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Reply With QuoteGood review. I’ve wondered about them and don’t see many posts featuring them. My longer rods are 6’6” and ride the bench a lot, tight quarters mostly. I’d like to feel one someday.
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Slabmaster II
Shimano 21 SOARE XR S76UL-T Spinning Rod
Picked this rod up after quite a bit of time debating the purchase but decided to pull the trigger thinking it would fill a gap in my JDM collection as a dedicated float rod.
Took it out yesterday for maiden voyage while my Dad and I fished early morning for a Father’s Day trip, ended up not fishing any float rigs and spent the whole time casting drop shot rigs and slow dragging them back, fishin on some deeper banks to find a few gills for the freezer.
First fish ended up being a 12” or so Smallmouth that really gave a good fight and test for the rod. The Soare handled it perfectly.
Had the 23 Vanquish 2000s spooled up with some small Varivas braid of some sort.
This rod is listed as UL but has a bit of power behind it with a nice semi-moderate bend curve to it, and a soft, yet responsive tip. It is trimmed out and finished beautifully and the reel seat/handle is the most comfortable I’ve ever held in my hand. Most of my fishin is with three fingers above reel foot and one below, but this reel seat forces a two and two hold and it’s just perfect. The material is like some kind of “soft touch” hard rubber coating in it that feels smooth to the touch but with the littlest bit of cushion to it. Ended up fighting with 1/2 dozen or so gills after the smallie most small, but did get in to one that was 8-9” or so and thick across the back, he put a good bend in the rod too.
I mentioned the power behind this rod…I’m still trying to figure out how to describe it… the rod has a nice light flex to it and when shaken whips a bit down its length, but when fully loaded with a fish there is plenty of power to keep you in control. It will throw a 1.25gram jig head with a trout magnet on it plenty of distance for me, but also does not feel overloaded with a 3/16oz tungsten drop shot weight on the cast.
Sensitivity is on maybe not where the Finezza Prototype or Eradicator is, but it’s no worse than the Lunakia, which is just a notch below the other two.
This is not a super soft SUL or XUL rod, it will dwarf the Eradicator 67 SUL in a power contest, but I would describe it somewhat like a 610 Lunakia that’s been stretched out, similar bend curve and power, just a bit softer due to length. This is honestly perfect for me, my 67 Eradicator is the only SUL I own, and as much as I love it, I don’t I’ll own another SUL unless they bring that lineup back I’ll buy a duplicate of the 67 to put away.
This rod fits in that middle ground of “Light Game” rod that doesn’t really fit with Ajing or Mebaru traditional rod blanks feel. This is the only model in the lineup that is a tubular tip, so I’m not sure if the solid tip models fit the same profile or not. I much prefer a tube tip so most likely won’t be trying any of the others in the line up.
Fish are starting to move out to their summer homes so might have to wait until til next spring to really get to test it with floats unless I get up north this summer/fall to hit a couple of the little trout streams in Iowa I have come across in my work travels.
Dropshot being my favorite way to fish, I’m super excited this rod works well for that, honestly this rod pretty instantly shot toward the top of my favorites list, not ready to say its claiming the top spot but the 610 Luna needs to be real nice to me the rest of the year because this rod is closing in fast. I prefer longer rods in general so that, along with the grip feel is helping it along with me.
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Good review. I’ve wondered about them and don’t see many posts featuring them. My longer rods are 6’6” and ride the bench a lot, tight quarters mostly. I’d like to feel one someday.
Creativity is just intelligence fooling aroundYodie thanked you for this post
Crappie.com Legend
Great review, Yodie. Thanks. Nice to have first person opinions before making a purchase.
Bob
Crappie.com Legend
Great review. I’m in the market for a good float rod as the 83 Blue Current TZ does not have enough bend to it.
Regards
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Slabmaster II
This one would be great at that. Had a chance tonight to rig it up with one of ifish’s 1.25g floats and a 1/24 oz. duck feather tied jig tipped with a power wiggler and was able to throw it farther than would normally be needed I feel. Into a pretty stiff wind too. I also threw and fished a 3gr niakis spinner, 1/8oz kastmaster, 1.5gr jighead w/ trout magnet, and small yozuri pins minnow. It handled them all well, but casting a float rig or a cast/retrieve drop shot rig are where it shines. It has a soft tip section but is not super wiggly or whippy that causes issues with float rigs on the back swing of a cast.Originally Posted by Alphahawk
Slabmaster II
Got some photos today. Tried to get a few pics of the bend curve, ignore the stupid rig to do it, but the two pics show about 50% load and then what I’d consider near 100% load.
I’m mainly a smallmouth bass fisherman and through research and advice pointed to a Light Rod. I’ve been utilizing a Shimano Curado 7’6” light with some luck, but wanted something more geared toward panfish. I am casting from the bank and the Soare XR 76ULT seems to fit the bill. i_Fish says it’s a bit stouter than UL. Would you say it’s more Light power? I’m not really wanting to get into UL right now.
Slabmaster II
Answering your question might be a bit tough for me to put to words unless you have experience in hand with other JDM light or UL rods. The way they taper the blanks controls the “lightness” and this particular Soare has a lot of taper to it from butt to tip. Comparing to something like the older G Loomis IMX 6 foot 6 trout/panfish rod I used for year, the top 1/3 of both rods is similar, soft, delicate, and crisp. But moving in down things change, the blank thickens up much quicker in the Soare than the loomis, with the butt section being about as thick as the blank on the Soare is between 1st and 2nd guides.
All that to say, I guess is this is what I would consider a light, light action rod. It’s relatively moderate curve compared to some of my other JDM rods, but not as much as the Abu Slow Taper Special.
I wouldn’t hesitate to chase after smallmouth with this rod. In fact I have plans to drift float n fly with this rod in the tail waters this winter specifically for smallmouth.
One thing I will mention that could be an issue for some is the line size you’d want to use with this rod, especially if you’re considering any slip float fishing. The guides on this rod are bigger than most JDM but still fairly tiny, a float stop tied around anything bigger than 4lb mono might cause issues.
Appreciate the thorough response! I don’t plan on using a slip bobber. I feel like that can be done on any rod. This would mainly be for bank casting 30-40 yards and jigging for subtle crappie bites in now/winter conditions. I’d be spooling Maxima Ultragreen 4lb monofilament and casting 1/16 jigs! I didn’t even think about using it for smallmouth since I normally use a Medium Power Expride since I get into 3-4lb creek smallmouth. But I might try for fun! Thanks!
Slabmaster II
That rod would be perfect for the scenario you mentioned.
To maximize that fun even more, spring for a decent JDM line to go on it, I used maxima for a lot of years and still use it for leader material, but it’s larger diameter than similar rated JDM lines, mainly because it’s rated and breaking strengths are vastly different.
The varivas twitch master in 3lb would be about ideal if you want to stick with nylon monofiliment, for 2024 I switched completely to a polyester/nylon hybrid line than came out end of last year and have been thoroughly impressed this year.
