Dog don't wanna fight

What do angler's do in between seasons? Some scratch the itch by means of locally stocked pay ponds. Some go chasing after fish elsewhere. Some play with their tackle, pimping. This owner decided to make sure his tackle is in battle ready condition. A Daiwa Saltiga Z6500H Dogfight, built like a tank, for the most part at least.

As shown here, dogplay vs dogfight.

This generation of Saltiga is packed with seals. Seals everywhere to keep them nasty salty water at bay. There are plenty of smart designs built into this reel and there are also some not so perfect solutions which can be frustrating for top dollar reel like this. We'll start with the handle.

Top, blue pointer, rubber seal to keep the knob bearings spinning happy. Simple solution that just works. Bearings are both spinning happy. Bottom, precision machined for snug bearing fitment.

Up next, line roller. The part where there's most exposure to water. 2 rubber seals to protect the bearings. On top of that, Daiwa did good by using machined stainless steel shaft for outright durability. Shimano on the other hand have been using hardened aluminum across the entire '08 Stella SW range. The aluminum shaft regularly experience premature wear failure or damages sustained on reel sizes over 6000-8000. Shimano probably noticed this weakness by the number of replacement parts ordered and replaced the part with a stainless steel version for their '13 Stella SW models.

Top, machined stainless steel shaft for durability. Machine fit into bail wire resulting in lesser individual parts and lower chances of failure. Bottom, 2 rubber seals sandwiching 2 bearings within the line roller cylinder.

Moving towards the shaft, we have not 2 but 3 rubber seals for the spool seat cylinder. 1 rubber seal seated inside the spool seat cylinder to seal between the cylinder and the main shaft. 2 rubber seals outside of the cylinder to seal off any water intrusion into the spool core where the drag system is housed.

Top left, spool seat cylinder. Top right, 2 seals to seal off bottom of the spool drag system. Bottom, inner rubber seal for the main shaft.