Have you guys tried fishing dicebaits for perch yet? They’re quite effective I must say.
Caught around 35-40 fish on them two days ago. Using a ”pop, pop, stop” technique and fishing close to shade and structure. They’re really fun baits to fish.
Raid Japan 1Way Hybrid in the picture.
The Monocoque disk wrench. I use an IOS Factory one. Works incredibly well in my opinion. Link to that item here; Amazon JP.
The magnetic ferrofluid. This is from a Germany-based service company called CK Rollenwartung. Their mag oil is ester based, which is the type of mag oil Daiwa uses themselves. Expensive, but lasts for approx. 20 services. I bought it from their site; here.
Aside from that, once you get into the reel, it’s not very difficult to service them. Daiwa uses few parts, which is fantastic, due to A. quicker service and B. less parts that can break.
I see a lot of complaints on here about service of magsealed Daiwa reels. While I certainly agree they’re unnecessarily hard to get into and that it completely sucks that magseal isn’t available to us consumers, these reels are ridiculously easy to work on compared to any other spinning reels, once you get into them.
The spare parts are also super cheap. Shimano’s gears, while definitely more advanced than the Caldia’s, are rightfully more expensive. However, with how refined this reel feels, as well as the size increase of the drive gear itself, these gears genuinely hold a candle to Shimano’s. They cost under $15 a set.
Since this reel had been submerged by the previous user, the reel had been filled with saltwater. The Caldia is sealed, but you cannot submerge it without water intrusion. The drive gear and three bearings were corroded.
The Monocoque tool I use is the IOS Factory Disk Wrench (works on 1000-4000 sized Daiw MQ reels). It’s rather inexpensive and can be bought from Amazon Japan. I can recommend this one as Daiwa’s own Monocoque tool costs close to $300. The IOS Factory one costs less than $20.
The magnetic ferrofluid I use is from CK Rollenwartung. A Germany-based service center that has made their own mag oil. 1,5 ml of this stuff costs €60. It should be enough for 20 services or so. What makes this oil good is that it’s ester based, just like Daiwa’s original Magseal oil. Many cheaper options are hydrocarbon based. They tend to not last nearly as long.
If you have a bunch of Daiwa spinners, I seriously recommend to start servicing them yourself. It’s easy and while you need mag oil and a monocoque tool, once you have that, it’s a walk in the park. Plus, the cheap spare parts are a really good argument for it too.
Had to refill some stuff as I was running out and figured I’d buy a few other things as well.
The necessities:
5 x Jackall Scissor Comb 3” - These have been slaying perch this spring.
1 x Daiwa Gekkabijin TG Ajing heads - Needed these for my ultralight fishing as I was running out.
The wantcessities:
2 x Deps Bull Flat 3” - Got two new colours I’ve been super excited about and now definitely have enough packages to last me a year (or more).
1 x Issei G.C. MAJI-I JI 60F - I’ve been extremely curious about this finesse hardlure and figured I’d finally try it out this summer.
(Picture 2) 1 x BottomUp Volup Minnow 5” - I wanted a bigger strolling bait for perch and this one caught my attention, so I decided to try it out. I love its colour.
I’m excited to try all this new stuff out on the Redfin Perch this summer. I hope it catches me a bunch of good ones.
It’s an Issei G.C Maji-I JI 60F. Super cool lure to fish just subsurface. Reeling it super slow gives it an outstanding finesse action. Genuinely can’t wait to try it for redin perch.
Westin Swim 12 cm in one of their World Cup colours.
The BottomUp Flanjer definitely caught my eye! Super excited to try them out as they seem more than a bit unique. Sound, bill, surface, hooks and everything you can think of has been tuned specifically so it behaves differently from other popular jerkbaits on the market.
I’ll fish Raid Japan’s 1Way dicebait on this rig. I think it should fish beautifully.
I also plan on trying more urchin/fuzzy/dice baits this year!
(We caught 8 pikes in total…)
Rod 1: Tricked out Ambassadeur 5601 (upgraded frame too) on a Daiwa Prorex AGS Classic 8’ 120 g rod. Spooled with Berkley Sick Braid X8.
Very allround combo that I use for practically everything. Swimbaits, jerkbaits, tailbaits etc. The nicest pike rod I’ve ever owned. I adore it. The reel too is exceptional and I genuinely don’t think you can beat the Ambassadeurs for pike. Especially if you decide to trick them out, because you really make them perform better than every modern reel out there. I’m warming up to the line. Better than I first gave it credit for.
Rod 2: Daiwa Ballistic 4000 (switched out handle knob) on a Westin W4 30-90 g 8’ stick. Reel spooled with Strike Wire X4 0,23 mm braided line.
Not a big fan of spinning gear for pike, but for spinnerbaits I prefer it. Not a huge fan of Westin rods, but this W4 is decent at its job. There for sure are better rods out there though. The reel is lovely. The large gears make it perfect for spinnerbait fishing. Couldn’t stand the original knob though (T-shaped) so I switched it out. 1000 times more comfortable. The line is a classic X4 braided line. Not very refined, but it slices grass and weeds better than a smooth braid.
Tomorrow, we’ll try again! Hopefully we catch a big one.
Got a bunch of spare parts for three of my main reels:
Daiwa Zillion SV TW 1000PL
Daiwa Steez Air TW 500HL
Daiwa Steez SV TW LTD 1000L
Really want these three to last and therefore, I’m keeping stock of spare parts. However, most local Daiwa branches doesn’t really want to order parts for JDM reels. Big fan of Plat in that regard. Ordered twice before.
Oh yeah and of course I couldn’t resist the three extra things at the top.
The big boat has needed fixing this spring, so we’ve had to bring out the smaller boat. This is the result!