ssbmg

Hey all, thought I'd chime in since I own both the '23 Vanquish and the '24 Airity and use them both pretty frequently. Hopefully I did this right with the photo attachments, I know they're trout in a Bass forum so hopefully still helpful. I do my fair share of bass fishing as well but being in CO I'm a trout guy first and foremost. Just returned from a few days fishing tailwaters in WY. Used both reels on this trip. I don't pay much attention to the fancy technology names and bells and whistles so I'm just commenting on overall feel. Here's my take: '23 Vanquish - I have the 1000 size spooled with straight up 5lb Tatsu. I sometimes switch to Xbraid Upgrade 1.6 PE as my mainline but then have issues with my Alberto slipping and the entire leader coming off on bigger fish. So lately I've sacrificed some casting distance for reliability. The brown in the pic was caught on this reel, combo'd with a GLoomis GLX 6'7" ultralight Trout rod. Anything 20"+ in this area is known to immediately dart downstream when they are hooked. Obviously this fish peeled drag like crazy but between the backbone of the GLX, the smooth drag of the Vanquish, and the slight give in the Tatsu, I can land it with relative ease, especially when compared with a fly rod that seems to take like 20 minutes to land a fish of this size (it took me 2-3 minutes). The Vanquish at this size casts very well and while I do get occasional wind knots, they are not as severe as lower quality reels. I have 100% confidence that I can land a trout of just about any size with this set up. Ok, well maybe up to like 30"... This brown happened to be 23" and I'd estimate 6-7 lbs based on girth (I don't weigh trout, just measure them in the water and pull out for a very quick pic then release). '24 Airity - I have the 2000 size currently spooled with straight 6lb Tatsu. Same as above, I will sometimes switch this out with 1.6 PE braid, but in windier conditions I find that braid that light tends to wind knot a little more often for me and WY is basically always windy. The rainbow in the pic was caught on this reel combo'd with a Daiwa Steez "The Ned" rod (6'10" Light/XF I believe). Slightly more backbone on this rod than my Ultralight set up above but the step up in reel size from 1000 on the Vanquish to 2000 on the Airity is a noticeable difference. The Vanquish set up feels much more "ultralight" whereas the Airty feels closer to a standard 2500/7' kind of combo. A little sturdier but a little less control. The Airity also gives me full confidence I can land anything I want. The drag is every bit as smooth as the Vanquish. I think it's a little heavier but also feels a touch sturdier. The rainbow in the pic was 24", likely 7-8 lbs based on girth. As additional reference, I also have combos with Vanfords, Tatulas, Stellas, and Exists. There is a noticeable difference in perfomance between Vanquish and Vanford, or Airty and Tatula. There is less of a notiecable difference from the Vanquish to Stella and Airty to Exist. FWIW the Exist (2500 size) paired with a Steez "The One" is my absolute favorite spinning combo that I want buried with me.