Luvia; spanish- pure, or clean, finnish- loved, or love.
Luvias reel takes it´s place in the upper class of Daiwa´s range of reels, right next to Certate, Morethan and Exist and truly is a piece of gear with pedigree. It´s normal to have big expectations once you decide to spend a lot of money for a reel. It is normal as well to be prepared to spend fine amount of money on something that has MADE IN JAPAN tag on itself. After 2 years of hard labour I´ve put up in front of this beauty, I can say she´s worth it.
Luvias weights only 205 grams so I was a bit sceptic about it´s power, especially I bought high gear model, Daiwa Luvias 2506H. Fear and skepticim lasted shortly. Luvias seems to be stronger, or more powerful than some full metal models I´ve tried, such as legendary Daiwa Tournament 2500SiA, which I owned and enjoyed for some time. Also, it´s much lighter, for which it can be grateful to Zaion- high density carbon. We won´t bother you no more with advances that Zaion offers, for we are fishermen, not physicists. All we can say is that Daiwa found an excelent material for it´s high-end reels.
Benefits of Zaion, together with it´s lightness, is that reels made of it seem as they are so much better in any way one can imagine. One of reasons is that the handle screwes directly in gear mechanism and even after 2 years of torture it doesn´t show any sign of wear, nor it wobbles in any way. Luvias 2506 is made for light fishing, but I have to say I wasn´t always so kind. More than often it had to fight with big spinnerbaits and deep diving crankbaits on the other side of a line. All of the harassment Luvias handled better than expected and it´s still tight as it was the first day I took it out of it´s box. Luvias in 3000 size is much more appropriate for medium hard and hard fishing, of course, as 2004 size is more fitting for UL fishing, but 2506 can handle bigger lures and, due to it´s weight (only 205 grams), fits any UL rod.
So, after a really hard season of river fishing and heavy bass power fishing I decided it was time to give it some slack. So I reeled up nice thin 9 lb braid and decided to use it only for what it´s made for, light fishing for trout, perch and chub. And barbel lure fishing occasionaly, simply because I love to listen how that brake of it´s screams while it tries to control those savage barbel runs. Daiwa reels are famous for their excellent brake mechanism, and Ultimate Tournament Drag can wear it´s name proudly, for it surely is ultimate! It handles every situation, from that furious asp takes to massive barbel runs smooth. No suprises there.
All of the Daiwa reels reel in line very good. Luvias does it superb. Even if we are talking about slack line, with who many other reels have big problems. Bird nest is a word that Daiwa reels didin´t hear of. It doesn´t matter if you use inline spinnerbaits for trout on a fast river, jigging for zander ona a lake, or fish for bass with unweighted soft lures. For all of these situations Daiwa has 2 solutions: Twist Buster and Anti-Backlash System. They get the job done. Another thing that makes Daiwa reels better than the rest is bigger spool diameter- less friction, less line twists (less memory for the line) and longer casts.
What to say at the end? Most of the people will agree you can´t put a price tag on something you like. The vast majority of fishermen will confirm that with a smile. I find that most of us fishermen are big kids. And kids like toys. New toys, to be correct. Daiwa Luvias is not a new toy, it´s on a market for quite some time now and it has awesome reputation. It´s a serious tool and a big boys toy in one. Kind of toy that puts up a smile on a face every time you take it in the hands and a kind of tool you believe in it´ll get the job done, every time, even if one overloads it from time to time.
