced reels offer great performance and durability. Here are a few of the top performers from my recent testing.
Specs
Pros
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Compact size
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Lightweight
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Strong drag
Cons
Lightweight, smooth, well-built, the Daiwa Ballistic MQ LT in its smaller sizes has the qualities you need in an all-purpose trout spinning reel that, while not cheap, isn’t a bank-breaker. I tested the 1000 size, which tipped my digital scales at just 6.2 ounces with a full spool of Daiwa’s XBraid X8 line. The light reel balanced perfectly with one of my favorite trout rods, a 6-foot 9-inch long Fenwick Tecna model. It’s easy to make 40-foot casts with light lures. You need to be careful not to overfill the spool, which will lead to loop tangles.
The Ballistic MQ LT’s monocoque body adds strength by eliminating the need for a side cover plate. This feature also improves the reel’s water resistance and allows for larger internal gears. The chrome finish on the back plate is a style choice that some might not love.
The reel features eight bearings through the 4000 size. Even in the diminutive 1000 size, the drag max is a stout 11 pounds, more than you’ll ever need for a reel in this size class. With an MSRP of $229.99, the Daiwa Ballistic MQ LT is not inexpensive, but it’s a great reel that is at home on a small native brook trout stream or chasing huge browns on the White River.
Specs
Pros
Cons
With a magnesium frame and carbon fiber handle, the Pflueger Supreme XT is built to offer lightweight performance in a strong package. The size 30 reel I’ve been testing weighs just 6.7 ounces with a full spool of 15-pound-test Power Pro braid. Although I have been testing the latest model for only a couple of months, I have a history with the Supreme XT as I bought a size 25 Supreme XT five or six years ago, and it’s been one of my go-to trout reels ever since.
So, how can a $200 reel be considered a great value? The Supreme XT comes with a feature set that you typically don’t see on reels under $300. It’s butter smooth and casts great, and with its machined aluminum main gear and sealed carbon drag, it is built for performance and to withstand years of abuse. Carbon touches, like the reel handle, add strength without a weight penalty. The latest model of the Supreme XT features a large, hard foam knob on the reel handle. It felt bulky for a reel of this size, but it grew on me the more I used it.
Specs
Pros
Cons
Casting lures for trout is fun, but sometimes fishing with live bait is more effective. This can be especially true in still waters where trout are constantly on the move. In those cases, it’s often best to soak bait near the bottom and wait. Trout can be fickle when feeling resistance. If you’re using a standard spinning reel, that means either loosening the drag so a trout that picks up a bait can move freely or leaving the bail open. Neither approach is ideal. The Okuma Ceymar Baitfeeder A is a much better option. Like larger baitfeeder reels popular for saltwater applications or catfishing, a switch disengages the reel so a fish can run, and re-engages manually or with a turn of the reel handle.
The baitfeeder system on the Ceymar Baitfeeder A worked flawlessly. The “drag” is light enough that even smaller fish can run, but it provides just enough tension to keep the line from overrunning. The 1000 size I tested is heavy at 8.4 ounces, but that’s not surprising given the extra mechanics needed. With seven ball bearings and one roller bearing, it’s plenty smooth, too. In addition to working well for trout, the smaller size would also be great for targeting panfish such as bottom-feeding redear sunfish.
Specs
Pros
Cons
It’s a joy to fish with precision, high-end gear, but it doesn’t always make sense, like when busting through thick streamside brush or when you need to loan a rod to a clumsy fishing partner. In these situations, utility and durability are more important. The GX2 spinning rod and reel combo from Ugly Stik is the fishing equivalent of a base model vintage Toyota 4X4 pickup or Jeep Wrangler. It might not be the prettiest or most sophisticated piece of equipment, but it works hard and doesn’t break.
At 6.1 ounces spooled with 4-pound-test mono, the 20-size Shakespeare reel (equivalent to other brands’ 1000 size) is surprisingly light given its no-frills design. With four bearings, it is reasonably smooth, especially for the price point. The combo option for that reel is the 4-foot 8-inch single-piece GX2 ultralight rod. In typical Ugly Stik fashion, the tip is very flexible. That short length does limit casting distance, but it comes in handy when bush-whacking or fishing canopy-choked creeks. And on the off chance you figure out a way to break the rod, it has a 7-year warranty.
