Listen to all the shimano faithful. I broke the trend and got a quantum castic and fished with it once and put it back in the box and went out and bought a new spirex. you just can't go wrong with the mid priced shimanos. Even the ones in the bubble wrap at walmart arent bad reels.

As far as rods go, there is only one way to go in my book Shimano Fightin rods from the 80's I have fifteen of them, watch e-bay you can sometimes get them for next to nothing or I have paid over 150 for some of my casting rods. If you see the magnumlite ones they were the top of the series. The plant burned to the ground in 89 and they lost all the spindels that they were using and never reintroduced the rod. It is truly the best rod ever made. Shimano did produce two for bass pro called the black beast and black magic, both sell on e-bay for less but are good rods. I will put my bull whips up against any rod today for backbone and tip speed.

Happy huntin