Pantera61

Well, I'm thick-skinned (and a bit thick-skulled if you asked my wife and friends) as well. I'll say all's well, as well, although you don't know me well enough to consider me biased because if you knew me you know I wasn't.

I've never been a big rod weight guy, within reason, more of a balanced outfit guy. So, half an ounce to me is minimal, which was the reason for my response. We don't know each other, perhaps I shouldn't have come at you in that manner. I don't know if your were around the other place you posted when the reel weight wars were going on, the term "weight weinie" was tossed around at the drop of a hat and mommas were not out of bounds. I used the 7'1" MH a lot and I guess the biggest compliment I can give it is to say I will be purchasing more out of my pocket. I was using prototypes of quite a few of those rods and I have some of the production models now and there's some refinement but not significant differences I can tell. I will say the more I used that rod, the more I liked it. Along with the 7'1" MH and the 6'9" ML, a couple more stand outs are the 7'1" M for cranks and topwaters and definitely the 7'3"H for frogs, heavy pitchin' and light boot-tail swim baits.

Since you brought up my field testing these rods, I'll say the 7'1" MH was probably one of my favorites because of it's versatility. Light pitchin', spinnerbaits, shallow cranks, mid-range plastics, swim jigs. In my opinion, superior to the comprable Steez in both performance and sensitivity. That was with the Revo Premier. When an MGX was added to the equation, it was better than the Steez/Steez combo. I'm speaking purely performance, not aesthetics. As for the 6'9" ML/MF casting rod, I used it for light crankbaits, down to 3/16 oz, up to Vision 110 jerkbaits and it handled the job well. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I think it's a great piece of equipment. I found them to be sensitive, powerful, durable and accurate in description of action and taper. The rods stood up to the rigors of testing and came out strong. First impressions are important but long term use is what should set the grade.

jason, it wasn't meant to be aggressive or nasty. It was meant to be humourous. That should have been apparent with the mention of the chore monkey. I'm not an emoticon type of guy. Again, I probably could have done it without the sarcasm but at least I didn't bring anybody's "momma" into it!

A personal attack? Hardly. It's using hyperbole and humor as a literary device. My apologies for offending your tender sensibilities.

Just wow! .5 oz = "a whole lot heavier"? The original listed weight on the 7'1" MH rod was 4.7 oz, on your personal scale it's 5.2 oz. That's a half an ounce. If that's a whole lot heavier, you may want to limit your activities, social life and adopt a monkey to do your tasks around your home. Second, if you're using Shimano rods, anything is going to feel stiffer to you. There are quite a few other rods on the market with comparable actions to Abu-Garcia sticks. If you think the grips on the Abu rods have a thin diameter, you might want to check out the Daiwa Zillion rods. The grips are about the same or possibly thinner than the Abu Garcia rods. I'm sure I'll have more to say on this topic.

The only Vendetta rod I had a problem with was the 7' medium action. If you're going for the flippin' stick, go with the 7'6" MH, not the H unless you plan on punching through major jungle junk.

to you and Jiggen, perhaps "knockoff" isn't the proper word. Clone perhaps? Revo, Lew's, Bass Pro, Pflueger and on and on and on. Revo set the standard 6 years ago and expanded the line and then came the rest. The people who are singing the praises of the Pinnacle were naysayers on the Revo.

I'm going by RW's description of components and features AND by the information supplied on the Pinnacle website.

This strains the limits of credibility. I'm not a Shimano person by any stretch of the imagination but to consider, basically a Revo knockoff, a challenger to the upper echelon of the Shimano line is absurdity.

Should I add the Carbonlite, Crucial, Compre, NRX, Carrot Stix, Duckett rod breakage links too? I mean, why stop with one brand of rod, right?

I've had 8 Veritas rods. Still have 6. Didn't like the action of 1 so I sold it. Upgraded to a Verdict rod and sold the other. Caught several bass up to 5 lbs on the Veritas, no problem. Hung up baits in bushes and trees and shook, yanked and pulled vigorously, no problem. Hung baits in submerged limbs, rocks and veg, shook, yanked and pulled vigorously, no problems. Rods were smacked against walls, dropped on bare aluminum decks and popped against ceilings, no problems. 8 rods, 1 year +, no problems. I'm sure there's a trail of tangled webs. I also find it quite remarkable no other brand of rod seems to break. Things that make you go hmmm ...

Hyperbole.

In theory, they do have functionality. Metal handles will eventually suffer fatigue and break, carbon handles will not. How long it takes is up for debate.

I have 5 spinning outfits for plastics, cranks, topwaters and jigs. That's in addition to my casting outfits.

Quality-wise, Falcon makes a very good rod. I can't speak for that particular model's performance for that application. You should be fine with any major manufacturer's 6'7"-7'2" M-MH power, Fast or ExFast action rod.

16 lb or 25 lb Sunline Shooter Invisible, 15lb or 17 lb Berkley 100% Flouro or 50 lb Fireline Braid

In the know being the operative phrase. I think the one advantage of braid does have over flouro is the ability to slice through vegetation. Like most things it's a bit of a trade off but when push comes to shove let me detect the fish and worry about getting him out as opposed to poke and hope. On a related topic, I had my eyes opened about how sensitive a mod-fast can be ...

I'm back to 25#lb flouro after testing back and forth between braid and flouro. I'll go against the grain and state flouro blows braid away sensitivity-wise. Same rod/same reel/same bait/same type cover, two different types of flouro, two different types of braid. I brought several fish to the boat without even feeling them with braid, no feel, no hookset, no fish. Using flouro felt the strikes immediately, the hookset followed and the bass joined me in the boat. My theory? The braid simply coils on itself when it hits an obstruction, the flouro, having more stiffness and density can help push the bait through and telegraphs the vibration. Don't believe it? Make paper cup telephones using flouro and braid, any limpness in the braid, the vibrations aren't carried as well.

An aspect of boating that's expensive?

My hands are just fine. As a matter of fact, my fingers and hands are tested every six months for sensitivity and tactile acuity. I sold my Steez rods because they lacked sensitivity.

I've used Steez rods and watched bass take a bait and waited and waited and waited for the bite to be transmitted. Steez ain't all that and most certainly not worth what Daiwa thinks.

No problem. Most people prefer softer tapers for moving baits, faster tapers for standing baits.

Are you concerned about detecting bites with a med/mod fast?

I'm looking at a pack of Eagle Claw "Lazer" tungsten worm weights. I don't know if that's the same weight you're asking about though.