I'd love to see them- heres one of mine....

That is slick NeBe! Beautiful work.

I had 2 van staals fail on me while fishing. One while pencil popping and the other anti reverse bearing gave out w/fish on. They were repaired at no cost and the van staal customer service is top notch. No problems with my 7" vs pliers though. To me I still would not use anything else.

VS pliers are super top notch!

Editorial note on the Pol, it does look like there is a tie at this time between:

the same problem more than once with three votes

and

the same problem more than once with three votes

:smash: :jump1: :rotf2: :buds:

Exactly what does plugging your biz have to do with fishing?

There are quite few of us here who've been in the trades who don't plug what we do here.Matter of fact many including myself have been at it longer, been doing it harder and simply put are better at it but we ain't promoting it on a fishing site unless we're a sponsor.

To be honest it almost comes across as a slap in the face.Think about how you come across..."screw you,this is what I do.Look at my work."

And before you respond notice in my response I mentioned no fishing reels or an opinion thereof.I simply take offense to the notion that somehow your sh!t don't stink and possibly some of ours does.

I think you guys are over reacting to casting Z's excitement about the z-bass. God forbid that someone might have saved up a chunk of cash to buy the most ultimate reel in the universe only to discover that there might be a better one out there..

Fishing is much like religion and if there is one thing about religion i have learned in my life is that Pushing ones views upon another rarely works out for the best.

Some swear by Penn 704's or 6500's.. some swear by Nautil's.. in the end its what YOU feel comfortable with. Every reel is going to have an issue sooner or later if you repetitively dunk it under salt water.


i own a VS 2oo... I use it sometimes and sometimes I use my Abu's.... they are all just tools in the tool box for me.. not a status symbols, not toys... just well maintained tools for catching fish.

You missed the point! My affiliation with ZeeBaas is no affiliation at all. Just chill Basswipe!

Had a few problems from hard use and Dan took great care of me. Top notch customer service from him.
David has replaced bearings and seals for me as well.
Still a great reel.

Yeh, I think we are going over as over top on this thread as CZ is GooGaa over the ZB :hihi: (wink wink nudge nudge - lest anyone think this was being overly critical ;) )

Basswipe - no relation to plugging his biz and the ZB... It was a "This is what I do for work" kinda thing....

I think everything breaks if you use it alot. Some things less than others. I'm on my second set of waders this year!
My Pliers have never failed me nor have any of my Lamiglas rods.
It all depends on how hard you use it.

THE SIX I HAVE ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF STRATFORD. TOOK THEM OVER FOR A CHECK UP. NO PROBLEMO.
HAS ANYONE NOTICED AN APPRECIABLE DIFFERENCE IN DURABILITY/QUALITY/ PERFORMANCE, IN THE STRATFORD MFG'D REELS VS. THE OK/ OTHER PLACES WHERE THEY ARE NOW MADE?

BUDDA:thanks:

Had the drag clicker fall off the spool last night. $650+4 years of service+ A BIG WTF! So now if I wanna set the reel down for a few with the drag loose I can't. Still love the reel though.


Whats VS gonna do this winta for me,,,fixit or repair it or nada?

I have been using V. S.'s since the beginning and have had zero problems. Actually, I'm still using my black 200's from the original company and like them the best.

from my understanding is that the Main gear isn't made by VS it's tooled by toro I think he said ? but it's only the 300's with the problem the tolerance was wrong for the reverse leg 20 thousandths had some that were in the 50's mine being one of them, all fixed now I thought they all had something wrong with them:cheers: thanks to all for your input


ps sent it out on Tuesday pm received it back on Fri @900 am

I have had several different problems, several times. But the reels always fished, or at last 99% of the time. I beat the snot out of them all the time and they dont get any respect at all, I dont even wash them off. They are in the water 99 % of the time banging on rocks ,falling with them,use my stcks for walking poles. and other reels would be trash! Might I add they never charged me a cent over the maintenance cost. Not for bearings ,shafts, or bent handles! luv em!