Casting: Casting with most spinning reels is pretty close and if line lay is good then the line should fall off the spools easily. When it comes to good spinning reels it is difficult to discern the casting of one reel from the next. The Zenon falls in this category and line management is considered good. Interestingly to achieve this the spool does move a great distance up and down as the rotor lays the line over the spool.

MLF Pro Angler Josh Bertrand casts the Zenon into a headwind on Lake Toho

Retrieve: Where we find spinning reels often separate is at that turn of the handle. How easily does that handle turn and how smooth is its operation? The former is what most refer to as start up inertia and it's really where spinning reel manufacturers seem to be focusing their engineering efforts. For the Zenon, this means that afore mentioned carbon rotor. Reduced weight at this component is directly proportional to lower start up inertia. Turning the handle on the Zenon is surprisingly effortless.

Abu Garcia goes to great lengths to shave weight from this reel, this is a very tight looking frame

As you continue rotating the handle, gear alignment and mesh is very smooth with zero play, sound, or grinding. But something about this reel's performance in this area has it falling just short of that "buttery" retrieve reels like Stella and Exist have. While the Zenon is excellent, it's just not at that level. We only bring this up because we're talking about a flagship reel. Though positioned as a halo reel the Zenon is two thirds the current price of either those other two reels, so it is a bit unfair to expect this level of refinement.

The Zenon is the smoothest Abu Garcia spinning reel to date but does it stand up to the best that the competition has to offer?

Drag: Out on the water, we found the Zenon's drag reliably smooth and consistent. What surprised us, however, was how Abu Garcia equips the Zenon with that reliability. Typically, finesse tuned spinning reels feature felt washers for more reliably smooth operation at low settings.

Styling is understated yet refined

With two spools to choose from, we first assumed the Zenon's more shallow spool would have a different drag washer composition than the standard. They were actually both the same - just a single carbon composite washer underneath the drag knob. We didn't encounter any issues with this configuration, but we were just surprised they were the same. Of note, there's a rubber skirt underneath the drag knob to help protect the drag washer from water infiltration.

Breaking up the family, Cal found the Zenon right at home matched with his ultra-light powered Megabass Triza Hibali

Power: It's difficult to discuss "power" when speaking of a reel that was used for finesse tactics. That's pretty much an oxymoron when using a 6 pound leader but we certainly never lacked for proper leverage with the Zenon 20.

Whether it was battling bass on either coast the Zenon proved that when it comes to winding power it punches well above its weight class.

A single carbon fiber washer is the drag material in both spools

The Zenon comes equipped with a nice, long 50mm handle - more than long enough to keep moving when needed. We didn't sense any flex in the one-piece magnesium body and the reel didn't seize on us in any instances.

One of Cal's first fish on the travel combo. A sign of good things to come

Bail Operation: Bail operation is another area where spinning reels separate themselves. The Zenon's performs very reliably whether you close it by hand or turn the handle to close the bail. It holds open with a reliable "click" and snaps closed in a reassuring fashion. Some spinning reels I've fished in the past have a kind of lazy bail that moves slowly or without the reliable "click" - like someone lazily rising from a nap. This is certainly not the case with the Zenon.

A look at the reel's sides reveals a bit more character. Like carbon fiber? The Zenon has plenty of it

Line Twist: We fished the Zenon a lot with braided lines and fluorocarbon leaders and early on in we experienced a very strange entanglement with our leader material. It was far too early for it to have been caused by the reel and I suspect it had to do with the way we wound the leader onto the spool after tying the connection knot. This is always tricky for us with spinning reels because after filling the spool with braid we remove it from the line winder and sit down at a table to tie the leader. After finishing the knot we pull out a length of leader from the filler spool and simply wind it onto the reel's spool by hand.

A closer look at that carbon highlight on the side plate and also the drop shot keeper

We initially chose an extra long leader for the Zenon - like 10 pulls off the filler spool - and in winding it on by hand, probably introduced twist into the line. Line management on a spinning reel is a tricky situation. It doesn't take much to agitate the line - especially fluorocarbon. After clearing that mysterious entanglement and retying the bait, we did not experience any further difficulties with line twist for the duration of several trips.

The Zenon's light weight contributes to a well balanced finesse setup

Zander fished the Zenon with straight fluorocarbon setups and did not experience any line management issues. The fluorocarbon stayed in good shape for an extended period. Having two spools is a very big plus if you want the flexibility to fish different line setups, need more capacity, or simply want to have a backup if you experience any issues or your line does wear out during a trip. 

The two spool options for Zenon

Next Section: Stiff competition and the best Abu yet?