Glenn: Hey, folks, Glenn May here with bassresource.com. I'm at the 2016 ICAST Show here at the Okuma booth with Carmen Macdonald. We're looking at the EVx series of rods. Any of you who've been familiar with Okuma for a number of years knows that this has been out for what, about 15 years now, but now they've come out with a completely new look and feel to them. Carmen, why don't you tell us a bit about that?
Carmen: Yeah, so everybody, you know, many anglers are familiar with our EVx series of rods. They've always been known as a tremendous value in the marketplace. The MSRPs are $99 on the spinning rods, 119 on the casting rods so in the retail stores, this is usually, you know, in that under $100, really accessible rod line. And so...
Glenn: Very affordable.
Carmen: Yeah, affordable for a guy to get into some tournament actions. And our EVx has always been known as a great value, but after having 'em for so many years, even though the reviews on 'em are really great, people loved 'em, they needed to be redone. You know, it was time. You know, we have better technologies now. And so what we did with this rod series is we brought in Jacob Wheeler and Matt Arey to the factory for a week and we detailed everything they needed.
Glenn: Those are top pros. Just for anybody who doesn't know, those two guys know their stuff. Top pros on the tour.
Carmen: Yeah, these are guys that really have really defined needs as to what they wanted in a crankbait action, what they needed in chatter bait rods, or drop shot rods, their all-around seven-footers. And so this is the result of that work. I mean, these actions were designed specifically for what they wanted on the tournament trail on the bow of their boats. Thirty ton carbon blanks. We reeded the whole guide system using C-Guides, so we have kind of a mini-micro style guide, not a full micro-guide but kind of a mid-range, so if you're fishing connections, they'll flow through these guides, but you get that overall feel towards that micro-guide feel.
Glenn: Are they ALPS guides?
Carmen: These are C-Guides.
Glenn: C-Guides.
Carmen: The C-Guides...excuse me, on the sea guides on the spinning rods and then ALPS guides on the casting rods.
Glenn: Got it, okay. Quality guides then.
Carmen: Yeah, top-end guide components throughout. The handle systems have all been redone. You'll see 'em with the composite cork and EVA foam. Custom handle, screw down, reel seats. There's no exposed threads when you're palming a reel so you get handle contact there. So really, really top-end redone. And another thing they did in working with these guys is that a lot of times on the bough of the boat, the difference between a great rod and the perfect rod is power, one way or the other. You know, you can be just slightly under-powered, you can be just slightly overpowered. So every length in the rod line, there's two dominant rod powers. And so at every length, you don't have to change, you go to a wholly different rod, different length, different action. They're built out in pairs so you can just tailor, you know, your rod selection to your exact needs.
Glenn: It's almost like having a custom rod.
Carmen: It is, yeah. It really...it was very thoughtful, the way these guys put it together. You know, they face the challenges on the water every day in the tournament environment and so they brought all of that to the table. The rods are all labeled, you know, per the techniques that the pros recommended. All the labels are in between the split grips of the rod.
Glenn: Look, we have crankbait rods, we have jig fishing rods. There's obviously spinning rods here and flipping rods. I mean, everything. All the major techniques that you guys are gonna use on the water, they're represented here in this line-up. When are these gonna hit the market?
Carmen: These are gonna hit the stores in September, so really quick turnaround after ICAST this year. They're done, they're ready, they're on the way to the market. Full grips on the two crankbait rods and split grips on everything else.
Glenn: I can see people putting that on their Christmas list right now.
Carmen: Yeah, great. I mean, they came out beautifully. The pros have been raving about the actions. The reception's been phenomenal. They fit everybody's, you know, taste in a rod that just the actions are really, really, really nice. And that's really what defines the series.
Glenn: Fantastic. So if you've been a fan of EVx for a long time or if you're new to Okuma rods and haven't seen them before, great line of rods you gotta check out at a wonderful price point. Check them out.