I bought the abu-cd last august. I purchased the largest model, I believe it was the 4000. Anyways, the drag is the smoothest I've felt for the money. I've landed several chinook and a few steelhead on the reel and it performed very nicely. One thing that I don't like though is the switch from instant anti-reverse to free spool, (which is located under the rotor). I had it switch to free spool once while fighting a fish. Maybe I bumped it, who knows. I landed the fish though. Overall the reel is very nice. Also Abu has exceptional customer service.