I went to the lake this evening because we did not have church tonight. It had been a long weekend and I needed some down time. I also wanted to use my new TFO panfish rod, 7’ ultra light, I have only had it out once and was really excited to to see it bend some more.
On the way to the lake, I met a friend that was going home from the lake, and he called me and the first thing he said was “you are wasting your time”. Well not so, I had a blast. I caught crappie, bream and bass, and numbers of each. I will post pictures tomorrow of the fish and my new rod.
I don’t like to buy a rod without handling it, but I took a chance on the TFO. I have never had a true ultra light panfish rod like this, and at first unboxing, I was little disappointed. The rod felt great in my hand, but I thought it to wimpy, and thought it would never cast the 1/32 jig heads I like to throw. I rigged it up with a Pflueger Trion and 2 pound test line, and headed to the lake.
The good points. It fished like a dream, it is very sensitive, in fact I was amazed at how sensitive it was. My main panfish rod “was” a Fenwick Eagle light, but this TFO is quite a bit more sensitive. I don’t know if it is actually the rod, or the difference in a light rod and an ultra light rod, but it is different. It handled the fish I caught very well. The bream I caught put up their normal hard fight, and the rod was up to the task, I enjoyed the heck out of it.
I caught a bass around a pound and no problem.
The bad point. I was a little disappointed in the casting distance with the 1/32 trout magnet jig I was throwing. From reading the reviews, I was expecting more distance. When I threw the same magnet jig on my fenwick I could throw the fenwick a bit further. I was getting ok distance from the TFO fishing the grass lines, I was just expecting more.
(I am not good at judging distances or I would put some in here.)
Today, I put a 1/16 road runner head on it and got quite a bit more distance. I may try a different line, maybe a braid, power pro or fire line and see what that does.
Anyway, I wanted to share this. I will post pics tomorrow, they are on my phone and I haven’t uploaded them yet.
The wrap up, I love the TFO, it is one of the sweetest rods I have ever fished, light, strong, and sensitive. I really think I see a few more of them in my future when I need to replace some rods.
Later...etex
