Major Craft Aji-Do 5G

Not a lot of information that I can find on this rod. I did find this review.
Majorcraft 5G Aji-Do AD5-S622L 0-3g – First Impressions – Ben Bassett – LRF Blog (home.blog)

link to rod at an English version website
Major Craft Aji-Do 5G L series AD5-S502L / AJI (Length: 1.52mt, Lure:0.2-3gr) [MAJORAD5-S502L/AJI] - €197.48 : Tackle4all.com, Fishing Tackle Shop

Right now I have the Lunakia 610, and a Majorcraft FAX-632SUL. I'm looking at a used 5 ft model, Being an Aji rod I expect it to be totally different from the other 2 rods. The little I've found leads me to belive it should be really sensitive. With very little time fishing the other 2 rods I don't have a good handle just how sensitive they are yet. Anyone have any ideas on how the Aji rod sensitivity would be compared to the others.

The few fish I have caught casting a 1/32 jig with the other 2 rods were small crappie that seemed to have just mouthed the jig, seemed to just feel the line get sluggish. Fish were suspended 8 to 12 ft deep in water with a surface temp of about 50 degrees.

Thanks for any insight.

It is a great rod…..for what you are going to get it is great value for price paid. That is MSRP……I’m sure some eBay sellers have the price jacked up. This rod has Fuji titanium frames and is made with T 1100G. It is a great blank. You will find good Aji rods are extremely sensitive.

Regards


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I should add the fish those rods are designed to catch are extremely shy biters. They are small fish……averaging around 7 inches……from all I have gathered if you’re not fishing an extremely sensitive rod you’re not catching many. I’ve owned a lot of Aji rods but have gravitated away from them as they do not give the fun factor that a slower area trout rod would on small bluegill.

Regards


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

I’ve owned a lot of Aji rods but have gravitated away from them as they do not give the fun factor that a slower area trout rod would on small bluegill.

Regards

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Just watched your Aji rod video for at least the second time, that's part of the reason I haven't made a purchase yet, then I keep thinking it's not any fun if you don't get them on the hook.

There are just so many new potential toys to play with out there, it's probably a good thing for me that most things are out of stock. :Rofl

Don’t get me wrong…you can have fun with that rod, there are just more fun rods for bluegill. Rods that use the T1100 materials are great rods. The 2018 Corto was an example…fantastic rod.

Regards


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I can vouch for the Cortos as I have 3 different models. I looked at the Aji Do rods quite a bit but they were out of stock before I could make up my mind. I would say you would be getting you a quality stick for the money.

I seriously considered buying an Aji Do rod but ultimately chose not to because of what Randy described. I want to feel the fight/battle that a bluegill exerts. My Major Craft Finetail FAX SUL and my Tenryu Rayz Alter UL are my go to rods these days. I also fish a Major Craft Triplecross but it certainly doesn't have the fun factor of the other two rods I mentioned.

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Originally Posted by redearhoosier

I seriously considered buying an Aji Do rod but ultimately chose not to because of what Randy described. I want to feel the fight/battle that a bluegill exerts. My Major Craft Finetail FAX SUL and my Tenryu Rayz Alter UL are my go to rods these days. I also fish a Major Craft Triplecross but it certainly doesn't have the fun factor of the other two rods I mentioned.

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The Triple Cross is an excellent float rod, loads up great with a weighted or plastic rattle type floater, and will bomb it out there far. Also the tubular tip Triple Cross is an excellent dock shooter, I have it rigged up with a 1 or 1.4g jighead and plastic bait to shoot docks when I come to them in the boat. Both have a spot in my arsenal. I too looked at the Aji Do and did not pull the trigger.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by StantheMan2567

The Triple Cross is an excellent float rod, loads up great with a weighted or plastic rattle type floater, and will bomb it out there far. Also the tubular tip Triple Cross is an excellent dock shooter, I have it rigged up with a 1 or 1.4g jighead and plastic bait to shoot docks when I come to them in the boat. Both have a spot in my arsenal. I too looked at the Aji Do and did not pull the trigger.


