The only gripe I have with this reel is the weight, but that goes with the size of the reel ru-vid.comUgkxM68VkfsQhHaabDce1IwOCXuvumcpbZ_k . I brought this salmon fishing up in Oswego, NY. I coupled it with a Cabela's Whuppin Stick. I had no problem pulling in a 14lb salmon. I will probably use this for surf fishing this summer and downgrade to a 3500 series Battle II next salmon season to save my wrists. All of the operations are butter smooth and the bail is nice and thick and has a solid flip to it. Everything about this reel is sturdy and strong. The drag system held up to the salmon and was also super smooth. I did use a scale to set the drag properly before going out to the river and this worked out tremendously. A bunch of other guys on the river would hook up and snap almost immediately. Just because you have a good drag system doesn't do anything if you don't set it correctly.
