Megabass's Destroyer Series Goes USDM - Finally

Introduction: Megabass as a brand made its debut over thirty (30) years in the early to mid 80's. By the mid 90’s, their bait products had made their way into tackle boxes around the world though admittedly in limited supply. The JDM price points were not very palatable for most anglers. Even more rare was to find someone outside of Japan who had experience with their fishing rods.

Megabass has been building rods since their 1985 ARMS series.

While the pervasiveness of this enthusiast level brand continued to grow outside of Japan, it really wasn’t until 2013 when international subdivision, Megabass of America, debuted their designed and made for the North American market Orochi XX line of rods that their popularity really sky rocketed. Up until then, Megabass was considered boutique and high end only. The company completed their foray into the mainstream with the debut of Levante in 2015.

Megabass's Destroyer line has been in play since 1996 but as a JDM product.

2017 marks the first year we get a Destroyer series as part of the core offering from Megabass of America.

Enter 2017 and Megabass of America is finally set to offer a series of rods with JDM styling cues, but with USDM lengths, actions, and powers. Yes, the US market finally gets its very own set of Megabass Destroyers and we were fortunate enough recently to take to the water with an entire set of these sticks so we could deliver to you this First Look On the Water

These rods feature unsanded blanks built with Megabass's Hybrid Graphite System.

Guides are Fuji, titanium framed SiCs.

The Makeup: There are a total of eight (8) models in Megabass of America's 2017 Destroyer Lineup. Each model features a custom and proprietary blend of graphite from the tip down to the butt to deliver key performance attributes at each section of the rod.

The Spiral Architecture Reel Seat is a familiar Megabass design.

This seat is completely open on the bottom.

This Hybrid Graphite System is proprietary to Megabass and one of their signature technologies. Once the blank is complete, each rod is finished with Fuji, titanium framed SiC guides and a custom Spiral Architecture Reel Seat with Head Locker. That's Megabass speak for a custom designed reel seat with an accompanying and similarly custom real seat locking mechanism.

Grips are mixed material with cork...
 

... and some EVA but the handle designs are not the same for each model.

This detail right here, at the top of the handle assembly, is a signature Megabass move. Where most other manufacturers simply taper off the handle assembly and add a gasket or winding check, Megabass machine's an insert to cap off their Headlock System.

The Lineup: We spent a few days with the entire lineup from this new series with time both in the lab and out on the water (there may be a few models missing when Megabass of America gets them back). Here's our quick rundown of what to expect.

Megabass of America sent us the complete lineup to check out and test, so we hit the water for some real world first look.

F3.5-611XS Addermine: The Addermine is a six foot, eleven inch (6'-11") spinning rod built with an extra fast taper. It is designed, of course, for finesse applications and stacks up very favorably to one of Megabass's classic rods, the F3-610DGS Aaron Martens Limited. Those who remember that purple blanked masterpiece with its backwards first guide will be happy to know some of the same magic that rod possessed is recaptured in the Addermine.

Introducing the F3.5-611XS Addermine.

The Addermine aligns quite nicely with a Megabass classic, the F3-610DGS Aaron Martens Limited.

Checking out the rod's tip - this was the last time I handled the rod.

In fact, the first words out of Zander's mouth when he held that stick in his hand was, "Now this is a Megabass rod. I'm sorry, but Megabass of America is not getting this stick back." Zander has been on a "What the Finesse" tear this year and took full possession of the Addermine. The perks of being Editor in Chief.

A quick detail look at the spinning rod Head Lock system.

Zander got a hold of this one right away and it was game over for me.

He was fishing it with a Shimano NASCI spinning reel spooled with 4lb Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line dropshotting Roboworms for eighty percent of the day but felt his Stella FI 2000 would have been a better match for weight and size. Expect a full review on this stick shortly after ICAST.

First look on the way to a full blown review.