Tartan34

Enigma Fishing comes from a friend of mine. Some really nice stuff. Knew this was in the works for awhile, but glad its out.

My buddy and I were fishing, and he landed a small fish and released it. He stuck himself with a fin. A couple of hours later, his hand swelled up, and was painful. A couple of days later, it got worse. He didn't do anything, and it didn't go away, so he saw a doctor. XRays were taken, and the doc showed him a piece of fin that was stuck in his hand. He was told he needed surgery, it would cost 20k, and he would be put under for surgery. After he declined, the doc did it in his office, and stitched him back up. The piece of fin was about 1/2" long Be careful with those fins!!.

No, but that was my first question. They had a sponge and soaked the grip. The moisture almost gave a "tackiness" to the grip, and that totally alleviated my concerns.

The rods are sweet in hand, and the Edge booth was my highlight of ICAST. They are at a great price point, IMO, and should compete very well. The grip is not a "hard" carbon fiber grip, and has a little give to the handle. The rods balanced well and were not at all tip heavy. I should have went to these first, but I chose the Bass line as my starting point. The Bass rods are so nice (and should be at that price), that I was let down with the EFX. That being said, I will be buying a couple.

1/4 oz. Topwater Popper, the bait is over 15 years old, and I have no idea what it is called....found it in an old Plano that I dusted off.

Edge EFX First Strike.

The *** Archangel will retail from $650 to $725.

The 13 Archangel rods feel incredible in hand. PriceTBD. Not as light as I thought they would be, but nice balance. The Edge Rods booth was my favorite. The new EFX will be a great value at $200.00. The new grips on the high-end series are sweet!

Slade, I found the Shane's bait A-Rig as impressive as you did, apparently. I was amazed with the lightness of the rig, and the potential options to customize. Sweet concept. The MinnKota TM was awesome as well. Went fishing yesterday, looking forward to getting back to the show today.

The Revo Beast just won "Best New Freshwater Reel", and beat the new Zillion along with many others (13 KP, Tatula HD, ...)

Winners.... Freshwater Reel-Revo Beast Freshwater Rod-Duckett Micro Magic Pro Freshwater Hardbait-Spro Rat Combo - Lews American Hero Baitcast Combo Line - Berkley Iron Silk Terminal - Trokar TK619 Best in Show - Johnson Predator XL

Good day in Orlando today. Fish were hammering an A-Rig until the storm came. My buddy caught fish on pretty much everything he threw. Poppers, Mojo, Fluke, Drop Shot We caught all 2 and 3 pounders, nothing big and nothing small.

Looks sweet. Here are a couple pics I took tonight for more information.

I did not. I only heard that the pricing will be at full JDM levels, hope to check it out sometime this week.

Pretty positive the zillion is NOT recessed. I didn't get my hands on the super duty, but here is the Team Lews Lite.

Quick pic from ICAST tonight. I should have taken more.

The knobs on the Team Lews Lite are sweet. My new favorite stock knobs.

Not my pic, taken from TT. The Zillion feels more compact, apparently the sideplates are interchangeable. I found the Zillion easier to palm.

So, I just got back from ICAST this evening, after spending the morning fly fishing on the Gulf (1st fish on a fly rod, a nice Yellow Jack!). Some initial thoughts.... The new Zillions are sweet. Really sweet. Lighter than expected, and palm incredibly. Smooth, but still feel like they are built like a tank. I like the Tatula HDs also, but they don't compare to the Zillion. If I would have picked up the Tatula HD first, my feeling might have been different, but I was let down. The 13 KP reel is light and tiny. Really light. I'm not sure I could get good use out of the reel, other than REALLY light finesse. Really light. Really tiny. MinnKota's new trolling motor, Ultegra?, is sweet. Love the auto deploy/stow and trim features. The new St Croix rod feels clunky to me. The split grip is OK, but the butt of the rod feels really, really thick in my hands. The most head-turning reel I handled was the Lews Team Lite. Great feel, and 5.7 ozs (on the placard). Really smooth feel, and I was really, really surprised.

1st time for me also, and also as a buyer. I've found the iPhone app to be pretty helpful in my planning.

I just received this from Daiwa Edit: email subject titled "Come see Daiwa’s latest new products at Booth 1677"

Keitech Easy Shiners. Nothing comes close...

Not in Orlando.....

I go past Bubba's house on the water while fishing in the Orlando area a lot, and hope to see him getting a line wet. So far, nada. I think he'd be a fun guy to fish with.