What the Finesse : Falcon's Jeff Kriet Signature Series Stick

Total Score: 7.25 - GOOD

Introduction: Bassmaster Elite Series Angler Jeff Kriet has twelve, top 10 finishes to his credit including a 1998 Oklahoma Invitational title, and second place finish at the 2010 Bassmaster Classic. One of his specialties is fishing plastics and Big Bite Bait's Squirrel Tail Worm is one of his signature designs. Of course, if you're an Elite Series angler and you have a signature bait to your credit, it stands to reason, you're going to have a signature rod associated with said bait. Introducing Falcon's Cara series Jeff Kriet signature stick, the Squirrel Tail spinning rod.

Impressions: With two rods from this series already in our archives, Falcon's CS-4-17M-S offered no surprises. It is a seven foot stick featuring a no foregrip, split rear grip design, and Fuji Alconite guides. It is a clean, no-nonsense stick proudly manufactured within the United States along with all of Falcon's rods. The only downside to the fact the Cara is made in the United States? It's priced roughly $50 more than rods built by other manufacturers with similar components overseas.

Introducing Jeff Kriet Signature series Squirrel Tail rod by Falcon.

Lab Tests: First stop for our Jeff Kriet signature Falcon spinning rod was the lab and an appointment with the RoD WRACK. It is here we can see the CS-4-17M-S's rate of deflection is pretty darn close to that of our two baseline rods. The actual curve, as charted, is lower than either the G.Loomis DSR820S GLX or G.Loomis SMR822S-SP GLX, meaning the Squirrel Tale is a bit heavier in power than the other two sticks, but the actual rate at which the rod deflects is very similar.

More news on the plus side for the Squirrel Tale spinning stick is it weighs in at a more than respectable 3.6 ounces, but with this light weight comes a big, “tip heavy” penalty. This stick’s balancing torque is 0.23 ftlbs, a number we more commonly see with eight foot flipping sticks.

Fig 1: This chart illustrates the deflection characteristics of the Falcon Cara CS-4-17M-S (red curve) against our two baseline What the Finesse (WTF) sticks in the G.Loomis DSR820S GLX (yellow curve) and SMR822S-SP GLX (blue curve). As you can see, the Cara is a full to half a power heavier than either of these rods, but shares the same, general rate of deflection throughout.