I’m still finishing up all of the pages for the lure selector but happened to buy a new reel recently and figured I’d write a review for it. Daiwa makes some of the best casting reels out there (in my humble opinion) and this one is no exception. This particular reel is similar to their standard Tatula casting reel, but includes some additional technology in it. There are plenty of other gear reviews out there, so rather than leave you with an article that seems like a marketing machine wrote it I figured I’d focus on why I chose this reel and how it has worked out for me.
Generally speaking the Tatula 100 is my favorite overall casting reel. I have tried several others, however in terms of a day in and day out casting reel I have not tried anything else that I think is better than that reel. You can cast lures a long way with it, and it is also very smooth. This particular reel is similar to that reel, but it is a little more expensive since it includes Daiwa’s SV (which stands for stress free & versatile) technology. This technology is meant to reduce the likelihood that you will experience a backlash, and while I can confirm that it is still possible to backlash with this reel, it does seem to help a bit. In my case, I ended up getting the version with the 8.4:1 gear ratio and decided I wanted to try it out for the setup that I use for frogging and flipping and pitching.
I generally use and recommend 50lb braid for a frogging setup. Another thing that I noticed while throwing frogs is I was backlashing a little more than I was with other lures. I suspect this is because a soft body frog is not the most dense lure, and if you are throwing it into the wind (or just trying to cast it a long way) you can end up in a situation where your reel is going too fast and ultimately a backlash. The other thing I use my frogging setup for is pitching and flipping and I have noticed it is a bit easier to backlash while doing that as well. So even though I hardly ever backlash on most of the other lures I throw, I found that I do run into them a bit more with these techniques and figured I’d try one of the Tatula SV reels out. There are two models to choose from, and in my case since I’m using 50lb braid for this setup I decided on the 150 (larger) version.
This reel has been great. Most of Daiwa’s newer reels come with their zero adjust spool tension system, so the idea is the spool tension is already optimized out of the box and you should just have to adjust your brakes (and maybe your drag). Well I did just that and ended up adjusting the brakes a little to low and ended up with a few backlashes at that point, but from there I eventually decided that 6 was the best setting for the frogs I was throwing, and after figuring that out I found that the reel performed very well. In fact, I don’t recall having any backlashes after getting to that point, and the casting distance was impressive as well. I even ended up bagging a 2-3lb bass on a popping frog towards the end of that day, which is a really good fish for the particular pond I was at.
Overall I don’t think I personally need the SV reels for most of the lures I use, but I really liked this reel for this particular setup and will definitely be keeping it. If you are in the market for a new casting reel and want something very nice that will enable you to experience less backlashes without breaking the bank I’d completely recommend this reel. The one thing I would say is there are some sites out there that claim you won’t get any backlashes with this thing. I can confirm that isn’t always true and it’s definitely still possible to get them, but I do think that the reel does a great job of reducing the possibility of one once you get it dialed in. The braking system is also easy to adjust and the drag on it felt good too.
Tackle Summary
Product: Daiwa Tatula SV TW 150
Category: Casting Reel
Weight: 7.2oz
Line Cap: 14/130
Gear Ratio: 8.4:1
