10/29/98 Phil Gallo writes in with some excellent info about Millionaires, Bando, and other interesting stuff: I enjoyed stumbling onto your Daiwa Millionaire web site this evening. I am 63 years old, still actively fishing, and began fishing when I was 14. I have spent my entire life fishing saltwater here in Southern California. I have always enjoyed using freshwater baitcasting reels for inshore fishing, rather than the traditional Penns, etc. I first used many of the old "knuckle buster" reels made by Shakespeare, Plueger, Coxe, South Bend, etc., until the new free spool, star drag models came out. During the 70's I accumulated a Millionaire 5HM and a 6HM, along with a Garcia 2500, 5000, and 6000, and one German DAM. Later, I bought several 500M's and 600M's. I caught hundreds of fish on these reels, but unfortunately, have sold them all, primarily because of corrosion, despite constant upkeep. What I liked best about them was the incredibly smooth wet drags (compared to Garcia, or any other baitcast reel) What I did not like were the incredibly difficult to remove, tiny O rings holding the handle on (when taking them down for cleaning - an almost constant job in salt water), and the fact the free spool button froze frequently because the metal "fingers" that it moved were made of chrome plated steel, and were touching the aluminum side plates. Huge amounts of salt and galvanic corrosion would be attracted to the places where different types of metals met, no matter how thoroughly you rinsed your reels. Here is some information you may or may not not know. In later years, Daiwa contracted out the manufacturing of the 500M and the 600M to a Korean firm named Bando. Any Millionaire II that says "Korea" on it was made by Bando. When Daiwa dropped the Millionaire, Bando brought out some models under their own name. They are slightly different because they have Graphite end plates, instead of aluminum, and have eliminated the O ring I hated so much. However, in virtually all other respects, they are identical - the one piece aluminum frame, wet drag, etc. I have one of these but no picture, or you could see that clearly it is in the same family. Last year, Shakespeare contracted with Bando to bring out a reel which brought back the name Shakespeare "President", and it also is a modern version of the Millionaire II! This reel (as far as I know), is available only through the Cabelas' catalog, and they are priced below $50! It too has the graphite side plates, wet drag and the all aluminum frame, and the characteristic level wind with the bend at the top that goes over a little bar. If you closed your eyes, you would not know that you were not fishing an original Millionaire! Of course, it basically is a Millionaire. I have 4 of these reels, and they are holding up much better in Salt Water because metal now touches graphite, and doesn't corrode as much. Basically, if anyone just wants the experience of still being able to fish with a Millionaire, and doesn't care about the collector's value, these so called Shakespeare Presidents are really great deals! When I had my Millionaires, I would buy Garcia ball bearings for $10 each at the local reel repair and would replace the white teflon bushing in the handle with a half size Garcia teflon bushing and the ball bearing. The white Teflon bushing was a little too small in diameter, making the handle a bit wobbly, especially for good sized salt water fish. The Garcia bushing and ball bearing not only supported the handle better, but made for a much smoother reel. Phil Gallo pgallo@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Southern California, USA

Charles Adams of New Bern, NC writes in about the Mini Millionaires: Just wanted to put my 2 cents worth into the mix. For almost two decades I have specialized (?) in ultralight baitcasting. At the present time I still have the following Daiwa "ultralight" baitcasters - two MM1000's, two MM2000's, two PMF 7's. All of these reels have been used, and I still have some extra spools and other parts somewhere. Not really trying to tempt you, but my 2000's are not in the best shape, and as far as fishing reels the best thing about them was the drag. They didn't cast that well, unless you were using a slow action rod and a lure of 1/4 oz +. The 1000 is a horse of a different color. Back when they first came out I bought about four of them for the price of $29.95 at a tackle shop I worked part-time fixing reels in Winston-Salem, NC. I won many a side bet with people coming in that thought that you couldn't cast a 1/16 oz crappie jig 60 ft. with a baitcaster (They couldn't, I could). It was tough but the reel was set up fast and the line was new Stren with the rod being the old Daiwa Minispin Gold Rod. Casting into the wind with this rig was Fun(;>). I could cast 1/8 oz. lures all day long.. White Bass, Largemouth, crappie, etc. hated this rig as many were brought to the boat/bank due to their efforts. The 1000's were fairly durable reels my personal best fish with one and a custom rod made on a old Browning Silaflex blank (slow action) was an 18 lb. catfish. The second best was a 15 (+-) carp (!). Both were caught while bass fishing with a 1/8 oz white rooster tail as I remember. The third best was a 8 lb. White/striped bass hybrid. That WAS fun. This reel is still in pretty good shape.Hope some of this is of interest, I have more info if you want. Couple points about tuning the MM's as they don't have any cast control other than your thumb and the bushings are near indistructable, the best way to tune the things is by use of different weight oils in the spool end cap, once you get that to suit you, you are in pretty good shape. Another help in fishing these reels with light line is to avoid real fast action rods, this is fiberglass rod territory, but I have accumulated some moderate to slow action graphite rods that do a great job. It is odd that such a small reel has a great drag. Charles Adams cgcj@always-online.com New Bern, NC USA

Jon Edwards gives us this information about DAIWA Millionaire Reels. Jon used to work for Daiwa from 1978 - 1983. Thanks for the info Jon! As I best remember, here is a history of the Millionaire Series and an explanation of their numbering system: The first two models were the 4H and 5H. Both had the same high-speed gear ratio: the only difference is the 4H had bushings, and the 5H had ball-bearings. The 4HS and 5HS were "Improved" second-generation models (and I think they were different colors than the original, hence the addition of the "S" in the model number. A wide-spool version of the 5HS was also added: the 6HS. The 3R was later introduced as a promotionally-priced, non-ball-bearing, medium-speed 3:1 gear ratio. The "R" stood for "Regular"-speed as opposed to "H" for High speed. I think there was also a 6RM too. They changed the "S" to "M" in the early 80's: the "M" stands for "Mono": these models have the one-piece frame. They also introduced a couple of versions of the "Mini-Millionaire" about this same time, but they were never very successfull and more of a novelty item than anything else. Hope this information is useful to you. Sincerely, Jon Edwards