Daiwa Reel Saltwater Spin

Our fishing station is fluttered with Penn Internationals of every size, for any specific pelagic occasion, and abundant in Saragossas, which the boys and I always put to the test for strong jigging, spinning, and live bait line or pitch action. Last but not least, of course, among the peculiar set of other tools in the shed not mentioned, four of these reels stand with strong fortitude, armed on a few good old Penn Beef Stick rods for a couple of reasons. Since I was three feet tall, my father and I would—and still do, when the stars align in our favor—fish the living daylights out of these massive spinners. These reels have withstood the hard times big pelagic species bring. Needless to say, of course, I still have the same one in working condition that my father bought me around eleven years ago. The reel has fought 30-lb grouper and even bigger mahi, among many other fish my old man and the boys caught—many of which have since been forgotten. These reels have been battle-tested on the hunting grounds off Tavernier in the Florida Keys, all the way down to the Dry Tortugas, and in the deep, ruthless offshore waters out of Treasure Cay, Abaco, Bahamas. For angling studs off the bottom, flat-lining baits, or even trolling, I can tell you that among all the shiny reels one may have, these continue to perform like no other. And there’s truth to this—it’s astonishing how sometimes the best things in life are actually not too complicated. It’s a pretty simple winch in material, but it’s strong, and it’s definitely a workhorse: the drag system is stellar and won’t break down on large studs; it’s built for them. I’ve tested them. And no, I’m not a spokesperson nor have any association with the buyer or seller—I’m just a kid who likes Amazon and whose father one day showed him a good reel and still has it. It won’t let you down. Back it with braid and top-shot it with mono, depending on your experience. Good luck angling.

Got this reel for a vacation trip to try and catch my first shark on, it feels real solid in hand and and proved to be durable when I dropped it in the sand by accident here and there. There’s no real downsides that come to mind, it’s got a little weight to it but what can you expect, I actually prefer that bit of weight anyways. I landed this 3.5-4ft sandbar shark with ease, for the pricetag on it, this reels a steal and one of my best fishing purchases I’ve made, getting another just to keep for the future

Reel came in on time. I opened the package to find that the bail arm was disconnected from the bail assembly on the fire side. In manufacturing process, they just smushed the bail arm's metal wider after inserting it into the bail assembly to fasten it in place. Unfortunately in my reel, they didn't smush the metal wide enough and it popped out during shipping. I called Diawa about it and the nice lady gave me the option of sending the reel in for service, or of them sending out a replacement bail assembly. The replacement bail is on its way but is backordered. Fortunately Diawa included a full assembly diagram with the reel, which is awesome -- I was able to jerry-rig the broken bail and the reel works great now. I'm still waiting on the replacement bail, it's supposed to be here in a few weeks. This reel is HUGE and it holds a TON of line and is a great fit for a 12 or 15-foot surf rod. I've got it on a cheap 12-foot rod and it's awesome. The super-wide diameter spool makes for some incredible casting distance with a long rod. This reel is SO CLOSE to being perfect. The bail arm needs to be fastened in place more-securely to the "far-side" piece of metal housing, and it would have been nice to see a washer in there so the metal crimp isn't rubbing up against the zinc casting piece. That piece of zinc is going to wear out eventually and the bail arm will pop out - mine popped out in shipping because it wasn't crimped enough. Diawa, please do a better crimp on the bail arm where it goes into the far-side housing piece, and please put a washer in there. Washers cost like a penny. If it weren't for the bail arm issue, this would be a five-star reel all day long. This reel happens to be a "clicky" reel - that's not really a negative thing, but I think most people prefer the non-clicky sort. The reel is sort of heavy, probably because a lot of it is made from Zinc castings. That isn't a big problem, but it's noticeable. If a "DF110A" or a "DF200A" came out that was non-clicky, made of aluminum instead of zinc, and had just a little bit better construction (the bail arm thing), then I'd pay twice the price for it. My main surf rod is 12-foot and I'm thinking about picking up a cheap 15-foot. If I do, I'll probably get another one of these reels to put on there.

This is a 4.5 star product as-is, but at this price I say it's 5.5 stars! I have had it for 6 months and use the hell out of it surf fishing, mated to a 12' heaving rod. As soon ass I got it I swam out to the sandbar with this thing above my head and cast a whole bunker and 6 oz weight standing on the bar without a problem. No fish that day, so I brought it home and rinsed it, and have been using it for 5 months after that. It started making some grinding sounds recently, but i kept using the hell out of it. Last weekend I caught a large cow nose ray on this thing! Picture attached. Unfortunately the reel locked up near the end of the fight. Good thing I had nearly 400 yards of 65# braid on this bad boy (yes it will hold that much!), so i just hand lined it the rest of the way in. I was disappointed at the time that the reel "broke," but it was near midnight on the beach, I wasn't going to try to fix it then. So I brought it home, took the gear case cover off and found the pinion gear had jumped off the ring gear. I loosened the lower shaft hold down bolt and popped the pinion back in place, lubed it up good with Reel Butter, put it back together nice and tight, and Voila! Just like new! I should mention I had to tighten the reverse/ anti switch fastener as well, but man it's just like new after I did that Moral of the story: Killer BIG BOY reel with HUGE line capacity, that just needs a thorough fastener tightness check before you go out. RECOMMEND!

