Scheels Outfitters Guide Spinning Reel by Daiwa

Hello outdoorsmen,

I am reaching out for a review of the Scheels Outfitters Guide Spinning Reel by Daiwa this product can be found here: https://www.scheels.com/p/scheels-outfitters-guide-spinning-reel-by-daiwa/04317892431.html?store=90&gclid=CjwKCAiA9tyQBhAIEiwA6tdCrCISGiLfbSlu5ZPx3Vsaj1MBk1F55WZvlUTrLMwlQ6Vsje5wtqjBbxoCFA0QAvD_BwE

It appears to have a good warranty and promised success based on the scheels reviews, but of course it would look great on paper. It promises to be like the Daiwa Fuego but with less asthmatics and higher durability. If that is the case I’d love to try it out. Alternatively I am looking at the Tatula or my second Fuego, but the price point is a bit less desirable on the Tatula. Considering buying one of each. Does anyone have any experience?

It’s a Fuego with a couple tweeks. Good choice in the $100 range. I just surpassed 50 days saltwater and 25 fresh water days. On a pair of Fuegos, Along Stradic CI4s. The fuego is a solid reel, with the Mag Seal is a good choice if your rods ride in the open boat or back of the pickup. Or if you fish a wet, salt or dirty environment, and don’t pamper your equipment. With that said. It’s less than half the price of the Stradic. Everything is smoother on the Stradic due to parts quality and materials. But the only downside I find is the casting distance. All things equal #10 PP same rod and jig. The Fuego casts a fair amount short. Probably due to the spool design. Thats important casting to spooky fish in shallow clear water. But not a big issue otherwise. For that price point I’ve been happy with them so far. Fishing salt water in a kayak. I take one Stradic to throw plastics. 2 Fuegos to throw live and hard baits. What I gathered from Scheel store manager, there are a couple minor upgrades on the Scheels model. Other upside, if it were to blow chunks. Scheels may just give you a new one, instead of a warranty process. For a reel in the $100 range, exc for casting lighter lures distance, it’s a good choice.

I’ve never owned a Fuego but I can vouch for the Tatula.
I loved the first one so much I’ve purchased 2 more. Never a single problem with any of them. The drag on the Tatulas is fantastic.

If you’re not brand faithful. Look at the Shimano Sahara. For $60 to $80 they may be built better than the Fuego. This would be a better comparison than The CI4s That are over twice the price. I have 5 or 6 Saharas, if not for the Mag Seal for salt water. I would choose the Sahara for smoothness.

stevenoak wrote:

If you’re not brand faithful. Look at the Shimano Sahara. For $60 to $80 they may be built better than the Fuego. This would be a better comparison than The CI4s That are over twice the price. I have 5 or 6 Saharas, if not for the Mag Seal for salt water. I would choose the Sahara for smoothness.

I loved my sahrahs for years. The 2 newest ones I bought are not the same. They are cheaply made. And have issues my older ones never had

stevenoak wrote:

It’s a Fuego with a couple tweeks. Good choice in the $100 range. I just surpassed 50 days saltwater and 25 fresh water days. On a pair of Fuegos, Along Stradic CI4s. The fuego is a solid reel, with the Mag Seal is a good choice if your rods ride in the open boat or back of the pickup. Or if you fish a wet, salt or dirty environment, and don’t pamper your equipment. With that said. It’s less than half the price of the Stradic. Everything is smoother on the Stradic due to parts quality and materials. But the only downside I find is the casting distance. All things equal #10 PP same rod and jig. The Fuego casts a fair amount short. Probably due to the spool design. Thats important casting to spooky fish in shallow clear water. But not a big issue otherwise. For that price point I’ve been happy with them so far. Fishing salt water in a kayak. I take one Stradic to throw plastics. 2 Fuegos to throw live and hard baits. What I gathered from Scheel store manager, there are a couple minor upgrades on the Scheels model. Other upside, if it were to blow chunks. Scheels may just give you a new one, instead of a warranty process. For a reel in the $100 range, exc for casting lighter lures distance, it’s a good choice.

