I have a Shimano Sedona reel and a Shimano Slade reel. I normally use my Sedona on my Shimano Convergence rod and bring the Slade along as backup on a Berkley Lightning Rod. Lately I find I enjoy the Slade more. Its a cheaper reel with 2 less bearings then the Sedona. The problem I find with the Sedona is there is too much spin in the rotor. When I open the bail to cast it slides a lot of the time to a postion where I have to manually close the bail or really apply pressure on the handle to close it. The Slade doesn't do this. I did some reasearch and the only thing I could come up with is the Sedona has a floating shaft.

Sedona FB reels have a Floating Shaft to reduce friction between the pinion gear and spool shaft for smoothness and durability. The Slade doesn't have this feature. Could this be the cause of the extra spin on the reel?

Does anyone else have a problem with their Sedona's?

You should close the bail manually anyway

ALL spinning reels should be closed manually.

8-)

I have been "trying" to close the bail manually this year after reading that it prevents line twist and adds some life to the reel. Its been hard though, old habits die hard.

Even when closing the bail manually I hate the free spinning rotor on the Sedona  

ALL spinning reels should be closed manually.

8-)

This is a matter of opinion. If this was an absolute fact, manufacturers wouldn't build reels with a bail trip. They would be cheaper to make and everybody would use them that way. Spinning reels used to have positive bail catches and you couldn't close them manually.