A Brief Break In The Weather

Saturday, what an absolute cracker of a day, I'd been watching the forecast at work all week, hoping for a nice day on the water to test out some new toys. I pulled up at the ramp at 6:30 am to find Lake Macquarie blanketed in a thick fog. "You rippa- no howling westerly", I fired up the E-TEC and blasted straight outside to see if we could find any action in the washes off shore. With the water temp hovering just over 14 degrees I knew things would be a little slow, but it sure was nice to be on a flat ocean on such a great morning, a fish or two would be a welcome bonus. The game plan was to do a bit of wash fishing for some salmon and tailor with the new Berkley Diablo 7'2" 2 to 4 kilo spin stick matched with the Abu Soron STX 40 spin reel.

 The new Diablo's split grip design looks fantastic and feels great in your hand thanks to the neat high density EVA grips, matched with STX 40 the rods balance was very nice. The rods action is nicely parabolic, but locks up well through the bottom of the mid section to give you plenty of pulling and lifting power when you need it. But It was the top section of the rod that impressed me the most. I cast a variety of weights on the day ranging from 1/6 up to 3/8 of an ounce with 4 inch Gulp minnows without the Diablo's tip section feeling under or over loaded, either casting or retrieving. This obviously gives it a wide operating window making it a very versatile rod to have in your quiver. 

The new Abu Soron's come with two spools in the box, one for mono and another designed specifically for modern super-lines. This spool features a larger arbor that has two recessed grooves that are fitted with rubber o'rings that help to lock your line onto the spool once it slides into one of the grooves. I used the super-line spool and the system seemed to work very well. On the water the Soron feels very "smooth "indeed, the soft touch handle screws directly into the main gear, this connection is very solid with next to no movent , which is one of my pet hates in any reel. 

 The Diabo's split grip set up (above), the reel winch and grip relationship feels ergonomic and comfortable, it also tightens down on the reel well, there's nothing worse than reel winches that you have to constantly tighten up all day while your fishing.

There's also a rod specifically designed for kayak fishermen in the Diablo line up (DD601SWM) This is a form of fishing that's growing in popularity rapidly across Australia and New Zealand, I came across this bloke and his mate on Saturday casting soft plastics into the washes around a couple of bombies close to shore, they looked like they were enjoying themselves. 

 

The fishing was tough, but we ended up with a few fish, hopefully the water will start to warm up soon with summer just around the corner and things will start to fire.

Stay safe

Captain