A wet, soupy fog hung over the phosphate pit, socking us in and rendering the big outboard useless. The trolling motor, however, whirled away, churning up a silty cloud as we eased off the muddy, makeshift ramp. Our guide, Dean Jackson, gestured with two fingers toward open water.
“We’re going to target bass in the deep grass beds. Cast as far as you can, let it sink to the bottom, jerk it up then crawl it back,” he said.
The baitcaster sang as the braid hummed through the guides, the black-and-blue bladed jig racing out then plopping down. The bait fluttered on the fall before settling in the vegetation 25 feet down. I snapped the rod to attention, breathing life into the vibrating bait. Three turns into my first retrieve, the rod shuddered.
I wrenched down on the drag and leaned into the fish, bracing for a tussle. The spool slipped as a thickly muscled largemouth challenged the drag’s resolve. Soundly buttoned to the bass and hunched over the boat’s gunwale I couldn’t help but think this was going to be a special trip.
This year, for the fourth-annual Game & Fish Tackle Test, we traveled to Florida’s Bienville Outdoors, a legendary fishery with a vibrant bass population. Here, over the course of four days, our team of experts put the newest bass gear through its paces, in search of the best rods and reels the industry has to offer.
THE WINNERS: BAITCASTING RODS & REELS
KISTLER ARGON
BAITCASTING RODS
Trey Kistler is a Texas-based rod builder who has a knack for designing and building high-performance, lightweight rods that ooze quality, and the new Argon follows in this tradition. The radially-wrapped Japanese Toray blank and intermediate modulus produce a rod that is a highly efficient caster. The moderate modulus offers great flexure without rendering the blank so brittle as to be prone to breakage.
The Argon ($200; kistlerrods.com) is rated for 10- to 12-pound-test line; however, we fished our test rod with 30-pound braid and found the Argon more than capable of handling it. We fished a variety of baits, from heavily weighted worms to bladed jigs and 1/4-ounce lipless crankbaits, and the rod performed admirably with all of them.
The Argon’s ability to snap hooksets impressed testers, too. This is a function of the synergy between the lightning-fast tip, blank lay-up geometry and modulus. The minimalist cork grip fits the hand nicely and is sized just right for both one- and two-handed casts.
Generous rod wrap resin and a Texas-style hook keeper both offer insight into the attention to quality and detail. The Argon is hand-built in Magnolia, Texas, and carries a 5-year warranty.
BOTTOM LINE: The Argon is an American-built rod that offers exceptional performance in a perfectly balanced package.
ST. CROIX BASS X
St. Croix builds some of the best high-end rods in the business and has a solid following of fishermen who demand top stuff. The Bass X line offers anglers a bit of that legendary St. Croix performance at a very reasonable price.
Our 7-foot-1-inch medium-power, fast-action baitcasting rod was loaded with high-end features, including St. Croix’s SCII carbon fiber and proprietary