Thank you, Steve for the in-depth analysis. I have to say, the Stradic is also going to be purchased before spring rolls though. I grabbed two of the new Scheels brand reels listed before. I love kayak fishing bass, trout & walleye fishing in waders, and traveling across the country so that mag seek is something that really appeals to my style. I will then save the Stradic for boat fishing.

BCNeal wrote:

I’ve never owned a Fuego but I can vouch for the Tatula.
I loved the first one so much I’ve purchased 2 more. Never a single problem with any of them. The drag on the Tatulas is fantastic.

Hahahah and this is my other worry. I love aesthetics & higher end stuff (not that I’m rich our anything) I would rather buy one fancy coat than 10 from fleet farm. Apparently the buck stops here when it comes to fishing reels. I’ve been out of school for a couples years. God knows five more years of working and I’ll have an Exist LT ($799 model, by Daiwa) sitting in a glass case by my bed to help me sleep.

Thank you, Steve for the in-depth analysis. I have to say, the Stradic is also going to be purchased before spring rolls though. I grabbed two of the new Scheels brand reels listed before. I love kayak fishing bass, trout & walleye fishing in waders, and traveling across the country so that mag seek is something that really appeals to my style. I will then save the Stradic for boat fishing.

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That’s exactly the way I look at it. I have half a dozen Stradics. But feel they will last a lifetime. If not salt dunked or sent to the bottom. Fuego or Sahara are more the sacrificial lamb in higher mortality to equipt situations.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>stevenoak wrote:</div>
If you’re not brand faithful. Look at the Shimano Sahara. For $60 to $80 they may be built better than the Fuego. This would be a better comparison than The CI4s That are over twice the price. I have 5 or 6 Saharas, if not for the Mag Seal for salt water. I would choose the Sahara for smoothness.

I loved my sahrahs for years. The 2 newest ones I bought are not the same. They are cheaply made. And have issues my older ones never had

So brand loyalty has definitely been built with Daiwa, clearly. I don’t like to be close minded & Shimano would be my #2 for sure but I recall a couple of their cheaper models being disassembled in my hands while dealing in fish as a kid. Lmfao, I was probably on their $15 Walmart reel but somehow they lost me.

On the other note I had a couple scheels brand rods that I had bought 6-8yrs ago that had been grandfathered into their lifetime warranty (now a 3 yr warranty). Now I definitely got a few returns in on each of them but their most recent model isn’t the same rod. They basically degraded the rod into an ugly stick on the most recent innovation. I do worry they will do the same to the Scheels branded reel, hopefully Daiwa wouldn’t play that game thinking nobody will notice.

I have been pretty brand loyal to Shimano for years. All the reels I have are old school, over 5 years old. One newer rod. They do seem to be shuffling model names with lesser quality reels. They rebranded the Curado with the Chonarch name a few years ago. Going to Farm and Fleet. Shimano seems to be chasing the lower end market pretty hard. From the SLX line down to $29.95 combos. But the higher end Stradics and Vanfords and up, seem to be still well built. But since acquiring G. Loomis they are chasing lower end rod market with Shimano brand.

I bought one about a year ago. Decent but not to impressed with the drag.Mostly use it in cold weather and drag seems to stick up then surge,allmost like the spool is not aligned and wobbles a bit.I found the grease was applied really heavily so I cleaned it up and reapplied some better stuff.It didnt seem to improve much.May return it and try another one or get something different,havnt decided yet

matt wrote:

I bought one about a year ago. Decent but not to impressed with the drag.Mostly use it in cold weather and drag seems to stick up then surge,allmost like the spool is not aligned and wobbles a bit.I found the grease was applied really heavily so I cleaned it up and reapplied some better stuff.It didnt seem to improve much.May return it and try another one or get something different,havnt decided yet

