I want to preface this initial review with a thought I always share: Reels, and especially spinning reels, ultimately need to be judged over time, because durability and dependability are so important.

Having said that, I'll say too that my experience with the new generation of Abu Garcia spinning reels – namely, the Soron series and the Cardinal 500 ALBi – has been excellent. Durability has exceeded my expectations. I've fished the reels hard, and even let my 8-year old son use one for the summer. Of course, he dragged his Soron through mud, let it sit on a sandy beach for hours, totally submersed it in mucky water and dropped it repeatedly from the height of his bike's handlebars. Still works.



So I have every reason to believe the new Revo Premier Spinning will offer about the same level of durabililty. I say "about" because again, I can't speak to ultimate durability yet.

Coated Carbon

The Revo Premier spinning houses several features that push it into the "high-end" realm. It contains 10 high-performance corrosion-resistant bearings (as does the Soron STX), but whereas the Soron's built with an X-Craftic alloy body, the Revo Premier utilizes NanoShield technology, which refers to the plating of a graphite alloy.

Graphite, of course, is lightweight, but with that comes strength issues. The NanoShield process – adopted from the nuclear power industry – creates a 300% improvement in graphite strength, at half the weight of aluminum.

On the Revo Premier, the spool and the stem get the plating process. The spool is thus more rigid, and the stem better able to withstand impact (dropping) and torque when fighting a big fish.

All told, the weight for the Revo Premier comes in at about 8 ounces – a full ounce and a half less than the comparably sized Soron STX.

Hands-On

I was able to use the reel for a full day of late-season finesse fishing. It was cold but the largemouths and smallmouths were biting. I worked shakey-heads off deep points for largemouths, and dropshots on humps for smallmouths.

I didn't catch a fish over 3 pounds, so I couldn't truly test the stem's rigidity on a huge fish, but just for kicks, I tied on a deep-diving crank to test the rigidity. The reel felt tight and true when hauling in the big crank. Sure, it was overmatched by the crank, but the reel didn't completely cave like I've felt others do.

I also took the reel to a hotwater discharge under 20-degree air temps and jerkbaited from shore for about 2 hours. Again, no performance issues at all given the air temp.

A few observations:

  • The light weight is noticeable, definitely when you first pick the reel up, but especially over a full day of fishing.

  • The slow-oscillating spool seems to control line-twist well. If I plan to fish vertical all day I'll usually tie in a high-performance swivel to control line twist. I didn't with the Revo Premier. I won't say the line didn't twist, because it did. That's the expectation with a spinning reel. But I can say the rate of twist was quite manageable.

  • The black and gold appointments on the reel look sharp and the overall industrial design of the reel is outstanding.

  • Retail price for the reel comes in at $249.95.

    Abu Garcia's Revo Premier Spinning page can be found here.