TCurve Revolution Inshore preview

I’m sure by now we have all heard of the Shimano Tcurve series. They are, and have always been a great value range of rods designed with bluewater fishing in mind. The TCurve Revolution series keeps up the standards but with a new, slightly lower price point due to the use of Pacific bay components instead of the Fuji’s on the T series range.

Shimano has utilized a unique, 3 ply graphic weave construction with a proprietary resin curing process. They claim it ensure the rods are light yet durable and powerful enough to cope with Aussie saltwater species.

The Revolution inshore series is designed for light to medium tackle inshore fishing, such as estuary, flats and freshwater. They are available in a range of 1 or 2 pce models. They are finished off nicely with a chameleon bronze/olive paint job, that is complemented by the black and silver trimmings on the guides.

Ian Miller helped developed these rods and that is reflected in there design and performance. They are available now and you should be able to pick one up for under $200AUD.

Knot2Kinky knottable wire review

You may remember Aquateko, the guys who brought out the unique idea of using a flurocarbon material to make “invisible” swivels. Well they are at it again, improving the old with there new Knot2Kinky wire.

Knottable wire is not new by any means, but what Aquateko have done is pack it full of all the normal knottable traits plus something unique. This wire stretches.

Knot2Kinky can stretch 10-15% and then recover back to its original state. This has obvious uses for trolling and heavy duty fishing. Reducing the effect of pulled hooks and helping to prevent thrown hooks by notorious head shakers like sharks.

I found it a bit tricky to tie originally, using the knots Aquateko recommends, but when they were tie they held as well as a hay wire. After experimenting with a few other knots they all seemed to hold up quite well. I can definitely see the time saving advantage of using something like this on-the-go while fishing. Last thing you want to do is be crimping or twisting a few haywires on the water.

Knottable wire has always been a bit more expensive that conventional wires, but the money spent is well worth it in time saved and not having to need additional tools to crimp or twist your leaders.  Available in stores now!

Synit DeepShot Seriola Pro against the fish!

Sambo Season as been a little slow here, but we did manage to get a few shots of the Synit DeepShot Seriola Pro against a range of targets.

Anesh was visiting from Melbourne to fish Al Bevan’s Shikari Charters with a  few mates. Al operates a specialist charter targeting Sambos and other species, primarily on jig, taking local, national and international groups out from the Fremantle Fishing Boat Wharf.

You can see a mean bend put on the rod with the rampaging sambos, unfortunately this one didn’t come up, but here is one that did!

Just because the rod is the Seriola Pro, we have snuck in a picture of Anesh with another victim of the Seriola Pro. This time it was a nice big Yellowtail Kingfish, but the fish was taken on a recent trip to New Zealand, not offshore here in Perth, Western Australia.

I’ve personally been using the rod in depths ranging from 90-330m, with jigs weighted 200-500g and I’ve faired a lot better at the end of the day then I expected. Its accounted for some 25kg sambos without breaking a sweat, as well as a few tasty Nannygai.

Because this is a great rod over a wide range of line classes and jig-weights, its my personal go-to rod for any offshore deep fishing here in Perth/WA. Because of how it performs in other fisheries, namely Tuna in the USA and YTKs in NZ, I know its coming on holidays with me too.

Synit as you know, hale from New Zealand. Please contact Synit for availability in their region. They’re represented in the USA by SynitUSA, and in Singapore by Kaiser Pro Shop. Synit are represented in Australia by Fishhead

Synit DeepShot Seriola

Ok we got you interested with our teaser Tackle Tester: Coming Soon Synit DeepShot Rods but here they are! The rods have landed, and they look fantastic. Synit have designed these as a very open-class rods for use with an especially wide range of jigs. Specification as follows;

Blank            Synit DeepShot double axis carbon special, 5’1″
Drag              Max: 22kg @ 45 degrees, Best:  8-18kg
Jig Weight  550g, Best: 180g – 450g
Line class   Max: PE10, Best: PE5 – PE8

The Synit DeepShot Seriola is a specialist jigging rod designed from a combination of input from some of the worlds best jiggers and field testers.
The Seriola has been designed to work both jigs from light to medium heavy, this has come about by a unique combination of Double Axis carbons and a special fast taper triple rated mandrel.
As a result the blank recovers quickly with a wide range of jig weights without jarring the angler.
The DeepShot Seriola comes in both Spin and Synit’s Antacid spiral wrap. The Antacid wrap is unique to Synit and has been designed for use with todays specialist narrow spooled jigging reels like the Shimano Ocea Jiggers and the Accurate BX Narrow reels.

