For general soft baiting just stick to a 2500 or 3000 size reel. Thats all you need. I do run a 4000 size reel for heavy duty use and chucking the odd popper around, but it's over kill for most soft baiting in NZ.

To add to that. A 5000 size reel like the stradic 5000FJ is still easily able to use it as a softbaiting reel just adds a bit more weight than the 4000

To say buy a 2500 reel because they are lighter not always the case. My example I have a twinpower 2500 and a ci4 Stradic 4000. The twinpower weighs 215g where the stradic only weighs 264g. Then i have the twinpower on a tcurve and the stradic on a veritas. So I can't tell any weight difference between them.  

3000-3500 all day although saying that I still love the confidence my Twinpower 4000 gives me when used in anger.

sure is..buy us two while your at it bro

uncleping_88 wrote: Yeah I was thinking of o/h for sbs but seems the spinners are the go and easier to balance he weight Vs o/h.

spin they are easier to cast. However I believe oh are heaps better than spin just because you can keep it in free spool and when you fish oh you notice how many bites you miss when using a spin reel. I always have both on the boat but use the oh more. Oh are pretty well balanced (well my curado 200 is) just the casting is the problem I am still trying to deal with

Haven't tried o/h reels, big fan of spin reels. PJay are o/h reels less affected by the wind when casting?

Potty wrote: Haven't tried o/h reels, big fan of spin reels. PJay are o/h reels less affected by the wind when casting? To me it's all about balance in the set-up, that is matching the right size reel to rod, using the most suitable braid  for the reel, fluro the right size in relation to the braid and jig head size that is appropriate for the whole set-up.  Here's a question for you - which of these set-ups casts the longest & most accurate into the wind. A - 8 to 10 kg rod matched with 1 oz jig head, 20 pd braid & 30 pd fluro. (6 inch gulp) B - 4 to 6 kg rod, 1/2 oz jig head, 12 pd braid & 25 pd fluro. (5 inch gulp) C - 2 to 4 kg rod (15 cm longer than standard), 1/6 th oz jig head, 4 pd braid & 10 pd fluro. (3 inch gulp)

The liteweight set-up (2 -4 kg) casts the furtherest & most accurate. The extra length in the rod helps a lot with this, but also having the braid & fluro in balance (fluro is a top trout fishing brand / very strong & fine) improves casting considerably. Knot size is a lot smaller on this set-up, so flows through the guides better. Smaller diameter line suffers less in the wind.

in my opinion lighter is better. I use a pflueger patriarch 9530 and its 176gms of pure fun. Can hold it all day without getting tired. Because the reel is so light the whole set up is so much more sensitive. Even 30cm snaps are fun to catch. Big fish are insane on this set up. The biggest I would go is 2500 size personally. The only need for a bigger real is more line capacity. But these can hold 300m of braid so why go bigger?