How long do you give it before you decide whether you really like a new lure rod or not?

With the array of lure rods available to us UK based bass junkies right now, choosing a new rod can obviously be a bit of a minefield. Let’s say though that we have bought a new lure fishing rod and we are now going out bass fishing with it - how long do you give a new rod before you decide whether you really like it or not? I am only guessing here, but judging from the number of lure rods I see for sale on something like Facebook there have to be a few anglers who think nope, this new rod is not for me at all and I need to sell it and find something else which suits me better………….

A friend of mine who is a very good bass angler recently came to grief with an expensive lure rod he has fished with for a few years now and seriously loves. Or loved as is now the case. This specific rod was never available in the UK and it’s now been upgraded anyway so the original is no longer available. He was absolutely gutted and he asked for my advice on a new rod. I love messing around with different lure rods and often reviewing them on here, but I can only ever talk about what I like fishing with and I have always accepted that what I like isn’t necessarily going to suit another angler - which is why I find it really hard trying to suggest a specific lure rod for somebody, and that includes even if I know how they fish and cast and so on.

So I did a bit of computing in my head and came up with what I think is a truly awesome and fairly comparable lure fishing rod, the Shimano Lunamis 9’6’’ 35g (review here). I know the rod my friend had been fishing with before so I tried to think along those lines to come up with this suggestion. I happen to think the Shimano Lunamis range of lure rods are some of the best lure rods we can currently get our hands on - bearing in mind that there are numerous rods in the range that we will never get to see here in Europe, I don’t think it’s at all possible to understand how Shimano Europe make some of the decisions they do - but for various reasons I seem to hear so little about them. I have fished with four different Lunamis rods and quickly cast a couple more - various reviews can be found here - and I have loved all of them. I still can’t get the Lunamis S90ML 9’ 6-25g out of my head for example, wow that is some rod (review here).

But of course we all cast and fish in subtly different ways. My mate ordered that particular Lunamis, went out fishing with it the other morning, and decided pretty quickly that it wasn’t for him. We spoke a bit on the phone about what he thought of it and the conclusion was that he didn’t quite get on with it and he was going to try and exchange the rod for something else. For sure the Lunamis wasn’t exactly the same as the (more expensive) rod he is no longer with, but no two rods are the same and thus for me it begs the question which is the title of today’s post - how long do you give it before you decide whether you really like a new lure rod or not? When you know you know in many respects, and especially when you fish as well as this lad does, but on the flipside I would also argue that more time can sometimes open a rod up if that makes sense.

Which to be fair is easier for me to say when I get to play with a lot of different rods and often for extended periods, but I am very conscious that it’s easy to write a lure rod off very quickly when more time with the rod can sometimes really change your opinion of it. I go back to what I now think is one of the most impressive 9’6’’ rods we can get our hands on here in the UK - the APIA Foojin’RS Vivogue 96ML+ 9’6’’ 6-38g (review here). I distinctly remember thinking mmm, it’s a bit tippy for me and how I tend to fish, but it felt so interesting. I got to spend proper time with the rod and the end result is that I am still fighting the urge to splash some cash on one because I like the rod so much. Same with the much cheaper Savage Gear SGS6 9’ 9-35g rod (review here), to the point that I now like this rod so much I almost can’t put it down. Did I mention how much I want to go fishing?!

Another thing which I think can be hard to get past is when you are so used to how one specific rod fishes that it’s doubly tricky to kinda disentangle your brain from how that rod fishes - and open yourself up to how a different rod works. In some respects it can beg the question why not stick with the rod you already really like, but firstly that’s entirely too sensible and logical, and secondly you might need a lighter or more powerful rod to deal with some specific bass fishing and so on. I’ve got a load of rods here which I need to start testing and evaluating when I am allowed back out there, but it still amazes me how rods of the same lengths and casting weights can be made to feel so different. You all have a good weekend and thank f&%k there are no World Cup warm games over the next few days to mess with my heart rate. How awesome is next Friday evening going to be when it’s France v New Zealand as the opening match though? Gotta keep the breathing nice and easy………….

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