First impressions of my first Daiwa Baitcaster

[Backwater Charlie]

So, after a few days of being anxious of it coming in, it finally arrived. I bought into the monkey and picked up a Daiwa Tierra for $70. Cool thing was, the guy was also generous enough to throw in a spinnerbait, buzzbait, and three packs of soft plastics in there with it! Barely any markings on it, all I can see are 4 nicks the size of the head of a pin and a few marks on the reel seat, so it's 8.5/10 or so condition. It isn't a very light reel but it isn't very heavy. It's 8.8oz (I think). After a few quick turns of the handle it feels relatively smooth. Not a buttery smooth but a more connecting feeling (like you Daiwa guys always talked about). And the sound after a cast while engaging the reel is different from anything I've ever heard, lol. It's like a click.

Oh yeah, clicks. A micro-click star drag is pretty sweet too. The blue matte finish on the reel is very comfortable even while wet. I finally went and spooled some line on it (just some 12lb Big Game that I had lying around) and put it on a 6' M rod just to test some casting. Tied a Spinnerbait on and whew a nice smooth cast. It's a very quiet reel on the cast. I played with the settings a bit and found that I didn't really like the dial on the magnetic braking system. It seemed a little fragile, and sometimes I would push it way too far one way or the other on accident. Maybe I'm just over-thinking it though. I think I would have preferred the metallic silver dial like on the Sol, Viento, etc. But this is a lower-priced reel than them hence no fancy magnetic brake dial

Still looking for a rod to match with it, more than likely it's going to be a Lamiglas Excel but I'm keeping my eyes open for anything. I may post pics later but I don't know. Can't wait to fish with it. I'm out.

Oh and forgot about the drag. It's very smooth, but a little too light for my tastes. Come on they could squeeze at least 11-12lbs in there if they could. Has an 8lb drag I think.