I had an Okuma Sierra a few years ago, it usually worked fine, but on two occasions I broke off salmon because a grain of sand had worked it's way into the drag. At that time I wouldn't ever let my rods of reels touch the ground so I never could figure that one out. I ended up giving the reel to a 15 year old kid from whose parents got laid off when the town paper mill shut down. . . the reel has worked flawlessly for him and by now he's had it quite a bit longer than I did.