Unlike many other spiral wraps the Antacid helps to keep the line centered on the spool as the line is recovered when jigging.

All the critical components on the DeepShot are Fuji and Synit has added a few customized cosmetic changes to the Fuji Palm grip reel seat to give an attractive finish that has been tested to the max on large Bluefin Tuna up to 250lb.

Synit offers the DeepShot Seriola in two build specifications; the Pro Series and the fully custom built to your own colours Elite Series. The Pro Series DeepShot Seriola comes in traditional New Zealand colours of black, white and silver with 1/2 the blank resin dyed in Synit’s translucent black with a pearl fleck. The working tip section of the blank has been polished in natural carbon. The grips are AAA hard black EVA laser etched then inlayed with hard wearing white silicon rubber in the DeepShot and Seriola logos.

All Synit blanks and rods are built in New Zealand with Kiwi pride and there can be an 8-10 week wait for orders due to high demand world wide.

We took the time to take a few shots of the rod loaded with static loads. We’re now waiting for the Sambo Jigging to hot up, and then put the rods through their paces on some fish.

Coming Soon: Synit Deepshot rods

The Synit Jigging rods are building a solid rep worldwide.

In their native New Zealand, they’re accounting for many fantastic Yellowtail Kingfish and Hapuka. They love them in the USA too, where they’re bagging tuna up to 250lb on the Synit Venom V550FT, check this youtube link for the footage; NC 250LB BFT RELEASE. Just last month Synit’s Graeme Paterson visted Kaiser Pro Shop, and they all travelled up to Rompin for some sails. Pictured is Graeme with a Rompin sail and one of his Deepshots.

Great? But how do they go here on our local Seriola? Graeme from Synit is going to ship us a few of their new rods and we’re going to give them a good workout this Sambo Season, so stay tuned!

Nitro Custom Squid preview – Get your Egi on

As some of you know, I am very much a fan of the simplistic, yet sophisticated, Innovator rods. A new addition to there all ready extensive range always catches my attention.

The Nitro Custom Squid has taken a page from the Japan EGI book of squid fishing, and they seem to, on paper at least, have nailed it.

The 8 foot 2 piece squid fishing rod has the necessary length to throw a jig a mile, whilst still keeping the slow taper needed to preciously set the hooks in our calamari counterparts. They have quite a broad cast weight range going from the petite 1.8′s right up to the more deep water jigs the 4.0s. The fuji low rider alconites make casting a dream, by eliminating line fouls

What does a Boeing Dreamliner 777 and this rod have in common? They both feature Torayca carbon fibre, which is an expoxy toughened, impact resistant prepreg fibre.

With a RRP of $299.95 it definitely is within budget for most egi fishermen. And hey, If it’s good enough for Boeing, the squid don’t stand a chance.

Innovator Nitro Kamikaze and Widow maker rods

A company well know for their out there names has done it again, with the Nitro Kamikaze and Widow Maker series. Nitro have really pulled out the Swiss Army knife of rods with these two big game all-rounders, designed to tackle just about anything you can throw at them.

Heavy duty spinning reels such as the Stella or Saltigas are designed to be versatile and reliable in any fishing conditions. Nitro has made the Kamikaze and Widow Maker rods to suit this versatility. From Trolling and Cubing, to Jigging or Popping these rods can take it all.

On the lighter end of the scale, we have the Kamikaze which is a 15kg, 6 foot rod. With a lure weight of 57 to 368 grams it can be used to throw light weight metal slices at tuna right up to dropping medium to large jigs for Samson and Kingfish.

