The next category in our ICAST 2012 preview series of post is all about rods.
While the vast majority of new reels this year are experiencing face lifts and slight tweeks and improvements, rods are a whole different ballgame.
The vast majority of new research and engineering is going into rods.
We won’t hit everyone with something new in this preview (check back for the live updates tomorrow for that), but we want to give you a few things to look forward to.
St. Croix
St. Croix is debuting their new IPC® tooling technology and ART™ reinforcing material.
A total of 29 rods will take the stage—which constitutes a full redesign of the Legend Xtreme family of rods.
This is one of the things happening this year that I am very excited to see, and to test out in the near future.
Okuma
Okuma is throwing out a handful of really quality rods this year, including an upgrade to the Helios Tournament spinning rods that weigh under four ounces each.
Also on the docket will be the T-40X salmon and steelhead rods, designed for sensitivity and power.
The Cruz popping rods are intriguing in the mixture of glass and graphite in the blanks, which is not a new technology but the implementation of this kind of blending of variant material continues to find new and innovative applications for rod building.
Airrus
Airrus will be introducing a new series of rods called “Stargate”. This series will feature a redesigned, triangular guide for the stripper guide which is said to further reduce line friction in the all important first guide as well as channeling the line better through the remaining guides.
This is just one of the advances in this new series of sticks. We’ll talk in-depth about other improvements when we review these rods.
All of this just serves to underscore that for this year, it seems as though the greatest leaps forward in technology as far as design and state of the art materials is going to make itself known in the rod building arena. We’ll be bringing you more information as we get the specifics on these and other new offerings.