Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g (Jig Max 45g) lure rod review - £335 here in the UK

I am not quite sure how it’s happened and in some respects it’s kind of annoying when Shimano Europe seem to be so uninterested in properly servicing a growing bass lure fishing market and there is so much good gear made by Shimano Japan, but here we are in 2020 and I find myself going out lure fishing for bass most of the time with Shimano Japan lure rods. For sure I am often trying something out for review, but it’s Shimano lure rods that go out with me the most. Some are available here in the UK and some are not, but for various reasons a number of these lure rods which originate from Shimano Japan have ended up being essentially perfect lure rods for me and how I fish and like my lure rods to be……………..

So here we have this distinctly non-budget Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g lure rod, but I feel entirely comfortable saying that as of August 2020 this is up there with the best, available in the UK, “regular casting weight” 9’6’’ long lure rods I have come across. I have fished with a lot of very good 9’6’’ lure rods now, and this Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g is SO completely my kind of lure rod that I wonder how on earth a fishing tackle company could make a lure rod that better suited me and what I like. We can use all my favourite lure rod words and phrases like sharp, precise, lightning fast, powerful, nice and light, steely etc., because this Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g is all of them and more. Do not go near this awesome rod if you prefer something more through and easy, but if you are anything like me and you are after a lure fishing rod that is so sharp and precise it feels almost like you are cutting the air apart when you cast it, then do all you can to check this thing out. It’s not at all cheap but damn it’s a serious lure fishing rod.

The lad I was recently doing some Savage Gear filming with kindly shot a few photos of me putting this Lunamis through its paces

I’d be less inclined to so like this Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g though if there wasn’t a noticeable difference between this one and the (relatively) subtle animal of a lure rod that is the next step up Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g (review here) - but there is. The 10-45g version is seriously powerful, and whilst it makes a relatively good fist of fishing something like a 6’’ DoLive, in truth it properly comes to life when you fish with heavier lures - so I really like how a step down in power to this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g still gives me plenty of powerful action, but with much more subtlety than the 10-45g version. I love how the two rods share a very similar DNA with how they bend and cast and fish, but this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g is undoubtedly a more versatile lure fishing rod for the way in which so many of us go about our bass fishing here in the UK and indeed Ireland.

I said in my review of the more powerful Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g that it’s made for surf fishing but that I actually still prefer the way the HTO Nebula 3.00m/10’ 12-42g lure rod works for me in the surf. Considering then that I haven’t come across many surf fishing situations when a 35g metal can’t cut it, this lighter and subtler Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g is actually turning out to be a peach of a rod for when the surf is running. In the blurb there’s this “Max 45g jig weight” used to describe this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g lure rod, but I still haven’t found out exactly what this means in terms of what you are meant to be able to cast at full power. What I do know is that I can absolutely full-blooded hurl a 35g metal out there on this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g, and you can really move the 23g, 28g, and 32g Savage Gear Seekers so quickly in the cast and put them out there a country mile if needs be. You can imagine how far the Patchinko goes on this rod, it goes together as perfectly with the IMA Hound 125F Glide and Savage Gear Sandeels as jet skis out on the coast do with obnoxious twats, and it’s almost as if it was purposely made to cast and fish with the Savage Gear Sandeel Pencils in all three sizes - the baby 90, the regular 125, and the big brother 150.

But I also really like how when I want to get more subtle with various soft plastics, this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g works so well for me. You might well like a gentler kind of action for your soft plastics, but I err towards this Lunamis sort of action - I love that sharp and precise kind of feel with a very fast recovery, and this thing has got all that and more. This is a powerful rod that does the DoLives and upwards with ease for me, but because the tip especially is strong I can then take this Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g out onto the rocks and some deeper water in hectic conditions, and it doesn’t miss a beat. This rod loves a lighter reel as much as the next length of delightful Japanese carbon, but I can still strap my beloved Penn Slammer III 3500 to it and love fishing with the combination. I can’t think of any of my current bass fishing where if I want a 9’6’’ rod this thing doesn’t do it for me.

Okay, so you are going to find a more slightly more subtle (and cheaper) rod with something like the delightful Tailwalk EGinn 96ML-R 9'6'' Max 35g, and it’s still hard for me to look past how much serious lure rod the awesome Major Craft Triple Cross EU Custom 9’6’’ 10-30g is for £199.99. My head works in weird ways though, and whilst I’ve got my ultimate lure rod in the outrageously good Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g, and I have also fished a bit with the longer 10’ version of this rod (the incredible Shimano Exsence Genos S100MH/R 10’ 8-48g), I do tend to prefer a 9’6’’ rod over a 10’ rod. If Shimano Japan made a 9’6’’ version of the 48g Genos “Wild Contact” I’d snap one up in an instant, and whilst this Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g lure rod I am reviewing here is not quite a Genos, it does sit well between those two 48g Genos rods, and especially with how my 9’ 48g Genos can and does handle the heavier lures but it’s the perfect rod to me when I use it more as a regular casting weight lure rod. Does that make any sense at all or is this another example of my addiction to lure fishing rods and how they work for me and my fishing?

The carbon monocoque handle feels very normal to me with how much I have fished with them on Shimano rods now, and I also really like the reelseat designs on these Lunamis and indeed Dialuna rods. Whatever a Shimano Ci4 reel seat actually is, it works great, as indeed do the Fuji Titanium SiC guides. I never use the built in lure keeper on a rod like this, but I guess some anglers do otherwise there’d be no point putting them on, and somehow Shimano Japan just seem to effortlessly get the handle lengths right for my casting and fishing. These Lunamis rods come in a plastic sort of case and don’t come with a rod bag, and whilst this is of no real bother to me and the fact that my lure rods sit in rod racks ready to go most of the time, I thought I should mention it. This has been such an easy rod review to write because in my mind this Shimano Lunamis S96M 9’6’’ 7-35g is essentially a perfect lure rod for me, and holy cow do I not want this rod to go back from whence it came………………….

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