I am definitely being pulled into the Shimano fray. I have been wanting a dedicated tube rod and reel for awhile. I never have much luck with tubes, and always end up rerigging to something else. My thought process is, if I had a dedicated tube setup, then I might try tubes more often(I think that is actually Bait Monkey logic). So, I went to buy an Abu Garcia Cardinal 600, lo and behold I bought another Shimano Symetre. I bought a 2500 RI a few months ago, and have been extremely happy with it. This one is a 2500 FI. I compared the Abu and Shimano, the Symetre came out on top. I decided that since I was happy with a Shimano reel, I would get a Shimano rod. I wanted to get a Compre, but the shop was out. I played with both the Convergence and Clarus. I could not tell a difference between the two, so I got the Convergence. I will upgrade to Compre or Crucial eventually. I am going to take the setup out tomorrow with only a selection of tubes, hooks, and weights to see what happens. Maybe the Shimano Kami will smile on me.

How dare you  . I have the 603 ALB and like it very much. Hope that Shimano works out for ya.

Good man.

You did good.

The possee is probably estatic over your choice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about that Flag on you avatar ? I am a shimano boy myself, but when showing off such colors I guess you have to stick to Abu   !

Anyway, last time I went for a shimano, I bought a STX HS ... So I guess it's the same story, only the other way around  

     It comes down to what feels right and fits the price range your working with. I shopped around for awhile and I bought a Pflueger Supreme 8035 spinning reel, it fit the line size I was using and its magnesium frame and spool make it very very light. It's super smooth too. it ran me about $100 and suits me just fine.  

shimano is da sh!t....

     It comes down to what feels right and fits the price range your working with. I shopped around for awhile and I bought a Pflueger Supreme 8035 spinning reel, it fit the line size I was using and its magnesium frame and spool make it very very light. It's super smooth too. it ran me about $100 and suits me just fine.

That's a nice reel.

Thanks to MaxDal for pointing out the avatar, it was incorrect.

I took the Symetre and Convergence out for a little tubing today. No luck on tubes, the only thing the little dinks would hit were Pond Magic spinnerbaits and that took some dedication. They wouldn't even glance at anything else. I love the combo though. I should see plenty of action this spring, whenever it gets here.

I did take a pic of my new addition/addiction at my favorite stream.

Sad just sad.      :-[

Congratulations!

http://unattributed.net/html/whiskey.html

8-)

WAY 2 GO!!!!  

congrats !!!   :) :)

Welcome to the world of quality, precision engineering, and reliability.

Don't ever look back my friend.