I just got back from florida, and it was awesome, to say the least. Hammered fish, from boat and shore, on bait and lures all 7 days. Had 5 days in Venice and 2 in sanibel. In venice, we (my mom, dad, brother, grandfather) did a lot of fishing from my grandfather's maritime skiff for jack crevalle, spanish mackerel and hardtails that seemed to be everywhere. Largest spanish was caught by my mom and went 5 or 6 lbs, fought like the #^&#^&#^&#^&ens. I caught the biggest jack, it taped out at about 20 inches, and my brother caught the biggest hardtail, about the same as my jack. Most fish were caught while they were blitzing, with the exception of a few spanish which we trolled for. In sanibel we went out with a guide, joe burnsed (sp?) on the first day, and caught a load of silver trout, speckled trout, and spanish mackerel. My mom tangled with a small spinner shark on 10 lb. gear and also managed a 20" redfish. The next morning, my dad and i headed out to a jetty on sanibel early, caught nothing on artificials before first light. once we could see things, we saw the water was loaded with white bait and i threw my cast net. Once we made the switch to livebait we caught a lot of gator trout to about 5 lbs, every cast you were onto a fish. it was the same thing later on that day, no one was catching fish on artificials or shrimp but i loaded up on trout with white bait. on the last day, friday, we fished in the afternoon at the breachway in venice, and ran into a blitz of hardtails. For two hours, we caught fish like crazy, and everyone in sight was onto a fish. a local, called mr. sheepshead, who fishes the breachway frequently, said it was the first time in more then a year that he had seen the hardtails come in like that. talk about a great last day!
now to the important part, the test of the new gear. my mom got a new rod and reel for this vacation, a tica gemini 3500 and a sea striker rod rated for 12-20 lb. test. The reel was loaded with 8 lb trilene, and held 250 yards of this comftorably. The drag was silky smooth for the extent of the trip, and landed spanish mackerel and trout up to 5 or 6 lbs. It also had no hiccups when fighting jack crevalle or hardtails. The rod was also very nice, and cast lures from 1/4 to 1 ounce very nicely. It was light to hold, and had plenty of back bone.
the second reel we tested was a quantum optix in the ultra light size. it is advertized to hold 125 yards of 4 lb test, and it held every bit of that. we used it mainly for hardtails and jacks, and it's flawless performance surprised me. it also got a real workout when 2 spanish mackerel and a hardtail took a sabiki rig i had on it when trying for just hardtails. those mackerel really gave the reel a workout, and it worked quite well through the duration of the fight.
i also dunked a shimano stradic 5000 FG several times while trout fishing, and the drag remained smooth, which surprised me given some of it's reviews.

Thanks for sharing and it sounds like it was a great vacation.