Rising from the Depths, Megabass's Leviathan (continued)

Features: The Leviathan has a pretty standard set of features. The supplied rod sleeve is useful for stowing the stick away in your house or tackle den and it's not too bulky when you have the rod stacked in with a bunch of other sticks in your rod locker. The rod's foregrip is integrated with the reel seat locking mechanism (referred to as the Ito Headlock system), and the guides are stainless steel framed Fuji Alconites in the semi-micro profile.

This rod is equipped with Fuji K-Series guides built from stainless steel frames and Alconite inserts.

If you're not lucky enough to have a 20' boat and are limited in terms of storage for long rods, you'll find the two piece design of the Leviathan very useful. The only thing really missing on this stick is a hook keeper.

The cork is very uniform in color, but if you look closely, you can see the considerable amount of fill.

Here's how the two pieces fit together.

Once assembled, you forget this rod is two pieces.

Design/Ergonomics: The saving grace for the Leviathan, ergonomically speaking, is the stick's overall weight. At 5.7 ounces, it is well below the average for sticks in all three categories of our Swimbait Rod Wars. The compromise, of course, is in the rod's overall balance at 12.5 inches from the centerline of the reel seat, but given the majority of retrieves with the baits you'll throw on this stick are tip down retrieves, balance might not be as important.

This rod is stout, yes, but it still has an open reel seat.

The rear handle length of this rod could be a bit longer for really launching big baits, but not once did I feel it was too short. I'd say the Leviathan's rear handle length is the minimum you'd want on a big bait stick of this size.

The F10-80XX Leviathan is a very capable big bait stick.

Application: Megabass's Orochi XX F10-80XX Leviathan is designed with big baits in mind but it will serve well with large cranks and spinnerbaits as well thanks to a moderate-fast taper. If you want a big, beefy stick to double as a punch stick, the Leviathan can handle those duties as well though I wouldn't recommend pairing it with the Ryoga Shrapnel for that application unless you have wrists comparable in size and strength to The Hulk.

As is our tradition, Zander handed me this bait to try on the Leviathan and somehow never got it back.

Ratings:

Pluses and Minuses: