As you know a lot of spinning reels are renewed and out already – SHIMANO STELLA’18 / STELLA SW’19, Vanquish ’19, DAIWA EXIST’18, Caldia ’18, Certate’19… They are drastically changed and upgraded to whole new levels.
Now SHIMANO has announced, next new model is the one, STRADIC ’19, the affordable but nice quality spinning reel but even better!
Lots of New Features Installed in STRADIC ’19
Current SHIMANO STRADIC ’15 is loved by many different kind of anglers as it has lots of size variety… 6+1 bearings and lots of SHIMANO’s original features but affordable price.
And now, new STRADIC ’19 has even more features….
Micromodule Gear II 
One of them is Micromodule Gear II, which is firstly installed to SHIMANO STELLA ’18. Gear is one of SHIMANO’s strength, as you may know if you are road bike lover. Their skills has built this much smoother small gear teeth, but tough by Hagane Gear materials and the way of making.
When I firstly touched and reeled STELLA’18 I was shocked and stunned. It was super smooth! And am actually very excited now you may be able to feel it by STRADIC ’19!
Silent Drive
This Silent Drive is also one of SHIMANO’s feature to make reeling feel better. Silence and smoothness by redesigned all parts inside body, around pinion gears and stuff, so it won’t have too much of free space to reject rough and loose reeling, as much as possible.
X-Protect 
One more of features from STELLA’18 – X-Protect is the one. Previous STRADIC ’15 has Coreprotect to body but now it is advanced to X-Protect, that makes labyrinth structure to keep high level of waterproof but still smooth, and it is installed to line roller and body (roller crutch).
Long Stroke Spool
And this – Long Stroke Spool is one of my favourite features from SHIMANO actually. This looks not much different? Well you might not really feel difference from this… But with this Long Stroke Spool, it gives some good points for you. One is the casting distance, as official says, and I actually think this is true.
When you normally cast lures, you reach 40m? 50m? But I had a spot I couldn’t reach, just 3-5m short. And with new STELLA ’18 I can reach! That’s really good feeling.
One another thing is, this is what I feel but less line troubles. Especially when you use thinner braided lines tangling can be happened, even quite often. But with new spool I did not have much troubles, at least it is much less than previous spool type.
This is small change, but can give you big merits.
Weight Comparison to STRADIC ‘15
SHIMANO has achieved to establish their theory to get lightened their spinning reels from STELLA ’18, and achieved really well at Vanquish ’19.
Also materials are not the same as Vanquish ’19, of course because of difference of price range, the new STRADIC ’19 is even lighter than ’15 models.
By spec sheet 2500S size, weight of ’15 is 230g and ’19 is 220g, 10g lighter than previous. Not sure why but 4000 size models are the same or 4000 is actually 5g heavier than ’15, but again C5000 weight is ’15 – 320g and ’19 – 295g, 15g lighter.
This looks not much different, but if the reel is 10g lighter, that could mean you could reduce the weight of lures, especially you keep casting for hundred times when luring or jigging.
What Spinning Reel to Choose for Me?
I know this is big issue for almost of everyone… You can even see lots of similar reels with different of price from SHIMANO. Now what would be better choice for you?
Firstly, if you are interested in this STRADIC ’19 you may be looking for reels up to #5000 size, means for trout, bass, eging, small – middle size species of bait fishing, to middle size fish eater luring or jigging such as bream, tailor, trevally, snapper, mangrove jack, flathead, flounder, type of fish. Let’s focus on those type.
Now DAIWA or SHIMANO? – Well, I can’t really tell. They were really different at the beginning, maybe twice of decade ago, but now their reels are not much really different.
To me, SHIMANO has smooth and wet feeling of reeling as gears are very nice, used to be stronger, but DAIWA has released Monocoque Body which is really strong, so strength is I think very similar nowadays.
Reeling feelings are of course different, but it is not like which-is-better thing but just which-you-like thing.
If you compare to more valuable choice – NASCI ’16, Ultegra ’17… With comparison to those cheaper models, the biggest thing is amount of ball bearings and one piece bail. For bearings, Nasci has 4, Ultegra is 5 and STRADIC has 6. For bails, one piece bail is only installed to STRADIC. I don’t actually have much line trouble with none one piece bail but some actually says, one piece bail is much better.
