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Best Reels for Panfish 2023

cglfishing

red and black fishing reel over wood flooring
The Penn Fierce III is a bulletproof reel!

If you asked me what the most popularly fished for species in the United States was, I would be hard-pressed to choose between the various catfish species, and the famous sunfish. Sunfish go by many names. I have heard them called bluegill (which is one species of sunfish), perch (a completely different family of fishes), crappie (another species of sunfish), and panfish.


The sunfish family is quite large. Bluegill, redear (shellcracker), redbreast, green, white crappie, black crappie, pumpkinseed, and even the black basses are all part of the family. Probably the most famous is the bluegill. The fish nearly everyone caught as a kid and, perhaps, the fish that started your fishing addiction!


Lake Wylie is full of sunfish! I have seen redear pulled from the lake that were over 12 inches longand crappie that touched 17 inches! It is an easy species to target since they are so prolific, and they eat just about the most basic bait ever: worms! While fishing for sunfish, you will likely run into another, extremely prolific panfish in our lake. The white perch. These little guys are invasive to our lake but they are catfish candy and taste pretty darn good pan-fried!


If you are targeting panfish (whatever species and whatever name you use for them), here are some of the best reels you can use!


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This is a stellar reel! The price is pretty middle of the road ($67 at time of writing) but it packs a ton of value for that price! I have personally caught hundreds of panfish on this reel! I have also given it a true durability test by catching some big catfish! You can’t always control what eats your bait and I have had hundreds of yards of line peel off the drag while trying to keep things loose enough to save a light wire hook in a big catfish mouth!


This reel has an oiled felt drag, which isn’t usually known for durability when big fish take long runs, but it has held up great for several years of hard use. This is my pick for the best panfish reel overall.



KastKing has some fantastic offerings for the budget-minded fisherman. The Centron and Summer series is one of their cheapest, but also one of their best! This reel is smooth as butter and feels tough! You would be hard-pressed to find a reel with this build quality for twice the price! This reel also comes in sizes large enough to use for catfish so if you want to standardize your gear you can!


For around $25 you can land either the Summer or the Centron. Both are equal in spec but that blue and black Centron is just pretty!



If you would rather buy your rod and reel together and not have to worry about picking them separately, the Ugly Stik GX2 ultralight is an easy win! It comes in either 4'8” or 7’ rods. The shorter rod is great for creek and small water work, and the longer is great for hunking baits far out into the lake! The rod is stupid tough (there are some crazy durability tests on YouTube) and it has a soft enough tip not to pull the hook out of the mouth of these smaller fish.


The reel itself is a great starter reel. It will last through some fishing and is smooth enough to be useable. I can’t recommend it as a long-term reel but the price you pay for the combo is worth it for the rod itself. The reel will last through a couple of seasons and can be replaced with a better reel off this list when it finally does break down.



The Penn Fierce series is way overkill for panfish. It is the only reel on this list that has a full aluminum frame. It is also the only product on this list that offers reels sized large enough to catch sharks! But the smaller reels in the series are actually the perfect size for panfish. It isn’t the lightest reel on this list, of course, but it is one of the toughest and best featured.


Aside from the aluminum frame, this reel wins in the toughness department by having the HT-100 carbon drag system. The HT-100 drag system is named that because Penn tested it by pulling 100 miles of line through it! The other feature that makes it a winner is the direct drive handle. Instead of the handle being tightened by twisting a knob on the opposite side of the reel, the direct drive handle tightens itself down as you reel! This means your handle never gets loose and never requires tightening down while fighting a fish!


The III is a great deal if you can find one on clearance but the IV adds even more toughness in the form of sealed bearings. If you want a reel that can survive anything, this is the one!



I know, this is the second KastKing on this list. However, the previous entry was a budget model. KastKing’s entire business model is built on offering quality gear at budget prices. The Sharky III will set you back about double what the Centron will, however, it makes up for that difference in features. The Sharky was the flagship model for the brand when it came out and for good reason. It offers a carbon fiber drag, shielded bearings, direct drive handle, and 10 ball bearings! All that plus it is one of the lightest reels on this list!


The Sharky has way more drag capacity than you will ever need for panfish… or most freshwater fish for that matter! It can be adjusted lower, however, and will last forever!



This is the only reel on the list I have not personally tried. I am including it here because it is on my list of reels to eventually acquire based on the reviews I have seen for it and its impressive stats! This reel weighs in at a mere 7.4 oz in the largest 3000 size. That is lighter than all other reels on this list (besides the KastKing reels)!


This reel also features a carbon drag and direct drive handle. Like I said, I have not personally tested this reel but it is on my list as one I would like to test eventually. Since I have never tried any Piscifun products I am going to put this one down as a wild card.




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