I had this reel in my hands today! ZX25 I think it was. Love at first site. Maybe an old topic, but any imput on this reel? Thanks in advance. Jake

Sweet. Very sweet reel, barely a complaint, great drag.

I hear all good things, save the $!!!!!!

I picked up a 27 last spring and fished it pretty hard all season long. I have been through Penns, VS's, Saltigas, etc.. over the years and was pretty happy with the reel. The 27 is about the same size as my VS250. The reel was not flawless, though. About a month after I started fishing the reel, it ran into problems. Apparently there were issues with some of the clutches on the first run of 27's and mine was one of them. One night the reel seized up. Basically the clutch froze and I had to rewind the line back on by hand after a looooong drift on an outgoing tide at a breachway. I quickly sent the reel back to ZB and it was immediatley fixed and was back in my hands in under a week.

After that little "hiccup", the reel was flawless. I fished back and forth between my VS and ZB for the remainder of the season. For what ever it is worth, I only found one benefit over the VS though. I experienced fewer "wind knots" throughout the season on the ZB as compared to the VS. The line lay of the ZB is much different than the VS. VS's are known for laying more line on the edges of the spool than the middle. This can be fixed by using a line winder when spooling up and manually laying more line to the middle of the spool so that it balances out after a few casts. The ZB lays the line evenly on the spool from the get go. I can only theorize that this line lay on the VS lends itself to wind knots.

As for the drag, I have mixed feelings. The ZB drag is a little weird to get used to. I have been told it has some sort of progressive drag where in the amount of drag pressure changes throughout a stretch of line peeling off the spool. Less - more - less. This makes it almost seem like your drag is not set properly at times. Due to this, I would change my drag setting throughout an outing. This led to more bent and opened hooks as I would often set the drag too high due to the initial feeling of having too light odf a drag setting. I guess this can simply be written off as user error, but still something that is always in the back of my head. By the end of the season, the ZB drag did seem to be slightly less smooth than it had been at the start of the season. I still have to open her up and see if it just needs to be cleaned or if it was all in my head.

Pound for pound, I honestly can not say that the VS or ZB is better than the other reel yet. Another seaosn of testing and beating her up is on the horizon and I still hold back with a final opinion of the reel.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm looking to upgrade my gear this year, and VS and ZB are my 2 options. I liked bouth, its just hard to make a comitment. I'm getting a new custom lami for spring. GSB 120 1m, 10' or 11' still not sure, and just thinking of what will be the right reel for either the 10' or the 11'. I guess the two reels are great, what I like about the ZB is Local made ( connecticut), and is not like a production reel yet. I live in NY. Anyway Thanks againg for any advice. Jake.

I fished a zx27 all year as a test against the advice of some friends.
Mostly good, some bad and some ugly.
I fished it in a lot of different conditions and swam with it.
I was very happy with the drag and how it layed line on the spool.
Overall it performed well.
Originally it had 2 line rollers, after having the second roller come around on the cast and catch the line a few times and snapping off a few plugs, I ordered a counter balance and opened up the gear case and packed it with grease to slow it down until the counter balance came. No problems with that part after.
Next problem, I spooled it to what I thought was about maximum thinking that it might tighten up as I fished it a few times. Well the line slid in between the drag knob and the spool, although it doesn't look like it could happen, on casts a couple of times losing a few more lures. After cutting back the line some this problem ended. A friend of mine had the same problem.
Lastly, the color is fading on the body.
I have heard a couple of guys that have them complain that sand can get under the drag knob and lock it up but I have not experienced this problem although I fished it on the beach often. I hear they are going to change the drag knob.
I like the fact that it is self servicable and they will sell you parts.
I like that it has a limited lifetime warranty as opposed to the VS one year warranty.
When they change the drag knob I will probably buy another one.
I've used VS reels for years, I just dont like the way the company is going these days.

Great feedback. Good to know. Thanks.