I purchased a couple rods through Zen market as well, probably 3 weeks ago.

Anybody have a link to their website?

I picked one up at a fishing swap meet, no box, and was wondering if there's a way to tell btn new ones and the originals.

Ditto. Bought an ss air, exactly as described, could not tell from new.

Sorry to bring it up here, but I just posted a near mint Loomis Escape ETR 84-3 LS 6 on the classifieds. I think it's been mentioned a few times above. I went to conventional BFS and got a go emotion ultralight to take its place as a short travel rod....

I think it's the gears. I picked up a few Fuego a's the last couple of years, and a couple of them, including NIB, had a weird grindy feeling when winding. I sent 2 of them to Daiwa, and they sent them back with new gears (about $80 each!). The grindiness is gone, but at a very high cost. And now I'...

Isn't the zonda like 2 ounces heavier than the alphas sv?

Well, I fished it a little topwater, and then put on a small swim jig type lure. Smoothest reel I've ever casted! Didn't catch anything, so didn't get to test the spool getting crunched theory... Thinking of buying another one!

As a guy who has done mostly saltwater fishing for pelagics, just thinking of using your thumbs for drag make me wince and think of major thumb blisters! LOL

Mono should squeeze a spool much more than braid. Braid doesn't stretch, so it will load onto a spool at the pressure it was wound on. Mono under pressure will stretch, like a rubber band. A few layers doesn't matter, but once you get a bunch of it on, the combined pressure of all of it squeezing on...

thanks for the responses. I'd like to see what one looks like after imploding!

I know Daiwa has the warning to be very careful spooling and fishing the wiffle spool on the SS Air. I have one, and it feels like an aluminum soda can. Has anyone actually crushed one while fishing or loading line? I want to load mine with 6# sniper to fish small topwater for stripers, and am wonde...

I was always a shimano guy. Never liked Daiwa because i found them harder to setup and the thumb bar seemed a little low for me. Being on here really made me want to convert but whenever i tried kept coming back to Shimano. I have 4 Ant and 3 Met. Then i tried the MB ip 68 and 79 on the zillion pla...

Both Ant and Met are great. Overall I believe the Ant casts better and is a bit smoother on the retrieve and holds more line. However, it is heavier and harder to palm due to larger size. The Met is really light but solid. I have yet to backlash it. But I have not backlashed the Ant either. The Met...

I have an ss air that actually balances/feels the best; both the bv8 and zonda are took heavy for the rod. But they look better on it! Lol