I recently got hold of a very smooth and very lightweight Shimano Vanford C5000XG spinning reel for a bit of a thrashing. I already have the Vanford 4000XG here, and as I said in a blog post here from a while back, unless these things suddenly go and fall apart on me out of the blue, I fail to see how much more can be crammed into a spinning reel for the price. You and I both know that the next generations of these reels most likely will actually have a bit more complicated sounding stuff crammed into their lightweight bodies, but in reality I am mostly going out lure fishing for bass and it’s the saltwater environment together with retrieve after retrieve after retrieve which is going to do the potential damage - and not the size of power of these magnificent fish we obsess about. If I am still here and blogging in ten years time I will probably still be wondering how much more can be stuffed into a modern spinning reel………….
The Shimano Vanford C5000XG spinning reel
Anyway, you are going to have to excuse me here because there is a chance it’s just me and you all know this stuff already, but I can’t recall being fully aware that the letter “C” in front of the code of a Shimano spinning reel means it’s a “Compact body”, and the reel is in fact one size smaller than the numbers suggest. These Vanfords are so ridiculously lightweight that I don’t think it would have remotely bothered me if the 5000 one which turned up a few weeks ago was actually a little larger again than the 4000 version, but when I put them side by side the two reels are exactly the same size. Unless I am mistaken the spool on the 5000 has a larger capacity than the 4000, plus the reel knob on the 5000 is a rounded EVA type which I really like, but we are talking about two reels which are the same size, whatever the retrieve speeds are doesn’t really bother me because I think I can adjust to suit, I am perfectly happy putting mono backing underneath my braid to get the right line levels, and apart from literally a few grams between them I now see making the choice between a couple of spinning reels like the Vanford C5000XG (238g loaded with line) and the Vanford 4000XG (232g loaded with line) as coming down to a matter of what type of reel handle you prefer. Or am I missing something here? Suitably confused?
Penn Slammer III 3500 (L), Shimano 4000 size (R)
I am not at all up on Daiwa spinning reels and their own sizings and/or codes these days, but I do know enough about a few of the Penn spinning reels to have got my head around their sizes when compared to Shimano (a Penn 3500 is essentially the same size as a Shimano 4000 or indeed Shimano C5000, and a Penn 2500 is the same size as a Shimano 2500 or Shimano C3000, sorry I can’t help you on the current Daiwa comparisons). I wonder if a company like Shimano almost forced themselves into a corner sometime ago when they wanted to introduce different versions of reel sizes but perhaps couldn’t go anywhere else with the actual numbers and perhaps came up with the various codes. Note that I am only guessing here and in fact there could have been a very clever master plan all along, but now I go through the spinning reels in a Shimano catalogue and thanks to this article here which I found online, those long-winded codes now make a lot more sense.
For years I have seen Shimano spinning reels as essentially two perfect sizes for my bass fishing depending on the rod I am using etc. - 3000 and 4000. I think about it a bit differently now though, and especially with how much I have loved fishing with the Shimano Stradic 2500HG-FL spinning reel which is in fact the same size as a C3000 Shimano. Or am I looking at it the wrong way? I now go back and look at my beloved little Shimano Twin Power XD C3000HG and I notice that there is in fact the letter “C” in front of the 3000. It had never really meant anything to me until the other day, but again I wonder how many anglers want a 3000 size Shimano spinning reel but can’t find one in stock which seems to be a perennial problem, and don’t bother thinking about the 2500 version of the reel (which is in fact the same size but of course the “Compact body” C3000 version takes a bit more line and might have a different handle etc.) because the numbering of the code leads them to believe the reel is a bit smaller and they might not want this. I know I have done this in the past if that is any help, and you could do it the other way around and want a 4000 size reel but it’s out of stock, and like me you assume that the C5000 is a bigger number so it’s a bigger reel which you don’t want - but in fact it’s got the letter “C” in front of the 5000 so it’s the same size as the 4000. Suitably confused?
Anyway, it’s lockdown, the days are blending into each other and I can’t help thinking of that film Groundhog Day, the upcoming bass fishing season is the one thing that I think I can legitimately look forward to, and for whatever reason the whole spinning reel size thing popped into my head this morning and I thought it warranted a blog post. My apologies again if I am the only one among us who didn’t know enough about the various codes, but hey ho it’s nearly the middle of February already and confusion about so many things still reigns……………..
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