Thread: New and New to me Equipment

I have recently added a couple new hens to the coup and today I finally remembered to take a picture of one of them with a fish.
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The Tict Ice Cube Rockin Power in the 6.9 length weighs approximately 67g and is rated for up to 7g and .35 PE (braided) line. I picked it up used from a fellow CDCOM member for a reasonable price and have used it twice now. First time I forgot to take pics for a review of the rod, but this morning I remembered. The first couple fish I caught were deep suspended Crappie that were barely taking the jig, but I did get the sensitivity I needed from the blank and stuck several of the light tic bites. The reel mounted up to the Rockin Power was the Daiwa Presso Ltd in the 1025 size strung with the Varivas Infinity PE and a Varivas Titanium fluorocarbon 3lb leader. The braid has no stretch but the blank on the rod absorbed the fish runs nicely, softer than I expected really. This rod bends almost perfect parabolic and has a decent backbone to turn fish when needed. The bass in the picture was the biggest fish caught on it this morning and the rod performed flawless. He was not buried in structure so I let him play in the open water to see the bending curve and enjoy the fight. I do believe this rod will move up in the rotation with the 6.10 ABU Eradicator RealFinesse, not it’s equal for overall performance but a close and welcome second.
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The next brand new addition to the family is the Shimano Soare XR in the 500 size. I was lucky to get some of the first stock from Digitaka and with super fast shipping it came earlier in the week.
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Specs on this reel are as listed above, and it is my first Shimano since going down this JDM rabbit hole. Do I need it….No….but it will be strung up with some good Varivas braid and tested soon, just didn’t have time to prep and mount it up. More than likely after rotating through a couple of my rods it will be the reel I use on the Majorcraft Finetail Area Stage 632L to fish the small lake in VA at my daughters house. It spins smooth and the drag sound is adequate, not really a drag sound snob like others tend to be, as long as it’s smooth and works properly I am ok with it. I have family coming in from California this next week so it probably will not see action for at least a couple weeks. The grip on the handle is much smaller in size thickness than the Daiwa reels, not an issue just spinning it off the rod but may make a difference while actually fishing. At 135g it will be the smallest and lightest reel in the hen house, I just hope it doesn’t lay an egg on me.


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