Some of the new fishing tackle I was starting to play with and/or I’ve got here waiting for a bit of a go when we can get back at it

Come on, we’re amongst friends here - have you physically talked to your fishing rods and lures yet? I have a few rod and reel setups sitting in the hallway on a rack that I put up a few years ago and amazingly it hasn’t fallen down yet. Multiple times a day I walk past these rods for whatever reason and damn right I’ve had a little chat with them to assure them that I’m not neglecting them and that we will get through this madness at some point and get back out there to resume whatever a normal life turns out to be. I sincerely hope that all of you here are keeping yourselves as safe and sane as possible. I don’t usually do this sort of blog post, but these are strange times and because we can’t go fishing I thought it might be a bit of fun to talk you through some of the gear I have here for playing around with purposes. Either I’ve been out with it a bit before the proverbial properly hit the fan or else it’s sitting here and looking at me with puppy dog eyes and wrecking my head with how much I want to see what certain items might be like…………….

Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9'6'' 10-45g lure rod - I have played around with this rod enough now to have formed an opinion, indeed the main thing holding me back from writing a full review is the fact that I haven’t yet had a proper thrash with it in the surf. This Lunamis is a frigging weapon and it might just be the most powerful lure rod around that 45g casting weight that I have fished with so far, but somehow it still remains pretty versatile. Not as subtle or as versatile as my ridiculously good Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g lure rod which is a complete freak of nature and just gets better and better the more lure rods I use, but this Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9'6'' 10-45g lure rod makes a pretty good go at a 6’’ DoLive Stick but then really comes to life with something like the 12.5cm/23g or bigger 16cm/43g Savage Gear Sandeel or an IMA Hound 125F Glide and upwards all the way to easily being able to monster a 45g metal. I know I am doing some work with Savage Gear, but seriously, it’s almost not right how far I can put the new 30g SG Sandeel Pencil 150 lure on this thing. I know this Lunamis is going to be awesome in the surf with how easy it is to wind up but then how strong it is in the tip and so on, but I am going to wait to do a full review until we are back out there again. If you read my blog then it almost goes without saying that I have a Penn Slammer III 3500 spinning reel sitting on this rod and on my rack, and yes, we had a good conversation about all things bass fishing this morning.

Four brand new lure rods which I can’t divulge yet - I am nothing at all to do with these rods, but the people concerned asked me if I would like a look at them to see what I thought. I have an 8’9’’, 9’4’’, 9’7’’ and a 10’4’’ here, and on each rod I can absolutely full blooded whack a 40g metal out and then clip a DoLive Stick or say the killer little Whiplash Factory Spittin’ Wire surface lure on and the rods are absolutely loving it. So slim and precise and “sharp”, and finally somebody has seen fit to produce some lure rods for the UK market which have these fantastic WINN Grips on. I first saw WINN Grips a few years ago now out at the iCast show in the US and I have been itching to see some rods for our fishing made with these grips ever since. These rods are also rung with Fuji Torzite guides and when they go back from whence they came there’s a strong chance the 9’4’’ will be missing from the rod tube! These are some very serious rods which to me are incredibly well suited to how so many of us go about our bass fishing.

Varivas Avani Seabass PE [Si-X] Braid X8 - You know that Sufix and Varivas braids seriously do it for me, and ever since I was alerted to this new Varivas Avani Seabass PE [Si-X] Braid X8 I’ve been interested to get my hands on it. Well I have now, and I’ve got a spool of it in #1/Max 21lb sitting here looking at me. This is some distinctly not cheap 8-strand braid and all I can tell you so far is that in the hands it feels rather lovely. When a line company like Varivas releases a new premium braid for bass fishing then I’m all ears. I’m going to load this 150m spool of #1 onto a spinning reel here - which one though? - and then talk to it until I can get it out for a thrashing.

IMA iBorn 118F - Aside from some sample lures here that the grownups have instructed me not to talk about yet, this IMA iBorn 118F is THE hard lure I have been most looking forward to using. I have played around with it a fair bit and it’s almost astounding how well such a shallow diving hard lure like this can cast when you get it right, and everything about how it swims on a straight retrieve leads me to believe that it’s going to slay - with the one slight problem being that I can’t actually get it out there at the moment and see if I am proved right! The smaller iBorn 98F has been one of my go-to lures for a few years now and I have ever confidence that the larger 118F version will be as well in due course.

A bunch of Savage Gear stuff - I’ve got a fair amount of lures and other such things here that I’ve been working on with Savage Gear, but I can’t talk about them yet although I so want to share some of the ideas and designs and thoughts behind what we’ve been doing. I’ve got something here which was almost an afterthought for a project we started working on from day one, and whilst I had a couple of bass on an early sample version later last year, I have got such a strong hunch that this lure is going to do a whole heap of damage in a whole bunch of different situations that I am literally feeling ill with the fact that I can’t get out with it and see if those first few bass of the season might be on the marks I would hope to see them on pretty damn soon. As for getting this lure out in the dark, well let’s just say that it and I are trying to outstare each other to see who cracks first. As and when I hook a 2020 bass on this particular lure you will be able to hear the roar of joy from space! We’re working on some really interesting stuff………….

Savage Gear Surf Walker 125F - I was nothing to do with this little surface lure from Savage Gear, but I have had a bit of a play with this Surf Walker 125F and I have an inkling that it could prove rather interesting in calmer and quieter conditions especially. It weighs 10g and on the right outfit it casts seriously well for a small surface lure, and it’s very easy to work. There’s a rattle inside as well. I do know that all the Surf Walker surface lures from Savage Gear have had a few subtle changes made to bring them right up to scratch and on these new versions the treble hooks are now about as good as I have ever come across - to the point that I have asked the grownups if they can please source me some to put on some other hard lures I have here which need new hooks. Have a look at a video below of the bloke who was responsible for this lure nailing a bunch of bass on it.

Anyway, there we go for the time being and I hope it might be of interest on a strange Monday morning. I’ve got a few more bits and pieces here which I will blog about in due course, but in the meantime I hope you all stay safe and well. Please keep in touch via the comments section or on my FB page here.

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