What rod and reels do you use?

[Reeks]

I have mid level fishing gear, i use daiwa and shimano reels and pflueger rods.

I have 2x daiwa sol reels in 3000 and 4000. Wasn't long after i bought the 3000 it started to feel "cheap".
I've caught a lot of fish with it but currently it feels and sounds like craap.
The 4000 is starting to feel worse also.

My last purchase was a daiwa emeraldas colossal which i paid $375 for (rrp was $500)
I have probably used it less than 50 times and it has also turned from a lovely smooth reel to a grindy/noisy one.
Being a japanese built reel i had high hopes it would feel perfect for years.. But it isn't so..

I have used a daiwa stradic ci4 and it felt cheap.

I believe in you get what you pay for, but do i need to jump up to a stella to be satisfied?

One thing with the daiwa's are their drags are perfect imo.

So what spin reels do you guys use?

 

[nuggetino]

I run a Stella 5000 SW on a 3 piece 10-15kg shimano t-curve rod. I don't know if you need to jump to a Stella to be satisfied but if you do it'll probably be the last reel you'll ever need. I bought mine after having gone through god knows how many mid range spin reels over the years.
http://www.stripersonline.com/t/647666/shimano-stella-sw-the-review

 

[Ben78]

Your Sol 3000 is made in Thailand and the 4000 is made in Japan but all Sols suffer from line roller bearing failure that make them feel and sound noisy. My sol 2000 has been through hell and back over a number of years and is still on all original parts. I service the reel regularly and use Daiwa Real Four reel grease. I also have a Certate 3500HD that has been fully immersed in sea water, has caught Spanish Mackerel to 15kg, Kingies to 12kg and still feels like the day it was new, its brilliant. Again it gets regularly serviced using the R4 grease. I also have a Catalina 4500 that has spent hundreds of hours in a rod holder trolling and taking salt spray and having been smashed by big kings on locked up drag where I couldn't get the rod off the gunwhales. Its a little clunky but still very smooth (you can feel gear engagement thats it). The Sol lives on a custom 1-2kg 7'2" rod that I built, the Certate on a Berkley Barra Mag 8-12kg dropshot rod and the Catalina on a Pioneer GT Terror Jigging Rod.

I've had so much gear over the years, most of it smashed by big fish and salt exposure. The best run from gear I've had is from the gear listed above, but also the $99 Penn Spinfishers gave me good service. They had to be opened up and all internal surfaces greased, bearings were regreased and the drag washers I lapped on glass plate with wet n dry. The drag washers were regreased with Shimano drag grease. Never had corrosion issues or drag issues, gear crunchyness or anything with those reels. For the money they are a bargain esp for the part time fisho. I had 2 of the Spinfishers with different line and they sat on a Pacific Composistes Azagie 10kg rod (the Graphite/Glass composite version. )

If your reels are giving grief then maybe they are in need of a very indepth service?

PS Only good Stradic was the original white Japanese model!

 

[Bobh]

Hi fella's,
I use mainly Stella's and Nitro rods, gave myself some retirement presents when I sold my tackle store. It was a toss up between Shimano and Daiwa.
Buying fishing gear is a bit like holden vs ford etc. Stick to a known brand and buy the reel suitable for the use you are going to put it to.
The model and brands that have been mentioned are all good value for money reels but very occasionally you may get a lemon.
If you have any problems with any reel during warranty period, take it back to the tackle shop to get fixed. It was always better to take it back nice and clean.
If the tackle shop employee is unresponsive to looking at warranty without very good reason, ask for manager/ owner.
Last resort is to send a polite letter with product to fishing tackle Company's head office. In my 25 years experience, the tackle companies want to know about issues so they can fix them and keep customers' brand loyalty.

One area people are getting caught out on is using braid, by putting on heavier breaking strain braid that the reel was designed for. Reeks, I am not any way suggesting you have done this.
I once had a customer bring in a $29.99 large cheap surf reel loaded with 80lb braid he had bought elsewhere and wondered why the reel wasn't working - he had stripped the main and pinion gear when trying to winch big fish up a cliff face. Ended up selling him a Spinfisher 850 loaded with appropriate line which did the job well, ended up with a new customer.

