Another Daiwa Tatula fan boy here as well. I love everything about it.

Only if you are a Shimano fan. Daiwa and Lews reels in the $200 range and lower are great reels also and the Shimano in that price range is not any better.

I know because I have all three of them and my choice is in this order, Daiwa, Lews, Shimano. based on reel performance.

Very good reels.

Lews start out decent and then go to hell before too long. I finally quit buying them, I’ll stick with Shimano and I’m quite glad that guys here told me about Digikata. Spent some $$$ there recently.

Not true with the super duty, or the BB1 pro. They hold up just fine. I have used both for many years now with no issues at all.

The O/P was asking about reels.

I've found the same. I can hand you a 15 year old chronarch thats as smooth as the day I bought it and I fish a lot.

The Daiwa CR80 is the best reel for the money IMHO. Under a 100 bucks and smooth as butter. I am a total Daiwa fan boy. Have owned Lews and Shimano. After the Shimano handle grips went tacky on me I never bought another. Had 3 anti reverse gears fail on my Lews in the same week. Daiwa for life unless a better brand arises.

Correct, the older Shinano reels are bullet proof. Not so much for the newer ones.

I used to fish shimano. Now it’s only LeWs and daiwa. LeWs LFS is a great value for $99

EXACTLY

Shimano Curado on a Shimano Expride or Dobyns Rod and you would be set

I know I'm probably in the minority here but the Metaniums simply do not hold enough line for my preference. They are great reels but if you load them with 20# mono or flo not so much. I like the wider Curado K's for this reason. I keep hearing good things about Lews but haven't tried a new one yet.

I got a couple of K's I'll gladly trade for you Metanuim's

I've been using Lews Speed Spool LFS for all my reels for the past 2 years and can only say great things about them. I use them weekly. You can pick them up for around $100 or less.