Tsunami Shield Spinning Reels Review

Hit and miss

i have an 8000 size. i must say that i really like how light it is and i like the feel of the reel overall. the drag is stronger than the reel and the reel will fleck under load a bit. i did have an issue when it was colder at night with the drag being so tight it would basically lock up. this would go away once the sun came out and the day warmed up.

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Waste of money

I've owned many 100 dollar reels in the past and this reel is a piece of junk. If you need a reel for just one trip than this will work. The drag clicker broker within one use, the handle is very wobbly and squeaky, and reeling is not smooth at all. If you are going to spend the money on this, get a daiwa bg or shimano spheros.

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Nice

Excellent reel really enjoyed fishing with this reel

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Best Surf Reel for the Price Category!

The shield takes abuse from the salt, sand, and water and prevents them from entering the inside of the reel. It may not be the smoothest reel so if you do not plan on getting this reel wet then I would go to other products but for surf and jetty fishing this is a must. Plus they have a excellent 1 year warranty.

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Over Rated

Tsunami designed this reel with one thing in mind, resist corrosion. And it does not do that very well, the reel started ceasing up within 6 months of moderate use while surf fishing (never dunked). Initially the reel is very smooth, light, looks good, and has good line capacity. However the bail, reel seat, and handle feel very cheap and bendable. If you fish with this reel for… read more long enough you can tell it has cheap components. I've been through 2 of these, both ceased, and have had the bail bend after dropping it twice.

It's a good entry level surf reel, but it's over rated, I'm much happier with my PENN Spinfisher.

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So far so good

Bought these for my kids to use and so far they’ve been great. They cast well, reel smoothly. Paired them with Offshore Angler Gold Cup 7’ rods. Good affordable reels.

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Solid Reel for the Money

For around $100 this reel has features that make it great value. I got it for surf fishing but it's really a versatile size that can perform varied styles and functions.

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Excellent Quality to Price Ratio

This reel delivers way more quality than you would expect at the price. I'm just getting back into fishing after over a decade hiatus and back in the day a reel of this quality and features would have been priced near the top end of the market.

I usually avoid Chinese-made products like the plague (no pun intended) but this is an example of a company that is right on… read more top of the quality control at their Chinese manufacturer.

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Good for the money

relatively lightweight vs the competition and well built, not as smooth as a Shimano nor Daiwa- comparable to Penn without the weight

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Excellent throw away reel

Bought this reel last off season, initial hopes were high. Seemingly very well built, nice and smooth out of the box, and a decent drag. After 5 months of fairly light use the bearings started to make noise. During disassembly for service, both side plates were too tight for the factory tool to handle, and the inserts stripped out almost instantly. Grabbed the trusty vice grips,… read more and instantly the threads ripped out of the case rendering the entire case and side plates useless.

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Beast of a reel

This was my first "pricey" reel and it was worth every penny. It's built amazingly and durable, since it was weather sealed i didnt have to worry about it dropping the sand, and when it did i just washed it out with saltwater and didnt have any issues with it.

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Looks great, light

Seems like many of the bugs that impacted this reel are worked out. Checked out several, they were smooth and super light

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Really love the company but this reel eh

Reel started to become a bit grindy after a couple outings with very few fish (bad season) I typically rinse after every usage so I don't see how it could've corroded in such a short time maybe I just got a bad batch but it was fine when out the package brand new with the first few outings

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I wanted to love this reel

I have now bought 5 Tsunami reels, 4 Guards and this Shield. All of them had issues that needed addressing. Quality control is bad on these. I would not recommend them. Save the money and get something nice like a Slammer or a Saragosa.

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Normally a huge supporter of this company

Never had a single problem with any of their rods to date and still love them, but their spinning reels on the other hand not so much. I made the mistake of recommending them to a friend who was just getting into surf fishing at the time on a budget. Seems as though he had the same problem as a few other people detailed in their reviews here and on other sites with a distinct clunking… read more in the reel after minimal use. He swapped the reel for another new one and the same problem occurred with that one. This time he just spent the extra $ and went with a Penn, and could not be happier.

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