A bit of trivia
The following brands are all owned by the one company - Penn, ABU, Shakespeare, Phlueger, Coleman (camping products) Company is the American Jardin Corporation.
Ben78's view of Penn Spinfishers is spot on, these reason why they are now cheaper is not because they are now made in China but IMO when the Australian distributor Jarvis Walker was losing the distributorship, they had to clear out their stocks and thus set the new retail price. they came down in stages from around $180 down to around $130 down to around $99, and sometimes with a free Penn rod and / braid included in the deal. Cheers bob

 

[Magilla]

Care and maintenance is often overlooked by guys that spend big money on fishing reels. Many think that because they paid big money for quality gear that the reels will look after themselves when in many cases it is the opposite because of the fine tolerances involved with the top reels.

When we moved from FNQ to the Nth coast of NSW four years ago I sold off a lot of the reels that I would not be using down here but I still own over forty so I am obviously a bit of a fishing fanatic. I have always serviced my own gear and have reels over forty years old that still work perfectly.

I have a few mid range Daiwa's and to be honest I wouldn't buy another one. They are a bit of a lottery, some perform flawlessly and are as smooth as any reel you can buy but some are lemons. My son bought a Caldia and it became rough after a few trips. He is extremely fussy with the care of his gear, the reel had never had salt water on it and maintenance was carried out correctly. Because of the "magseal" system I suggested he send it to Daiwa as I am unable to purchase the magoil required to service it. There was no warranty even though the reel was 3 months old as the reel was purchased from Japan. He received a bill from the Daiwa Service Center for nearly $200, almost the purchase price of the reel, they claimed it needed new bearings right through it. If it did they were faulty from the factory. I have heard of many similar stories with the mid range Daiwa's and many, many more horror stories about Daiwa Australia's service Center. Problems with Daiwa's top range are much rarer but the price's are a bit scary.

If you want to stick with mid priced reels I would look at Shimano, I hear of a lot less problems with them and Shimao Australia service is much fairer in their charges.

There is some good maintenance info on this site, it is more about larger reels but many of the principles apply.
http://alantani.com/

There is also some good info on here.
http://www.alanhawk.com/

 

[Bobh]

Hi Magilla and others
Getting warranty work done on overseas purchased reels is always a problem. Shimano also don't warranty an overseas purchased reels
any store stocking a Shimano product should be able to tell you exactly what any service and spare parts will cost.
The cost of reel servicing is in the back of their annual price lists and for the cost of spare parts they should have in a thick white coloured cover book with seperate sections on game reels, bait casters and spin reels. The book contains schematics, part numbers and in a seperate section cost prices for the store. Only problem is that book is always behind as Shimano brings in new and updated models every year. They will often have a CD with the new reels schematics proved in between books
Just ask the tackle shop to email Shimano for costing of parts if you know what needs replacing.reels schematics for most recognised brands are readily available on the net, just type in "reel schematics"
One thing to be very careful of is to give them open slather to repair. Make sure you specify exactly what the symptoms are otherwise they may replace more than you expected in trying to return the reel to perfect condition.
Most tackle shops have their own repairman who does services repairs in house. A customer can always ask for an assessment / inspection on a reel. I use to charge only a nominal amount for this and if we were given the go ahead, inspection fee was not added to the price of service.
Cheers
Bob

 

[KIM-MARGARET]

Me I have Daiwa Catalina 4500H and shimarno T curve pretty balanced set up rod does all the work for me.

Now my son Accurate reel monster egg beater on either T curve or jigging Daiwa Spartan rod he chases Mackerel all the time only likes the big ones I will try to attach photo with reel and macky.

We live in Yeppoon on the reef so fishing here is pretty good. Ok so new 140 zuki motor in 2008 clocked over 300 hours
M-K

 

[Big Nugget]

Stella 2500FE & GLoomis stick. great for light trout but also handles the natives

 

[Reeks]

Big nugget, how does the stella feel overall? I am very picky with things, some people would pick up the reels im saying feel crappy and think they were perfectly fine.
All i want is smoothness, rigidity and absolutely no gear meshing feel.
Have you used other reels and how do they compare?

 

[Big Nugget]

All i want is smoothness, rigidity and absolutely no gear meshing feel.
Have you used other reels and how do they compare?

then the stella is for you. smooth as silk, carved from titanium, very light and comfortable.

no problem with 20lb braid on the cod or 6 lb on the trout

you wont be disappointed