Looking for sensitive eging rods for long-range ajing

I was looking for a very sensitive eging rod to use for long-range ajing.

Two solid-tip models caught my attention, listed in my notes as 8.8 ft and 8.9 ft.

The Emeraldas arrives first

I had ordered the shorter one the previous week. I had not handled it, but decided to trust it and place the order.

It arrived on the 23rd. First, I tried swinging it indoors.

Well, perhaps this was about what I should have expected. It did not match the Gamakatsu.

These were the figures I recorded for the 2020 Emeraldas AIR AGS 88M-S (solid tip):

• Length: 8.8 ft, as written in the Japanese article.
• Weight: 91 g.
• Tip diameter: 0.9 mm in the catalogue; my measurement was 1.05 mm. It also looked thicker than 0.9 mm.
• PE line: Japanese sizes #0.5–1. I might use #0.4 for ajing.
• Egi: sizes 2.5–4, with 10–25 g noted in the article.

Hmm. The catalogue said 0.9 mm… Perhaps that was Daiwa for you. I would have to accept that too.

I was using egi weights as a rough guide when considering sinker weights for my split rig. From the way the rod felt, a 14–18 g metal jig used as the sinker seemed workable.

Waiting for the LUXXE

I had ordered the LUXXE EG X S89ML-solid yesterday, the 22nd. I had been told it would ship on the 30th. Perhaps it would arrive on 2 December.

I had handled this one in a tackle shop. It was wonderfully light, and the balance was perfect. I felt certain it could serve as an ajing rod.

The manufacturer’s description highlighted TORAYCA T1100G in the blank, combined with high-modulus material for a light, crisp feel, easy handling and casting. It also described a hollow Resound Grip at the reel seat.

Hmm. Yes. This might be very good indeed.

The rest would have to wait until I used it.

My recorded specifications for the LUXXE EG X S89ML-solid were:

• Length: 8.9 ft, as written in the Japanese article.
• Weight: 87 g.
• Tip diameter: 0.9 mm.
• PE line: Japanese sizes #0.3–1.
• Egi: sizes 1.8–3.5, with 5–20 g noted in the article.

I planned to use 14–18 g metal jigs as sinkers.

Jig weight and the way I fish the rig

Until then, I had mainly used a 14 g metal jig as the sinker. A little more weight seemed preferable, so I thought 18 g might become my main choice from the next trip.

In my fishing tests, I had tried weights up to 30 g. When the current became extremely fast, that could sometimes work best. For ordinary conditions, though, I felt that up to 18 g would be enough.

With more weight, fish were more likely to bounce off when they bit. Once bites started, I would occasionally ease the tension and feed a little line for half a second or a little longer. That made it easier to get them hooked.

Where snags were a problem, leaving hooks on the metal jig could cause all sorts of trouble.

With my rig design, I could not fit a rear hook even in snag-free water or when keeping the rig no deeper than midwater. Any hook on the jig had to be an assist hook, which I regarded as a bonus.

Even so, aji of 25 cm or more would take the 14 g metal jig itself. In those circumstances, roughly one catch in ten was a double: two fish at once.

The metal jig attracted aji well, but the main hook was the other one in the rig.

Published on 23 November 2021 and updated on 3 December. The source’s length notation is retained above; Gamakatsu lists the S89ML-solid as 8 ft 9 in (267 cm), rather than 8.9 decimal feet. Egi sizes are Japanese size numbers, and the gram ranges are the author’s notes. The account of tests up to 30 g does not identify which rod was used.

Continue with the LUXXE’s arrival and the subsequent fishing review.