My first OH reel was a penn 500 jigmaster it had a nice shoulder on the spool( backelite spools) that you could thumb down on. With the newer reels if you have centrifugal or mag brakes not a lot of braking is requierd if your reel is set correctly. I always tend to tighten the reel up a bit more when casting into the wind, you loose a bit of distance but gain time by not picking out birds nests as Neil said