21 minutes ago, kickerfish1 said:

About as rare as a unicorn. I have the same exact rod and have had mine for probably close 4-5 years. I think I paid $250 for mine new from TW when they were closing them out.

 

I can tell you that they are still the lightest weight rods on the market. That 6'10 rod weighs only 3 oz. Pair it up with a 5.5 ounce Core 50 and it will weigh a whopping 8.5 ounces as a combo. What does this mean in terms of your fishing experience? Well, you won't have much fatigue and everything will be amplified even more in terms of feel.

 

I have tried both a Core 50 and an Alphas SV 105 and have settled on the Alphas. Mainly because I have been using this rod for jerkbaits, small poppers that only weigh a 1/4 oz or so and that Alphas casts them a bit better.

 

The rod does have exceptional feel so you can toss your plastics and smaller jigs on it. The only negative is the rods specs are going to be off from any MH rod you have used. I would say it is more of a true medium and the action is somewhere between Fast and Mod/fast. When you set the hook and the rod bends, it flexes quite deeply. I also find it frustrating at times to get a good hook set on with a weightless plastic or bottom contact bait. It just feels more under powered and not as "fast" in action as I prefer those apps.

 

If you do want to use it for smaller plastics and jigs I would say you don't want to push the weight much above 3/8 oz total. A 1/4 oz jig and trailer or a texas rig that starts with a 1/4 oz weight or less and plastic is about where you want to be.

 

If you are wanting something more true to a normal bottom contact rod I would see if I could find the 7'1 model. It is more powerful and has a faster action.

 

Nonetheless excellent score on the rod! I am sure you will enjoy it. If you find yourself tossing jerkbaits or top water poppers a lot, where you are constantly working the bait, I find the length and action absolutely ideal for both of these techniques as well.

I noticed when I put a reel on it and pulled on the line to test the action it does flex quite far down the blank just like you described. I'm hoping I can still use it as a senko rod by using very thin wire hooks.  I can already tell it will require a different hook setting technique vs. what I'm used to.  I'll also need to back off on the drag with such feeble hooks.  I hope it works because I really want to like this rod.

 

Thanks for providing your first hand experience with this stick.  There's surprisingly little info on these rods out there. I guess it was just before the current age where EVERYTHING'S on the internet.

I am sure you will like the rod. Like I mentioned I like it for a few techniques that require a great deal of effort to work the bait. It also shines as a smaller plastics rod.

 

It is extremely light and rivals anything I have seen on the market even todays rods. And the feel is about as much as any one could ask for.

 

I am sure you will enjoy the rod. Just be careful with the rod. If you break it you will probably get an Expride. And while the Exprides are great rods they don't have near as good as feel and obviously not close on the weight either.

 

If mid micro sized guides would have been either around or more popular when the Cumulus rods were created this rod would be even lighter and maybe 2.8 oz. Some of those guides they used are quite large even though they were top of the line in quality for the time they were produced.

 

Fish the rod, experiment with it and let use know what you think!

Just came in the mail today. This is my first JDM reel that I’ve owned (got it of TW, they had it labeled as JDM). Daiwa EM-MS2506H

7 hours ago, SMITTY0045 said:

Just came in the mail today. This is my first JDM reel that I’ve owned (got it of TW, they had it labeled as JDM). Daiwa EM-MS2506H

Definitely want to stick with braid on that spool. Really shallow. Japanese are big on that. I never really understood their benefit on spinning reels.

4 hours ago, The Bassman said:

Definitely want to stick with braid on that spool. Really shallow. Japanese are big on that. I never really understood their benefit on spinning reels.

I’m the opposite, I dont understand why most USDM spinning reels have so much capacity, I usually end up filling most of my spinning reels 3/4 of the way up with plumbers tape before I spool line on.  

6 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

I’m the opposite, I dont understand why most USDM spinning reels have so much capacity, I usually end up filling most of my spinning reels 3/4 of the way up with plumbers tape before I spool line on.  

I'm actually somewhere in the middle. USDM too much, JDM not enough. I considered a Stradic 2000 CI4+HGS but all of Shimano's JDM shallow spools are too much so. Not enough capacity for anything except for low test braid.

10 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

I’m the opposite, I dont understand why most USDM spinning reels have so much capacity, I usually end up filling most of my spinning reels 3/4 of the way up with plumbers tape before I spool line on.  

 

4 hours ago, The Bassman said:

I'm actually somewhere in the middle. USDM too much, JDM not enough. I considered a Stradic 2000 CI4+HGS but all of Shimano's JDM shallow spools are too much so. Not enough capacity for anything except for low test braid.

Line capacity is overrated. With braided line and high tech graphite rods and super hardened hooks and 9 or more pounds drag, no fish will spool you. Get a shallower spool and use the force, it will guide you ?

