Review - Abu Garcia - Veritas Rod/Revo MGX Reel

Thanks to the wonderful Outdoor Blogger Network, and the amazing company Abu Garcia, I was fortunate enough to put to some new equipment through its paces.  I had my pick of the Veritas rod series coupled with my preferred gear ratio on their Revo MGX.  I opted for the one piece medium action 6' 6" rod partnered with the 7.9:1 gear ratio.  I received the rod first and I was immediately impressed by the aesthetic appeal that it had.  It's bright white finish looked stunning as it slid out of the tube.  Next came the reel, and when I first received the box I was afraid that they had shipped an empty box as it was so light!  After opening the box, I was relieved to see the reel was there, but its size and weight was concerning to me as it was a much smaller frame then I had envisioned.  It also weighed hardly anything!  At 5.4 ounces it was by far the lightest reel in my line-up.  It was time to see how everything performed.  As I matched the reel to the rod seat, I was thoroughly impressed by the machined aluminum fittings and how it cradled the reel perfectly.  I carefully threaded my line on and started to wind the carbon fiber handle.  My chin almost hit the floor as the 30lb. test braided line flew off the roll and laid perfectly onto the spool.  At 39 inches of line retrieve per handle turn, I couldn't believe how easy long lengths of line were handled.  The other aspect I noticed as I loaded the spool with line is how perfectly the reel settled into my hand and how comfortable it was.  Wiping the drool from the corners of my mouth and the few droplets that had landed on the reel, it was time to put the combo to work.

I really put this combo to work by throwing everything from 1/4 ounce jigs to umbrella rigs and large bucktails.  After a couple of hours, I was no longer concerned about the size or the weight, as this was proving to be a real workhorse.  In fact, I was very pleased about the size and weight, as it fit very comfortably and my arm never felt fatigued at all.  That is very important when you are spending eight or ten hours fishing in a day!  The first bass I hooked into just further convinced me that this was an outstanding package.  The reel had the speed to maintain line tension no matter how fast the fish ran at me and the rod had just enough give to let me thoroughly enjoy the experience and enough rigidity to battle the fish's attempts at escape.  The gear ratio let me scream bucktails through the water if I wanted to or work a jerkbait at whatever speed necessary.  I have now logged 40 hours of solid casting on this combo and have been nothing but impressed.  It has successfully landed smallmouth bass from 1 to 4 pounds. I also fish for muskellunge and I have spent many of those hours pulling extremely large lures and the reel hasn't skipped a beat.  I do find for these large fish, the 12 pound drag might be a little bit light, but too much more and you would probably overdue the hookset anyway.  The only downside to this combo in my eyes is the price.  It is a little more than I would typically spend on a rod and reel combo, but if it continues to perform the way I think it will, it will outlast two of my typical combos, and in that case the price is much more bearable.  Overall, I think this is a great set up for anyone who is going to do any quantity of fishing.  I would definitely recommend these products to anyone!  I would like to again thank Abu Garcia and the Outdoor Blogger Network for this outstanding opportunity and compliment them on the quality of the products that they are producing!

July Synoposis - Part 2

Continuing into week two I maintained the lake theme and visited Cross Lake and picked up a few brown bullheads for a different type of adventure.  Not overly large, but pound for pound not a bad fight.  The part that takes getting used to though, is that the fish growls at you!  In typical catfish formation the fish utters a guttural sound when stressed.  A worm floating just above bottom on a bobber worked very well for these bottom dwellers.

I then decided to stay true to the River Rats name and get off the lakes and back onto a river. Brent and I headed out for another night on the river for a try at a muskie.  We were not rewarded with a muskie, but the bass action was slow and steady.

In the third week, we went on a couple more unsuccessful muskie trips followed by an evening of shore fishing for Heather and I.  We fished the mouth of the Fish River down into the St.John River a ways, then switched and hit some deep holes further up and finished at the mouth of the Perley Brook.  All in all we got skunked, but had an enjoyable evening on the riverbank.  I was also trying out my latest rod purchase, which was the Ugly Stick Bigwater in 7' medium action.  More to come later on that.  Heather managed to capture a couple of action shots as I plied the murky depths in hopes of finally feeling that tug on the line.  To top off the evening, there was a beautiful sunset as we packed the gear back into the truck.

Late that week, the local newspaper posted pictures of several local fishermen with large muskellunge and that only served to further fuel my fire about muskie.  All of these muskie were in the 39"-46" range and came from Glazier Lake.  I had never fished there and it wasn't a river, but I couldn't resist the urge to give it a try.  The lake is absolutely beautiful and even though our best efforts and 8 solid hours of lures in the water didn't produce a single fish, Brent and I still enjoyed the experience.  It is always fun to explore a new body of water and try to unlock the puzzles that it holds.  We spent most of our time in the upper ponds and in front of Connors Cove, but at one point or another during the day most of the lake was touched by our unrelenting casts.  We spotted several brook trout in our stealthy stalk around the shoreline and by our quick estimates the trout population appears to be in good shape.  A dragonfly hung out with us for the better part of an hour and it finally dawned on me that maybe I should take a picture!

