Now what rod do I need to go with it!

You can get 440 yards of 100# Braid on this reel. Amazing capacity and it is waterproof with Daiwa's Mag Seal.  Max Drag 66.0 lb and weighs 29.7 ounces.

Just thought i would share what i saw.  

go the stella's, hope they have sorted out the sticky drags the old ones have.

for that sort of coin you would hope you would get a top of the line product out of the box, not something you would have to change before its any good, 

Looking at the capacity quoted earlier in the thread this would put the 7000 in between the 18K and 20K size... On a 20K you will fit 475 yards of JB Hollow 100# and on a 18K you can fit 425 yards, on the 20K Max you will fit 550 yards. (Remember JB 60# can test at 95# so if you want more capacity this could be an option)

I think you are misunderstooddood ... Ben meant the sticky drags on the Daiwa.

Do you really think Shimano would use "washers are not up to standard" kit in their flagship model? This kind of "I heard" information is rubbish, Shimano has their drag sorted on the Stella period, service the reel accordingly and you have the best reel on the market.

I think you will enjoy being stuck with the 10K  The 10K is a nice "fit" for casting all day, and more than capable. 

The only change I have made to the 10K is to remove the bail trip, hopefully the next generation 10K is manual trip only. 

I am speaking from a charter captain's point of view when talking about reels, the reason I like stella's is because they are bang on straight out to the box and when I fished with the Nomad Ozzy guys seeing them giving their stella's the work out day in day out, it was a no brainer to go with them.

KS in my opinion if you are looking to just use a reel for top water, a 10k stella is the only way to go, dont get caught up in the hype around drag and spool capacity as a 10k has tones of drag and at the end of the day as long as you have 200 to 230m of main line you are good to go, plus going with a 10k they are smaller and less bulky to use, so all in all that is why I have six of them.

        

in a word "Yes"...i bought a second hand stella and found one of the washers was split....No doubt the previous owner had abused it some what but i have since bought washers from the states that are far better quality.The old washers were thin and easily broken...very happy with what i have now.Suprised that Diawa have sticky drags

Making an assumption based on your experience of a second hand stella's drag, compared to a new one is pointless and adds nothing to the discussion. God only knows what punishment the reel was subjected to prior to your ownership. Saying that your new drags are better than the factory ones without having used it from new is an invition for ridicule. Not being rude just stating an opinion.

Addit: In the interests of adding something to the discussion, I have caught marlin on a stella, and been a party to another couple caught on the previous model Saltigas, they are both very capable, and of note the guys I fished with had Saltigas on the boat, that they rated higher than my stella, the saltigas had caught some very large fish repeatidly over years of use and kept on keeping on, no drags where changed in the retelling of this tale. FWIW

nice input there mark, full of info, as you can see the thread has evolved into KS asking for some feed back, as someone that uses daiwa I would have thought you would had some good feed back to help here.

 

As for input into the Daiwa dogfights Saltigas and , they are awesoem reels and love all of the ones i own(which is a few).

I have had one particular Saltiga Expedition now for 5 years which has been threashed,basghed and abused. It has done countless trips on my boat, several to the Three Kings and Ranfurly banks and is still running as smooth as silk, no sticky drag on this one either. I dont know how many times i have cringed when this reel has been smashed down into the side of the boat when a customer has hooked an out of control king. These reels are buitl to take the punishement and have done that for me.

I have a couple of the new model saltigas on the boat and have found no issues with sticky drags from these at all.

Check out the guys fishing from Big Angry fish, both of these guys are big units putting soem serious drag onto the fish and the drags all appear to be pretty smopoth to me.

Hope that hepls.

Mark

 

Is the reel "new" or re-designed, or simply has a larger spool? I see the 7000 size spool has been available for the 6000GT, 6500 and the 6500H for some time now... $375NZD.

I don't use Daiwa reels, so for those who do what is the difference between the Saltiga and the Dogfight? 

but as far as guys using gear on a tv show goes umm i think sponsorship would be the reason they are using em and if something crapped out it would be edited out to not show the sponsors product in a bad light , but yeah those muscleheads sure do lay into em and the saltigas sing allright ,

 

I'll end by saying personal choice is just that and if there was one perfect reel for the job, there would be only one reel manufacturer and they would make only one reel. Thank god or whoever there isn't I say!

That link didn't want to work? Don't know why but here it is again...

http://daiwafishing.com.au/?p=11949 - http://daiwafishing.com.au/?p=11949

 

True that