Choice of spinning reel size.

[keithdog]

Hope you fellas can answer this for me. I am planning to ask for a new Shimano Symetre FL spinning for fathers day. My old Daiwa is giving me fits and needs replaced. And for $99 I don't think the Symetre can be beat. I've compared it to many others and am sold on this reel. However, not being a true spinning reel enthusiast, I have two spinning reels compared to my 15 bait casters, I am not sure which size to buy. The 1000 series or the 2500 series. I will be using this reel for soft stick baits, lighter hard stick baits, tube baits and light jigs primarily. It will be rigged, for now, on a 6'6" Med rod. Occasionally on a M/H rod. I will be spooling the reel with 20# braid, and it will primarily be used for bass fishing. Bass Pro Shops says the 1000 series line capacity for braid is 95 yards with 10# test, which seems a bit low capacity to me as it would be even less with 20# braid. Like wise, BPS rates the 2500 series for braid capacity at 145 yards with 15# line. That would be less with 20# and just about right I think. However, the 2500 reel is a little bigger and heavier as well obviously. The other main point of contention for me is max drag and line recovery. The 2500 is rated at 11 pounds drag while the 1000 is only rated at 7 pounds. Also, the 2500 has a line recovery of 35 inches while the 1000 only has a line recovery of 29 inches. On paper, the 2500 seems like the way to go. But since I am not real fluent with spinning reels, I'm not sure whether the 2500 is oversized for the applications I want this reel to perform. Which would you recommend?