In my experience, I have found the "low end" Shimano's to be junk as well. They'd last about a year or two before crapping out and going South. I finally gave them all away last summer.

I put a ton of summer runs on my Sustain 2500 this summer and have only good things to say about it so far. No worse for the wear.

I have also put a ton of summer runs on my Diawa 2500 Capricorn and it's holding up just fine.

The Diawa is slightly heavier than the Sustain and the drag sounds like a coffee grinder. Other than that, it's another good "higher end" reel.

(1 ton + 1 ton) x 2000 lbs/ton/7 lbs/summerrun=570 summerrun steelhead

Damn, son, you're going to have to share that bounty with ol' Sol next summer.

No matter what model you wind up buying, get the front drag next time.

I use both the pfluger Trion and solara. Both are great reels with a very affordable price tag. I use them in the salt as well as rivers. All I do is rinse them off with fresh water after each trip.