Performance: I paired the CLCC-71H with an Abu Garcia REVO Beast spooled with twelve pound (12lb) Silver Thread copolymer fishing line for some tests up at Clear Lake, CA and the California Delta this past year.

Evergreen's Light Cavalry CLCC-71H is a two-piece stick.

Casting: With a lure rating of between three eighths of an ounce to two full ounces (3/8oz - 2oz), you can imagine the CLCC-71H is a pretty beefy stick and it is. The great thing about it though is it has a rather pliable tip that loads well both in casting and pitching situations. In fact, I particularly enjoyed pitching with this stick though not necessarily when paired with the REVO Beast. That reel feels great when casting but I found my wrist growing tired while pitching with this combo mostly because of the overall weight of the reel and rod combined.

Built to typical Evergreen standards.

The rod's lure rating is very accurate and the stick handles baits within that range, and slightly above that range, just fine. It loads for a cast much more easily than I had anticipated when handling it straight out of its rod sleeve.

That means simple, super clean, elegant detailing.

Sensitivity: The CLCC-71H has a glossy finish that, from what I can tell via the company's website is a special coating meant to protect the blank from scratches and also from picking up excess dirt. These types of finishes add weight to the blank which ultimately ends up affecting sensitivity. This stick actually has a nice feel to it, but I'm left to wonder how much more sensitive it'd be without this finish and a more bare bones, raw blank presentation.

And high performance.

Power: One area where this stick is not lacking in is power. Rated up to thirty pound (30lb) test in its line rating, this stick charts out almost exactly to our trusty G.Loomis MBR844C GLX and our recently reviewed Daiwa Tatula TAT721HFB. All three of these sticks strike a nice balance between being able to handle "normal sized" lures yet deliver enough hook setting power and control to where you can turn a fish's head if needed. The CLCC-71H is a powerful stick that does not fish at all like a two-piece rod.

Evergreen lists this rod as a "regular" taper which translates in our terms as "moderate". Flexing the rod's tip with the end of our fishing line reveals what appears to be a fast taper but once you hook up with a fish and more weight is exerted at the end of the line, it's easy to tell this stick has what many other high end JDM rods possess and that's the dual taper where the rod behaves one way under minimal load, and once the pressure is on, it softens, bending more through its length which helps you keep a fish buttoned until you can get it in the boat.

Next Section: Two piece design