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The
Samurai Sword of Frog Rods, the Daiwa Steez XBD
(continued)
 
Casting: As our
initial lab tests showed the Daiwa XBD rod has a fast taper that lends to the
rod’s overall crisp and responsive feel. The rod’s light weight makes it easy to
swing the rod hard and quickly to deliver laser shots in between structure or to
skip the frog under hanging branches or docks. We colored the Izorline we were
fishing with making it very easy to see the exact bullet trajectories of each
cast.
The XBD
rod can be accelerated quickly casting frogs with laser accuracy...
The same can be said of
the hi-vis yellow Daiwa Samurai braid, and while I love the yellow when casting
and working frogs I did feel like it was too visible when working frogs over
open water. To address this I used a green marker to color the first twenty feet
of line. Overall the XBD rod casts like a dream, it is as precise as I imagined
and working frogs into seemingly impossible bits of water was definitely made
easier with the exceptional control afforded to me by this precise feeling
stick.
...just don't get crazy
overconfident like I did...
At one point during the
test I started becoming overconfident, the combo was just so easy to cast. I
started shooting frogs into extremely tight spots under overhanging branches in
submerged trees, this resulted in a few nice blowups and with each cast I
started trying to get the frog deeper and deeper into the trees. Just when I
thought I was making perfect casts my frog hit the tree branch and my thumb
wasn't properly managing the spool on my Alphas Ito.... blam... I was presented
with the mother of all backlashes. It reminded me quickly.... don't fish with an
ego. If I was in a swordfight this would have been game over, but lucky for me I
had a extra reel packed.
...or experience monster
backlashes
Retrieving: Without
question this is the most sensitive frog rod that I have ever fished. Every
single contact can easily be felt when using braided line with the XBD rod. The
low overall weight of this rod only further adds to the XBD’s incredible feel
and the added stress of fishing with braided lines full time was never an issue
on this rod.
A look at the machined fore-nut
that has become a common characteristic of all Steez rods
Many anglers think it is
the surface of the braid that cuts into the guides and while braid by itself can
cause damage to some softer guide materials it is usually the combination of
particulate matter that the line picks up that acts as an abrasive on the
guides. SIC guides are definitely hard enough for braided line and throughout my
tests there wasn’t any damage done to the guides whatsoever.
The Alphas Ito was my second
favorite reel to put on this rod right behind the Steez...
When retrieving frogs all
day long the XBD rod definitely reduces wrist fatigue as the rod is not only
light but well balanced with a variety of reels. I fished this rod all day on
many occasions and never get tired, back to the sword analogy the XBD absolutely
feels like a Samurai sword while many other rods feel more akin to a Claymore.
...but the Zillion Type R also
paired nicely and actually balanced out pretty well even though the total outfit
weight difference could clearly be felt while walking frogs
Next Section:
How much power in that rod?
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