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You are spot on regarding the Triplecross tubular rod. I routinely use weighted floats with it and it's amazing just how far I can heave it with that rod.

I've been looking for my next rod/reel setup for a while now. When spending north of $500, I take my time. The 6'2 Diplomat looks darn good to me.

I found the Used 5ft model listed for sale on a different forum I look at occasionally, mostly for fish finder info, they have pretty active sub forums for all the brands.

Being the type of forum it is most of the rods for sale there are more bass orientated, the rod has been listed for a couple of weeks, doesn't look like it has generated much interest there. Sent some money thru paypal this morning. I figure it will at least give me the opportunity to try out an ajing type rod.

Looking at the line specs, 0.8 to 2.5 lb and 0.1 to 0.4 PE not sure what to try first as far as line. I do have a spool of 2lb Sunline fluorocarbon, though I've never used any type of fluoro, I have a couple spools of 3 and 4 lb Varivas nylon and a spool of 0.2 PE Avani coming from Digitaka.

I’d put the avani on your finetail and put some 3lb varivas nylon or that 2lb fluoro on the Aji Do

I have some Varivas 0.2 PE 4strand spooled up on the Theta. I have a Legalis 2000 coming with the line order from Digitaka, I'll try some 3lb on that. I ordered two spare 1000s spools for the Legalis from Aliexpress but hard to tell how long it will take them to arrive from China. I'll wait for them to try the Avani. I have 4lb nylon spooled up on a Regal 2000 already.

Here is a topic where the orginal owner talks about the rod on a different forum.

New majorcraft 5g ajing rod “aji-do” - TackleTour

New to me arrived today along with my line and reel order from Digitaka. Spooled up Varivas 3lb nylon on a Legalis 2000 and walked over to the pond to try it out. Only caught 3 little ones before I had to quit to cook supper.Attachment 425536Attachment 425537

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Caught a couple more 6.5 to 7 in fish. Attachment 425543

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The tip on this rod is really tiny. Left is Lunakia 610, middle is Finetail 632 SUL, Right is Aji-do S502LAttachment 425547

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So how is the sensitivity…bending curve…cast ability. Is it extremely rigid!

Regards


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What's the fun factor when reeling in the bluegill?? I like the area rods because they offer a tremendous fun factor when reeling in big bluegill and redear.

I did seriously consider buying the Aji Do...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

So how is the sensitivity…bending curve…cast ability. Is it extremely rigid!

Regards


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Those are some hard questions for me to answer. With my limited JDM rod experience in general, and only about a half hour using this rod I can only give a limited first impression. My first initial thoughts when I was putting the 2 pieces together was " wow it looks and feels so dainty" at 5' it is the shortest rod I've ever used. When you shake just the rod it doesn't seem like the tip moves at all. The first fish was a skinny 5" or so bluegill, I felt the bite just fine, but it definitely didn't do any testing of the bending curve of the rod, just a couple inches of movement on the rod tip. I thought "Randy is right not as much fun as an area trout rod (Finetail SUL). The fish were also caught within 10 feet of the bank so not much reeling and playing with the fish. When I went back later in the evening I hooked a 6.5 to 7" bluegill with some meat to it, about 25 to 30' from the bank so it gave me sometime till to play with setting the drag which initially I didn't adjust out of the box and the fish couldn't pull any line. This fish was able to show some of the rod bending curve.

As for cast ability, I only used a 1/32 hair jig last night, I was able to cast to the distances I wanted with it, my pond isn't all that big though. I'll have to do more playing to see what the distance is different jigs.

The weather is to be crappy the next few days, so I'm going to try doing something along the lines of what D10 did in post #438 of the rod sticky JDM rods relating to Panfish - Page 44 (crappie.com)with the 3 rods I currently have.

