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I will second MikeCC's opinion of the Stradics. Contrary to what I hear many people speak of how they are not too good or friendly in the salt, I have to disagree strongly. I bought one last year out of frustartion of dealing with my Penn 6500's constantly breaking down all the time, so I bought a Stradic 8000 on a whim without researching them, which is highly uncharacterisitc of myself. I used it from July to November last year and have absolutely no complaints of the reel. I use 20# and 30# Fireline and never once had line issues. Not sure if it is mono friendly as I haven't fished from the beach with mono line in years. The drag is real smooth and the reel handled and balanced very well on my 10' St. Croix.
I beat the ever livin' bag out of this reel (even frequent dunkings) night in and night out, without ever rinsing it off. The only things I had to deal with was taking the little cover off the reel handle KNOB and greasing inside it every once in a while. Also, every single night before I hit the beach, I took the drag nut off the top and wiped all salt reside out of the top of the spool. That was it. It is only a little bit more money than a Penn 6500 (its comparable sized reel) yet was lighter and functioned a heck of a lot smoother, nice big KONB handle, and it came with a spare spool.
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