I always like hearing people's opinions about tackle on this forum and as it's almost bday time for me so a new reel is in the cards. I've been using 2 okuma axions on my abu veritas and abu surfline (replacement for my 2nd hand/broken solaris) and will keep the one on the surfline. I really like the size of the wide spool on the axion and think I prefer that to the more narrow/cone shaped longcast spools that some surf reels have. Another thing I want in my reel is for it to be rigid. I always found the axion a bit wobbly under a heavy load. I'm leaning towards a Shimano Ultegra but keen to hear what every body else is using. Cheers