I owned a 5-6 and a 7-8 model for about 2-3 yrs. I also recommended them, especially for the price. Both reels worked very well for the short time that they worked. I bought them as backups for my Cabela's Prestige Reels that I have used since I started fly fishing years ago. Both Wind River reels started acting up at the same time. The 7-8 model had only been used about 4 times and worked great even on some nice sized salmon and some pike. At the start of this fishing season it started locking up when I was practicing my cast. It would not release line at all on occasion. I had used the 5-6 model quite a bit more (It looked good on the rod). The first outing of this season it also started doing the same thing as the heavier model, as well as going into freespool quite often. On the same day I was having problems, I ran into another fisherman who was having the same problems with his Wind River 5-6 reel. He said his 7-8 model had done the same thing earlier in the yr. After a call to Cabela's and sending the reels back to them for inspection, they gave me a refund and I upgraded.