[Mark Sleep]

I am looking for suggestions please. If you had around £200 buring a hole in your pocket, and you had to choose a rod around 8ft to cast light hard lures, around the 10-15g mark, what would you choose? It would be used occasionally with light soft stuff, but be predominantly lures like the Vision 95 and 110's etc. I want something balanced to that weight of lure. My Shukan is rated 15-40, but I want something like 5-25g or along those lines. Had my eye on the ESG II, which is at £300, but wondering whether there is anything slightly less expensive.

All input welcome!

 

[Keith White]

I am looking for suggestions please. If you had around £200 buring a hole in your pocket, and you had to choose a rod around 8ft to cast light hard lures, around the 10-15g mark, what would you choose? It would be used occasionally with light soft stuff, but be predominantly lures like the Vision 95 and 110's etc. I want something balanced to that weight of lure. My Shukan is rated 15-40, but I want something like 5-25g or along those lines. Had my eye on the ESG II, which is at £300, but wondering whether there is anything slightly less expensive.

All input welcome!

Good question and, the lures you mention interesting.

ok, IF you fish the visions jerk style then (without the right action) the lure will move the rod,
considerably. You have to adapt your fishing style to accommodate it.

I personally like a rod bar type action for Jerkbaiting (vision 110 is a jerkbait, but also a minnow bait) I do not
know how you fish it. Remember, the vision 110 gained it's reputation as such and, it is, in freshwater, a suspender.

So, we jerk it down and wait X amount of time or, we use a slashbait style with said plug. Both methods require
a faster stiffer tip. Why ?

Because smaller rod tip movement's to gain larger lure movement means less slack and more control.
Hit a 110 down on a rod like a bar and you'll feel a 1 second buzzing of the lure as it dives, even at 50 yards out.
On the injection, same thing at 35 yards is difficult without sweeping the rod right around around your body to
achieve a similar buzz and attained depth.

So, I would choose any rod carefully based around what you want.

I'm only suggesting that you look at the supermix 240 and maybe the superdistance, not purchase them.
Look at them.

The Supermix action will work soft plastics quite well, has a sensitive enough tip whilst retaining
enough juice to move jerkbaits of the size you mention.

I've not yet come across personally, a rod which will do both jobs equally well but the supermix whilst
obviously compromising in some area's comes close. So use those actions as a guideline.

Hope this helps.

We could get together if you want to try a few rods so we can determine your individual style.
That latter point can be important as we ALL fish differently. if you are spending £300 on a new stick,
spend wisely, or regret it.

Hope this helps, sorry for the long reply..

 

[Mike Kennard]

Keith raised some valid points there regarding working the lure. I have a rod similar to what you are describing but mine isn't 'technique specific. It was custom built from a Carbotec 8ft light salmon blank. (it would scare me to death going salmon fishing with it though!). The rod does lots of things very well but not perfect really for longer distances. Most light rods are not really designed for longer range fishing and tend to be more 'finesse' in terms of lure fishing. If you wanted a rod that worked well at longer range then something stiffer would likely work better.
I can't think of any rods in the price range you stated either as the Japanese ones will be more expensive, but it might be worth looking at at G Loomis, St Croix etc light salmon and steelhead rods for ideas. Maybe get a blank and build it up? Especially if you can get somebody to bring one back from the US.
I know they use similar rods in Scandinavia for sea trout too but don't know of any models. Vidar can likely help there.

 

[Andy Mason]

A balancing act I'm sure. Do you want 8ft for any particular purpose? I would have thought a shorter rod would be more beneficial and as a jerkbait rod would need to be relatively stiff and the shorter the better. However I have a 6'2" stiff, fast action baitcasting rod that casts 7-21gr and is ideal for jerbaits, vibration baits, jigging etc BUT it does struggle at the lower gram end to cast any distance. It needs more taper to flick light lures, then I'd loose the stiffness in the tip. A longer version of my rod would help but I'd also loose the stiffness required to work the baits I use. I think in this case you are almost running at the point where your set up will be quite limited and very specific as to what you'll be casting with it.

 

[Vidar Thomassen]

For the money you are talking about there are only one option in my mind and that's the Major Craft Saltic ST-822L rod. It has a regular to fast action that will cast a light plug a very long way, but with a tip that still is stiff enough for working jerkbaits

http://www.majorcraft.co.jp/salt-saltic-seabass.htm

As the rod is a two-piece version less than 8.6 feet it can be shipped via EMS thus allowing you acquire it from Plat within your budget.

I’m about to order the 8.7 feet version of the Lucky Craft ESG II so I should be able to give you some feedback on that rod by the end of next week.