I saw an SLT-50 at a local sale the other day. It's got to be ten years since they were in production, and Daiwa never created a replacement series of s-speed lever drags. The Saltiga conventional star drag reels are gone and there is no comparable replacement series. The Daiwa Sealine reels are down to a just few survivors. (A 900H has been good to me.)

Is Daiwa slowly backing out of the salt water reel business?

Daiwa really has left the trolling and low gear side of the market in recent years. Their large bodied trolling reels did not hit the nail on the head, and were also discontinued. The Saltist series has been solid, same for the Sealine and Seagate series. I too was a bit disappointed with the lever drag replacement of what was the nicest star drag reels produced - the Saltiga series. They've had great success with the smaller bodied Lexa baitcasters.

Daiwa tends to shift focus every couple of years, evaluating the market and then moving forward with what they see as gaps in the market or trends they can exploit successfully. Last year they introduced several fresh water reels, the year befor more saltwater reels. I'm expecting to see the focus back on saltwater at the next ICAST. But, time will tell. They never really did hit the nail on the head with their larger trolling oriented lever drags. The series of reels you liked were good ones, based in large part of what had been dominant Penn reels like their 113 and 114's. And, that's the problem, the market has moved away from that style of reel over the past 10 years time. That's my take on this.

Always a pleasure gossiping about tackle with you.

The Lexa series seems nice, but a little Coastal baitcaster I got here has been as much as I need. The fluke don't know it doesn't have a lever drag. If I needed a big one on the scale of the Lexa 400 .... I'd remember the all-steel gear train in the Okuma equivalent, and order that. (I do read what you write.)

I still catch fish with black-sideplate, not-so-Special Senators, which dates me, but I too watch each Fred Hall with interest.

They still make a great reel. Just got a Saltiga 30. It cast like a dream. Been L.G. Bass fishing with the old Vioneta And it's 12 years old and still going strong!

Hey, Rubberheels, I think I know you from another board.

The only one I wanted was a Saltiga Surf conventional. If a Torque 15 or 25 should appear within a year or two, fine, but until then I'll going to give my shin an occasional kick for missing the closeout sales for that particular reel.