WSF Reader: Gary Atkinson, Devon

Living in Devon and being a co-owner of a Warrior 165 I do lots of different fishing, but enjoy bass and pollack on light rods through the summer and early autumn. My old Daiwa 12lb class rod of some years has been well used and I’ve been shopping for a new rod to replace it for some time, without much success.

During a recent boat trip I was chatting to a fellow angler about rods and he said to have a look at the new Penn Waveblaster EVO’s as he’d got the 12/20lb rod. He showed it to me and I was shocked how much lighter and more responsive the action was compared to my old rod.

What I liked about the rod was the length which at 8’ is long enough to play out fish when they’re tight to side of the boat and keep the rod tip bent when they charge under the boat as bass often do. I was also impressed that the rod is fitted with real Fuji rings as I’ve found these last longer and are tougher than other makes of guide.

The rod is much thinner in diameter than the other boat rods I use and I like the comfortable fore grip that retains the feel in the rod when I’m fighting fish. Also the position of the reel seat is just right. I also noticed that on my old Daiwa the reel seat threads were above the reel, but on the Waveblaster the threads are below the reel. This is much more comfortable and how I ever managed to fish with the old Daiwa without realising this I don’t know.

The biggest difference is in the action and power of the rod. The Waveblaster bends in the tip and mid section which is exactly what I was looking for when working lures and live baits for bass and pollack, but when the rod starts to fully bend you feel the rod stiffen quickly and it has real backbone, so much so that I’ve started using the rod for all my ray fishing too. Bite detection on the drift is amazing and I’ve used both braid and mono on the rod and it works well with both.

There’s a choice of equal section or long tip and a short butt in the rod. I went for the long tip and short butt rod as I wanted the best possible action as I felt equal section rods lose a little action due to the positioning of the joint which stiffens the mid section.

I’d checked out a few rods before buying the Waveblaster EVO, but I’m really pleased with my rod and since buying it I’ve also bought the Waveblaster 8 to 12lb class rod and my mate’s also bought the 12 to 20lb rod same as mine for bassing and pollack fishing.

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