Took it out for a proper play today got a birds nest on my first cast which I can probably put that down to mono not being wound on tight enough when I spooled up the reel, never got another bird nest after that and was even casting it with the spool brake tension wound right back was pretty stoked with it caught and released a couple of 28 cm snapper got there way too late so missed the bite time. Even though I was using a shock leader I never had any problems with the leader knot catching on the level wind the main leader knot I use is the slim beauty knot which I find that it never catches on the rod guides so have always stuck with that knot. Level wind will definitely come off at some stage as I see what you guys mean by it restricting the casting distance even with the level wind on I did notice slightly better distance than my fixed spool, am I now hooked on fishing with overheads? I can say yes to that .

The veritas with the seven attached, apologies for the sideways pic dunno why that keeps happening I will get the hang of the camera on my new phone soon.

Edit: just ordered some ceramic bearings rated to 300,000rpm that I spotted on trademe to replace the bronze spool bushes in the sideplates.