A Hands on Preview
of the new Cumara “Reaction” series moving rods
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Date: |
7/10/09 |
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Tackle Type: |
Rods |
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Manufacturer: |
Shimano |
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Reviewer: |
Zander |
Introduction:
We kick of our ICAST
coverage with an exclusive look at Shimano’s new Cumara Reaction series of rods
which are specifically designed for fishing moving baits in varying types of
cover. These rods build off the existing line of contact rods and feature
similar cosmetics but with an action all their own.
Shimano will debut 12 new Cumara
"Reaction Series" rods this ICAST, we got to fish three in advance
All Graphite Crankbait
construction: The
Cumara Reaction Series features an IM-10 construction that offers exceptional
sensitivity, reduced weight, and soft forgiving action. Wait, what’s that last
part? “Soft forgiving action?” from a series previously known for contact
fishing plastics? Justin Poe, Rod Product Manager at Shimano, explained that the
rods make use Fuji SIC guides, custom performance reel seats, but the real magic
is in the blank itself as he and Dan “Bantam1” Thorburn sought to create the
most precise and lightweight reaction bait rod anglers have ever fished.
The Cumara Reaction Rods look like
the current version but the actions are completely new and are designed for
fishing crankbaits, ripbaits, and wire baits
It all sounded too good to be
true, especially as we were mid way through our crankbait rod war sampling.
Would these new contenders really stand up to the billing? So what did Justin
do? He said that these new Reaction Series rods are just one of those things you
just had to fish to believe, so to prove it he gave us the opportunity to fish
three new rods for a total of over 40 hours on the water leading up to this
ICAST.
The new Cumara Reaction Series
CUC711M rod is designed for big deep diving crankbaits like the Norman DD22
The background:
First let’s take a step back to see just how these rods were conceived. Up to
this point anglers have known the Cumara series as Shimano America’s top of the
line contact bait specific rods. Though popular the very narrow offering and
actions limited the adoption by anglers wishing for a rod that was as light and
sensitive but better suited to handling “moving baits.” Some anglers even
reported back to Shimano that they liked the current Cumara rods so much that
they were “forcing” themselves to fish them in applications they knew that they
were not best suited for. Though Justin and Dan knew what they wanted to do with
a reaction version of the Cumara they didn’t know if it was even possible given
the current build of materials. The grip of the reel seat, the clean stealthy
look, the weight, and the extreme sensitivity were all elements that they wanted
to preserve in a reaction series, The big question was how to give anglers the
same look and feel with the parabolic actions that are desired for fishing
crankbaits.
Loaded up with a DD22 we get to
fishing
They set out with a very
specific set of goals, give anglers what they want and find a way to get
reaction style actions out of high modulus graphite based fishing rod. In
starting all this Justin and Dan had to first dissect the world of reaction
baits. crank baits, blade baits, top Water baits. big baits, small baits, deep
baits, and shallow baits. This turned out to be a major undertaking and took
longer than they expected, ultimately they decided the best way to categorize
these baits was by cover type, as they found that no matter where anglers fish
these baits they are undoubtedly fishing some sort of cover and this was the
only real constant they had to work with.
Setting hard the rod absorbs all
the shock of the line keeping the fish pinned on
Next Section: It is all about the cover type
with these rods
