Reel suggestions.
 

Looking for suggestions for near shore reels. I have my spunbon setups already, I just need a few conventional reels. I will be targeting cobia, mangrove snapper and red snapper... And what ever else hits.

Im leaning hard towards lever drag setups as opposed to the star drag. Also since taking a charter trip a few times one guy had all Avets and Indrawn to them for some reason...

Any suggestions? Looking to upgrade my boat in the next year or two so I won't be "confined" to 10-15 mile runs.

Budget? 200 or less.

Penn Squall

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Look at the Shimano TLD series. The gear ratio is a little low for high speed jigging but it would work. The charter special is a good levelwind lever drag

I looked at the TLD15. I'm not fishing DEEP water so the capacity of the 25 and bigger didn't really appeal to me.

It seems the two models you mentioned are very popular from the little research I've done.

I use alot of TLD's. Hard to beat them from the money.

Do you use the 15?

I've come to the decision that if I'm going to spend 200+ bucks on a reel and I'm going to keep them small in size, I'll get a Truth Small Game reel for 250 plus a lifetime warranty. With that said I might as well drop my budget down.

I don't have the 15. We use a lot of 20-50's.

Honestly, With the fish species you named try a pinning reel, I got Penn battle 2s and Shimano Saragosas and i love them for snapper fishing (both mangrove and red) and you cant bet them when it comes to cobia. I've taken the same reels and caught yellowfin tuna on them they are very diverse.

If you have already ruled out spinning reels, The shimano TLDs are the best bang for your buck in my opinion. I have landed wahoo and tuna all the way to warsaw grouper and everything in between on them.

Thanks speck! I've got 3 spinning setups already but I do plan picking up two more this summer. However I only have one conventional and would like to pick up one now and another in a month or so.

I'll check out the Saragosa. I'm familiar with the battles. Nice spinner for sure. I've got my spinning reels on the heavy ugly stick tiger light but I belive they are the 50-100 line rating ones. They've pulled out several mangroves in the past but looking for a lighter rod for the next two. Thingies about the Trevala or a Connely fishing setup

Reel suggestions.
 

Saragossa is a beast

Trevala is a great rode highly suggest them. Also, I have some customs on a couple of my reels, they come from J&M, check those out to, I love mine.

And Meaux, I love them, the Gosas are the best spinning reel for your money. Id rather buy Gosas over the Stellas just because the Stellas just look nice.

Reel suggestions.
 

I've never fished with a Stella but I caught some 50lb class yft on poppers with a gosa and jigged up 40-60 lb ajs. Don't know why you'd need to spend that extra money honestly unless you just wanted to say you had a stella.

I have a couple trevalas too and have been very happy with em.

Another vote for the trevala. They also lasted the longest out of my non roller guide rods, and I like the feel of them alot.

There just shinny haha

avets are great reels, my lx has taken yft up to 80# and it's 5-6 yrs old still smooth
avet is good for straight drops, some trolling or drift fishing but horrible for casting. i couldnt tell whether star or lever would benefit either way since i fish on 8-10# drag at strike and bump up as needed during the fight. with lines that are twice max drag, i dont worry about breaking off.

i always have at least one of each on trips since i fish right handed for conventional and left hand for spinners. this allow one elbow to rest when needed. when sight casting for cobia or into rig legs, i use my spinners. my 8kFA stella on a trevella can handle almost any fish and still freeline cast a sardine 150' away from the boat then jig a 3 oz in 100' of water. i send my stella into shimano every other year for maintenance ($30) it's 10 yrs old and in great shape