Team Daiwa Advantage and Light Jigging from a Pier

The Team Daiwa Advantage (TDA) reel is not very popular among anglers here in Asia. But not known to many, it is one of the better quality Real Four reels released by Daiwa in the US. This is especially true for the Size 3500A and 4500A. What's so special about these two reels? If you are familiar with the very popular Caldia KIX JDM reels, you will immediately see the resemblance. That's because they are almost exactly the same reels. Almost, because the TDA has one more bearing compared to the Caldia KIX. The TDA has a ball bearing on the roller instead of a bushing (in Caldia KIX). The first batches of TDA are all made in Japan, similar to Caldia KIX 3500 and 4000.

When I was looking around eBay, I found a Made in Japan TDA. It's almost new but with a small nick in the paint job. Understandable for a display reel. The good thing is that it is Japan made, very smooth, and never been used. Plus, it's 1/3 of the cost of a Caldia KIX.

As soon as I received the reel, I upgraded the spool bushing into a Shimano SARB ball bearing. Giving the reel additional smoothness in its drag. I plan to use it for light popping and jigging, I already rebuilt a popping rod from an 8ft Okuma Sentara Surf Casting blank and it looks ok with the reel. I sure hope it will also perform well. All I need to do is finish the wraps with flex coat. Hopefully, it would be ready by this coming weekend.

Going back to the reel, I tested it for light jigging on a pier in Puerto Azul one weekend. A few weeks back I got myself an Expert Graphite 8ft rod from Kenny's Tackle Shop from the South. It's a bit light for the reel but it did ok for testing that weekend. We were supposed to leave 3am but the rain was terrible, we ended up leaving 4am. Our estimate was that the trip which was just 56 kilometers from Manila, will only last 45minutes to 1 hour. But because of traffic, it took us almost 3 hours.

When we got to the spot, it was raining heavily and the water was stained from river runoffs. It was practically raining every half an hour. I tried topwaters and spoons but no takers. I guess the water is too dirty for the fishes to see the lures. I then switched to a skip bunny and got a small Bagaong (Terapon). Then the rain intensified and no more bites on the bunny.

I tried a few japanese jigs and no luck on most of them. Then I tried a 60gm blue jig and not long afterwards, I got a huge bite. It was an awesome strike. The fish pulled line like it was a bruiser. I really enjoyed the smoothness of the TDA's drag and how it's clicker sounded when the fish pulled line. The only problem was the net. Nobody remembered to bring a landing net. I was positioned way up in the abandoned pier and there was no way I can use my lip grip without going down the rocks near the breakers. After I was able to tire the fish after about 5 minutes, I went down near the water to reach it. I was able to see the fish after it surfaced. It was a Mangrove Jack and I estimated it to be above 2kg based on its length and girth. As I was reaching for the fish using my lip grip, the fish surged downwards and managed to pull the hook. It was absolutely disappointing. To make things worst, we heard a series of loud thud from the horizon and saw a few small bancas congregating from where the sound came. No doubt, they were dynamite fishers who were taking advantage of the cover of the rain. As soon as the dynamite fishers started with their massacre, the fishes all over the surrounding seemed to have disappeared. No bites and not a single sign of feeding fish.

At around lunch time, we noticed that the rain clouds were approaching from the horizon and we hurriedly put on our rain gear. We were barely able to put on our rain gear when it rained like hell. Our rain coats were barely preventing us from getting wet because the rain was falling on a 45 degree angle. We really thought that the rain would never stop. We almost gave up and were preparing to pack up and go home. After almost an eternity, the rain stopped. And, to our surprise, no more dynamite fishermen. At the back of my mind, I really hoped that the storm got them and sank their boats.

I went back to the same spot where I had a hookup and tried the same jig and slowly bounced it near the breakwater. At first, I thought I got snagged but then there was a strong pull. I knew immediately that it was a sizable fish but not as big as the first one. After a few runs, I managed to land it but not after getting wet while lipping the fish. It was not a Mangrove Jack. It looks like a red snapper but it was short and thick. 1.5kg.

After that, my cousin JB managed to catch a half-kilo grouper on jerk bait and I got another small Terapon on jig. After that, no more fish.

At exactly 4pm, we left Puerto Azul and drove back to Manila. The traffic had gone worst. Our 56km drive lasted for almost 4.5 hours. That's similar to driving Manila to Subic back and forth. We should have gone to  Subic instead. We don't think we will go back to Puerto Azul for a while. The traffic is not worth the trip. And there appears to be a really high pressure from illegal fishers on the area. Maybe sometime in the future, things will improve -- I hope.

I really like the TDA 4000. I will replace its bushing near the pinion with Ball bearing to make it a double-bearing supported pinion. This will improve the already smooth cranking power. After that, I will replace the cheesy knob with an aluminum power knob to make it more suitable for light jigging and popping. I will post all the upgrades on a separate thread.

Upgrading a Daiwa Saltist

I have been wanting to post this since I bought my Daiwa Saltist 20H but somehow I always get sidelined with other things. Anyway, here it is and I hope it will help other anglers who are using the same reel.

