Shallow Only in Capacity, Abu Garcia's Revo5 SX SS (Shallow Spool)

Total Score: 8.50 - GREAT

Introduction: At ICAST 2023, Abu Garcia introduced a variant of their popular Revo5 SX, that admittedly, I misunderstood. I saw the shallow spool and thought this was just another reel for BFS, but upon closer inspection, I had an "aha" moment. You see, shallow spooled casting reels don't always have to be about finesse. Anglers who spend the majority of their time probing close quarter targets can certainly benefit too, and that's what Abu Garcia's Revo5 SX SS is all about, so I acquired one for a closer look.

Impressions: It really wasn't that long ago when the mid-depth spools of today's casting reels were considered shallow. As more and more anglers realize one hundred yards (100yds) or more of line on your reel can actually be wasteful, manufacturers are responding with options for more technique appropriate spools. The idea of a reel for close quarter fishing is nothing new. There are countless reels out there that have come and gone but most address the unique line play element of flipping where the angler needs to peel line out on free spool, but then immediately re-engage that spool while one hand is occupied by holding the combo and the other holding the slack line. It is an all together awkward yet poetic presentation.

Introducing Abu Garcia's Revo5 SX SS

The mechanism that makes this presentation just a little less awkward, the flipping switch, is less than poetic and as a result is just about dead and gone. For whatever reason, the longterm mechanical difficulties of that switch outweigh the advantages, so there are now very few reels that allow the one hand dis-engage and re-engagement of the spool. Abu Garcia's Revo5 SX SS does not have a flipping switch, so it's not really a flipping reel. Instead, the manufacturer has chosen to address the needs of close quarter, shallow water anglers by giving them a reel that holds just enough line to accomplish their presentation. As far as I can tell, that's the only difference between this and a standard SX.

It's a shallow spool reel intended for close quarters presentations

So why the shallow spool? As a reel built for close quarter fishing, I can think of two advantages. First, with less line on your spool, start up with low speed presentations like pitching should be easier. To test this idea, I borrowed from recent BFS reviews and conducted a peel test between the standard SX and this new shallow spool edition. I discovered that the shallower spool in the SX SS did indeed have a lower peel weight than that of the mid-depth spool on the SX, but the difference was only a tenth of a gram. I thought there'd be a bigger difference, so I'm still not certain this peel test really tells us anything. In the meantime, I've listed the difference in spool weight and capacity, along with the peel weights in the following table. I added a test with the deep spool Winch for kicks.

The second advantage is, if you're using braided line, with less line on your spool, the potential for line dig is reduced because you don't have those layers of unused line serving as a constricting pillow when everything is suddenly put in tension. Fortunately, I've not experienced line dig a lot, but I've experienced it enough times to have it spoil a combo at the most inopportune times.

Mid depth spool from the Revo5 SX (left), Revo5 SX SS spool (center), Revo5 Winch deep spool (right)