MY WIFE’S NEW ROD ‘N REEL COMBO
The emcee at the gathering read off the numbers on raffle ticket, “801, 776,” then he scanned the room for a hand to go up. My wife, sitting next to me, raised hers.
I’d bought her a string of tickets for the fund raising raffle part of the evening. “What did I win?” she asked.
“A St. Croix fishing rod,” I said. “Those are really good rods, great rods. Way to go!” I was picturing myself tossing spinnerbaits, crankbaits or weedless frogs later in the summer with the new rod to the envy of my fishing friends.
“Will it be a good rod for fishing the St. Clair River when we go there in a few weeks?”
“I think so,” I said.
“Good! Now get me a new reel to go with it. I don’t want one of your old hand-me-downs.” So I did—see below.
ABU GARCIA JORDAN LEE LOW PROFILE BAITCASTER:
I called one of my contacts at Abu Garcia, told him about my wife’s new rod and asked for his advice on what sort of baitcaster to pair it with. “We’ve got a Jordan Lee Low Profile Reel that would go great with that rod. It’s stylish, loaded with features, light weight and comes at a great price point,” he said. (For you non-bass guys, Jordan Lee won the Bassmasters Classic back to back in 2017 and 2018 and is still one of the top pros on the circuit.)
I looked it up at www.abugarcia.com and agreed. Look up the features for yourself—impressive. More important, my wife loved it.
The bright yellow grips are more than just flash, they are molded from a soft-touch easy to grip. It’s light weight, combining a graphite frame with an aluminum spool. She could handle the rod and reel quite easily and so could I.
One thing I noticed immediately was how smooth it was when reeling, when dropping a jig into the river or casting it. Everything inside that moves is ball or roller bearings. No bushings. I chose the higher speed, 7.1 to 1 retrieve. One of the downsides to most of these smaller reels designed to be used with braided line is their smaller spools need a fast retrieve to put enough line on the reel with each turn of the crank. The high-speed ratio pulled lures or the fish in without any undo speed-cranking needed.
