|
When you first pick up the outfit…
It feels the business. This set is Okuma’s take on a specialised lightweight soft plastic outfit. Designed stiff and light, the XF701DSH one-piece, graphite twill-E-glass composite rod features top-quality silicon carbide guides, cork grips and a Fuji reel seat. A sticker rating of 6-10kg seems high to me: 4-6kg would be more realistic, though the slim blank is surprisingly powerful. I fished 5kg CDX braid, distributed – like Okuma tackle – by Composite Sports Ltd. The braid fishes well with minimal memory and no noticeable tendency to wrap itself round the rod tip or the first guide when working lures and casting. Like most braids, it probably over-tests.
 The reel boasts an impressive list of features. Most important is its ability to fish superbraid lines to their full potential. A powerful drag system, called Dual Force Drag (DFD) by the Okuma people, features a clever, double-acting system that uses Okuma’s conventional, apparently waterproof, multi-element drag on top of the spool and a single, oversized oiled-felt washer under the spool acting on a large stainless steel plate. Okuma claims the system aids spool stability, spreads drag load through both ends of the spool, aids smoothness and exerts maximum drag pressure.
Other features include no fewer than 14 double-shielded stainless steel ball bearings and an E2B Extreme Elements stainless steel and ceramic roller bearing for the pinion gear. Okuma use these high-tech bearings only in their top-end product. Featuring stainless steel housings and hard ceramic rollers, they are extremely corrosion-resistant. Since the pinion gear bearing is always the first to fail in a spinning reel, this should mean longer life for your reel.
The drag is…
Excellent through the full range of settings. Most tellingly, it remains smooth right at the top end of the drag range, even on large fish. A 5kg rat kingfish was big enough to give the drag a decent workout and it came through with flying colours. The usual run of spring snapper was easily mastered, with the rod offering surprising reserves of power.
Casting is…
The stiff rod is happy casting a range of weights, right up to an ounce, which is what I sometimes use to fish soft plastics in deep water. Just as important, its stiffness imparts movement to lures cast well away from the angler or fished in deep water. The quality of movement has a large bearing on soft plastic success, so the ability to twitch a lure is very important. I also appreciated the lightness of the outfit, since soft plastic fishing is an active technique.
Lighter lures and unweighted plastics are a bit more of a challenge, demanding flick casts
The reel casts well and wraps the line perfectly, thanks to another feature: EOS or Elliptical Oscillation System. Additional spacer washers are supplied to adjust line-laying characteristics if desired. Oval-shaped gears make the reel smoother and more stable and lay the line on the spool more evenly. There’s plenty of line capacity but the aluminium spool is not an exaggerated long-cast type so there’s less strain on the shaft.
Other features on the reel include…
Okuma make much of the reel’s all metal body and rotor, which prevents distortion and is important when such small reels are used with relatively strong superbraid lines. Metal bodies are stronger and allow more exact tolerances between components for smoother operation. The reel certainly feels a quality bit of kit.
View the 1minute video of John reviewing this rod/reel combo (7mb WMV File)
Things I really liked about the outfit were…
The reel’s folding handle and soft touch paddle, cool looking drilled castings, quality feel, oversize non-twist line roller, machined aluminium second spool (not the cheap plastic/graphite second spool that comes with most reels); the rod’s warm cork grips and excellent feel through the blank and reel seat, reserve power and lightness.
What we think could be improved is…
Reel: Very little - it was hard to fault
Rod: Would like to see a two or three-piece version – in my experience one-piece spinning rods have a depressing habit of getting broken in transit. A heavier version suitable for 6kg line and above would be a welcome addition to the range.
This is a top-end set. It retails for around $380 – probably nearer $400 including the line. The reel retails for ~$260 and the rod $120.
Specifications:
Ratio 5.0:1
Ball bearings 16 incl 14 HPB and 1 E2B
LH/RH reversible
Eliptical oscillation system
Capacity 180m/3kg mono; 220m of 0.20mm
Two ported aluminium spools
All aluminium body
John Eichlesheim September 2006
|
Email to a friend
