New Gear Earns its Stripes |
By Hal Harvey
I’VE said before that these days, I don’t fish with new gear much. If it’s not proven, there’s a fair chance it’s not going to be faultless, and I’m a bit over experiencing what’s wrong with other peoples’ experiments. But there are always going to be exceptions.
For the last few months, I’ve been fishing with a new Daiwa Saltiga spin reel dubbed ‘2010’ – although they didn’t even find their way out of the factory until October last year, so maybe they should have held out for ‘2011’. That’s an amazing 10 years since the first Saltiga spin reels appeared, although it doesn’t seem that long.
I personally own six of the original Saltiga spin reels, so yes, I’m a fan. They were bought at intervals over the past six years, and haven’t let me down. So a new model, a brand new model, was deemed likely to be okay. And it has been good.
I had to give it a go, you see, because years ago – about five years ago I think – I went to the Daiwa factory in Japan, and at one stage got to ask an engineer who would know – what’s next after these Saltigas? His reply still has me astounded: “We don’t know,” he replied in all honesty. I found that really surprising, but at the time it was an indication of just how far fishing reel design had come, that the products were now so good that there was markedly less room for improvement than there had been only 10 years earlier. The manufacturers had truly made such improvements, leaps and bounds, that there was not a whole lot else to do.
So it became apparent, that short of something out of the hat, the next series of Saltigas was likely to be a lot less revolutionary than the first.
One thing that was looking good though, was the inclusion of a genuine in-between size. In the original series, the 4500 size was a great medium-size reel, and my most used. But the next step up, in Australia, was the 6000, which was a lot bigger and heavier, and too much of a jump for some applications when the 4500 was looking a little light on for line capacity. In the USA they sold a 5000, but that was just a shallow-spool 6000, and fairly pointless – it was just as big and bulky.
However the 2010 Saltigas include a genuine 5000 size that sports a one-third greater capacity than the 4500, but on the 4500-size body. Just what we needed for big fish shore fishing in WA, and most appropriate for light jigging in deep water.
An extra bonus was the range of gear ratios: a fast 5.7:1 for lure casting in both the 4500 and 5000 sizes, and then a medium 4.9:1 option on the 4500 – just right for boat work with bait and soft plastics – and a grunty 4.4:1 for the 5000, for jigging and surf sinker use. I went for the 5000H with the high speed 5.7:1 ratio, as a bit of beach and rock lure casting was in my immediate future.
Regular readers might remember my tales of busting a gut trying to cast far enough at times with 2.7m spin rods on surf beaches. Last August, at the Australian Tackle Show in Queensland, I had fondled some new surf rods with interest. My odd surf rod had never inspired me, but Daiwa had some interesting graphites there labelled Tournament Master; 3.6m, 4.2m and 4.8m models, all three-piece and slim-shafted designs. Nice and light, with Fuji Low Rider guides. Hmmm. So I got a 4.2m one when they came on to the market late last year. Obviously not a spinning rod … was it? Nobody spins with a 4.2m rod, do they?
The first time the 2010 Saltiga 5000H was used, was also the first time a Tournament Master 4.2m rod was swung for real in Western Australia. So much for my ‘no unproven gear’ plan. And I was throwing lures. How about that. The Tournament Master rod was definitely light enough for even my weak old computer-keyboard arms to work, for hours at a time, and that should surprise you. It’s decades since I used such long rods for spinning, because they’ve always been hard work. But yea verily, they’re getting better now.
I would have liked to have measured out a few casts on dry land to see how much extra distance the long rod afforded, but never got around to it. Really, it served the purpose; and I look back surprised that there were times when I had it slung under my arm with the tip down, using it just like a spin rod half its length.
The Saltiga 5000H has a handful of notable changes to its predecessor; the ‘Mag Sealed’ waterproofing that has it a little freer spinning, some rearrangements of seals and drag, and a ‘Zaion’ graphite composite rotor instead of an aluminium one. Funnily enough, just about everybody who picks it up comments on how light it is – but that’s a trick of the mind, as it’s actually a smidge heavier than the original model. Perhaps the abundant cut-outs on the spool, rotor and side plates give the impression.
The Zaion rotor concerns some people, but I think it’s great. Sure you need an aluminium body to hold all the gear train in precise alignment, but the rotor is not critical for anything like that. By going to the graphite composite material, Daiwa has avoided one of the potential problems with an aluminium rotor on a jigging reel: the scenario when an angler belts it into the rail of the boat, unknowingly cracks a bail arm mount, and then has it collapse under load sometime later. The Zaion material is flexible enough to forgive that abuse, but unlike lesser graphite composite materials, not so flexible that it gets pulled out of shape by the available 15kg of drag. Just right, I think.
The Mag Sealed feature forms part of the Saltiga’s waterproofing. The reel itself is designed to be considered waterproof, so when you wash it you don’t push water into the bearings, and when you use it on a beach you can actually give it a rinse off in the suds to get the sand off it. Beach anglers should like this very much; between services, all you need to do is rinse it under the tap. But the problem with waterproofing a reel is that some parts move and some don’t, so everywhere the two meet, there has to be a drag-inducing seal incorporated. The Mag Sealed idea is used to minimise that drag, and it was first used in the smaller Daiwa Certates, which are relatively delicate reels where extra winding resistance would have been very noticeable.
The Mag Sealed is a waterproofing ring under the rotor, where the greatest winding resistance would otherwise be. It’s achieved by using a magnetic oil, developed by NASA, as a membrane held in place between magnetised surfaces. Although it’s completely hidden away, it’s probably the most important feature of the new reel; the one that will keep it feeling newer, longer.
So do I need to sell all my pre-2011 Saltigas? I don’t think so: they’re mighty fine reels, and in fact Daiwa are likely to continue making them for years to come. Most models continue on alongside the 2011 version, and it will be later this year before a new smaller model is introduced and perhaps another year until the larger ones are finalised. Whether the new features are enough to have anglers pay a couple of hundred dollars more than the originals, remains to be seen.
But if it’s you, or even if it’s not, and you like a beach fish, check out a Tournament Master surf rod too. Reel improvements may be incremental now, but rods are still getting better every year. I-Fish
http://daiwafishing.com.au/?p=6981
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 Hal Harvey is well known to West Australian anglers as the owner of the Bluewater Tackle stores, in Morley, Scarborough and Exmouth. Hal is also the weekly fishing columnist for the Sunday Times and contibutes the Sandgroper Scene column to Modern Fishing Magazine, plus the Tackle & Tactics column to Western Angler magazine along with the odd feature article. Hal has fished all over the world, but rates Shark Bay, Exmouth, and the Rowley Shoals off Broome as the best fishing spots on the planet.
For more information on Bluewater Stores
For more information on Western Angler magazine
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