SMITH wgj-s56h Dumbell Test #20

A series of photo to show the bend in the new smith rod. A beauty of sorts Parabolic 400g backbone with easy bend. Fight drag of 11 kilograms, Max drag of 16kilograms.
I wonder what #30 pounds lift will look like.

Smith by Surgery

Tax day relief come by a tube sent from Sami of Anglers Pro Shop! One day after my big surgery comes a tube filled with some goodies... the doorbell rings and my dream rod is here!

Smith Ltd. Offshore Stick WGJ-S56H 400 gram jigging rod

Ciao ~!

Barnegat Light with Jie

What a beautiful place.

Jie had the idea of picking up some tackle and I had the idea of fishing...(okokay it was the other way around). Well the emphasis was on getting to the shore. It was mid-60's and I had sunshine on my shoulder.

So off to our road trip.

I drove to Ocean City first to visit a certain rod at Tackle Direct, howver didnt end up buying the Shimano Tiralejo 8MHF-LC. So we decided to head up to Fisherman's headquarters in Surf City, NJ.

I introduced him to one of the best bait and tackle shops in NJ. The workers were able to help and answer some questions for local knowledge and technical line stuff.

We both religned our reels there with Daiwa boat braid. I got 350 yards of PE-8 and he lined up with PE-6 at about 250 yards.
Beautiful line. Off to the rocks.

We ended up taking some pictures after plugging RM Smith & Tattoo plugs...

He has one on his iphone that has me and a nice bend in my Techna AV.

-Cheerios

Long Cast Popping Combo
here are some pictures of my 20k fa and the tuna sniper.












Next rod will be the Smith WGJ-S56H Wonder Glass Jigging Series



Purchase date - Mid May 09

1. New material WG21 (wonder - glass 21)

The blank material of the WGJ, evolved from UD glass (single directivity glass) which is called 20 century last super lightweight glass materials. Smith has used this material with special manufacturing method, increasing strength by 60% and lightening to an average 12% reduction in comparison with the rod which was made purely from UD glass material as a single unit.
Regrettable it is not possible presently to release the details.


2. The endurance which is proven with the field test, resistance strength characteristic

The actual test is done mainly with the heavy class rod, in New Zealand on king fish over 20kg. In addition catching a sail fish of 70kg, fighting time 7 minutes.








Cheerios...

Sniper Sword Delight!

Sitting in my living room are two tuna sniper rods. TJ was in Indonesia so Rou sent me a new one. Included in the package was a Size L OTI white longsleve shirt!
I guess they really wanted me to send the rod back asap. haha

Anyhow, before monday I'll have time with two tuna snipers and one stella 20k fa.
TY Hampton from 360tuna asked me to meet up and bend some rods so I might just bring the sniper over to his place and show him what these things are about.
This rod may end up being named the Tuna Sword.


So currently I have two Tuna Swords in my arsenal.


Next up? ...Seven Seas fighting belt!

Forgot about last years pain in my lower back membrane! What a way to fight a tuna for and hour and have it get away!

A Quick Rod Re-structure

So while waiting for my new Tuna Sniper, I decided to make a good look at the Shimano Tiralejo. I know by May I will need this rod to do battle on the rocks and properly reach the behemoths that swim in Barnegat’s Inlet.
I decided to reduce & upgrade my gear an additional step to save space and time rigging and re-rigging.
Although I mentioned before that I would have different uses for each rod, I will take that back now. I will continue to build character with the fenwick AV that takes the duties of the former Avid.

Spoke to OTI

Just got off the phone with Rou at OTI and discovered that they have some of the best customer service i've encountered with a tackle company.

After explaining my problem with the defect guide she settled me down and told me that they would send me a new rod to replace the defected one.

I was able to speak to her directly about product and fishing and she was able to relate to any kind of product specific info and usage questions. Not only was she in sales but she is an actual fisherman.

Needless to say, I had the chance to speak for the second time about fishing and find that there exist down to earth and dedicated people in our industry. Good job Rou at OTI! She set the tone/expectations for others...

4 days sent Fedex. I will be looking out for it!

Tuna Sniper Defect

Hi all.

I was so happy with my purchase of the OTI Tuna Sniper that I took a diligent look at the rod last night. To my surprise and dismay I found one of the guides had some coating missing. These guides are top notch FUJI ICMSNG and the guide 1st from the tip (size 12) had missing coating. About half of the guide was missing it and it was the "touch" side, or half moon side of it where there is contact with the line.

This obviously needs to be returned. Last night I PM'ed TJ from 360tuna and mentioned the problem and asked for the right actions to take. To this point today I did not get a PM response. I got to remember they are 2 hours behind me, so I'll be patient untill the end of today.

man oh man!
:(

So, I did make a decsion on the rod setups. Over the weekend I was able to go out to the shore with Jie and manage to swing him into making some purchases.

Anyhow, I did pick up a rod and some PE-8 Line.

I decided on the Tuna Sniper.

HOORAY, it's a 8'6" beast. 2-piece (at handle - Jp style). Rated at 40-60 lb line and up to 200g or 7 ounces to throw.
I was able to make the decision when I actually saw the piece and feel the strength of the rod.

The line that I picked up was 350 yards of PE-8 Daiwa Saltiga Boat braid. Fitted by a machine at the store. The chap was nice enough to do a good job.

Ocean City to Barnaget Light. We plugged RM Smith and Tattoo's for about 2 hours without a bite.

TOO SOON, but the bass and weakys will be there soon...

I am also considering the Shimano Tiralejo 80MHF-LC for the surf. I got to bend that one in the shop in OC and its magnificent!

Decisions decisions...

So I found out that If I was going to invest in a few good rods I wouldn't have made that purchase for the Fenwick Techna AV. I mean I would have purchased it but probably needed to rid myself of the avid beforehand.
I did some contemplating and as I understand my two rods that will be used for back bay, the Avid is the better of the two for jigging and the AV is the better of the two for plugging.

Sounds like I am justifying right? We'll there isnt a need for re-sale here. I'm pretty happy because the two rods are actually significantly different.

The avid is super fast tip and has a forgiving light tip, the midsection really takes on a solid backbone for a blank of this type. I think this blank is more dynamic when it comes to new technology to control jigs. The flexibility is that it is strong mid-blank and will be able to set the hook correctly with light jigs up to 3/4 oz.

Without experiance on the AV rod, I can still make a sincere analysis. As the blank goes, it isn't extra fast action. It's listed as fast however I would catagorize it into the medium range. It bends quite universal and there isnt the tip, mid-blank, and butt diferences. It's more like a blank that would fight fish with the entire rod. I can see myself really putting a good bend into this one when fighting a 15lb+ striped bass. This rod will see only plugs and pencils, and poppers because of the slower action. I can see myself using lower rated # test braid with this one.

So the two characteristics are drastic in difference as well as probable performance. Avid for jigs and plastics, AV for plugs and topwater. Done!