Now that we're talking brands of reels, this will probably get convoluted. Do a search on spinning reels in the forum and you'll come up with some long threads. But here's my .02. I love my Stradic. It has handled a lot of big, hot, native steelhead stripping off a lot of line without a hitch. I got it as a present after using a Sahara for a long time that also served me very well for the price. Now that I think of it, I've never really had any complaints about my Sahara, Symetre or the Stradic. They're all from Shimano.

I've also heard very good things about the service you get from Shimano if anything should go wrong. I haven't had to test the theory yet.

B. Gray

[This message has been edited by B. Gray (edited 11-16-2000).]