[chumbucket]

Those Shimano's are workhorses. Should last you a long time. I don't know much about the Penn rod, but it's nice to hear when a company backs their products like that.

On a side note (but along the same lines and since we lost the thread) I give props to the St. Croix Rod Company. It certainly speaks volumes of a company to step up and do what they did in getting that rod to me in such quick time. I sent the two people at St. Croix that were instrumental in getting it done an e-mail thanking them for what they did. I received a nice response from them that they were more than happy to do it. It also sounded like they do that sort of thing on a regular basis. I've had good experiences with them in the past and also know of others who have nothing but good things to say about them. 8)