The heavier of the two is the Widow Maker. With its 24kg line rating and equal 6 foot length this is the whopper stopper you have been looking for. With a capable lure weight of up to 624 grams this rod is ideal for working those bigger jigs in the depths, or throwing those dumbbell sized poppers for Giant Trevally. Drag weight on Nitro’s widow maker is a respectable 18kg @ 45 degrees.

Both rods are fitted out with the best componentry, including fuji silicons and hypalon grips. While still retaining Nitro’s famous simplicity or the black on black finish. Both rods are two piece making them easily transportable to those far away locations we all love to fish.

After using a few Innovator Nitros in my time and never failing to be impressed, I’m sure these two new additions to the ever increasing family of Innovator rods will be just as impressive. Check them out at your local tackle store today.

Berkley EGI Master Rods

Berkley have just announced their new EGI Master rods to compliment there ever increasing Squidding range. This includes the new EGI master braid and the Powerbait jigs that I have touched on before.

Designed by Adam Royter and complete with JDM theme, they are fitted out with Fuji Low rider guides and extended split grip. As with all squid rods they are a parabolic action which helps with setting the hooks gently, rather than ripping the jig back away from the squid.

They have two models including an 7ft 6 inch 2-4kg model and an 8ft 4inch 3-6 model. You can check them out soon at your local tackle store.

Shimano Jewel rods

I’ll be the first to admit, when I first saw these rods listed in a Shimano Catalog I was a bit skeptical. A rod with a name like Jewel left me thinking it was designed for female anglers and that no right man would consider owning one. But after seeing one in the flesh the other day I was pleasantly surprised.

The Jewel series don’t look as tacky up close as they do in the photos. They are actually finely crafted pieces of fishing equipment, and you can tell as soon as you pick one up a lot of work and thought has gone in to them.

The few rods that I had a quick play with all felt well designed and balanced which is really what won me over. Too many times have I seen these “over the top” rods look great but feel terrible, but this is not the Jewels. All the rods feature extra hard EVA split grips, aluminium winding checks, gun smoke coloured Zirconium ringed guides and Fuji VSS reel seats.

The lighter rods designed for the like of bream, whiting and flathead are the perfect all rounders and I can see them being quite successful in the mid-range bream circuit. Priced at well under $200 the Jewel series is a good example of not judging a book by its cover.

Gloomis Pro Green rods hit Oz shores

I have always been a fan of the Gloomis Pro Blue series. The perfect medium tackle rods for tackling anything the deep blue can throw at them. To complement the Pro Blue range, the lighter inshore saltwater rod series the “Pro Green” were released. With a variety of lengths from 6’10″ to 7’10″ there will be one for you.

While they were primarily designed at species like Redfish, Permit, bonefish etc, they can be adapted easily to our local species like Spangled Emporer, Pink Snapper, Kingfish, Tailor and even Barra.

The first shipment has just recently landed so check them out at your local tackle store.

They aren’t meant to replace the softer, more delicate action of the popping rod, but to give the angler an option for aggressively fishing artificials. The faster actions of the Pro Green Series give wading and boat anglers, alike, more positive line and lure control. Designed to create quick, accurate “snap casts” to visible targets or long prospecting casts where covering water is more important, these rods have powerful butt sections to move big fish with ease and are still light enough to fish them all day long with minimal fatigue.  Source – Gloomis.com

Model number	Length	Line Weight	Lure Weight
PGR822S	6’10″	6 – 12	1/8 – 3/8
PGR823S	6’10″	8 – 12	3/16 – 5/8
PGR824S	6’10″	10 – 17	1/4 – 1
PGR882S	7’4″	6 – 12	1/8 – 3/8
PGR883S	7’4″	8 – 15	3/16 – 5/8
PGR884S	7’4″	10 – 17	1/4 – 1
PGR942S	7’10″	6 – 12	1/8 – 3/8
PGR943S	7’10″	8 – 15	3/16 – 5/8
PGR944S	7’10″	10 – 17	1/4 – 1

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