The Daiwa DF100A may not be pretty but for what it lacks in beauty, ball bearings and smoothness, it makes up for it with LINE CAPACITY!!! Simply put, this reel is the cheapest reel you can buy that has the ability to catch large sharks and rays. I bought this reel in 2012 when I was in college and on a budget. My goal was to get the most line capacity and go sharking on vacation without breaking the bank. The Daiwa DF100A paired with a 7’ heavy action rod did not let me down! I slapped 760yards of 50lb braid on it and the drag proved to be more than enough to subdue any fish that picked up my bait. I find people complaining about the reels fit/finish to be asinine, what do you expect for $32?!? I strongly recommend buying a sheet of carbon fiber and upgrading the top and bottom stock felt drags. If you use this reel in saltwater the felt drags will get destroyed. Also, make sure to liberally apply Penn blue grease inside the gear box to mitigate saltwater intrusion. By liberal, I mean literally fill the entire gear box up! It will keep the reel working as it should, especially the anti-reverse. All in all, I love this reel for what it is- The cheapest shark surf reel on the market. Would I buy the reel now? No. I’ve since upgraded my shark rig to the Fin-Nor LT100 paired with a 12’ heavy action Penn Prevail rod. However, the Daiwa DF100A along the my old ugly stick still make the yearly vacation trip and get called to action whenever a family member wants to join in on the fun! Bottom line- If you are on a budget and want to give shark fishing a try, go with this reel!!!

bad customer service nothing but headache if reds is watch out. I purchased this reel put 400+ yards of 80 braided reel was broke contacted seller they said I have to send it back when i asked them about putting the line on the new reel they said they dont do that i would have to take it off so i told them i dont have anything to put it on and that i would have to do it by hand they lady says i dont know what to tell other then to use tube from a paper towel roll guess how that went. when I finished I sent it back I called said its in the mail they conformed and said they would send me a new reel 2 days later I get a email from them saying they are out of that reel and would refund me my money or send it to the manufacture to be looked at. and then wanted me to give them a good review I only gave them one star cause I had too other wise I would give them no stars. as for the reel I already have one and love it I use it to fish for big saltwater game have had it for at less 6years. just wanted to have another one .

After taking the reel out of the box, I thought I made a mistake ordering it. I freshwater fish but wanted a rugged reel that can hold strong test braids with no problem. I figured economic saltwater reels can handle more stress compared their freshwater equivalents that still cost more and built with inferior materials. I was right, this reel is made out of metal, not plastic. Those plastic reels will add to the fun and by default have a decent amount of ball bearings but plastics just fall apart quick. The spool is around three inches in diameter and the 40lb test mono capacity is 370 yds. The crank looks like it has a three inch radius. The good things about the reel: the ruggedness, the metal construction, spool capacity, and spool-line strength. The bad things are: single bearing, drag knob is slightly jerky, and crank clicks if antireverse is engaged. If you are using braid, likea 150 yard spool, make sure you using plenty of mono backing. I don't think this reel needs backing for braid because the spool is one piece so there aren't crannies for the line to dig into. However, with only braid you'll probably need a triple or quadruple sized spool which gets very expensive. With mono backing, the mono will act as a filler. I only freshwater fish so I only have at most 30 to 50 lb fish once in while rather than 30 to 100 lb fish(or 100 lb sea turtles) one after another.

This thing is freakin huge! I love this reel. I put it on a Daiwa Beef Stick. Worked great. I pulled in some skates and perch at Santa Cruz over 4th of July weekend. I haven't been able to test it out on a big fish yet. Still waiting for that opportunity. Highly recommended to anyone who is looking to do some ocean fishing. Be sure you have a chair. This thing paired up with a Beef Stick make my back sore after about 30 minutes of holding and reeling. Buy it! For the price you can't go wrong!

Massive. Do not underestimate everyone saying how large this reel is. It is mind-blowingly large for a reel. I wound 150m of 20lb mono then 500m of 85lb braid and could easily add >100m more. If you want a reel that will let you land those large fish that need the line to run and drag to tucker them out then this is easily the best reel you can buy for the price. I'd bet this reel is better for the above than any other reel under $150 (CAD). My only complaint that would lead to a 4.80/5 star review is that the drag adjustment disc/knob is plastic. Maybe if it were aluminum it would bend/break? Not sure. Just everything feels very good on this real except that one knob. People complaining, on forums/reddit/reviews, that the drag is very not-smooth and clunky? This is true-ish. It is definitely not the worst and I found that simply unwinding the drag cover off and a quick toilet paper wipe and spray of new grease on the drag washer keeps the drag insanely smooth considering. Another good reason to buy this reel is its simplicity. Absolutely anyone could take this reel apart and put it back together. Anyone. 9 year old dropped your reel into the surf? Not a problem. He/She could definitely clean rebuild this reel via youtube with absolutely zero experience. My daughters meccano sets are significantly more complicated. If you can afford a high-end conventional reel that features similar drag and line capacity? I'm not sure what you're doing here... but you should probably buy one of these anyway just to hideaway as a spare for a friend or when your reel breaks.

Buena fabricación y muy resistente. Se puede usar para cualquier tipo d pesca. Único detalle es su peso (1 kg)

I bought one of these about 7 years ago, but for some reason I sold it,, probably skint at that time, but a last I replaced it and I'm glad I have,, this is a BIG reel in every way,,absolute quality as you would expect from diawa, finish is perfect and so smooth to use,, I will be using this on the point at Dungeness in winter, night fishing,, I mostly use multipliers but I like to use a fixed spool sometimes and I wanted one that is rugged and reliable,, this one most certainly is, and a joy to use,, large tough reliable reel able to hold a mass of line that can haul in a large fish, "or a big lump of weed" with ease,, highly recommended... 🎣👍👍👍👍👍

"value for money

This reel is awesome! I have 300 yds of braided line on mine and there is still a lot of room left. The drag works very nice.