RASA Rods: What Do We Think?

All right guys, we are here talking Rasa Rods. We posted a video on YouTube a couple weeks ago,we got a lot of comments, a lot of feedback on it, so we wanted to address some of those.I have actually gotten a chance to play with a couple of these. I have a 7-2 medium heavycasting rod that I paired with a bannum, and then I've got a 7-2 medium spinning rod that I pairedwith a daewa tattula. So I got a chance to take these out on the river, it's the only thing wegot to open up here still, and play around with these. So I wanted to give you personal real feedbackon what I think of these, and then also some more in-depth details about the rods themselves.The video kind of showed how they were manufactured, where they were manufactured, but we didn'treally get up close and personal with the rods. So let's dive into these. All right, so the firstthing we're going to look at is what everybody kind of talks about these rods on these Rasa Rods.It's the tips. So the tips on these have a nickel titanium coating. That differs from regulartitanium, all right. Old rods used to have, I know, die one, a couple others put titanium tips inthere. That was a solid titanium tip that you could actually bend, and it would stay bent.This is a medical grade nickel titanium coating on top of a tip that's already existing in there.So this is like, this is, again, medical grade stuff. These are doctors that design these rods.This is actually the stuff that they sting your heart with. So it's pretty, pretty cool.Well, how that differs again is it's much more flexible than your typical titanium. Again,the old titanium rods people would want to bend them, and they would stay bent. You could never getthem back. This is just a coating. So you don't want to bend it all the way. You're still going tocrack your tip, but this has that nickel titanium coating on it, and it does a couple things for the rod.First of all, it transmits the exact sensitivity or touch point, however you want to call that,from the very tip. It brings it in about six inches on the rod. So on a normal typical 7-2 rod,you're feeling the bite from there, and it's transmitting it all the way down that rod.On this 7-2 rod, they say this coating actually transmits the bite from here. So it's a much shorterdistance giving you that extra sensitivity. Also, because this is a flexible material, it wants toalways return back to its normal shape or form or whatever it was formed into. They claim it createslonger casting distance. When that tip bends, it's going to want to snap back quicker and harder,and it's going to toss your lure further. So kind of cool thing. They've got... I don't knowwhat the exact guide's on this. You'd have to check out their website, but they've got high grade,you know, top the end guides all the way up and down this thing, and then when you get to the handle,this is a really, really cool handle. Again, I'm not certain on the exact materials they used.I think they have that again on their website. We'll get that listed in this video,but this handle is amazing. And I was skeptical at first. I like the rods where you've got, you know,everything... I like the blank. I like my hand on the blank. I like my fingers on the blank,and I was amazed at how well the bite transmitted through this handle.Usually, again, I got, you know, my pointer finger. Maybe I get another finger up on theblank, and that's where I'm feeling the bite, kind of those two fingers. This transmits the biteso well. I mean, you're feeling the bite all the way in the back of your palm of your hand. And I,again, I didn't expect that. I was shocked when I felt that. So it's a really, really cool designthat they've got here. And aesthetically, it's gorgeous, too. I love that kind of carbon fiber look.I fished this in really cold weather. It's still freezing up here in Minnesota. We're finally startingto get a little warmer, but I mean, again, cold weather. My hands weren't slipping on this at all.I had no problem gripping the rod. And then balance. Right at the front of the real seat there,and that again is the Shimano ban them on there. Now, how do they compare? So I am a long, long timeNRX guy. I love NRXs. It's basically all I carry in my boat. These are going to find a place in myarsenal. I am not exaggerating. Again, we don't have any affiliation with them. We're just kind of,you know, Ross is a separate company. We don't even have their rods listed on our website.But these rods are unbelievably sensitive. So if you're going after that light bite, I mean, again,there's, there's going to be a time and place drag in a football jig with this is perfect. Solooking at the spinning rod. We'll quickly go over the features because it's the same features again,but again, they got that nickel titanium coated tip. Four guides down, which is transmitting thatbite. Instead of all the way up there, transmits it from right there. So again, about six inches shorter.It gives you the sensitivity on a typical seven two rod. It's supposed to give you the sensitivityof like a six ten rod. So cool design. And then again, diowatt had two or three thousand,perfectly balanced right at the tip of the handle seat, the real seat there. And I got a littlenet rig tied on there right now, but when I was out on the river, I was actually dragging a littletube around and I mean, again, instead of feeling the bite just up here, I was feeling the biteall the way back here. I mean, the whole hand, you feel that just don't from the fish. So again,this is the seven two medium lure rating is a quarter ounce to three quarter ounce. I would saythat is actually very true for this rod. I feel like it fishes a little bit stronger than yourtypical medium. I think it compares very, very, very well to the NRX 872 spinning rod.The NRX has an extra inch on it. So it does have a little bit of lighter action to it, I think,but bending the two right next to each other, they are very, very, very similar rods. And actually,if I were going to throw a net rig more, I'd probably drop down to a medium light, butI had a lot of fun with this rod. Again, I was amazed, absolutely amazed by the sensitivityand that is coming from a guy who's used NRX for 20 plus years. So great rods.