The last week of the month found me down in southern Maine on vacation.  I have been Striped Bass fishing twice now with guides and have been skunked both times.  I decided to take a break this year and not book a trip.  I did head into Cabelas and picked up some new gear and talked to a guy in the fishing department who said people were catching stripers off the breakwater in Camp Ellis.  This piqued my interest and after a brief lesson on how to rig up, Heather and I headed out and lobbed chunks of mackerel into the pounding surf hoping for a hookup.  True to my latest success rates, we left empty handed again.  I am hoping that August produces much better catch results!  We have logged a lot of hours on the water in the last month and don't have many fish to show for it, but sooner or later when you put the time in it will pay off!  Stay tuned for more updates and lots of upcoming posts, including the Fort Kent International Muskie Derby and my previously promised stories!

July Synoposis - Part One

First off, I would like to apologize for my extended hiatus.  I am sure that many of you thought I had both hands bitten off by a record breaking muskie and wasn’t able to type.  Such is not the case I can assure you.  I am back and a lot has happened since I last posted.  I will try to give a quick synopsis to get everyone up to speed and I am trying to put the finishing touches on both the promised article on canoes and my review on the Abu Garcia rod and reel combo, both of which should be up by the end of the week so stay tuned!

The first week in July I celebrated my birthday with an evening trip to Black Lake in Fort Kent, which was timed well with the trout taking grasshopper flies.  The mirrored surface of the water turned to a boiling turmoil at around 7:30 that evening and we were fortunate enough to pick up a couple of nice brook trout, the largest of which was over a foot long.  We had the best success with an orange grasshopper fishing the grass and weed edges close to shore.  The fishing was slow, but it was a beautiful night on the water and the occasional two pounder breaking the surface kept us on edge.

More updates tomorrow on many other adventures!

A Change of Pace

 I was reviewing my last few posts and realized that if someone doesn't enjoy looking at pictures of fish, they might find it kind of boring.  Now I don't know anybody who doesn't like looking at pictures of fish, but on the off chance that somebody like that happens to stop by here, I thought it might be nice to give them a change of scenery.  I am not particularly skilled with a camera nor am I overly artistic, but luckily I had some people with me the other night who thought this would be a nice picture.  I have to give credit to my sister-in-law Amelia for being the one behind the camera for these shots, and also to her boyfriend Brent who is usually the talented cameraman on our outings.  I will try not to get quite so caught up on catching fish, so that I can take time for a few pictures of things other than fish! 

Also the rod and reel that you see in the pictures are the ones that I will be reviewing for Abu Garcia thanks to the wonderful site called Outdoor Blogger Network!

Sunset Casting on the St. John River

Fishing Line - Almost Invisible

Two Days of Bassin'

Brent and I targeted bass last Thursday evening and we were rewarded with a few nice fish.  All told we landed four fish and lost three others in a couple hours before the sun set and left us racing the dwindling light back to the boat launch.  Most of our fish on Thursday were coming off crankbaits worked in 18-36" of water.  The fish were giving away their location by taking mayflies off the surface and allowed for us to pinpoint them more quickly.

Heather and I headed out on Saturday to try and find a few more of the fun fighting smallmouths.  We fished some new water that I had never been on before and it was a little slow on the start, but once we keyed in on them we brought 13 to the boat in a couple of hours and lost several others.  This was the day with the smallest bass of the season at 8" long and also the largest at 19" and pushing just over the 4 pound mark!  The pictures are below and I also included a video of a bass that I picked up on a current line.  We fish in a river for bass so some of our techniques and styles may look a bit unorthodox to some of you.  Take note of the canoe with the side mounted outboard, as I am working on a post about this watercraft, which is the preferred method of river navigation in our region of the world.

Bass Off the Current Line from Video

Heather with one of her many catches.

The Four Pounder!

Stay Tuned for Our Continued Outings!

Video of Muskie

Here is the promised video of last weekend's 37" muskie!

The still picture of the fish looks much skinnier than the actual fish was.  If you watch the video you will see the fish is actually quite thick for a post spawn muskie.

This fish was released to continue growing and to be caught another day!

Bass and Muskie Weekend

Memorial Day weekend allowed me to get on the water two days this past weekend and both days produced nice fish.  Saturday Heather and I went out to enjoy the weather and find spawning bass on their beds.  This time of year, under the right weather conditions, you can easily employ sight fishing techniques for these spawning smallmouths.  This provides for a very unique and exciting fishing experience.  The highlight of the day was when Heather hooked into a nice 3 pound smallmouth and when she pulled it towards the shallow water, a dark cloud appeared behind the fish which were quickly distinguished as 12-15 smallmouths in the 2.5-3 pound range.  That was a phenomenon I had never seen previously.  I have seen large schools of smaller fish and smaller groups of the large fish, but never that many, that size.  I quickly cast to the perimeter and we were rewarded with our second double of the day.  The day produced around a dozen fish that went over 2.5 pounds, which is a success in my book.  The biggest was around the four pound mark and was heavy enough to break the line right at the boat.  Again I encourage catch and release of the fish while they are spawning.

Nice Smallmouth off a Spawn Bed

Brent with a Bass

Monday was the day for muskie and Brent and I went out to try our luck.  We were rewarded with several strikes, and I finally connected with my personal best fish of 37”.  Based on the girth, I am estimating the fish to be around 12-13 pounds.  This fish fought very well and was a lot of fun.  Brent also hooked onto a fish which unfortunately gave a final headshake at the side of the canoe and managed to get away before the photo opportunity.  This was his first muskie hookup, which will hopefully be followed up by another chance where we can snap a picture.  I would estimate that fish to be in the 30-32” range.  

37" Maine Muskie

Enjoy the pictures and I am attempting to upload some video footage to go with it so stay tuned!