my wife bought me one for Christmas.   i am starting to gel with the rod.  and happily, i am catching fish, even!!  not much talk about the relatively new X10 rods.  figured i would start the conversation.  

 

Currently, it is paired with a JDM Zillion, loaded with 12lb Sunline Sniper.  The rod is a fantastic rod at casting baits.  i am using it for my Moving baits.  Squarebill Crankbaits, Chatterbaits, and even smaller Spinner baits.   i can fling a 1/4 crankbait super far.  pretty accurate as well.  

 

here is the thing.  it replaced a Dobyns Fury 733c; and what a difference.  i never had trouble detecting a fish strike.  not on a moving bait connected with taut line.  what was missing was the lure inputs.  i couldn't really feel a tiny chatter bait, chattering..or a crankbait shimmy.  now i can.  i know when the treble hooks of a crank dipped into the moss and is no longer moving correctly.  if the crank hits grass, i can feel it and yank the bait thru.  

 

the Bandersnatch is not good for jerkbaits.  the tip is to moderate. feels weird.  the rod is overloaded yanking a LV500 thru grass.  

 

fighting a fish, is awesome.  i had very large pike minnow slamming me and it was cool feeling the big wide parabola of the rod doing its thing.  pinning a fish to the hook was very real.  

 

i gave my wife the report yesterday, and i thanked her for an awesome gift.   it was nice to save some money off a MB P5 offering.  i think the rod is very attractive aesthetically.  YMMV.

I would like to bump this up as I am very interested in this rod and the Super Elseil. 

 

Would like to see if anyone has much experience with these, especially the Bandersnatch, Super Elseil, & Rapid viper.  Those 3 are what I'm most interested in.

ahhhh..I am in love with my bandersnatch.  I throw moving things.  anything from a 5" Daingerous swimbait to a 3/8th spinnerbait.   I had a very successful early 2025 crankbait bite and the Bandersnatch played a huge part.

 

took a beat to get used to the bulbous handle, but the rod itself flings things far like a catapult.  

 

in a moving bait rod I want:

castability.

I want to fight the fish knowing it is pinned.

and kinda light since I seem to cast a lot.  

 

sensitivity is oddly great on this rod.  the Grass-Piece has the most subtle vibration when the blade is dancing.  I can feel it when it is acting right..so when I kiss grass and I feel the blade stop moving, I have the backbone to pull it thru the grass.  so even in a moving bait rod, the sensitivity is awesome.  

15 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

ahhhh..I am in love with my bandersnatch.  I throw moving things.  anything from a 5" Daingerous swimbait to a 3/8th spinnerbait.   I had a very successful early 2025 crankbait bite and the Bandersnatch played a huge part.

 

took a beat to get used to the bulbous handle, but the rod itself flings things far like a catapult.  

 

in a moving bait rod I want:

castability.

I want to fight the fish knowing it is pinned.

and kinda light since I seem to cast a lot.  

 

sensitivity is oddly great on this rod.  the Grass-Piece has the most subtle vibration when the blade is dancing.  I can feel it when it is acting right..so when I kiss grass and I feel the blade stop moving, I have the backbone to pull it thru the grass.  so even in a moving bait rod, the sensitivity is awesome.  

Thanks for the info.  I ended up going with the Super Elseil.  I figured if it's not what I'm looking for I'll use it for topwater and grab the Bandersnatch later on.

On 9/9/2025 at 2:03 PM, Robinhood21 said:

Thanks for the info.  I ended up going with the Super Elseil.  I figured if it's not what I'm looking for I'll use it for topwater and grab the Bandersnatch later on.

My Orochi X10 Elseil is set to be here shortly. How has it been? What’s been working? Does it prefer 1/2oz+? What reel and line did you go with? Thanks ahead of time!

On 9/8/2025 at 5:34 PM, Robinhood21 said:

I would like to bump this up as I am very interested in this rod and the Super Elseil. 

 

Would like to see if anyone has much experience with these, especially the Bandersnatch, Super Elseil, & Rapid viper.  Those 3 are what I'm most interested in.

I have the rapid viper and swamp survivor. I find these rods are a big step up from the Orochi XX if that helps.

The Rapid Viper is an interesting rod to say the least. I use it exclusively for mid sized crank-baits (up to 1/2oz). Its quite moderate in action so I can't see using if for anything that doesn't have small hooks. Too sloppy for a jerkbait unless its really small. With this this said, its amazing for square bills and other shallow crankbaits.  I caught 2 PBs on this rod this past summer, a 21" smallmouth and a 52"musky. Both on a MB Sonicside in Secret Gill.  I have several MB rods and the one thing that impresses me the most is how you tell what the bait is doing and how much power they have down low.  The 3 models you list are all moderate action and I'd recommend getting all 3 :-). Otherwise, the Elseil and Bandersatch look to be quite close and you may want to feel them in your hand to decide. I wouldn't go over 1/2oz on the Rapid Viper and leave the moderate and deep divers for the higher powered rods.

On 10/31/2025 at 2:52 PM, Aguilab1 said:

My Orochi X10 Elseil is set to be here shortly. How has it been? What’s been working? Does it prefer 1/2oz+? What reel and line did you go with? Thanks ahead of time!

I'm late on this, sorry about that... but I've only used it with 3/8 & 1/2oz spinnerbaits. For that I feel like it's worked great. I think it would work awesome for medium walking baits as well. At first it felt a little weird setting the hook because of the action but I was throwing a spinnerbait on a completely different action before that. I'm looking forward to really putting it to work here in the next couple of weeks.

Did you get much time with yours? I'm interested on your experiences with it so far.