Y’all making me have second thoughts about my 5000 size reel now 

13 hours ago, bh91 said:

Y’all making me have second thoughts about my 5000 size reel now 

That’s a huge spinning reel for bass fishing. 

I've set up plenty of people with 4000/5000 size reels and 50/65 lb. braid or up to 17# mono/fluoro for bass fishing.  For what ever reason, be it disability or inability, they won't use a baitcaster, so to use heavier line, the larger spool diameter works well.  Many times, it's for frogging.  They usually have to look at inshore rods for this.

4 hours ago, rippin-lips said:

That’s a huge spinning reel for bass fishing. 

Striped bass

After much contemplation, I decided to take this beauty home. Fitzgerald Titan HD, 7'6" heavy. Wanted to try one for awhile, finally bit the bullet. Thinking of putting an OG zillion or Steez ex on it. Gotta few months to decide still lol.

This year I decided to get a dedicated topwater and Jerkbait setup.
Got an Evergreen Combat Stick paired up with a Tatula SV.

 

I was pleasantly surprised with those when I handled a few in the store. Nice build quality and pretty dang light. 

 

These are my 2 newest reels (and rods). My goal is to give the reels a strong comparison this year. Today was my first time using the Tatula LT. I bought the Stradic a few years ago, but have only fished with it maybe 5 times. I caught my first 2 bass of the year today—largemouth on the tatula and a smallmouth on the stradic. 

The tatula is definetly not as nice as the stradic .. in my opinion unless I was one of the unlucky few that get a imperfect rod 

1 hour ago, microotter said:

 

These are my 2 newest reels (and rods). My goal is to give the reels a strong comparison this year. Today was my first time using the Tatula LT. I bought the Stradic a few years ago, but have only fished with it maybe 5 times. I caught my first 2 bass of the year today—largemouth on the tatula and a smallmouth on the stradic. 

Put a little more line on your Stradic, about a 1/16" from the spool edge bevel.  Will make a big diff.

Expride 7'2MH Glass (new chatterbait rod) with a new Tatula 100. This matte black darth vader reel looks awesome on the Expride. 

 

GLX 893C with a 13 ***. For some reason I just can't let this particular *** go, it's one of my favorite reels and it fits perfectly on the GLX for some reason. I had two of these and my other one felt a little "geary", but this one is super smooth. It's the only 13 reel I have left anymore... I got it so nice and broken in. Plus they look pretty cool together.

 

8 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

Put a little more line on your Stradic, about a 1/16" from the spool edge bevel.  Will make a big diff.

Yeah I noticed that today. I actually  didn’t respool it this season. Whatever line I had on there is holding up well as far as manageability. Its either mccoy or yozuri hybrid. 

17 hours ago, BaitFinesse said:

 Megabass Orochi xXx Black Elsile 2. 

 

 

How is the Elsile?  I have an XXX Themis and really like it.  The XXX line does not seem very popular over here and there’s not a lot of information about them. The price point makes them attractive for niche/technique/presentation specific stuff. 

My combos from left to right...

 

Avid UL/F with 1000 CI4+

LTB M/XF with 2500 CI4+

LTB M/F with Met Mgl

Avid X MH/F with Chronarch CI4+

Avid X H/F with Curado K

 

I am happy that I am able to call these mine. 

 

Legend Glass and JDM old school CV-Z 103

3 minutes ago, Big-Bass said:

Legend Glass and JDM old school CV-Z 103

Sweet !

A-Jay

18 hours ago, BaitFinesse said:

Daiwa Alphas SV with a Megabass Zonda spool and silver parts on a Megabass Orochi xXx Black Elsile 2. 

 

5.8:1 or 7.2:1?  Looks great!

1 hour ago, BaitFinesse said:

7.2

It is light weight and well balanced.  I bought it to use a jerkbait rod that could also pull weightless plastics duty and maybe small jigs.  This rod was supposed to be super versatile and have 30% more rigid back bone thanks to the kabt fibers.

 

The rod is a fairly average medium powered rod.  The kabt fiber do  nothing to give it any more backbone from what I can see.  I was expecting it to be like my Zodias 72M but the Zodias has way more backbone and is better for plastics and jigs.  The BE2's handle is also longer than the Zoidas and too long for my tastes for jerkbait use.  It didn't live up to the description of the rod which is a shock because all other Megabass rods I have knock it out of the park in that regard.  This one was kinda a dud so I'm going to use it as a shallow crankbait and topwater rod and it seems like it will work really well.  

 

All the talk about the kabt fibers didn't pan out.  It's not just BE2 being softer than a M Zodias, the gen 2 Orochi XX rods are constructed the same way and guys are saying they are softer than the old XX rods.  

That’s too bad it wasnt what you wanted.  The Black Themis is basicly a “ML/XF Spinning rod”, which is exaclty what I was looking for.  

 

Do you feel like the BE is far off from the deflection chart?