The ones with no guides! Except for the one that guides the line into the center of the blank and the tip top that guides it back out again. The ad copy says something about better distribution of stress because of more contact points - that just conjures up a picture in my mind of the line scraping against the inside core of the blank which I don't imagine to be too smoothly finished. Do you think the inside surface is as smooth as the outside surface? And what about the spot where they cut open the blank for the first guide - that has to have some serious structural implications.

Any thoughts?

These are not new, having been around from at least two other companies over the year. Great concept but much is lost in the actual implementation. No, the inside of the rod is not as smooth as a set of ceramic guides would be. And, it tends to gather debris which is hard to remove.

They have been selling well enough for Cabelas to keep them in the line for several seasons, however.

...........

I can just see using Power Pro line and have it saw into the blank.

These things work fine until the line gets wet!! Anyone know of a place to go air fishing?

Gon Fishn

Cabela's could even sell a lot of "replacement holes" for those rods. They're marketing power is unreal...

Putter
Williston, ND

OOOOOOOOOO!........Putter....You're bad.

Have to agree though.......and you would not believe how big a pain it is to thread the bloody things. If you fish silty water or water with a high algae or diatom level you are screwed.

Derek

I have seen these rods deminstrated at sport shows a few years back. The one I saw were designed for trolling or jigging. The deminstrator used a long thin wire to thread the rod. As mentioned earlier the hole well fill up with junk and if the rod breaks there is no way to fix it. I can't see it being used as a casting rod, do to the fact the line lays on the bottom of the rod. It could be used to rais a flag;
Good Wraps Bob

A couple of years back when those rods came out my competitor and I were buying cases of broken rods to salavage components from and I saw about 15 or so of those rods and every one was broken where the line goes into the blank. How do you think they would be when used in salt water and the salt crystalizes after it dries out? Jesse

I own three of the 9’ Depthmaster (technique specific planer board rods) and have used them for three years now guiding for Trophy Striper. I spool them with 65# power pro on a Quantum Iron saltwater reel. Attached to the other end are one to two pound baitfish of some sort, usually skipjack herring and an offshore planer board. These rods have hauled many fish in the 10 to 40 pound range over the rails of my boat with no problem at all. Not to mention all the times they got hung up and bent backwards with drag screaming while floating in three generators of current. No they aren’t casting rods but it’s hard to cast a two pound bait anyway. You couldn’t achieve a better rod arch with any of the fancy guide placements mentioned on this board and though they are not as slick on the inside as the out I have never broken the power pro with one. The 40# fluorocarbon leader is always the first to break. Don’t be so quick to badmouth these rods until you have seen them in action doing what they are designed to do.

Once I dropped one of my Innerflow rods and the tip slammed on the concrete floor chipping the ceramic tip. Even though the rod was two years old, Cabelas couldn’t tell me where to buy a new tip so the replaced the whole rod for free! This is only one of many stories of Cabelas replacing equipment that I broke by being a meathead. That is why the have such great marketing power, because they have earned it!

I shop with Custom Tackle for most all my rod building needs but everything else, even the clothes on my back I buy Cabelas.