Drag continued: To test Daiwa's claim of a "sealed" drag that excludes water, we submerged our reel in our bait tank for several minutes and then, hooked it back up to our drag testing machine. We were able to duplicate the afore mentioned results immediately, with no need to dry the reel out. Impressive. In our field tests, the largest fish we were able to coax into helping with our drag tests was a 3.5 lb largemouth, but nothing we've seen or felt leads us to believe the drag is anything but quality on this reel.

Features: Daiwa's Digigear® Digital Gear Design is the same engineering found in the Real 4 Concept Daiwa Certate and can be likened to Shimano's SR Concept. In short, these new technologies offered by both Daiwa and Shimano are carrying the performance of spinning reels to an incredibly refined level. The TD-Sol Spinning Reel is but the latest to benefit from this technology and it is a more than welcome benefit. Other notable features of this reel include a bearing supported rollerguide, Daiwa's pioneering Air Bail® design (a tubular aluminum bail arm), corrosion resistant bearings and the afore mentioned, powerful, water resistant drag. The TD-Sol Spinning reel is certainly a feature laden product.

Additional detail shots of our TD-Sol 2500, notice the resemblance of the lines to it's baitcasting sibling

Applications: Given the overall strength of drag on this reel together with the corrosion resistant bearings we're confident this reel can be used to serve a multitude of salt and freshwater applications including fishing everything from small, finesse baits, to larger, heavy tackle applications. For those anglers who shy away from baitcasting gear, but would still like to find a solid, dependable, and stout reel to handle multiple applications with many different line types, the TD-Sol 2500 spinning reel is an excellent choice.

The TD-Sol 2500 is a fine reel for both fresh and saltwater applications

Ratings:

Pluses and Minuses:

Conclusion: It looks like Daiwa has itself another winner in the TD-Sol Spinning reel. I did my best to find a flaw in this reel and aside from the knob on the handle (a matter of preference more than actual performance), there wasn't much I could to do debunk this bright colored wonder. From its impressive drag to its smooth casting performance to its wonderfully solid retrieve, the TD-Sol is another solid reel in Daiwa's continually evolving lineup of quality products. Hopefully they'll realize what they have in this reel and start offering it in more sizes and maybe even offer some domestically available upgrades to the reel's handle and knob. Then we might actually be able to slide it over to the Enthusiast Category! But for now, we're happy to report that, "here comes the TD-Sol, and we say, it's all right..." For those looking for the ideal spinning companion to their Sol baitcaster this new variant is the perfect complement.