Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4 Spinning Rod Product Review

Rod Review

Abu Garcia's Villain 2.0 Continues to Impress (continued)

Power: Once you hook up with a fish, you're then reminded that the VS610-4 is a little more than a light powered spinning rod. In fact, it's rate as "medium-light" in power. Reviewing our deflection chart above, this seems to pan out as you can see the rod's curve deflect less and less in comparison to our 2011 WTF baseline sticks as more pressure is applied to its tip.

Fig 1 : The chart above illustrates the deflection characteristics of our Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4 against our 2011 WTF baseline rods.

The rod isn't powerful enough to give you total control over your catch, but when you're using light line, you can't horse a fish to the boat anyway. The VS610-4 has a nice, smooth curve that helps you tire your catch out and still have fun while landing it.

Landing a fish on the CA Delta.

Design & Ergonomics: The VS610-4 is adorned with an all black with silver highlights color scheme. It has a very stealthy look as you'd expect from a "Villain" yet this villainous scheme is carried out with a few nice, sophisticated touches like a carbon inlay on the reel seat lockring, a sculpted EVA butt end, and clean thread wraps. The "Villain 2.0" motif is a tad big and bright on this stick, but something with which I can live.

Lab Results for Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4
Model	Avg RoD (2-32 oz)	Taper	Measured Weight (oz)	Balance Point (inches)	Balancing Torque (ftlbs)
Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4	2.67	Fast	4.1	5.5	0.15
DSR820S GLX	3.02	Fast	3.9	8	0.15
SMR822-SP GLX	2.75	Fast	3.7	7.5	0.15

Ergonomically, the Fuji TVS seat is a very comfortable and fast becoming my favorite spinning reel seat. The rod has a more than respectable overall weight at only four point one (4.1) ounces while balancing out at only five and a half inches (5.5") above the center of the reel seat. When you mount a reel on the rod, the entire combo floats in your hand.

Abu Garcia makes use of top tier, 40 ton graphite for their Villain 2.0 series.

Price & Applications: Abu Garcia's Villain 2.0 line was the company's former flagship bass rod series until they brought the Fantasista name over to the North American Market. Priced at $199 across the entire series, we continue to be impressed as to the value in each and every single rod in this series.

Guides are titanium framed with zirconia inserts. Here, you can also see the company's V-Wrap around the rod's blank.

As far as applications go for the VS610-4, I fished only finesse tactics with a shakey head and drop shot rig and found this stick supported both applications quite well. I know there are many who like to use their spinning rods for more than just finesse tactics and I'd probably recommend going up to the medium or medium powered spinning rod in this lineup if that's your goal.

Ratings:

Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4 Ratings (?/10)
Construction/Quality	A really clean build	9
Performance	A really fun, sensitive rod to fish!	10
Price	A great price for a rod with a 40ton graphite blank - regardless of the components	8
Features	Titanium framed Zirconia guides, Fuji TVS reel seat	7.5
Design (Ergonomics)	Very comfortable stick to fish	8
Application	A really good option for finesse applications	8
Total Score		8.42
Ratings Key: 1 = terrible : 2 = poor : 3 = lacking : 4 = sub par : 5 = mediocre : 6 = fair : 7 = good : 8 = great : 9 = excellent : 10 = unbelievable! For More Details of the updated rating system visit our explanation here

Pluses and Minuses:

Plus	Minus
+ Really good sensitivity	- Branding on the stick is a little big
+ Surprisingly good balance
\+ Overall a really fun stick to fish

Conclusion: I'll be the first to admit that I'm a snob when it comes to fishing rods. I can usually tell within ten or fifteen seconds of holding a rod if it suits my taste or not. Fishing the stick, obviously either validates or invalidates my initial gut reaction - and yes, sometimes I'm wrong and a stick surprises me. This is why we go through the effort of conducting our real world tests.

The VS610-4 is a really fun stick to fish...

From their name and market placement, I really didn't think much of Abu Garcia's Villain 2.0 line of rods feeling they were for a different, younger demographic and certainly not priced at a top tier, enthusiast level price. But when I picked up both the previously reviewed VC70-6 and the subject of today's review, the VS610-4, I knew there was more to these two sticks than some hipster marketing campaign.

... So much so, I had to award it this Editor's Choice Award!

By using top grade graphite, an intermediate level guide, name brand reel seats, and aggressive, yet not garish rod styling, Abu Garcia really has itself a top notch contender here in the Villain 2.0 series. The VS610-4 in particular is a real winner and I'm proud to say has earned this Editor's Choice Award! Thanks Abu Garcia for making such a good performing stick at an excellent price point!

Looking for an Abu Garcia Villain 2.0 VS610-4?

Try TackleWarehouse