The Best Daiwa Fishing Reels: A Total Fishing Tackle Review

Daiwa has long been associated with absolute quality fishing tackle, and their fishing reels are no exception! We asked our carp fishing expert, Andy Grenfell, to talk us through the best Daiwa carp fishing reels. Plus, he throws in a few alternative options.

All prices are correct at the time of writing.

DAIWA OR SHIMANO? WELL NOT ANYMORE!

You are in the pub and you get introduced to a friend of a friend, and you find out that they are also a carp angler. The conversation will likely cover where you fish, how big your PB is, what bait you use, and I GUARANTEE the conversation will quickly turn to the tackle that you use. I promise you that at some point during that conversation, the topic of reels will come up and the following question WILL get asked "Daiwa or Shimano reels?" 

10 years ago, that would have been a legitimate question, but are there only two makes of reels worth considering in this day and age? Not - let me explain.

Carp reels have come on leaps and bounds since the Abu Cadinal 55's or the Mitchell 300's (Google them), and yes, Daiwa and Shimano were the best of the bunch for a long while, but not anymore. There are a plethora of carp fishing brands that make superb reels that are as good, if not better, than the equivalent Daiwa or Shimano carp reels.
Okuma, Sonik, Penn, Fox, the list goes on.

It would be very remiss of me not to offer you a few alternatives to all things Daiwa or Shimano, so here they are. I use one of the three reels below, see if you can guess which one, answers on a postcard please.

 

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PRODUCT FOCUS - DAIWA DCR RANGE

Many of you will be familiar with the Daiwa Basia range of reels, and you will also be aware of the ability to go onto the Daiwa website and customise your own Basia Reels so you can change the colour of the reel body, the colour of the spool, the type of handle, etc. There is, however, one major drawback. The price. When I customised a set myself, the individual reel price was heading towards £700 (for each reel). 

What if Total Fishing Tackle could order a bunch of pre-designed custom reels in 7 different options, colours and finishes, BUT sell them for a lot less than £700! Well, we did.

The Daiwa Basia DCR range is exactly that. All the colours and features are taken from the DCR customiser and produced for us here at TFT. Best of all, though, some models are currently selling at only £359.99!!



So what makes the Daiwa Basia DCR range so good? Well, the Basia range is generally built around weight, or lack of it! The magnesium allows the body to be mega lightweight, and trust me, when you are chucking rigs or solid bags over 150 yards, every ounce of weight you can save will help you no end. It doesn't end there, though. The line lay on the Basia range of reels is now legendary; the line effortlessly falls off the spool, and there is no bedding in of the line, which can help prevent efficient long-range casting.

If you want the best in casting and fish playing performance, then the Daiwa DCR Basia range of reels here at Total Fishing Tackle will take some beating. 

 

DAIWA BASIA DCR REELS