The new Saltiga 300 is a sweet little jigging reel, perfect for nearshore and shallow styles down to 300-400 feet. These will especially excel at light jigging with Daiwa’s own Saltiga LJ rods as well as super light jigging, but it can be used for some slow pitch applications as well although level wind reels are not preferred. Beyond that these are probably the smoothest conventional reels I’ve personally felt, so I’ll be getting one to add to my personal arsenal.

The spool is about the same profile as a LEXA TW 300, tall and narrow, but it still ends up holding more line than a Saltiga 10 size so you can still squeeze on almost 400 yards of 20lb braid or 300 or 30lb. I think this will be a great all around reel for fishing rockfish, ling cod and yellowtail or another other species cruising near the bottom. In Japan they’ve had a version of this reel with a digital line counter out for a few years now and they’ve performed well.

These reels have a few mechanical features worth mentioning: the more comfortable jigging handle, spool lock button, clicky drag so you can tell when line is taken, an ergonomic frame for palming and a new internal feature called an anode plate which is a sacrificial part that prevents corrosion in the rest of the reel. Saltiga reels from Daiwa all come with a 5 year warranty, which also includes shipping which not many others do but it also guarantees a faster turn around.