Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g (Jig Max 56g) lure rod review - £335 UK price

This Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g (Jig Max 56g) lure rod is obviously not cheap, but out of interest I went to the Shimano Japan website and converted the Yen prices for this rod to £UK, and it seems that we are currently getting this rod for less than in Japan. I have never previously handled any of the Shimano Lunamis rods, and this one here is but one rod in an extensive and recently upgraded range. My understanding is that these Lunamis rods sit between the very good Dialuna and then the outrageously good Exsence Genos ranges. This Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g (Jig Max 56g) lure rod has got a lot to live up to then. I have asked various people at Shimano UK for clarification on exactly what “Jig Max 56g” actually means in terms of lure weights and exactly what you are meant to be able to blast on this rod, but I’m still waiting for clarification and I’m not exactly holding my breath………....

For me and the type of lure rods I like fishing with, this new Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g is a hugely impressive rod if you’re after something distinctly more powerful than the more regular lure rods which are used by so many anglers, indeed within this category as such I can’t think of a rod I have liked fishing with much more. This Lunamis is SO my kind of lure rod - fast and sharp, and plenty responsive enough considering how powerful it is. It was interesting to put this rod into a mate’s hands and within about five minutes of banging lures out into some hectic conditions he turned to me and said exactly what I thought from the moment I first fished with it: “this thing is just effortless”. I was obviously interested to see if this 6’’ longer Shimano Lunamis S96MH might be similar to my beloved Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g lure rod and how ridiculously versatile it is through nearly all of its 8-48g casting range. I’d have loved this to be the case because it would be so handy with a few of the Shimano Japan range of Lunamis lure rods now being available in UK tackle shops and the Genos rods very much aren’t - as good as this Lunamis is though, it doesn’t do lures below say 18g nearly as well as my 9’ 8-48g Genos which is a freak of a rod. This Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g comes alive with the heavier lures though, and I also can’t get away from how I find a slightly longer lure rod that bit more efficient when it comes to casting heavier lures.

It’s a weapon of a lure rod, indeed I’d put this Shimano Lunamis S96MH up there as one of the most powerful but “so easy to get at the power” lure rods I have used before you step up again to say a 60g+ rod which quite frankly I haven’t yet found a use for in my bass fishing world. I had a few chucks with one of those longer and more powerful Smith Dragonbait Sea-Bass rods that I have heard a bit about and it wasn’t for me, but horses for courses as ever and I learnt a long time ago in bass fishing to never say never. This Shimano Lunamis S96MH is powerful then, but it’s not remotely overpowering me with the sort of lures I am fishing with on this kind of rod. You can of course chuck something like a DoLive Stick or a Spittin’ Wire surface lure on this rod and it makes a fairly good fist of it, but for fishing lures like these all the time I’d be somewhere in the 7-35g range. My ridiculously versatile and more expensive Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g fishes those lures perfectly for me, but I reckon this Lunamis is far better suited to your say 18-45g lures, and it really likes blasting things out and cranking them in. When you’re fishing in bouncy conditions this rod does it for me in a big way.

Clip on something like an IMA Hound 125F Glide hard lure, adjust your drop to allow for the power in the rod and what is a pretty pokey tip, wind the rod up nice and smoothly (don’t lash at it, there is simply no need), and let it fly - holy cow it goes out there well. You can guess how well the Patchinko II and indeed the smaller Patchinko 125 surface lures cast on this Shimano Lunamis S96MH, and the arrow-like Seadra Surface LaunceR or indeed the missile which is the Savage Gear Surf Walker 155S hasn’t actually landed yet. Bumping paddletails across reefs or swimming them in deeper water and so on are where a rod as powerful and strong in the tip obviously works great, and whilst our bass don’t grow big enough to remotely trouble a rod like this, I do prefer being slightly overpowered rather than underpowered with the lures I might use. Give me bouncy conditions and plenty of white water over rough ground or deeper water and this Shimano Lunamis S96MH is just about ideal in my opinion, but because I am so loving this surf fishing thing I was also very interested in how this rod might work for me in those conditions………………

The one thing that I quickly find annoying in any lure rod I might take into what I would call “proper” surf conditions is when the tip bounces around in the wind. I like the considerably cheaper HTO Nebula 3.00m/10’ 12-42g lure rod for surf fishing so much because the tip is so “sharp” and precise and it doesn’t flap around like a badly set sail in the breeze, plus it’s easy to wind up and fish with. The way this Shimano Lunamis S96MH gets my Savage Gear Seekers and these very long-casting SG Sandeel Pencil 125 and 150 lures out there is incredible, but then you’d expect a rod like this to be a casting machine. Holy cow you can go hard at the heavier lures if you need to, but as ever a smooth casting style is what’s rewarded.

I have fished with this Lunamis a bit in the surf now and it behaves impeccably in windy and rougher conditions - the tip doesn’t bounce around in the breeze and I feel that even in those annoying side winds I have a good contact with the lures I might use. If you read my blog then it probably goes without saying that my spinning reel of choice on this rod has been the mighty Penn Slammer III 3500 (the Penn Spinfisher VI 3500 also feels particularly nice on this rod), and whilst other spinning reels do of course sit just fine on the rod, I err towards the Slammer for a certain amount of my bass fishing, and a rod this powerful to me just feels right when matched with this reel. I also like the handle design on this Lunamis with its “carbon monocoque handle” on the butt, but then I liked this kind of grip on the rod butt from my first cast with the Exsence Infinity rods, and then again with this Exsence Genos. I don’t quite know how it ended up like this, but it’s now the case for me that some of the Shimano Japan (sea) bass rods are for the most part my go-to weapons these days.

I’m still going to just about take the cheaper HTO Nebula 3.00m/10’ 12-42g lure rod for my own surf fishing, but by a whisker I might add, and also bear in mind that I have used the Nebula a hell of a lot in the surf now. This Lunamis is putting my lures out a frigging mile, and I’ll take it all day long out on the rocks and reefs and deeper water in bouncy conditions. It eats the surf up and I can’t recall being able to put something like a 28g Savage Gear Seeker or 30g Savage Sandeel Pencil 150 out any further, but I can’t help but be drawn more to the slightly lighter feel of the 10’ Nebula in the surf. This might just be me and I’ll take the Lunamis over the Nebula out on the rocks and reefs and deeper water, but there is something about how easy the Nebula is to wind up in the surf yet still doesn’t bounce around in the breeze which still makes it my go-to surf fishing rod. I note that the carbon monocoque handle on this Lunamis has a very smooth finish, and unlike on my Genos there is no use of any slightly grippier material on it. As I said above, I like these handles a lot, but in the surf when you’ve got continually soaking wet hands I sometimes find the smooth Lunamis butt grip to be a bit of a pain. If I owned this rod and I was to press into regular service in the surf I think I’d be wrapping something grippier around that carbon monocoque handle.

How about the comparable specced but cheaper Dialuna against this awesome Lunamis? The outstanding Shimano Dialuna S96M 9'6" 8-45g lure rod is easier overall and a bit more subtle in the tip than this Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g, and although the rods are at different price points I think the Dialuna is so good that with these different actions the two rods can easily live side by side. I prefer the Dialuna if I might turn to DoLive Sticks and Spittin’ Wires and so on, plus it does the up to say 40g stuff well, and then for me this more expensive Shimano Lunamis S96MH is better suited to out and out punchier work when things get hectic. The whole package smacks of serious quality and damn I’d love to see more of this new and extensive Lunamis range of lure rods from Japan because I bet there are plenty more stunners in there.

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