A couple weeks ago after I got done hauling in a 9-lb Bass which stripped drag for a couple minutes, I noticed that the drag ripping out sound was no longer working on my Shimano Stradic 3000 FI spinning reel. I was kinda ticked off too since I paid $160 for it and I love everything about this reel so far. Well I switched out the spool and put the extra spool that came with it on and the drag sound was back. I looked at the bottom of the spool that was broken and noticed a small tab of thin metal (about the size of 4 pin heads) was apparently broken off from where the spring used to be located on the older Stradics. Upon further inspection, it looks like a poor design all the way around mainly due to the metal being so thin.

If it would have just happened to me, I would have thought nothing about it. But this weekend, I was talking to one of my buddies at Sunglow who has the 4000 Stradic and it had happened to him too. He had mailed the spool and $6 to Shimano and got the replacement within a week. He said they didn't even ask any questions and that they acted like it was a "known issue".

So my question is this: Have any of you brothers or sisters out there had any probs with the new Shimano FI or MgFB Stradics?

I haven't had the problem, but honestly, I hope I do have that problem soon.  That means I'll have had a couple battles with giant fish  ;D

Well I have had it since Xmas and landed probably 10 Bass in the 5 to 9-lb range on it, probably 30 Bass in the 2 to 5-lb range, and 5 or 6 Black Drum in the 15-lb range on it. My former favorite reel (Shimano Sahara) handled about 10 times the quantity of fish and never had a problem. I hope this isn't indicative of a problem going forward.

Best of luck having this problem and landing some big fish though  ;D

all i can say is send it back to shimano for warranty...

I have read about this problem on other fishing forums.  I also heard about people having a difficult time opening the bail fully in cold weather.  Sounds like some first year issues.

Wow, now that you mention it, I've had the opening the bail problem too, although rare and certainly not a show stopper like a hosed drag.