While primarily an uptide reel the 7000 has always been a sure winner. This reel has a levelwind and is well balanced in the fact that it is powerful enough to handle Ray and Tope while not being overly big like many boat reels. It casts well like all 7000's and can be used with lines up to 25 lb. These have been the rolls royce of gilling reels for years with the perfect retreive rate of 4.2:1 There have been many variations of the 7000 over the years with some better than others for various aplications. This particular model is fantastic. The main star drag on the power handle is used to merely set the drag level required for your fishing. With this set it is the actual handle pulled backwards while fighting a fish that is used to set the drag! No more reaching for star drags or levers! The preset drag can be set up so that when fighting fish like Tope it will always slip at a certain point rather than snap the line! This is great as there is no point in your line snapping now is there? This also doubles brilliantly for gilling when wrecking as a snag in the wreck while drifting often results in damaged gears. No More! with the preset drag it can't happen! This is a quality this reel shares with another model, the '7000 C4 LD' This reel actually has no free spool button. It is the drag lever that holds it tight. Therefore you can not damage your gears in a snag as you can also preset your drag strength! These are both high quality reels that with a bit of care and a wash under the tap after each use should last forever.
The only draw back as with all levelwind reels is that a bit of copper grease should be applied to the worm gear to help stop wear on the tooth...