Specs
Pros
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Ultralight weight
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Bomber build quality
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Super smooth
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Striking appearance
Cons
The Abu Garcia Zenon X is a strong, lightweight, and beautifully styled reel with smooth performance and an excellent drag. The heart of this reel’s performance comes from its 10 ball bearings—nine internal and one roller bearing. From the aircraft-grade aluminum main shaft to the Air-Fin spool to the carbon fiber handle, this reel is all about a high strength-to-weight ratio.
The Zenon X comes in sizes from 2000 to 3500. I tested the 2500, which weighed in at a scant 6.7 ounces with a full spool of 15-pound Power Pro (equivalent to 4-pound test mono). That light weight means you can put a larger reel—and enjoy the casting advantage of a larger-diameter spool—on a lighter rod. I paired the reel with a 7-foot-long medium-light action rod. The combo was great for casting small- to medium-sized jerkbaits targeting bigger tailwater trout. In its largest size, the Zenon X would be a super Great Lakes steelhead bobber dogging reel.
While this reel can cast a mile, its high-speed 6.2:1 gear ratio made it excel when fishing upstream with spinners in pocket water. The drag on every model tops out at 11 pounds. To cap it off, the matte black, silver, and carbon color scheme is striking. The reel is durable enough to take a beating, but you may find yourself babying it to keep it pretty. You can certainly pay more for a trout reel, but you won’t get much better performance at any price.
How We Tested Trout Spinning Reels
Earlier this year, some of the top reel manufacturers sent us an array of trout-sized spinning reels. We filled the reels with light mono or comparable braided line, matched the reels with appropriately sized rods, and spent the next couple of months fishing extensively in both streams and still water under various conditions for both wild and stocked trout. Because many anglers use trout-sized gear for other species, we also spent some time targeting sunfish, crappies, and smaller pond bass.
While fishing provided a great way to test each reel’s overall performance, we had a special test for drag performance. For that, we enlisted the help of a rambunctious 6-year-old who took off running with a lure (hookless, of course!) through his yard. You’re not going to “land” a 50-pound kid on trout gear, but his “blistering runs” gave us a great way to test the drags’ smoothness and overall performance.
FAQs
Q: Why spinning reels rather than baitcasters?
Baitcasting reels allow for more precise casting than spinning reels, but the latter are almost always the best choice for trout fishing because spinning reels can cast the light lures that most trout anglers use.
Q: How do you size a spinning reel?
It’s important to remember that a reel is just half of an outfit, and how the rod and reel balance is critical. A well-balanced outfit not only feels right, but it also allows for better casting performance and is less fatiguing to cast over and over. To find the balance point, grip the reel seat as if you are casting and then try to balance the rod on your index finger at the spot on the foregrip where your index finger and thumb meet. If the rod tip rises, the reel is probably too heavy for the rod. And, if the tip falls, the reel may be too light. Balance is not an exact science, and an outfit doesn’t have to be perfectly balanced to perform well.
Q: What size spinning reel is best for trout?
There’s not a standard sizing protocol for spinning reels, but most manufacturers use numbers starting at 500 or 1000 and go up from there in increments of 500 or 1000. A few use a 10/20/30 sizing structure. The best way to choose the proper reel is to select the appropriate rod for your preferred approach. You don’t want to use the same rod for small creek trout that you use when throwing 4-inch-long stickbaits for big tailwater trout. In general, ultralight approaches call for 500- or 1000-sized reels. If using heavier rods for bigger trout or even steelhead, reels in the 2500 and 3000 size are not out of the question.
Q: How much drag does a trout reel need?
Drag setting is usually a matter of personal preference, but a general rule of thumb is that it should be set from ¼ to â…“ of the breaking point of your line. For example, if you’re using 4-pound-test mono, you’d want to set your drag at about 1 to 1 â…“ pounds, well under the max drag available on all decent spinning reels. Now, not many of us will measure the drag while we’re out on the water. We set it by feel, balancing the need to protect light line and being able to reel in the fish in a reasonable time, which is especially crucial when the fish will be released.
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