Ultralight spinning reels help reduce drag. In this guide, we’ve compared the top ultralight spinning reels on the UK market to take a look at tension, total weight, usability, and more attributes to give you the best selection to choose from.
What Is The Best Ultralight Spinning Reel?
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More Detailed Ultralight Spinning Reels Reviews
KastKing Summer Centron Spinning Reel
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KastKing Summer Centron Spinning Reel Review
KastKing is the king of ultralight spinning reels for a reason, and it comes down to keeping everything user-friendly with that important ball bearing system.
The entire point of a spinning reel is ease of use, and as the best ultralight spinning reel, you get an immense amount of smoothness from the 9+1 steel ball bearing system.
Drag is reduced, but reeling in becomes easier. With a decent 9.1 kg maximum breaking point, you’ll be able to use this for multiple types of fish around the UK without running into tension threshold problems.
The spool is made entirely out of aluminum, which helps with durability, but also makes it much easier to disassemble and clean at a later date.
Piscifun Flame Spinning Reels
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Piscifun Flame Spinning Reels Review
Coming in hot on KastKing’s heels is one of the best ultralight spinning reel for the UK market: Piscifun and their flame spinning reels.
Available from sizes 2,000 up through 5,000, there’s plenty of versatility with spool size here, especially considering that this is braided spool ready to give you the option of using a strong line right from the start.
An air cut rotor helps with rapid reeling in, right alongside the agreeable drag power of 9 kgs in total. It’s a powerful little beast of a reel.
While it’s not a core feature, the handle on the flame spinning reels is extremely comfortable and allows you to reel in nice and smooth. Everything about this reel is intuitive right out of the box.
Cadence CS8 Spinning Reel
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Cadence CS8 Spinning Reel Review
Magnesium and carbon collide to make a super low weight spinning reel, and with a completely carbon rotor, everything is as strong and ultralight as you can imagine.
The max drag reaches an impressive 9 kg (high for ultralight reels), while also being durable enough to withstand corrosion at the same time.
Gear ratios matter. It defines the time between your first and last gear engaging, which could be a big deal on certain casts. Cadence offers a 6:2:1 gear ratio on the top speed, and 5:2:1 on the bottom speed.
Lastly, water resistance isn’t something that inherently comes with a spinning reel, so Cadence made sure this would be corrosion resistant so your reel didn’t get ruined from ocean spray and the salt air.
Goture Balanced Body Spinning Reel
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Goture Balanced Body Spinning Reel Review
Ultralight comes in many definitions, and while Goture is near the top of our parameters with 507 grams in total weight, it handles like nothing else.
With an impressive 5:2:1 ratio, Goture comes with high quality bearings that make the entire process from cast to reeling it back in nice and smooth. It just simply glides effortlessly.
With a compact design, it keeps a low profile against the rod, although I will say that the handle could have been made a bit more ergonomically. Other than that, it’s a solid reel with plenty of potential.
Coolty Fishing Reels
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Coolty Fishing Reels Review
This nifty little reel is so incredibly inexpensive that I just had to include it here. With a 5:2:1 gear ratio, everything is properly balanced and helpful for the type of person that generally uses spinning reels.
There’s an excellent twelve ball bearing system, making it feel like you’re cutting through butter with a hot knife every time you use this.
Corrosion resistant and finished with a faux wood handle, this spinning reel simply feels fantastic to use. There’s an interchangeable high speed setting that allows you to customize your experience with this reel.
For the budget-friendly prices that Coolty asks for, you aren’t going to find a high-quality spinning reel like this. It makes you think that they must be selling at a loss.
Ultralight Spinning Reel FAQ
What is an Ultralight Spinning Reel?
Ultralight reels tend to be under 650 grams, as opposed to heavier reels that can sometimes weigh up to 1,100 grams or more. The reason for this is because a lighter spinning reel reduces line friction, so you can simply cast, feel the ball bearings work their magic, and reel in easier.
Ultralight spinning reels are used by professionals who want more control and dexterity over their rod, but also by beginners for their ease of use and low skill ceiling. To clarify, these can be used at high fishing skill ceilings, they just have a quicker learning curve.
What is an Ultralight Spinning Reel Used for?
Lowering the weight of your fishing rod. An ultralight spinning reel tries to make every single gram count, meaning the body might be made out of magnesium instead of steel, or graphite.
Ultralight reels can also lower the overall durability of your rod, though. Manufacturers are getting closer to making these as strong as steel but without the physical weight attached. Ultralight spinning reels are basically on-par with standard reels and their drag power, as well as reeling speed.
Can You Catch Bass on an Ultralight Spinning Reel?
It’s actually encouraged to do so. Bass aren’t exactly the strongest fish you will encounter, but when you use an ultralight reel, you can use lighter lures to have less resistance when you go to pull back on the reel.
Even if a weighted lure only weighs about three ounces, that’s still more ounces that you have to pull out of the water. The bass will be able to use those three ounces as leverage when pulling down. You want to use an ultralight reel to be able to use smaller, lighter baits for better bass fishing.
Lighter and Faster Fishing
Ultralight spinning reels are going to completely change the way you pull in your haul. While the differences between these and normal spinning reels seem minor, you’ll notice the performance boost the next time you cast your line.