I think the reason is the 1000 and larger reels have gotten lighter .
But I still like a 500 size reel on my shorter rods .
I Enjoy fishing with a combo that weighs less than 8 ounces total .
Are 500 reels going the way of the Dodo? I have been browsing reels online lately and notices that most reels start 1000 now. I know at one time some brands went by 5's.....500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and so on. The real pain in the butt is retailers that think the only people that fish are after bass and bigger, meaning most of the reels on shelves start at 2500 and go up. What is an ultralight fisherman to do?
I think the reason is the 1000 and larger reels have gotten lighter .
But I still like a 500 size reel on my shorter rods .
I Enjoy fishing with a combo that weighs less than 8 ounces total .
skeetbum, gunwhatgun LIKED above post
A number of Shimano models still have 500 size
Also, Pflueger's 20 size is about a 600...little bigger but not much.
Hunting them down to broil them up.
You can still get several Shimano 500 size reels out of Japan. The Sahara and Nasci for example with shallow spools. The price is same as the state side price and sometimes a little less. If you want to go up in price Shimano has several more 500 models also.
Regards
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Hi, gwg as always i love to share my thought on this one as well. As Alphahawk and others have said, your best bet right now is Shimano (while they still make them) and they range from cheapest Sienna (stay away) to I believe is their current flagship 500: the Soare ci4+! Here is a thorough review by an angler putting it through it's paces.
Shimano Soare CI4+ 500S - The Ultimate in UltraLights - YouTube
hdhntr thanked you for this post
That’s interesting. Certainly plenty of reel for needs. Wonder what the weight is? I’m wanting something very light but I’m too cheap to pull the trigger on an expensive reel just yet. After this new custom rod came home a little while back that weighs about as much as a sneeze it might be getting closer.
Creativity is just intelligence fooling aroundLVSpinfisher1, hdhntr LIKED above post
I think that is a big factor. I bought a 500 size Shimano for just that reason and it is a nice reel, but after using it I will only buy 1000s in the future. The Daiwa Legalis 1000 that I have my eye on comes in at 6.5 Oz, and unLess I want to spend a lot more money it is a real nice weight for all of my rods. My all up is about 8.5 oz or so, and a real pleasure to fish with.
Bob
skeetbum, LVSpinfisher1 LIKED above post
If you are on a tight budget, Piscifun makes several size 500 reels. I own a ViperX in the 1000 size and it's pretty nice for a budget reel. The Piscifun reels aren't nearly as refined as the Shimano's. Last year I bought a jdm version of the 21 Shimano Ultegra and as expected you can clearly feel that it is much better quality than the Piscifun.
One thing you may notice about the Shimano 500 size reels are that they sometimes don't have some features the same model has in the larger sizes. For example, the jdm version of the 21 Shimano Nasci doesn't include XShip or Silent Drive, but the 1000 and above do include those features.