Opinion needed penn fierce 3000 or 4000

My wife said she is going to buy me a Fathers Day Reel and I do not need to hit the pocket book too heavily. I have been looking and reading about the Penn Fierce and think the 3000 or 4000 might be a good choice for my saltwater trips in the spring and fall. I will be down this year for the entire month of October. My favorite saltwater reel currently is a Penn 430SS which is several years old. I primarily fish to fill the freezer for meals between trips and do a lot of flounder fishing. I also enjoy the whiting and croaker when they are decent size and like a speckled trout or slot red when I get lucky. With the 430SS I have managed to land a bull red occassionally and last October got a legal Cobia but was happy that the smaller of the two cruising by was the one that raced to my jig first. I am thinking that the 3000 or 4000 would be a little larger but not so much as to be overly tiring and when I happen to run into a larger fish accidentally that the extra capacity might make the difference. The PR material brags that they are salt water resisitant and hold up well in the salt world. It looks like they run about 60 bucks on average and I would pair it with a 7 or 7 1/2 foot rod. This might even do a good job of getting a sizeable sheephead away from the piling. I think either of these models would be a little heavier than the 430SS.
I would appreciate some feedback from some of you experts that frequent this GREAT WEB SITE. Pro or Con opinions will be appreciated. The reel will probably only be used for my saltwater trips, as when in freshwater I fish ultralite artificials for crappie. I am sure the Penn Spinfisher V series would be a better choice but for the price difference and only getting to use it on a couple of trips per year I am leaning toward the Fierce model.

What is the line rating and action for your rod?
and what # line do you intend to use?

I use the 3000 for most of my fishing. I can't really spend tons of money on my gear and I really like the fierce line. I have been using my 3000 a few years now and it has held up well. I wade fish a lot and so it has been subjected to the elements. I just make sure to hose it down and oil it after each trip and it's performed well. It's not too big to enjoy catching some of the grocery fish but can handle some larger ones as well. I've caught 30in bull reds and even a couple of big black drum on it, although the drum were a bit of a stretch for it. I think it's great for spanish, flounder, specs. although I think my next skinny water reel will be smaller.

I have a 4000 as well and have caught a lot of big bull reds on it at the Ft. I let my son use it mostly since it can handle heavier line.

If I had to choose one reel to fish with at GS it would be the 3000.

3000 all day. Real nice reels for $60. Hasn't let me down yet.

If its a reel you'll only use a handful of times the fierce is the way to go. I have a 6000 that I use for casting artificials when I come down. But for an extra $20 (shop around) you can pick up the battle. I've owned a few battles and have no complaints. For the money its a great reel. If you were to hold each reel you'd feel that there's definitely a difference and your getting a little more for your money in my opinion. I bought my fierce because it was a great deal ($35 new in box) of Craig's list. Youll be happy with either reel but for few extra bucks you can get a better quality reel.

I bought virtually the whole set for my son I think about 4 or 5 years ago. I wanted him practicing his fishing on something cheap and disposable.

If you get the combo, the rods are total crap. But the Fierce reel is a tough, tough reel.

The favorite out of the bunch has been the 3000 due to being lighter, and they all have wonderful line capacity.

The larger ones make some comical sounds on fast fish runs due to something mechanical (I can't remember if it was the clicker or something else). But the performance is by no means affected.

For the money, those ended up being the best "disposable" reels I've purchased. The battle is better, but for what you're doing a couple times per year, the fierce is more than enough.

As Pier#er said though, line strength/thickness will play a role in reality. My suggestion is get the 3000 and use appropriate line--between 8-12# is what I'd use personally, but you can thicken it up a little if you need to.

Thanks much guys. As far as the line questions I plan to load it with either 10 or 12 pound test line so that I can handle the occassional surprise big fish. When I select a rod to go with it I will choose something with a pretty light tip because that is what I enjoy most.