This is a nice product. I picked up the Daiwa SP-MH reel case when I visited The Art of Fishing in St Merryn, Cornwall. It’s imported from Japan (no English on the packaging) and the quality shows. It’s a sad fact that Daiwa’s Japanese range of tackle is better than that available on our home shores but it makes this kind of stuff more alluring I suppose.
So what to say about a reel bag… Well, as I already remarked the quality is about as good as it gets in neoprene reel covers – the neoprene is a luxurious 5mm thick and well stitched together. But as well as that, there are a couple of great design features.
This reel cover is designed specifically for spinning reels (fixed spool). The main reason I succumbed to purchase it is that there is a secondary, fastenable pocket for your reel’s handle. As I’ve invested more and more in my spinning reels I’ve inherited a common theme in that higher price reels often have detachable handles rather than fold down ones. I use the Daiwa RCS Custom handles on both my Certate and Infinity reels and I like to remove the handle for transportation to remove chance of damage. Obviously it’s not ideal to leave your loose handle to knock-about with the reel body in a single compartment – this reel case fixes that issue with the second pouch.
Another nice feature for those of you with expensive reels you want to protect is that this cover has been designed to fit over your reel while it’s situated on the rod. So if like me you often move from fishing mark to fishing mark, often over rocky ground, your pride and joy will be protected and quickly ready to fish at your next destination. Simple, but it works.
As you might expect, Daiwa makes this range of reel covers in an array of sizes matched to the reel sizes they maufacturer. My SP-MH is suitable for 3000 & 4000-sized reels, probably the most common size for spinning in the UK, as well as a common feeder reel size. I notice that Daiwa also make an SP-SH for 1500 to 2500 size reels and the bigger SP-LH for 4500 to 6500 sized spinning reels.
This reel case is labelled Daiwa Neo Reel Cover II if you’re hunting for one.