ICAST Coverage Day 1 (Reels) - Better, Lighter, Faster, Cheaper (continued)
 

Daiwa: Daiwa made a big splash last year with their introduction of the Steez and Zillion product lines. This year, as we reported in our preview article, it seems Daiwa was more about filling out their product line rather than building on the enthusiast wave from last year. Even so, Toru Takahashi, knows our audience and when he greeted us at the Daiwa booth, he was most anxious to take us over to their special display featuring some limited edition products from I’ZE Japan including the Ito Monoblock and Zillion Hyper Long Cast baitcasting reels. Unfortunately, the display was locked, so we did not get to handle the very special contents.

Daiwa @ ICAST 2007

Yes, the 2007 Daiwa & Megabass Collaboration has made it to the United States!

The Ito Monoblock 100XR/100XR-L remains a JDM reel only

The Daiwa Zillion Hyper Long Cast from Daiwa Japan

This is a limited edition Zillion featuring a 90mm curved graphite handle…

… and ported, deep capacity spool

Saltist: Daiwa introduced two new sizes in their popular Saltist line of conventional saltwater reels, the 20H and 30H both featuring 6.1:1 high speed gear ratios. They will be available in October for a price point of $159 MSRP.

Introducing the Saltist 30H

Viewed from the front

Introducing the Saltist 20H

 Viewed from the front

Accudepth Plus: Daiwa’s Accudepth has gone through a redesign for 2008 and is now called the Accudepth Plus. It features a higher end frame design than the previous generation reel, a slightly different treatment to cosmetics, but still at the attractive price point of $59 to $74 MSRP.

Here is the new Accudepth Plus
 

Featuring a built-in line counter

More New Freshwater Reels: Just a few weeks ago, we previewed some of the new freshwater line from Daiwa so we thought we had a good handle of what to expect. We were wrong.

Introducing the Regal XiA spinning reel

Priced at only $49.99 with 10 + 1 bearings, this reel is sure to create a stir

Regal XiA: The Regal XiA is a 10+1 bearing spinning reel for only $49.99 MSRP.

Introducing the Regal 5iA with 5+1 bearings
 

Priced even more competitively at ?$34.95

Regal 5iA: The 5iA is a 5+1 bearing reel for only $34.95 MSRP.

The Strikeforce is Daiwa’s new entry level baitcaster

Priced at an MSRP of $49, this reel features 6+1 bearings

Strikeforce: The Strikeforce is a 6+1 bearing low profile casting reel from Daiwa coming in at $49 MSRP.

Toru Takahashi (right), introduces us to Daisuke Higuchi (left) and Makiko Namioka (middle) from the DID Institute, a.k.a. Design Headquarters for Daiwa

Preview Reels: Here are our live from ICAST shots of the Daiwa reels mentioned in our preview article from June 17.

Here is the Daiwa Megaforce Twitching

Aggressive styling and twitching bar

to go with a 7.1:1 retrieve ratio

Megaforce retrieves up to 6 inches of line with each twitch

Here is a live shot of the Daiwa Advantage spinning reel

Featuring an attractive silver and red color scheme

From the top

 with the Real4 logo

and finally from the non-handle side

The Advantage Baitcaster

with the same color scheme

recognize the swept handle and dragstar design?

The Daiwa Tierra baitcaster

Featuring the same color scheme as the spinning reel

but the standard, non-swept handle and dragstar

And of course, a baitcaster match for the Exeler as well

same familiar color scheme

but this time with the swept handle and dragstar

Steez 100HA/100HLA: Last but not least, Daiwa even fills out the top end of their lineup this year with a second version of their Ultimate Enthusiast award winning Steez reel. As mentioned in our preview article, this new Steez features greater line capacity but also a longer power handle.

Introducing the Steez 100H

The 100H (bottom) features a longer handle than the 103H (top)…

…and also a larger capacity spool design (100H is on the right)