The new Shimano Cumara freshwater rods make their official debut....in a few hours
 

Introduction: It didn’t take long for the tech savvy readers here on TackleTour to start piecing the story together over the new Core reels and Cumara rods after our coverage of the Shimano beta test event at lake El Salto, Mexico. We had an opportunity to not only preview the new Cumara rods but actually fish the prototypes side by side with the Shimano rod designers Robby and Justin. We take an inside look at the new series which will be officially released in just 9 hours at ICAST in Las Vegas.  

The new rod series: The Crucial rod series has been a phenomenal hit for Shimano and elevated the reel manufacturer to be a serious contender for angler’s dollars in the mid to high end rod category. With the Crucial rods Shimano fans finally had a rod they felt matched the performance of their premium reels, but the company was far from done. Robby Gant, was recently promoted to Brand Manager of Shimano, but his final project with the new Rod Product Manager, Justin, was to create a series that would trump the Crucial in performance.

Before the Cumara was created Shimano talked to prostaff, dealers, and the media and found the most requested features in the new rods to include reduced weight, more sensitivity, something truly unique form the rest of the lineup, a application specific series (Drop Shot, Carolina, Texas, Jigs, Ika, Split Shot), and one that was designed to fish bottom contact baits where the added sensitivity would really be an advantage.

What finally emerged was the new Cumara series which features an IM-10 blank, Fuji Sic concept guides, custom split reel seats, a custom minimal fore grip, and a weigh in that is nearly 10% lighter than the already light Crucial series..

Carbon implementations in the handle help reduce weight and increase sensitivity on the spinning rod version, while the casting models strive for complete access to the blank. Shimano also makes the move to dense but lightweight EVA foam like many of the imports, and the rods feature an attractive split grip implementation. The hook hanger on these rods is very innovative, and can’t actually be seen on the blank, as they are implemented into the grip itself.