by Steve » Thu May 22, 2014 4:25 pm
Not raining on anyones parade here but there are very few reels that are genuinely suitable for "salt water" use. To be honest, in the "not too expensive" range, you cannot look past Shimano and nothing else will come close in terms of durability and line lay if using braid. Daiwa make fine reels but unless you are looking to spend several hundred euro I would steer clear of them, their cheap models in particular are built for fresh water only (where they will do a fine job) but they fall apart in the salt. I have used numerous Okuma's over the years and my experience of them is less than positive from a longevity point of view. If you go for Shimano Exage or models up from this you'll get a good quality reel that has a chance of lasting a few seasons if you give it a wash after each session. But as I said no reel is going to last long term salt exposure unless you are willing to spend quite a lot of money on it and treat it very well.
The alternative, of course, and particularly if you don't intend to use it a huge amount (and especially if you fish with mono only), is to buy something cheap but still very functional and just chuck it out when its no longer useable and replace with a new one. I'm finding reels to be more and more disposable and I'm less likely nowadays to shell out big bucks for them.