I did a little playing around this morning with the the Finetail and the Aji-do with a 5 oz weight, with that much weight both rods have a full curve to them, I'm interested to see what the curve looks like compared to each other with lighter weights.

I'm really enjoying the JDM rods, I've always enjoyed catching fish, but these rods have made it more enjoyable, enough so that I want my wife and daughter in law to be able to experience some of that also. I'm not to the point that I'm sharing my rods yet, but did order a pair of TCB combo rods for them to tryout (combo was cheaper then just the rod at Midway USA). They have both been using older lite action Shakespeare rods with spincast reels. Had the wife practice with a spinning reel a little over the weekend she started to get the hang of it, got it in the water every time :Rofl .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redearhoosier

What's the fun factor when reeling in the bluegill?? I like the area rods because they offer a tremendous fun factor when reeling in big bluegill and redear.

I did seriously consider buying the Aji Do...

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I've seen the size of the fish you have been catching, bluegill that size should be a hoot on any rod, well maybe anything lighter than a catfish rod. Seriously though at this point if I expected fish to be less than 6 inches I'd take the Finetail rather than the Aji-do. I'm looking forward to getting out in the boat with the 3 rods so I can kind of compare them catching fish back to back.

No weight setup and water bottles suspended 0.4 ozAttachment 425639Attachment 425640

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Front rod is Aji-do, middle rod is Finetail 632 SUL, rear rod is Lunakia610 in all pictures.

1.5 Oz of weightAttachment 425641

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2.2 ozAttachment 425642

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3 ozAttachment 425643

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4 ozAttachment 425644

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The bottle on the Finetail is almost touching the floor, the next weight added made it contact the floor so it is the same in the rest of the pics.

5.1 oz at this point the bottle on the lunakia is almost touching the floor. The bottle on the finetail has been on the floor after the previous picture. Attachment 425645

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I tried to get the tips of the rods as close to the same height as I could during the set up, but due to different butt and handle sizes that was harder than I thought it would be. The Aji-do tip started at 36.25" off the floor, with 5.1 oz of weight the tip was 17" for a deflection of 19.25"
The Finetail tip started at 37 3/8" off the floor, the bottle went from just above the floor at 4oz to touching the floor at 4.4oz ending tip height of 8 1/2" for a deflection of 28 7/8"
The Lunakia tip started at 39.25" off the floor with 5.1 oz if weight the tip was 10.25" for a deflection of 29"

Not sure what the measurements indicate, the pics should give an indication of the bending characteristics of the rods. I took more pics but didn't want to bore everyone with every weight increase. I was using .40 bullets for the weight so I took a pic after adding each weight.

ESP 6 ft power lite model in front. Sam Heaton 7ft in middle with bobber on the line. Lunkia 610 in the rear highest bottle. All have 5.1 oz of weight suspended. Figured I'd look at them before I moved the backdrop.Attachment 425649

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Thanks for all the effort you extended for us. I’m dumb with the Japanese stuff, it helps a lot.

Nice display of bending curve. I still remember my first Aji rod I bought over 10 years ago. I thought, Is this an UL….LOL. I would love to fish one time for the Aji just to see how they bite. From everything I’ve read you’ve got to be on your toes to stick them.

Regards


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Well, assuming that Plat does not tell me that the rod I want is not actually available, again, I should get a new Aji-Do 5G rod in the next month or so.... and I appear to have gotten the last of the model. For the next 30 seconds or so, they do still have this one though. PLAT/major craft aji do 5g ad5 s622m aji free shipping in stock/rod-Fishing Tackle Store-en

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mosswood

Well, assuming that Plat does not tell me that the rod I want is not actually available, again, I should get a new Aji-Do 5G rod in the next month or so.... and I appear to have gotten the last of the model. For the next 30 seconds or so, they do still have this one though. PLAT/major craft aji do 5g ad5 s622m aji free shipping in stock/rod-Fishing Tackle Store-en

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Mosswood Which model did you order?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys.
:ThumbsUp