When Daiwa said it's Saltist is a full metal reel, it's not entirely true. There is one plastic part -- a spool shaft bearing. But that's not a problem. Mine had one which I upgraded to a Corrosion Resistant Ball Bearing (CRBB). In addition to that plastic part, I also upgraded the crappy drag washer to Smoothdrag Carbontex and some Cal's Drag grease.

The process is pretty simple, first remove the non-handle side plate where the centrifugal brakes are located. Then remove the spool. Then, remove the power handle and then then the drag star. Once the drag star is removed, remove the screws on the handle-side side plate. If you look inside this side plate, you will see a white plastic bushing that supports the spool shaft. I removed the retainer spring and removed the spool tension knob from the other side and pushed the bushing out from that side using a q-tip or small screw driver. Once removed, I replaced the bushing with a 3mm x 8mm x 4mm CRBB that I got from the spool of another Daiwa Reel that I upgraded to Abec 7 Ceramic. I oiled the bearing and then pushed the bearing in, and then place the retainer spring back to the original position.

Once done with the bearing upgrade, I then removed the drag washers. The first generation Daiwa Saltist reels have felt washers and they are rough and dry and can damage the metal washers. Aside from that, these washers are jerky under load. The best upgrade is to replace those washers with Carbontex washers. I ordered mine online from Smoothdrag.com. The second generation Saltist reels have carbontex washers on the main gear but the washer under the main gear is still the old felt material so you need to upgrade that to Carbontex.

Before installing, I  put a thin coat of Cal's drag grease (also available at Smoothdrag.com) on all the drag washers. I cleaned the rest of the internals and then sprayed a thin coat of Silicone oil for salt protection. I just made sure that none of the oil got into the drag stack. Silicone oil is very smooth and slippery and can reduce the drag rating if it gets into the washers.

After oiling the bearings, I then re-assembled the reel.

In about 15minutes, I'm done.

What can I say about the reel? It's now all metal! Except of course for the paddle on the power handle which can be upgraded to an all aluminum round version. The reel is very smooth, solid and versatile. The centrifugal brakes allow you to use this reel as a Surf casting reel for throwing baits long distances. The only complaint I have about the Saltist is that it doesn't come in Left hand versions. It feels tougher than Shimano's Torium or other similar Shimano offering. Toriums are full of plastics and despite that fact,  they are still so overpriced. After heavy use, you can feel that the reel with plastic parts will lose smoothness. For me,  you can't beat the Saltist at that price.

Eging (Squid Fishing) in Subic Bay

This coming Monday is a Public Holiday in PH and that means it's a long weekend and lots of time to fish. We were planning to go to Calatagan Batangas to try Anglers' Hideaway fishing pond and also to fish the nearby reef. Fellow anglers would like to test popping the reef while I would like to try eging or squid fishing as I recently acquired a size 1500 Team Daiwa Advantage reel and got a couple of Japanese egi jigs from overseas courtesy of Shakespear (Chris). Unfortunately, a typhoon also got interested with the long weekend and made it's way from Mindanao up to North. By estimate, it would arrive in Batangas Saturday and fishing will be impossible. So we cancelled the Batangas trip and hurriedly decided to to further north to Subic to avoid the storm. My estimate is that the storm would not arrive until the afternoon of Saturday.

To get more fishing time, we left Manila 2am and arrived Subic 4:30. When we got there, the signs of the impending storm is all over. The moon is barely visible due to the rain clouds. Bong, Miko, and RC quickly got to work and chucked their DIY poppers using 8ft popping rods and size 8000 Shimano reels. Me, I started with micro spoons, jigs, and poppers. No takers on any of the poppers and my micro lures. To make matters worse, I kept on getting tangles on my braid because I again overfilled the spool. After removing excess line, I got to tune the reel. By 8am, still no signs of fish. No feeding activities whatsoever.

By 10 am, we only got a small bagaong and a couple of small trevallies. I decided to abandon other lures and concentrated with Eging. At first no takers on the squid jigs in natural, blue, and purple. I remembered the tip from the Yozuri youtube channel to use pink when the day is cloudy and the water is turbulent. I got my small pink jig and after 5 casts, a solid pull and squid on.

On the same spot squids kept on attacking the jig but most of them are small and all I landed were pieces of tentacles that got pulled out from the squids. By lunchtime, it started pouring and the water turned cloudy. By then, the squids stopped biting. If there was no rain, there could have been more squids landed. At around 1pm the rain poured without letup. We were so drenched and decided to call it a day. 
After the trip, I got one trevally (released) and four squids for my wife.

The squidding combo I used was a Daiwa E-GEE 80ML and a Team Daiwa Advandtage 1500 loaded with 15lb powerpro and 12lb Yozuri Flouro. I realized that the eging-specific gear really improves the chances of catching squid as it imparts the correct action to the squid jigs. The really light flourocarbon leader is also an advantage. I was using 15lb but the recommended is around 6-8lbs. Other anglers who were with me tried casting squid jigs on the same spot but got no takers. They were using heavy leaders and slightly stiffer rods. Another thing, the size and color of squid jigs are important depending on the condition of the area. It is possible to catch them without eging-specific gears but there are higher chances with the correct gear. I will again try eging hopefully in Batangas. I just hope the weather will cooperate.