has anyone here

[duckhunter3635]

During my tournament days bass fishing, 1 bought 7 G Loomis GLX rods $385 ea and it made a huge difference over the diawa rods i was using. I also bought a G Loomis fly rod $425. Ever since then I feel like I have caught more fish. Their sensitivity is amazing. I now have several spin casting mag light rods and love them for crappie. I was on the water many years ago during a Bass Masters Classic on Old Hickory lake here in TN. Denny Brauer told me if i would buy the most expensive rod I could buy that it would improve my fishing. I bought one, WoW I couldn't believe the difference. I spider rig and long line troll with 16' BGJP rods. Love them for crappie oh and my slab sauce.

[Alphahawk]

I was reluctant to even reply to the OP. When one spends a lot of money on fishing gear many people feel the need to ridicule that person. I have a YouTube channel that reports on JDM fishing gear...how...where to buy it. Very few have even heard of the term “JDM”. When buying fishing gear out of Japan one needs to throw away every notion they have of off the shelf fishing rods. Simply put they make the finest fishing rods in the world. Fishing to the Japanese is almost like a religion. They take it very serious and quality equipment is a must. All of them do not spend 400 dollars on a rod...but even the 100 dollar rod has to be of quality. I’m an avid UL angler.....a finesse fisherman. Sensitivity means the world to me. The high end UL rods out of Japan take sensitivity off the charts. The rods I fish have actions that you will not find on a rod in the states. The build...fit and finish on these rods are second to none. Many of these rods can feel the resistance of a jig head as small as 1/10 of a gram. As was mentioned in one reply there is a point that you get a diminishing return as to the dollar spent. In other words at what point do you reach the most benefit from the rod....meaning sensitivity....fishability....fun factor.....build quality. This is something I am exploring now. Most of my rods are in the 300 dollar range. I have one that is considerably more and I have to say that it is a very spooky rod to fish with....meaning the ability to detect an extremely light crappie bite is simply unbelievable. It is excellent at detecting what the Japanese refer to as the “off bite”. Meaning a fish has taken the lure and is swimming with it at the same speed you are reeling. This past month I have acquired 2 rods made by Olympic Graphiteleader.....no doubt the manufacture of the finest UL rods made....at least most in the world think so. One of those rods came in at 210 bucks and it is an absolute bargain...a 6’ 10” rod weighing only 1.95 ounces The other one came in at 350 bucks. Is it that much better at detecting a fish than the 280-300 dollar rods I have? This is a question I cannot answer at this time as I have not fished it enough to tell. I no longer order the lower end rods out of Japan....once you fish a high end rod there is no going back. I constantly warn folks who ask about JDM gear....my reply...don’t go down this road as there is no tuning back. Fishing these rods does not mean the guy fishing next to you is going to catch less fish than you just because you have the much higher end rod. What is does though is give you an advantage when the fish are biting softly. Then there is the fun factor....as one crappie.com member stated.....”The problem with JDM rods is you just can’t put it down after you’ve fished one”. St Croix has finally come to the table with a high end UL rod....but for those of us that have bought JDM rods we would never buy it. For 100 bucks less you can get a rod that is on par...if not better....than the St Croix....and if you wanted to spend the 380 bucks that the St Croix sells for you can get something far superior. I didn’t start out fishing JDM UL rods. About 13 years back I became an avid UL angler and my first UL rod costs 19 bucks. I caught thousands of fish with that rod. Over the years I continued to move up the ladder and I have to say each purchase proved to be a better tool for the job. About 5 years back I made the switch to JDM rods after I had bought the best you could get in the states....Loomis.....St Croix......Fenwick....Falcon.......Phenix, and even 4 custom built rods. Many see no need to pay these kind of prices for an UL rod. In many of my videos I preface them by saying all you need to catch fish are a cane poll and some crickets. I’m not spending money just to be spending.....this is my passion and I’m feeding that. I figure before I move on there are another 50 or so rods to try out. Bass fisherman in the USA for a lot of years have been on the JDM band wagon.....and if you think my rods are high priced you should see what those rods cost. But JDM UL tackle is starting to gain a toe hold here in the states. What I am doing is trying to educate folks...those who want to try it out......as to what it is...what it will do...what it will not do...and do honest reviews of as many rods and reels as I can afford to do. High priced gear is not for everyone.....certainly not required to catch fish but for those who want to test these waters check out my YouTube channel....TroutMagnetMan. I have helped about 100 folks navigate these waters...quite a few from this very forum. So for those who might like to learn about JDM gear I’ll be glad to help. Oh one last thing...everything I do is cast and retrieve and a little vertical jigging......this is the style of fishing I prefer.

Regards



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