Evergreen International Continues to Impress with the Affordable RCSS-71MH

Total Score: 8.08 - GREAT

Introduction: Earlier this year, we took a look at one of the most anticipated rods of the season, Evergreen International's Jack Hammer - a $200 stick built for the US market distributed with the help of Daiwa. It easily won our Best Value Award. Today, we take a look at our second rod from this series, a medium-heavy powered spinning stick, the Brett Hite Combat series RCSS-71MH.

Introducing Evergreen International's Brett Hite Combat Series RCSS-71MH.

Impressions: The RCSS-71MH is a seven foot, one inch spinning rod built with the same look as the previously reviewed RCSC-73HG, but this time without the hybrid glass blank. Instead, this stick is built from an unspecified graphite but with the same Fuji Alconite guides with stainless steel frames, the camo, EVA foam grip and a custom reel seat by Fuji.

This stick features all Fuji components.

It comes with the cross-weave carbon reinforcement from the but through the first third of the rod then transitions immediately to an unsanded, blank finished with a very thin gloss coat from tip to butt. Out of the rod sleeve, my first impression of the rod is that the handle is a little short, but we'll see how that pans out in our real world tests.

The Camo pattern EVA foam grips is a signature of the entire series.