Few new things..by Lou Caruso

Few new things ….

Less then a week to Striper Day. I’m very excited for this show. We here on Long Island have not had a good show in a number of years now. What I’m really excited about is there are some new products out there you may be interested in. They include both blanks and finished rods.

Last year during the Somerset Show, I received a call from a friend asking if I ever heard of a company called ODM. I honestly had to tell him I never heard of them. He proceeded to tell me about a rod they were selling. He said the rod was impressive, felt good and was going at a good price. I went to look at their website. The rod was the Frontier NFX Series. They were selling as a promotional item with no warranty. I dismissed them at once because, 1- no warranty and 2 – you could not acquire blanks. A month or so later I received a call from the owner Steve Youn. While speaking with him, he explained that the reason for no warranty was this was a limited run of rods and he was already working on a better design and would not have inventory for replacement of the old rods. He wanted to be sure to get the new rods perfect before releasing. He also told me he would contact me when he felt the rods were right so I could take a look. I kind of forgot about it once the fall run started. Then I got a call from a friend up in Conn. He had bought one of the rods and was fishing it up at Cape Cod Canal. Said it cast extremely well and had a ton of backbone. About a month ago I received a call from Steve. He sounded very excited about the new lineup and would I like to test them. I invited him to the shop. When he and his crew showed up, they were the nicest guys you would want to meet. After chatting for a while I realized we have the similar thoughts about the way a surf rod should be built including actions and weight ratings. We went to the water and he proceeded to put reels on his entire lineup of surf rods. He has two lines. Genesis and Frontier X. Both of these rods were very impressive. The Genesis is a more moderate action rod. Well balanced and cast very well with lots of backbone. The Frontier X is the Cadillac of the lineup. A moderate fast rod with a ton of backbone. These rods are light and responsive. After casting through the lineup I realized, if your throwing the Genesis 9’ or 11’ in the ¾-4 weight rating the rods felt the same. Same with the Frontier X. That is not something you find all the time. After casting, I had the pleasure of watching Steve cast the rods. (Geeze the man can cast)…. I noticed he was putting very little effort into his casts and the distance was incredible !!!!!.

Check out their website at: http://www.odmrods.com/index.html

You can also check out the rods in person and meet Steve at Striper Day.

Next up, are new blanks made by a company on the West Coast called Cousins. With the uncertainty of Lamiglas lately a fellow rodmaker worked with Cousins to design a blank that was similar to a Lamiglas GSB but improving on a few things. One was the fact that Lamiglas GSB’s are soft in the midsection. Get a good fish in strong current and that rod is bending right through the reel seat and down into the handle. The other is that like most graphite blanks, braid is not your friend. Cousins seems to have designed a blank which addresses both those issues and is light weight.. The blanks are softer in the tip yet has a strong midsection. To date, we have a 9’ Light action & Medium Action and a 10’ Light & Medium. They are working on an 11’ as we speak. I have high hopes for these blanks. I have put quite a bend in the tip, far more then I ever would fishing them and haven’t exploded one yet.

Lastly is a new surf blank from rod geeks. Last year while speaking with one of the owners, I asked him if he ever thought of building a blank with one handle and 2 tips. I expressed interest in a blank that had a moderate tip for normal beach fishing and a faster action tip for those days when you needed more distance to reach the fish when they were way out.  They decided to follow my suggestion and developed an 11’ rod with a Medium Power, Moderate Action tip rated 2-6 and Medium Heavy Power, Moderate Fast Action which is rated 3-8. I just received the first blanks last week and am building one now. I hope to be able to test it by the end of the week. These rods seem like they may be Ideal for Cape Cod Canal. It will also do well on the open beach on good days and those snotty 25-knot wind in your face days. The plan is for Rod Geeks to possibly do the same in 9’ and 10’. We will se. Check them out at:  http://www.rodgeeks.com/blanks/surf-rod-series/

ODM will be at Striper Day and I will have the Cousins blanks to check out along with the Rod Geeks rod. Stop by and check them out.

See you Saturday !!!!!!!