One hundred bucks won’t get you much these days. If you’re not careful, you could easily burn that on dinner and a movie trying to impress a date. Take a family of four on the same outing and you’re sure to bust the budget. But—while I’m not suggesting depriving the wife of a date night in order to do this—a hundred bucks will still get you a really nice rod or reel.
I’ve sampled several sub-$100 rods and reels lately, both casting and spinning. In doing so I’ve found that there’s a lot of quality gear out there for the angler who’s trying to fish on a budget. As proof of this, you can check out our recent reviews on the Fenwick Eagle as well as the Lew’s TP2, both quality casting rods at great prices. Today though, we’ll be focusing on a casting reel, the Daiwa CA 80. Here are my thoughts:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Daiwa is one of the leading manufacturers of high quality rods and reels. Their mid-range Tatula and high-end Steez reels are legendary. However, the price of those reels puts them out of reach for some anglers. You may not have a couple hundred bucks to spend on a reel and few can justify $750 for the top of the line ones. Knowing that Daiwa is synonymous with quality though, I wanted to see what their $100 model had to offer. So, I ordered the CA 80 to find out.
When this reel arrived in the mail, I pulled it from the box and gave it a quick once-over. I immediately noticed two things that I really liked: the overall size of the reel and the large paddles for knobs on either end of the handle.
A lot of “low profile” reels can still be pretty large and bulky. This makes them hard for anglers with smaller hands to handle. Offering a low profile reel with a smaller frame for $100 is a great move on Daiwa’s part, since there are a lot of young anglers and females getting into the sport that can benefit from an entry level reel like this that still has a lot of capability. I should point out though that it’s not too small either — I have what I’d say is a normal size hand for a man and this reel still feels good to me.
I’ve also fished with a lot of Lew’s reels over the years, which usually have wide, thin paddles as opposed to rounder knobs on their handles. This is something Daiwa uses on a lot of their reels as well, and the CA 80 is one of them. I’ve grown accustomed to — and quite fond of — this style of knob. So the CA 80 felt right at home as I gave it an initial spin.
KEY FEATURES
- Compact body
- Aluminum frame/carbon-graphite side plate
- External magnetic cast control
- 90mm handle
- Paddle knobs
SPECS
- Retrieve: Right and left
- Gear Ratio: 7.5:1 and 8.3:1
- Weight: 7.2 ounces
- Bearings: 9+1
- Line Capacity: 12/10 (pound test in mono/yards)
ON THE WATER
I’ve tested the CA 80 with two different rods since I bought it a couple months ago. I started off by pairing this reel with a Daiwa Tatula XT cranking rod. I was pretty impressed by how well this little reel could bomb out a medium diving crankbait. And the paddle-style knobs really helped create a firm point of contact for winding the bait in.
More recently, I swapped the reel over to a Daiwa Procyon casting rod. I don’t have a lot of experience with this rod yet but, I’m definitely impressed with it early on for only $80. This combo in hand is as light and capable as most of the casting combinations that I’ve fished with in the $250 to $350 range. Just something to keep in mind.
I decided to skip a jig with the Procyon/CA 80 setup and found this to be a pretty good combo for it. The reel did have a tendency to backlash a little when trying to skip with it, but I continued to tweak the settings until I was able to dial it in pretty good. While I wouldn’t recommend getting this reel specifically for skipping, what I saw from it on the water would definitely lead me to feel confident recommending this as a great all-around reel.
SIMPLY MAGNETIC
If you’ve read many of my reel reviews, you know I’m a big fan of external brake controls on baitcasters. External controls are far easier to adjust than internal mechanisms, which can only be accessed by removing the side plates. I was pleased to see that the CA 80 has a simple brake control on the side of it that applies more and less brake with a quick turn of the dial.
The simplicity of this reel’s design and the intuitive brake control takes a lot of the guesswork and fumbling around out of adjusting it. The sturdy aluminum frame, carbon-graphite side plate and strong 90mm handle translates to a lot of power. And adding the paddle knobs as the cherry on top makes the CA 80 a great all-around casting reel, especially for the price.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Daiwa CA 80 isn’t the be-all and end-all of baitcasters. So it won’t replace the Shimano Curados, Lew’s Super Duties or Daiwa Tatulas of the world. But it’s not supposed to either. Instead, for $100, the CA 80 is a simple little workhorse that almost any angler can pick up and quickly be proficient with. It’s a great reel for any angler that’s getting the bass fishing bug and wants to step up to a reel that will last a little longer with a few more capabilities. This is also a good buy for the avid angler looking to round out his or her arsenal with a couple extra reels.
