First day out with my Epix, I had a whopper Salmon at barrier dam on my line and the little button in the handle goes flying out! Man it totally messed me up and I lost the fish. I took it back to Sportco and they exchanged the handle right there. Once you have the reel for awhile, call Epix and they will ship you out a new handle. They know there has been plenty of problems. I do like the action on reel and it does spin the smoothest out of all my reels.

Steve