New Toy: The Last Of The Last (Steezy)

Have been dying to head out for a fish after spending a fishless week with my parents. Chen has been poisoning me (I poison him into fishing, he poison me in tackles!) for the last couple of weeks after we picked up a Daiwa Pro catalogue at a tackle shop. With the many Exists, Steez and new Certate models being featured, it didn't take quite long for me to set my eyes on one model. With many deliberation and searching for good deals around, it boiled down to our usual haunt of cheaper prices via online. We found out that the Exist Steez Custom was initially built for freshwater application and the prices are extremely high being a solely Exist model. The Australian Steez is actually equivalent to the American Steez as that model was their top of the range Daiwa threadline reel. With the Aussie Steez selling here for a very steep price, had no choice but to try and source one from the US of A. Even at their RRP stated price, it was converted to even more cheaper than Australia (don't understand why Aussie tackles so EX!). But I was greedier, hoping to score anything lower than the RRP. So I tried eBay and there was this guy listing new Steez for bidding. Waited for like 9 days before placing my intended bid only to lose it with another $5 more on top of mine. Wasn't really concerned about that but then the seller gave me a second chance offer since I was the second highest bidder. Emailed him for the reason and he said he has 3 piece of the size I wanted! So, there he was giving me the exclusive Buy-It-Now option for 3 days and I used that 3 days to decide but what a wrong move it was. As the US$ was fluctuating that time, I would have scored a $20 savings if I've hit the button the first day he offered me. So in the end, I had to pay more than the price I wanted in the beginning, due to bloody currency conversions! And to rub salt into the wound, PayPal's exchange rates gotta be the worst I've ever seen! They sure a thieves! KNNBCCB!!! Anyway, paid the seller a little late hoping that the exchange rate was more favourable. Like what Chen said, "Bro, just treat the $20 as standing in Myer for one hour." Hahahahaha... Well, that reel would have cost me a public holiday rate (the Melbourne Cup Day) and also a Sunday shift. So, upon coming back to my room when I came back from the Melbourne holiday, I found a parcel on the floor left by Father. The Daiwa Steez 2508!

Well, I thought I would be very pleased with the new toy but upon opening up, feelings changed. I felt something fishy about it being new as it seems the reel wasn't wrapped in plastic bag and was simply put into the neoprene bag that was supplied with. The metal parts were full of fingerprint marks but luckily there's no scratches. It kinda made me feel that it's second hand but when inspecting the grease inside the rotor and spool, they look pretty spanking new to me. Oh well, I might be paranoid or simply too high standard! My dear fishing partner-in-crime cum good mate Mr. Chen bought me a roll of line which we had researched before from the land-of-the-rising-sun. The brand is probably unheard of here, Unitika Nightgame 4lb PE in Hi-Vis yellow, damn DIAO!!!

He gave it to me as my graduation gift, thanks bro! New reel, new line, time to SPOOL up! Being a 2500 size reel, the spool is bigger but because I chose the 2508 model, it is shallower and the overall weight of this 2508 model is 5 grams lighter than the 2500. Ok, spooled up the entire 150m of Unitika PE to find that I need quite a substantial amount of backing! No sweat, used some old thick braided line and the finishing product looks really DIAO!

Ooh... long long time never see yellow spooling, hehe.. Anyway, did this spooling till very late so that I was hoping to try out my new toy the next morning high tide. Chen had a busy work schedule so he needed the sleep and off I went alone to 'flog' Steezy. Got up pretty late as I had slept in an extra one hour and that means I could only briefly fish the last incoming and most importantly, the start of the outgoing. Upon arrival, the water was like 'MILO without milk'. Due to continuous rain for the last few days, the drain was damn dirty! As you would have expected, my brand new yellow line was stained by the surface goo, KNNBCCB!!! Put on a new lure I got not long ago from eBay, the Lucky Craft Clutch MR for about 10 bucks and try to break its virgin. There were a few touches until on a few more casts later, a decent take but only a small bream was landed, didn't even try to make Steezy sing on a loose drag! Damn it!

Casting of the lure was good due to it being a 6 gramer but the swimming action wasn't like Tango's but still ok for a Lucky Craft. Once the outgoing started, I switched to the camo worm which we recently got new packs in the Compleat Angler sale. Also got a pack of TT jigheads as well to try and so rigged up the halved worm on a 1/20 TT head. Caught a small bream and tailor in my confidence drain spot but no biggies around and the bastard toads seemed to be firing with that dirty water, taking 2 whole worms in total for this session, tamade those banes! Did however score a good size flattie worth taking a pic besides my steezy, hehe..

Measured 47cm on the tape. Noticed now I put the reel bag on the ground for steezy, hehe.. PRECIOUS mah! And that's about it for this session, no spectacular runs to make steezy sing for me, sianz... Well, that's gonna be the ever last thing I spend that much for fishing, NO MORE IN FUTURE!!! Going back to Singapore soon... sigh...

Ronald