So I have been using this reel so far this year. I have been a Revo STX guy for a while and I went with a Revo Ike series reel last year and did not love it. Meanwhile I keep hearing about Daiwa really making serious improvements to their reels so I wanted to give it a try. Early this year I grabbed a Tatula SV in 8.0:1 for a light flipping set up. So after using this for a while I figured I would throw in my 2 cents on it.
This reel is super forgiving when it comes to backlashes. I mean I have botched flips and skips horrendously and even on purpose just to demonstrate to friends how forgiving it is. You can smack a bait straight down in the water and pull 2 arms length of line out of the reel and its clean, and thats with fairly minimal brakes on and the tension knob loose enough to skip a bait. The 8.0:1 is fast and smooth, no surprise there. Now I dont do a lot of casting with this as it is mainly flipping, but I have pitched a tokyo rig on it and a texas rig where if I hit open water I will slide the peg up a bit and cast it out. Now I have zero gripes about the castability of the STX, but this thing is straight up bombs away. I dont know if its the TWS or how much that plays into it, but I definitely feel it casts slightly better/easier than the STX. I have seen a lot of demos where the Daiwa reels outcast their competitors and I will second that. This thing really feels nice casting it out.
In your hand it feels OK. Not the lightest reel in the world, but I dont mind a little weight to it as I have had some bad luck with reels that specifically target trying to cut weight, and Im a bigger guy so it doesnt bother me at all. Palming the reel your index finger sits over the dial which has a textured/roughness to it. It doesnt bother me, but I have heard of people saying it irritates them. I see what they mean because it does sit right on the meat of your index finger and I think if I were working a jerkbait all day I can see what they mean. The dial has like a serrated edge to it, so it rubbing all day I get what they mean.
The drag is not the strongest on this reel. If you clamp it down, you can still strip line. I dont mind that because I do like a little give and if I need to shut a fish down I would thumb the spool anyway to stop a fish from taking line in a dicey situation. Having said that, I feel like the revo's have a lot more stopping power and I find I am setting the Daiwa near its max setting to get similar performance to what I am used to from the STX with not nearly as much pressure applied. In looking at it now I see the Daiwa has 13lbs of drag vs the STX at 20+lbs. So yeah that makes sense.
The line capacity of the SV spool leaves something to be desired. Now again, I am using this for light flipping with 20lb fluoro so overall I am not concerned about line capacity at all. However, for some other applications I can see it being a concern. If I bomb out a tokyo rig I am throwing most of the spool out. If I re-tie as often as I do I will be in trouble pretty quick doing that all day. So if you are not looking to make long casts (which is one of its key features with the TWS) I think you are good, OR if you are using lighter line I think you are fine. Long casts with heavy line, I think I would shy away from the SV spool. I dont think this would be my number 1 option if I were slinging a tokyo rig or a football head or anything like that regularly.
Overall, for the right applications this thing is fantastic. They took features that were in their high end reels and put them in their work horse reel. Not a bad combination as it is really making re-think my loyalty to the Revo line from Abu. I have yet to have an STX fail me but all others from the revo line eventually did (except my winch). Having said that, if I need a new reel I think I make lean more towards Daiwa. It is hard to beat what they have done to their workhorse line up of reels.