Yikes! So I just ordered two, I will be revising that down to one for SURE. Thank you fellow fisherman. The truth hurts but it is good to hear a first hand account.

matt wrote:

I bought one about a year ago. Decent but not to impressed with the drag.Mostly use it in cold weather and drag seems to stick up then surge,allmost like the spool is not aligned and wobbles a bit.I found the grease was applied really heavily so I cleaned it up and reapplied some better stuff.It didnt seem to improve much.May return it and try another one or get something different,havnt decided yet

Drag washer upgrade(carbon fiber)and a good relube can make a cheaper reel perform decent.I got a few of those Gander Sakana reels that were pretty much garbage out of the box.Relube and a drag tweak is what they needed.

milemark_714 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>matt wrote:</div>
I bought one about a year ago. Decent but not to impressed with the drag.Mostly use it in cold weather and drag seems to stick up then surge,allmost like the spool is not aligned and wobbles a bit.I found the grease was applied really heavily so I cleaned it up and reapplied some better stuff.It didnt seem to improve much.May return it and try another one or get something different,havnt decided yet

Drag washer upgrade(carbon fiber)and a good relube can make a cheaper reel perform decent.I got a few of those Gander Sakana reels that were pretty much garbage out of the box.Relube and a drag tweak is what they needed.

I have given that some thought but I paid a 100$ for the reel and dont really feel I should need to replace washers for it to work correctly.I have bought cheaper priced reels over the years and the drags on them perfomed just fine without modification.

With over 75 fishing days on mine. A $100 reel seems to be an upgraded lower end reel if that makes sense. The Fuego with the mag seal and additional body sealing is where the upgrades came. Building for durability. Some reels they do something to make them smoother. To get it all in one reel, it’s seems your in the $180 to $240 range. The spool on a Stradic is over half the price of a Fuego reel. The Fuego is an Adequate reel. Not the best casting of smoothest drag. But the 3000 I believe has about 10# of drag. So set at 20 to 30% for 10# braid it still has plenty of reserve. Though it’s not smooth, properly adjusted, it should do its job. For a hundred bucks I still believe it’s a good value for the price range. Saltwater guys are eating them up. Kinda like a pickup. Some are made to haul load. Some are made to ride like a Cadillac. The ones that do both aren’t cheap!!

Got it to replace an Okuma Rtx that I abused for 7years before it crapped out.Was going to go with another Rtx but figured I would try something different as the scheels/diawa reel had good reviews and was of similar cost.After another disassembly and inspection I see the felt washer is extremly thin.In turn the paint/finish on the spool beneath where the washer rides is wearing off in spots.So it could be that a new better washer is all it needs either way ordered another Rtx this a.m.

matt wrote:

Got it to replace an Okuma Rtx that I abused for 7years before it crapped out.Was going to go with another Rtx but figured I would try something different as the scheels/diawa reel had good reviews and was of similar cost.After another disassembly and inspection I see the felt washer is extremly thin.In turn the paint/finish on the spool beneath where the washer rides is wearing off in spots.So it could be that a new better washer is all it needs either way ordered another Rtx this a.m.

Ouch! Hahaha well Scheels has a solid return policy. I am really looking forward to breaking this in to drop a review of my own.

I had most of my tackle out of my boat stolen a couple years ago while it was on my lift— ballsy pricks. Most of my spinning reels were mid-range Shimanos. To quickly replace them I bought a couple Daiwa Legalis reels. They have been excellent. Drag is dynamite. Agreed that Shimano’s quality isn’t what it used to be. My 20 yr old green Curado baitcasters are still my favorite.

I think Shimano still makes very good quality stuff. But they defiantly seem more active in the lower end market than years past.

Basically to get a solid shimano you have to be north of 175 bucks. Before the 79 dollar saharahs were my go To. Now I’d rather use a sienna over a Sahara. No need at all to be 200 in to a decent reel. 100 bucks in other brands has been much better to me. Diawa and Pfluger have proved that now countless times