I spooled those up with straight 20lb trilene big game for trolling. I can still cast them just fine. I caught my biggest king casting with an abu garcia 6500. That's the last reel I bought with a star drag. A lever drag is much more useful. I've watched people overspin their star drags and it freespools while a fish is running, backlash and it breaks off. You can make it impossible to do that with a lever drag.
The rods are actually cheap Okuma Classic Pro's. One of the best trolling rods I've found and they are really affordable. I wouldn't hesitate to throw one of these on a halibut rod though with some braid. They can handle it.
Again, this is my uninformed 2 cents.
What do I know....
