Trolling reel size

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Sportfish 2050

Well-Known Member
I am thinking of buying a pair of reels for lake Erie .I currently own the larger sized Tekota 600's for salmon on lake Ont. and am thinking of going down to 400's for the downriggers. (Lighter and hold enough line)
Thoughts on What size and make?
 
Absolutely love my Tekota500s (new style) for walleye fishing and spring kings! Fit amazing in your hand and have all the line you ever want!
 
I have both the Shimano 500 HGLC and the Penn Fathom 2 15LC. Both are the same price and good reels but I think the Penn beats the Shimano in every category except has just slightly less speed on the retrieve but hardly noticeable. The Penn is slightly more compact in the hand, holds a little more line, is much smoother, has more muscle and the line counter is in a much better spot. Everybody will have differing opinions but I have both and my opinion the Penn wins easily. The Penn also comes with both the double paddle handle as shown or the single power handle like the Shimano in the box so you can use whichever one you prefer which is a plus. Both reels carry 300+ yds. of 20 lb. mono and are great for down rigging bows or walleye but are too small for handling kings in my opinion because you will probably get spooled at some point by a bruiser. ;)
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Coldwater 203d linecounters are great, way cheaper and i think they look sexy. I also have tekota 600's and the coldwaters are more then fine. I use the 203d size for the riggers for both salmon and wallleye. i put on 50 lb power pro and you get a ton of line on there i'm not worried of getting spooled by a salmon and i've had some out 700-800 feet . I use light action rods for salmon as well love the light action stuff for the salmon way more fun and this setup of course is great for the eyes
 
Ideally you need the smallest and the cheapest reels you can find as long as you only fish Lake E and you need a reel with just a little bit of mono capacity and a reasonably fair drag.

But......... since you already own Tekotas money must be not an issue 😉 and perhaps you can check Penn Fathom II - this is the reel that IMHO exceeds everything else available on the market today, including Tekotas. Size 15 is the smallest, would do Erie just fine. I personally own 12 Fathoms all with handle on the wrong side :) for Lake O, sizes 15/20/30 and they are magnificent.

If you like low-profile ones, you might appreciate what I am using - Okuma Cold Water low-profile CW-354DLX (left-handed model, 354D is right-handed) on ML rods strictly for walleye, smaller and light-weight, got them very cheap about 2 years ago by accident... Fantastic reels as well. They have also a comparable lower-cost low-profile Convector CV-354D/DLX depending on whether you are left-handed or not. 22lbs drag, 150yd of 20 mono capacity. And there is even smaller one came out in 2021, $95USD, CV-163D/DLX - high gear ratio but 11 lbs drag. You may like it though...

okumafishingusa.com

Convector Lowprofile Line Counter Reels

The Convector Low Profile Line Counter is a compact graphite bodied line counter reel that also features graphite side plates. The A6061-T6 machined aluminum, anodized spool will keep your braided line or monofilament tight and running straight. The exciting feature behind the Convector is the...
okumafishingusa.com okumafishingusa.com
 
If your spooling with braid as I have you only need the smaller capacity.
 
Fish Farmer said:
I have the 20 warefare, I see now they have a 15 size I may look into that. Anyone on here have that one?
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The Penn Warfare 15LC holds 320 yds. 20 lb. mono same as the Squall 2 and the Fathom 2 in size 15 which is plenty of line for most fish. I find the smaller size reel with a lighter action rod makes for more fun especially with good bow on. :)
 
Wave Runner said:
The Penn Warfare 15LC holds 320 yds. 20 lb. mono same as the Squall 2 and the Fathom 2 in size 15 which is plenty of line for most fish. I find the smaller size reel with a lighter action rod makes for more fun especially with good bow on. :)
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Thanks Waverunner, have to get up to Bills and order one, maybe 2 👍
 
Was out to Cabela's today had a quick look at the Penn Fathom 2 in 20 , was a nice reel no 15's thou. wish they had a few different offerings to look at....
320 yds of 20 is plenty big. Will keep looking to see other reels mentioned. Also will only be spooling there with mono (Max 20#)
 
Sportfish 2050 said:
Was out to Cabela's today had a quick look at the Penn Fathom 2 in 20 , was a nice reel no 15's thou. wish they had a few different offerings to look at....
320 yds of 20 is plenty big. Will keep looking to see other reels mentioned. Also will only be spooling there with mono (Max 20#)
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Yeah the Fathom 2 in the 15 size is very hard to find right now as they are sold out everywhere. Because of Covid they are way behind in production and you won't probably see any until Feb. or Mar. of 2022 so Pro Tackle told me. There's a few left handed versions floating around but that's about it. I just love my Fathoms, they are a fantastic reel. They are pretty impressive and here's a video to show the 15 size in your hand.

 
I have 4 tekotas 2 , 300 size for down riggers and two 500s for lead core. 5 years with the tekotas and no issues . Getting pretty beat up cause I'm hard on shit. Only thing I don't care for is occasionally resetting the line counter by mistake. Since you already have 2 I'm not sure you'll be happy with the cheapies. I tried a couple and they sit in the garage. I'll buy good reels and cheap rods.
300 size plenty for riggers if you use braid on Erie.
 
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