THE lure rod I regret selling, I thought it wasn’t in the UK anymore but it’s back again, should I (re)buy one, help!

I make no excuses for my continued fascination with lure fishing rods, and I reckon a big chunk of the reason for this has to be the simple fact that we are holding and actually fishing with these lure rods all the time instead of putting them in tripods. A lure or indeed fly rod that we really like for our fishing almost becomes a part of us I guess, and I’ve been lucky enough to have played around with a hell of a lot of bass lure rods now. Lure rods come to me in a bunch of different ways for fishing with and testing out for this blog - some I have taken a punt on and bought blind (such as the Shimano Exsence rods), some come to me and then head back from whence they came after I have had a chance to give them a thrashing and review them on here (or not as is sometimes the case), some rods are given to me after the testing process (this is so kind and useful for my guiding work especially), and sometimes I get the chance to buy the odd rod at a nice price because I can’t face not fishing with it anymore and I am weak in the presence of lovely carbon…………….

Which is what I did with the Shimano Dialuna S96M 9'6" 8-45g lure rod (review here). A rod that comes to me obviously becomes a secondhand rod after my time with it, and I liked this particular Dialuna so much I asked the person concerned if I could please buy it - they kindly said yes. At the time it was just about the best “next step up” lure rod for my bass fishing that I had come across, indeed to be perfectly honest I haven’t come across a better rod in the heavier lure category until this incredibly good Shimano Lunamis S96MH 9’6’’ 10-45g which I reviewed the other day - and even then it’s debatable because the Dialuna is a little bit “easier” towards the tip and I think this makes it better suited to the lighter lures if you need to turn to them on a rod like this.

But I (stupidly) went and sold that Shimano Dialuna S96M 9'6" 8-45g lure rod after a while because I was close to pulling the trigger on a second Shimano Exsence Genos S90MH/R 9' 8-48g - which I didn’t end up doing. I can’t get enough of this Genos rod and how stupidly versatile it is, but the more I fish with it, the more I find myself liking it the most when I am using it mainly as a “regular” kind of lure rod instead of thrashing it with the say 34g plus lures - which it does very easily I might add. I do kinda like a slightly longer 9’6’’ rod for when things start getting hectic out on the rocks. Don’t get me wrong, the Genos can and does do it all and it’s THE best lure rod I have ever fished with, but as much as I can try and justify most fishing tackle to myself and my “work”, I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on getting a second one with how much they cost.

For whatever reason I thought that Shimano Europe in their mighty wisdom might have stopped selling these newer generation of (awesome) Dialuna lure rods and instead had moved onto listing a few of the more expensive Lunamis rods. The other day though I was alerted to the fact that some of these Dialuna rods are starting to appear in the UK again, and then a friend of mine recently went and bought a Shimano Dialuna S96M 9'6" 8-45g lure rod from here in the UK. He came around for a cup of tea the other day and he obviously had to show me his shiny new weapon, and damn and blast it if a few waggles later I was telling him how stupid I was to have sold the one I had. Wow it’s a good fishing rod, and whilst it’s obviously not cheap, Shimano Japan are doing something special with their bass lure rods because they tend to suit me perfectly. Hell, the lighter 9’6’’ 7-35g Shimano Lunamis has recently arrived here for a thrashing. I have only fished with it for about an hour so far but holy frigging cow it’s a bloody weapon of a lure rod and yet again I find myself drawn towards these Shimano Japan lure rods for my bass fishing. Okay, so I know I am weak when it comes to lure rods, but what do you reckon? Would I be daft to go and rebuy a lure rod that I have previously owned and regret selling?

Apologies for the lack of blog posts this week, but I have been out doing some filming work with a lad from Savage Gear. We have been filming some new products and how we would use them for bass fishing, and it’s been a long time since I was in front of a camera! I have absolutely no idea why but I still enjoy the strange process of talking to a camera lens, and whilst I might be older and wiser and a little less trim these days, it was a blast to help get the footage this guy needs to cut some short “how to” videos. I’m really looking forward to getting the go ahead to tell you all about some of these new products, but in the meantime you all have a good weekend and I hope you find a few fish wherever you are and however you love to fish………………..

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