Stephen,

What you heard about the Calcutta was probably a problem that was only happening on the first few years worth of models. I bought a Calcutta 400 about a year after they came out and fried the drag on one trip for yellowtail. I was disappointed. Then I heard they had a recall and would replace your drags with dartanium drags. I sent in and got them swapped (free of charge) and it's been excellent ever since. Any Calcutta you buy now will have the high quality drags and I doubt it will be an issue for you. Just a little insight on why someone might say that they heard Calcuttas have a drag problem.

As an aside, I had talked on the trophy board about my Okuma Induron 300 having a jerky drag and got some info that the issue was due to over lubing in another area of the reel spilling over into the drag system. They have apparently identified that problem and fixed it in current reels. The fix is to wipe any kind of grease or oil off the drag washer(s). I am going to take the reel apart pretty soon and see if that fixes it.