DAIWA: Cure for the Backwater Blues
Category: article
Jul 27th, 2022 by Keith Worrall
Modified Jul 27th, 2022 at 6:02 PM
Your New Favorite Backwater Reel
Designed for maximum performance in coastal bays and bayous, Daiwa’s Coastal 80 is easy to palm, saltwater tough, and perfect for probing water from six inches to six feet deep.
Cypress, CA (July 27, 2022) – Here’s a hot tip for coastal anglers that love to play shallow bayous and backwater bays: Get your paws on a new Coastal 80 from the Daiwa – ASAP.
No kidding. This reel is compact, lightweight, and designed for stalking the shallows where smooth casting, corrosion resistance and enough power to tame panicked beasts are prime requisites. All this, and it’s slick, coastal blue finish looks sharp, too.
“Daiwa pro staffers fishing the Gulf Coast asked us to design a baitcasting reel that would be perfect for working backwater areas where big redfish like to prowl, so we took their advice and did them one better,” said Marc Mills, Daiwa’s Senior Marketing Manager. “We built a reel with saltwater on our mind that is super tough, lightweight, and performs at the top of its class in any shallow-water environment. Whether you target reds, snook and seatrout in the Gulf, or stripers, weakfish and blues in East Coast bays, or pitch docks for spotted bay bass along the California coastline, this reel gets the job done.”
Mills notes that use of lightweight baitcasters is growing in popularity on the shallow water scene, especially among wade anglers and kayak fans who enjoy using jerkbaits, stickbaits, small topwaters and swimbaits. The Coastal 80 responds to that building demand by raising the reel engineering bar. It’s built on a strong but light frame and feels terrific in the palm of your hand. No wimp when it comes to the battlefield, the Coastal 80 features a deep spool with a 20-pound-braid line capacity of 160 yards in case you hang a big red, beefy striper, large seatrout, or angry jack.
Hyper Drive DIGIGEAR
Daiwa designed the Coastal 80 with its advanced Hyper Drive Design, which uses special cut gearing for a more efficient transfer of power that makes the gear-set feel smoother and stronger while reducing gear noise. Another bonus for the Coastal 80 is it’s UTD (Ultimate Tournament Drag) system, which includes impregnated drag discs that are about 30 times more durable than typical discs, considerably increasing the effective drag power while also reducing start-up resistance. The reel’s maximum drag is listed at 11 pounds, but test it against a fish of trophy proportions and you’ll swear it’s more.
The Coastal 80’s rigid aluminum frame, handle and sides work together to keep everything lightweight, smooth functioning and in tight alignment from the bearings to the gears. Speaking of bearings, this reel sports a 4CRBB+1 (Corrosion Resistant Ball Bearing) system.
“That’s fewer bearings than most reels in this category,” notes Mills, “but it’s on purpose, and a definite plus in this case. The more bearings you have, the greater the chance of failure in a saltwater environment. Saltwater reels often get dunked, so we reduced the number in areas that will see the most water, used only CRBB bearings, and reinforced them in key areas. The result is a reel that casts smoothly and holds up extremely well in saltwater.”
Continuing to separate itself from the pack, Daiwa added their popular T-Wing System Level Wind to the Coastal 80. That puts less pressure on the line when the reel is taken out of gear, allowing for maximum casting distance when throwing into the wind or tossing large lures. The same system lays the line smoothly and evenly across the spool on retrieve so you’ll have no problem making those long casts that can be vital to shallow water action. A 100mm swept handle helps channel extra torque in the proper cadence to provide a noticeable edge when you hook a monster, while the MAGFORCE Cast Control Adjustment is located on the opposite side that will allow you quick adjustments to the reel depending on the bait and wind configuration without having to take off the sideplate.
“The Coastal 80 will excel in the shallows anywhere,” concludes Mills, “but its design is regionally driven. It’s a straight-up Gulf Coast kayak and wade fishing entry. We developed the concept right here in the U.S.A. and had it Japanese engineered to our specific specs and tight tolerances. There was a lot of teamwork at the highest levels on this product, and we are proud to release it. We can’t wait to see what happens when Daiwa fans get their hands on it. It’s going to turn heads on both anglers and fish.”
Daiwa’s new Coastal 80 baitcasting reels come in right and left hand, CLTW80H and CLTW80HL. Both feature 4CRBB+1 ball bearing systems, 7.1 gear ratio, and line retrieve rates of 27.9 inches per handle turn. Line capacity is 16/105 for 20-pound-test mono or 20/160 and 30/115 for Daiwa J-Braid. Max drag comes in at 11 pounds.
The new Coastal 80 is scheduled for release in October 2022. With a MSRP of $249.99, it’s sure to be a worthy addition to any shallow water fishing arsenal and should prove invaluable to the Gulf Coast crew.
- Hyper Drive Design
- All CRBB
- A7075 Deep Spool
- 100-mm Swept Handle
- Aluminum Frame & Side Plate
- T-Wing System (TWS)
- Ultimate Tournament Drag (UTD)
For Daiwa’s latest color catalog and/or information on Daiwa dealers in your area, call Daiwa’s Customer Service Department at 562-375-6800 or e-mail inquiries to: [email protected]. The URL for Daiwa’s web site is daiwa.us.