The design of this reel is awesome as it holds 150 yds of backing and a 5 wgt. line. This reel can easily hold a 6 wgt. line and plenty of backing as well. Balances out on a sub 3 oz 9 ft 5 wgt. quite nicely. Fished it 4 days last week and it preformed flawlessly. Caught lots of fish and with a fair number of 16 to 18"ers. Drag is smooth and built out of qualiity parts and the best thing is it cost the price of a really nice fly line. My philosophy has always been that a trout fly reel is something to hold the line. We survived years with just a click and pawl drag system. Now we have beautiful CNCed works of art that are incredibly light and machined perfectly but cost an arm and a leg. Hey if you can afford them go for it- they are worth it; but if you want to save some money buy a really good fly line and put it on this reel. I think you will be happy. This reel costs less than a replacement spool for most new machined CNC type large arbors. If you smash it on the rocks or drop it over the side of a drift boat you can buy another. Buy the CNC reels for your saltwater 10 weight.