Great thread, lots of information here and the bending curve demonstration speaks volumes to helping purchase decisions on these rods we cannot handle shake and inspect first. The first thing that stands out to me is the action of the Lunakia. I have the 2018 6.10 Olympic GraphiteLeader and the bending curve looks/is very similar. I have had eyes this rod for years and the handle weave would be the only thing that would make me want to purchase this rod now. The Finetail curve is great, I have the 632L action and just love how the parabolic curve brings the gills and crappie to the hand. When the big fish come calling on the Fine-tail though l feel like it does not have enough backbone. I am a little surprised by the Aji Do, expected a softer bend from that blank. Thanks for this post, food for thought.


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I theoretically picked up the AD5-S682M model. I wanted the 6'8" ultra-light model, but also needed a replacement light-action rod, (since St. Croix refuses to honor my warranty claim on a panfish model - I had two breaks within four months of each other and I made the mistake of telling them the truth about how they broke). I tried ordering this Aji-Do 5G rod last summer and missed out.

I posted most of this in another topic but thought I'd put it here also.

I did some casting distance testing today. In the last month I've gotten sucked into this rabbit hole of JDM rods, I also bought new BnM TCB rod combo's for my wife and daughter in law. The combo was actually cheaper than just the rod at Midway USA. I was curious about the casting distance of the 3 JDM rods since they are so different from each other, since I was goofing off I tried the TCB rod also.

When testing distance each of the 4 rods had identical 1/32 hand tied hair jigs. 3 of the 4 rods preformed very close to each other for distance. Rod 1) 5' Majorcraft 5G Aji-do with a Daiwa Legalis 2000 spooled with 3lb Varivas nylon, Rod 2) 6'3" Majorcraft Finetail SUL with Daiwa Regal 2000 spooled with 4lb Varivas nylon, Rod 3) 6'6" BnM TCB with the combo reel it came with, a BnM Pro 50 that I spooled with 4lb Varivas nylon. With all three set ups casting distance was consistently between 40 to 45 feet. Of the 3 the 6'3" rod probably averaged 1 or 2 feet shorter cast than the other 2. Between those 3 rod setups casting distance would not be a deciding of which rod I was going to use. The fourth rod setup is a 6'10" Lunakia with an Abu Garcia Revo Theta spooled with 0.2 Varivas PE (Braid), this setup consistently cast between 50 to 55ft.

I measured the diameter of each spool where the line is, the Pro 50 measured 1.375" the other three all measured apx 1.5" I didn't measure the diameter of the spool lips.

I'm pleased with the distance from all the rods, I'm actually surprised that the 5' rod was able to cast a 1/32 just as far as the 6'3" and 6'6" rods. Not surprisingly the 6'10 rod with the 0.2PE cast the farthest. The nylon line diameter are listed as 0.0058 for the 3 lb and 0.0065 for the 4lb.

I'll eventually put better reels on the TCB's for my wife and daughter in law. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the TCB combos cast the light jig.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zekepa

I have some Varivas 0.2 PE 4strand spooled up on the Theta. I have a Legalis 2000 coming with the line order from Digitaka, I'll try some 3lb on that. I ordered two spare 1000s spools for the Legalis from Aliexpress but hard to tell how long it will take them to arrive from China. I'll wait for them to try the Avani. I have 4lb nylon spooled up on a Regal 2000 already.

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Received the SLP Works 1000S spools I ordered off of Aliexpress. Estimated delivery date was listed as 19 May, the were delivered yesterday so shipping took 12 days. I ordered the 1000S spools for $20, several of the sellers have the 1000 spools at around that price but it seems most of them don't have the 2000s, I did see one seller for the 2000 at about $28. First time I've used Aliexpress, the tracking system isn't the greatest but I did get what I ordered. From what I read on line Aliexpress is more of a webhosting site with a lot of differnt sellers, you pay Aliexpress but the sellers ship the product. kind of a cross between ebay stores and amazon i guess.