Chad.

St.croix ones are excellent ,but on a budget the Shimano compre musky rods are nice.

Id say a core just the fact if you don't like it you can sell it and buy a chronarch with little loss.

LoL, thanks for the back up.

For 160 if you shop around a daiwa sol.

If you check ebay you can get the new daiwa advantage spinner for 120 and if you can you might find a shimano compre for 80$ or there the daiwa tierra and the stradic from shimano which in my opinion are great.

I think the best bang for your buck right now id the Advantage-HSTA they say there a minimal difference between that and the zillion in pure feel, but take that with a grain of salt as i have never used the Hsta yet.