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Posted 29th March 2024
Budget Friendly Rods and Reels
By Mitch Taylor
What if I told you that you don’t have to spend excessive amounts of money on quality gear to catch quality fish. Well guess what, you don’t. I have been using a lot of Daiwa’s more affordable rods and reels for the last few years and have found some brilliant setups that have passed rigorous tests I have put them through. Catching quality fish doesn’t have to break the bank. I have summarised some of my favourites below.
Reels
The 23 Aird LT starts from a 2000 size reel all the way up to a 6000 size which will cover most scenarios when fishing. For the price of these reels, you cannot go past the value of these. Obviously, it may not have some of the fancier technologies like some higher end gear, but I have been using a 2500 size reel nearly every week for the last year which has accounted for many kingfish, flathead, Jewfish & snapper. It has been more than capable of handling the blistering runs and pressure that is put on the reel from Kingfish which should be good enough for any angler.
This reel is more of a purpose-built reel to fit perfectly in with the Infeet range of rods and lures. Thes will cost a tad more than your Airds but for purpose-built finesse reel the price is right. I mainly use my Infeet for Bream and Bass but sometimes you can’t help the occasional Kingfish that may come along which it has handled without demise. The reel has stood the test of time for me and is the perfect lightweight reel for your finesse fishing.
I have been using a 5000 size for beach fishing for the last two years and it is yet to be serviced and is still running great. These reels have such a great range of sizes for any type of fishing and is great alternative for a more affordable reel for targeting larger pelagic fish going up to a size 20000 reel if you don’t want to spend big dollars on higher end reels. I have found these reels to be incredibly resilient in the harshest environments.
Rods
Now when I say these are one of my favourite rods, I mean it. These are probably the best bang for buck rods you can buy on the market with some incredible features and being so incredibly lightweight they are one of my most used rods in my arsenal. I like them so much I have bought more in the range. I use mine for bream all the way to Kingish and they are so reactive and great for many applications including top water & soft plastic fishing.
I got one of these rods when they first came out and was planning to use for Top water fishing around the local cliffs etc. To say I was impressed with the castability and the components of the rod is an understatement. These rods are well priced and capable of targeting some of the more tougher fish. Well suited to any angler of any skill level and have both options of casting and jigging rods.
I stumbled upon these rods by accident as I went on a deep dive looking for an overhead micro jigging setup. I was finding it very hard to find a rod that could jig down to 40g jigs but handle some decent reef fish. I was happy to find the BJ66-1.5 which is PE1.5 rated jigging rod which turned out to be the perfect rod to match my overhead reel for micro jigging snapper on the inshore and offshore reefs. Upon closer look at the rest of the range I found a pretty diverse choice in sizes and styles to cater for jigging and casting. I have been so happy with my first TD Saltwater, I will be trialling some others in the range soon.
