Fred Hall Long Beach Show: Part 1 - Freshwater Coverage
 

Introduction: Fred Hall Long Beach is the largest fishing and tackle show on the West Coast, and manufacturers turn it up a notch both in the quality of their displays and their product offering. This year there was enough at the show to break up our coverage into fresh and saltwater separately.

Welcome to Long Beach, and the Fred Hall Tackle, Boat, and Travel Show

On the Freshwater side there was nothing new from the reel manufacturers as the Tier 1 brands have either already made their introductions or are now waiting for ICAST. Rod and lure manufacturers took the opportunity to present their new introductions at what turned out to be a strong freshwater launch platform.

you know it's a big show when the Laker Girls roll in

Phenix Rods: Just like in X-Men the first thing we witnessed at the show was the rise of the Phoenix, ok…Phenix, close enough. Anglers may remember Phenix rods as a boutique rod manufacturer that used to produce custom offerings based mostly on Shikari blanks. Fred Hall Long Beach was a launching platform for the return of the company to both the freshwater and saltwater rod business.

Robert Ip highlighted the rebirth of Phenix Rods

The company is now wrapping all their rods here in the US, and the sticks make use of many Fuji components. What really caught our attention was how sharp the Ultra MBX rods looked from the custom reel seat to the clean split grip implementation. The exposed reel seat looks similar to the Shimano Cumara design but is angled and drilled differently to put the reel in a unique palming position, somewhat similar the old G.Loomis Weibe seats. Traditionally the rod goes through the center of the reel seat but with the propriety Phenix reel seat the blank actually goes through the lower half of the reel seat allowing the rear handle to be raised, elevating the palm of your hand in relation to your reel.

 
Check out the Phenix exposed reel seat

There are a total of eight Ultra MBX rods ranging from 6’6” to 7’7” in length. Regardless of model we also noticed how light the rods were. We actually had access to a scale at the show and in comparison to a G.Loomis 783C GLX to a comparable Phenix rod there was a difference of .6oz in weight.