About a week ago I decided to purchase the Abu Garcia Diplomat Extreme area trout rod. I had to go through the Buyee.jp website to get it. I wound up paying 19 dollars more than what Digitaka would have sold it to me for.....they have requested the rod but as yet no stock. Going through Buyee is time consuming for sure.....but the selection of rods they have on the web stores they use is huge. But I imagine on all rods you will have to pay a little more than usual. Mine is being shipped via DHL. This will be the first carbon guide rod I have purchased. I have wanted the Presso Limited AGS for years and then covid hit and that rod was left sitting at an airport in Japan, they refunded my money. Going to be very interesting fishing these new Fuji Carbon Micro Guides. Abu Garcia is the first company that has them...but others will follow suit from info I have read. St Croix cut a deal with Daiwa to put the Daiwa AGS guides on their new 2020 Legend Xtreme rods. St Croix's stated in the press release their goal was to create the most sensitive rod they could and the AGS guides were a big part of it. Of course those will all be bass rods...and no UL rods in that line up. I am sure the carbon guies play a big part of the weight reduction on the Diplomat extreme...it is 6' 2" solid tip and weighs only 47 grams. It is UL rated and action is regular..and for those that have area trout rods you know that a regular rating means this rod will be slow for sure. This should make an excellent bluegill rod. It should arrive by weeks end..will give first impressions review when I get it. Hoping it makes for some fun action up in the dead lock.


Regards