Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g lure rod review - around £290 here in the UK

Rods like this Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g really interest me. A few years ago a lad I know over in Ireland took a punt on the expensive (and never been available off the shelf in the UK) Shimano Exsence Genos “Wild Contact 90” S90MH/R 9' 8-48g lure rod, and in no time at all I had taken the same (calculated) punt myself after his very accurate descriptions of this weapon. I loved this lure rod from the off, and whilst I hardly fish with it these days because I always seem to have other work and blog related rods which need testing and fishing with, nothing changes how versatile and sharp and light and responsive and amazing that particular Shimano Genos is……….

But damn you need to be properly on your casting to get the best out of it, plus it’s not an easy rod to find and it’s really expensive. A 9’ or shorter rod rated to 48g is going to be on the more powerful side anyway, but if you can get at that power then the Genos is so rewarding, but it isn’t an easy rod though and it doesn’t reward anything less than you really being on it. Which let’s be honest, we aren’t. The obvious point here is that a lot of bass lure anglers simply don’t need to fish with lures much over say 35g for most of or quite possibly all of their fishing. What if you do though, and what if you also rather like the shorter lure rods which feel that bit easier in your hands? Give me the right rod and I am really drawn to some of these more powerful, shorter rods.

By all means try tracking down the far more expensive Shimano Genos I referenced above, but I would also urge you to think about this Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g and what it can do for you. Give me the money right now for a 9’ 48g Shimano Genos and I’d be more than tempted to take this Tailwalk Crimson instead and put the money I save towards a really good spinning reel, or a lighter class of lure rod for the closer-quarters estuary work especially. It’s easy to make a rod like this Tailwalk into a serious scaffold pole of a lure rod which rips your shoulders off for hours on end and doesn’t really like the lighter lures much, but this rod is miles away from that. It isn’t the Genos and it isn’t meant to be, but it deals with the same sorts of lures and it’s really good.

I would personally rather fish with a slightly over-powered lure rod than I would one where I felt like I needed to hold back with certain lures. The bass we might catch do not require a more powerful fishing rod to land them, but you all know as well as I do that when it comes to the rod it’s mostly about conditions, ground and lures you need to fish with. The Genos showed me that I could in fact go bass fishing with the one rod in all manner of different conditions and make a pretty good fist of dealing with lures from say 10-45g. It’s the same with this much cheaper Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g as well. For sure the tip on this rod is not as refined as on the far more expensive Genos, but give me a 10g surface lure like the SG Surf Walker 2.0 125 and I am rather pleased with how this (powerful) Tailwalk rod performs.

And then I fish the SG Sandeel V2 46g at absolutely full power and the rod isn’t remotely breaking a sweat. I have blasted 50g lures on this Tailwalk with no worries at all. When you turn to the heavier lures you can really feel that power in the butt and mid-sections kicking in, but it doesn’t bite back at you at all. It's an easily accessible power if that makes sense. Easier to get at than on the Genos, but with as much performance and precision with the heavier and/or bulkier stuff especially. When I turn to the smaller surface lures especially, I am most likely fishing at closer ranges in an estuary etc., so I wouldn’t really be turning to a rod like this anyway.

When I think about the lures I fish with the most out on the coast and what they actually weigh, even with a Gravity Stick 120 soft plastic rigged weedless and weightless I am not really dropping below about 14g. But I do like having the option to up the weights of my lures when I want to. It might not actually be a much bigger lure, but something like the Savage Gear Cast Hacker 115 FS weighs 44g, and if you can move the lure pretty fast in the cast it really gets out there. I had bass in the surf on this lure before all this really crap weather came in. Way before I started working with Savage Gear I was obviously very aware of many anglers raving about the Savage Gear Sandeel. The larger profile 15.5cm/46g version is obviously way over the casting weight for the standard, say 7-35g lure rods we use for a lot of our fishing, whereas this particular Tailwalk rod isn’t remotely bothered if you want to offer a lure like that to some hungry bass. This rod literally speaks to me when I am fishing the killer IMA Hound 125F Glide on it, and I find this Tailwalk with the Patchinko II far easier to get the right timing than with the Genos. But it can still do the lighter stuff pretty well as I said.

Which, as I said earlier, is why I prefer an overpowered rod if I am not quite sure of the sea conditions or where I might end up fishing. I am going to be taking two lure boxes filled up with as much variety as possible, so why not do the same with my rod? I honestly don’t mind what type of spinning reel I fish with on this Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g, indeed after five minutes of fishing with a heavier Penn Slammer 2500 or Authority 2500 the setup feels great. As it does with the lightweight (but it’s not going anywhere near the surf with me) Shimano Vanford 4000 or 5000. I am sure you could just as easily fish with a smaller 2500 or C3000 size Shimano spinning reel on this rod, but I didn’t. I did get to try the very lightweight ABU Zenon 4000SH spinning reel on this rod, and as much as I liked fishing with this combination, the reel definitely does not like getting covered with saltwater. To be fair the reel is not designed for what I ended up putting it through, but I was hoping for more at the price.

I do like a bit of a cork handle which we find on the foregrip of this rod, and I kinda like how the rear grip is then duplon. I’d prefer something a bit grippier where the back of your hand sits behind the reel but it’s not remotely a deal-breaker for me. The double-legged first guide smacks of quality and strength, indeed the whole build quality and feel of this Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g lure rod is pretty amazing for the price. A couple of mates of mine have a couple of the lighter class Tailwalk Crimson rods, and whilst I have had a few chucks with them, I am personally more drawn to this specific rod I am reviewing here today. For a hell of a lot less money than the 9’ 48g Genos AND UK availability and backup service in case of breakages, damn this Tailwalk Crimson S88H-F 8’8’’ Max 50g lure rod is one mightily impressive fishing rod. I could so easily use this rod for so much of my open coast fishing especially.

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