Comparing to Nasci it can be really different and STRADIC should be much smoother. Ultegra vs STRADIC, I think that totally depends on your budget. 1 bearing difference is not small, but not big either. You can feel difference when you reel, especially when you hook fish, but if you have tighter budget, Ultegra might be the one.
But this is only my opinion – but if you can spend money for Ultegra, I would have STRADIC with saving more money by cutting my coffee or lunch or whatever… because of much of new features installed with one piece bail, but price could only be around 5,000 yen different, that could only be around US$45, EUR 40, GBP 35 and AU$65.
Now let’s compare to this STRADIC ’19, Vanquish ’19 and STELLA ’18.
When I compared to Vanquish ’19 and STELLA ’18, as Vanquish has carbon parts against STELLA has metal parts, Vanquish ’19 is more to light weight, sensitive fishing such as trout, bass with light weight lures, light rock fishing and eging. And STELLA ’18, is more for heavier tackles such as ocean luring, in shore / off shore luring and jigging.
So, if you have much enough budget to have STELLA’ 18, it is better choice for open water fishing basically but if you don’t, Vanquish ’19 can be one as well.
Now STRADIC ’19 is basically similar to those flagship models, but with cheaper price. So when you choose STRADIC ’19, the reason can only be your budget, of course.
But if you used STRADIC ’15 or similar reels now, I’m sure STRADIC ’19 will surprise you!
Spec and Release Date
The size variety of new STRADIC ’19 is quite same as STELLA ’18 and Vanquish ’19, from #1000 to C5000 (body size is #4000).
Release date is multiple… Size #1000 – C3000 are sold on July 2019, and #3000 – C5000 is on August 2019.
| Model | Gear Ratio | Drag Power (kg) | Weight (g) | Capacity Braid (Gou-m) | Retrieve Range (cm) | Bearing | Price (yen) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000S | 5.1 | 2.0 / 3.0 | 185 | #0.6-140, #0.8-100, #1-70 | 64 | 6/1 | 25,500 |
| C2000S | 5.1 | 2.0 / 3.0 | 185 | #0.6-150 #0.8-110 #1-80 | 69 | 6/1 | 25,500 |
| C2000SHG | 6.0 | 2.0 / 3.0 | 185 | #0.6-150 #0.8-110 #1-80 | 81 | 6/1 | 25,500 |
| 2500S | 5.3 | 2.5 / 4.0 | 220 | #0.6-200 #0.8-150 #1-120 | 78 | 6/1 | 26,000 |
| 2500SHG | 6.0 | 2.5 / 4.0 | 220 | #0.6-200 #0.8-150 #1-120 | 89 | 6/1 | 26,000 |
| C3000 | 5.3 | 3.5 / 9.0 | 225 | #1-400 #1.5-270 #2-200 | 78 | 6/1 | 26,800 |
| C3000HG | 6.0 | 3.5 / 9.0 | 225 | #1-400 #1.5-270 #2-200 | 89 | 6/1 | 26,800 |
| C3000XG | 6.4 | 3.5 / 9.0 | 225 | #1-400 #1.5-270 #2-200 | 94 | 6/1 | 26,800 |
| 3000MHG | 5.8 | 3.5 / 9.0 | 245 | #1-190 #1.2-150 #1.5-120 | 86 | 6/1 | 27,800 |
| 4000 | 5.3 | 6.0 / 11.0 | 280 | #1-490 #1.5-320 #2-240 | 87 | 6/1 | 27,800 |
| 4000MHG | 5.8 | 6.0 / 11.0 | 280 | #1.2-250 #1.5-200 #2-150 | 95 | 6/1 | 27,800 |
| 4000XG | 6.2 | 6.0 / 11.0 | 280 | #1-490 #1.5-320 #2-240 | 101 | 6/1 | 27,800 |
| C5000XG | 6.2 | 6.0 / 11.0 | 295 | #1.5-400 #2-300 #3-200 | 101 | 6/1 | 28,500 |
* Braided line capacity is based on Japanese size “Gou”. Please refer to Gou and Diameter table to see diameters of each Gou.
* All product information and images are basically from SHIMANO official website.
