No offense Iv owned a penn before and it didn't last. I'm definitely a shimano fan.

I'll be mainly fishing reds, spec's, and flounder in shore. I like the shimano stradic. My hearts pretty set on it till I try it out. But I still have not made up my mind over a rod. I'll definitely look into yalls suggestions thanks

For $400 you could probably do a Stradic FJ and a Star Plasma if you look around for a good price on both.

I used to have all of my rods custom built on Biscayne Rod blanks for inshore and Calstar blanks for offshore/tarpon/cobia/tuna. But for inshore now, the Plasmas are as good off the shelf, with SiC guides and K-frame components, as anything anyone can build for me. And the Plasma's strength-to-weight is unlike any other blank I've picked up.

I used to not be a fan of the Stradic FH and jumped to the Cabo for a few years but they got me back with the FI series and the FJs are even better. I'll tell you that the Sustain is absolutely not worth the money over a Stradic. I have a few of the SW Stellas for tarpon which are unreal but for an everyday inshore trip the Stradic won't leave you wanting. If you're going to be fighting anything for extended (over 30 minutes) periods, put Carbontex carbon fiber drag washers in it from smoothdrag.com and you're good to go.

http://www.smoothdrag.com/

This fish was caught on my first Stradic 5000 FJ. It took close to two hours to get the fish boatside. The reel was hot and we were pouring ice water on it but the factory drag stayed smooth the whole time.

They were chewing great along the SW coast and down south in the Keys on the bridges until about Wednesday/Thursday, then we had a little cool front that bumped the water temp and the shut down. Friday was so-so, then Saturday the water temp in the AM was back to 74 and they were biting again. I stopped at Cape Sable on my way out when I saw two fish roll, jumped three fish in less than 20 minutes, and then they shut off like a light switch as soon as the sun broke the horizon (full moon.)

I think it's going to be a good summer.

Nice ... This will b my attempt at a tarpon this year. But I'll b doing it in Egmont key in the Tampa bay area.

So u think those star rods are worth the coin?

I'll deffinatley give the star plasma a look ! A bunch of my friends recommended the stratic. They all said that's a tough ass reel. Thank you

Both are out of California, just like Calstar. I don't know why, but so many of the high-end graphite manufacturers are in CA. It must be the tuna fishery out there. I'm lucky in the sense that the Miami Boat Show gets pretty much every manufacturer on the planet as a vendor and we can go see all of them in one place at the same time.

Here are Phenix's FL dealers:

http://www.phenixrods.com/index.php?mai ... page&id=36

And Cousins:

http://www.cousinstackle.com/dealers.shtml

Cousins doesn't have many dealers but if they have a dealer near you, I'd go check them out.

Ive got three stradics and love them, tarpon are rolling around thr bridges in tampabay also , ive caught my share of them so I don't fuk with them anymore but my sons drivin me crazy to take him soon.

Damn wish they did have a dealer near me cousin's closest dealer is Buras, La. That's a good drive.