"Santa" needs a few ideas for Xmas and am wondering what are some of the better options on the market for levelwinds with a line counter?
Have some Bantam 50's, Shimano Moochers, Cardiffs, C3's/C4's, TR's and none have linecounters so I thought it'd be fun to add that to the collection.

Mainly dragging gear in the sound for salmon and live bait lingcod for this reel... Outdoor Emporium guy handed me the Daiwa Saltist LC and Shimano Tekota LC. Wondering if there's anything else out there comparable ? or which of those is the best?

I love my Tecota 600LC...It was a christmas present a few years ago. Really smooth drag. While it spends most of it's time in a downrigger and not using the LC, it was fun mooching for silvers in the ocean, and yelling "Fish @ 46ft".....Tom

Fish Tekota LC's all summer in AK...Awesome!!!

I have 8 Tecota 600LC reels in my arsenal. Aside from routine maintenance (replacing drag washers), they have been awesome reels. I use these for salmon trolling in downriggers, trolling divers out in the ocean as well as flinging bait for tuna. I use the line counters all the time. They're not necessary, but fun to have.

Line counters suck,but if ya like'em I'd go with a Tekota 500 with braid or a 600 with mono.Good luck,
SZ

Nothing wrong with the Tekota 300, 500, and 600 LC's that I own and use. Replace the drag washers with some of the carbon fiber washers from smoothdrag.com and you're set to go.

Either a 300 or 500LC works fine in the sound.....with the 500 almost being overkill on line capacity.

300's make for really good mooching reels in the sound. 500's for the DR gear. 600's for places like Craig/Westport (or any open ocean) where you might hook a Nookasuarus!

Nothing cooler than looking at the fish finder, seeing a fish at depth X....then running a herring down to that depth only to get bit about a second later.

I love the 300LC Tekota's for the drift boat too. LC reels have made my plugging efficiency go up immensely! Takes all the variable out of creating the WALL of DEATH.

CM

Just looking to have a line counter to see how many feet of line that salmon or ling takes on a nice run or for the very occasional mooching/jigging I do.

Wondering about the retrieve of the tekotas... 4.2-1 an issue??

No issues at all...Pretty cool to see the fish just stripped off 175 ft. of line in one run. Best LC out there no doubt. You can go cheaper but you wont be happy in the long run.

tekotas, ran them this past fall and they held up great and landed quite a few kings

If the Tekota came in left hand retreive I'd own a few of them,but with no line counter on it.Rumor has it they'll be on the market in lefty some time in 2013.Good luck,
SZ

+1

I own a couple lefty LC's I bought at Cabela's a few years back. I think they're called Depth Master Gold, or something like that. Pretty decent reel for about $80.

Tekota. I did extensive research on this back in the spring. For the money, you cannot buy a better reel. This goes for all Shimano reels.

Good luck.

Gonna have to go out on a limb and put my vote in for the 5500 and 6500 LC'ers by Abu Garcia...they are lighter and less bulky then the Tekota's and they are quite a bit cheaper...I've had the same 4 5500LC's on my plug rods for about 4 years now and they have not failed yet...ebay is prolly your best bet at finding the best price...

I've got a bunch of Tekota's (300's and 500's) and absolutely love them. I agree that they are great for plugging and a blast in the ocean when you want to know your depth. Very high quality reels that last many years. The only downside is that they are fairly spendy new. You can find them used for reasonable prices if you keep your eyes open. With that being said, I have seen the Cabelas line counter reels on sale for $35 on a regular basis. They don't feel as smooth as the Tekota's, but for the price they might be worth a shot.

Strike Zone...I'm just curious why you don't like line counters?

I am a Salt water downrigger fisher and I use 500 Tekotas. The tekotas seem to be very high quality and I love mine. I use a line counter out the back with a deep six so I can let out the same amount of line each tme. Works great. On the down riggers I use 500s without the line counter counter. I didnt like the handle on these reels so I ordered the handle off of the 300 tekotas which I like a lot better. They cost 50 dollars a piece--ouch. All in all I think the tekotas are well worth it.

I have LC's in Shimano, Okuma, Daiwa and Abu, the LC is about the same on all of them, but the Shimano is the best reel. Like others said before, the 500 has more than enough line capacity for just about every situation, a 300 with braid would be fine. The 5500 LC works great and is much lighter than the others, after repeatedly using them on somebody else’s boat I bought two of them, they can be used from Kokanee to Kings with good results. For the salt I would go with the Tekota in whatever size you like the best.

For dragging gear around in the the salt it is tough to beat the tekota. I own my share as well. Changing the drag washers out is highly recommended.
The Daiwa Saltist however is the best of both worlds. Tons of cranking power with a better drag, but also you get a lower profile reel. Less side to side wobble when cranking. The best feature is the 6.2 retrieve raitio vs tekota 4.2.
My .02 cents

Slipperyfoot,

I don't like line counters cause not everyone will set them correctly from the get go and some times get reset during and after a battle with a fish or net job.In the ocean or bouy-10 I can go out pull's and still get what I need,in the river's for plug rods I can mark my braided line with either a marking pen or a bobber stop that will not slide on braid so there is no chance of resetting the distance your looking for.My thought is @ bouy-10 with a line counter people seem to put out to fast cause all they have to do is look @ the counter creating more tangle's versus putting out pull's which is slower less tangle's more time in the water.It seem's that line counters would work best if every one on the boat used them and they were all in tune on how to use them/set them so you can have some type of consistancy other wise it's kinda like having two guy's pulling plug's while the other's are trying to side drift.Good luck,
SZ

Another vote for the Abu's . I use the 5500 for heads and silvers and the 6500 for Kings. Never a problem, SZ, I'll show you first hand how well they work for heads this winter on the OP river we like to haunt!!!!!