Understand the comments from the guys, we asked Daiwa for the rods as they use them for salmon fishing down the South Island, I have always fished long rods when not filming, love fishing long rods from Boats, had a custom 9' rod made years ago, that I still have that was an incredible rod for pulling big snapper out of the kelp. We have fished those long rods for a full season, and to be honest I love them, almost all the shows this year you will see them rigged up. Yes it is different and not for every body, but Daiwa wanted us to fish gear we were happy with and we wanted to try something different, we fish heavy braid as we don't want to loose fish, and why not fish 50 pound when it knots better and is almost the same thickness as 30lb, we never broke one and they take the abuse we dish up, they might not be a massive seller for Daiwa, but they are amazing to fish with. Each to there own, easy to land fish with, if you don't wind the fish to the tip, and very nice for catching big fish on, as the rod does so much of the work.
Personally I would fish a longer rod over a shorter rod any day, thats just me, all we have been doing is showing people options, and I have broken more short spin rods in my time than long ones. The reason I don't like short rods is you can't move around the boat easy with a short rod, with a long rod you don't get reefed on the boat, all our big kings when live baiting and jigging for that matter has been achieved on 8 foot Monster mesh rods, jigging on long rods is harder, but I prefer fighting fish on long rods over short rods, to be honest for me there is nothing worse than fighting a fish on a short jig rod, with a gimble especially fishing braid, but thats just me, Its nice that everybody has a different way of fishing, thats what makes fishing so cool, and we like fishing the gear we like, always keen to try new stuff.
Thanks Milan Radonich
Big Angry Fish