evo2s197

Only 5.2 pounds surprisingly, seemed much bigger.

Caught this beauty this holiday weekend.

After losing a nice swimbait on suffix 832 50lb, I switched to 25lb big game for all my swimbait that are 2 oz or more, 15 lb big game for smaller ones as light as 1 oz, I still catch quite a few bass when I use these baits, but I'm also not using a typical swimbait rod that everyone seems they need, so my hooksetd are solid using mono. My small swimbaits such as 4.8 keitechs I use 10 lb maxima ultragreen.

I fish the 6.8 and 7.8 Keitechs regularly on owner 8/0 3/8oz and 10/0 1/2oz beast hooks respectively on a Musky Mojo MM72MHF paired with a daiwa coastal reel, the combo is nice and light for it's size, plus doubles as a light weight Lingcod rod for vertical jigging squid jigs. I can cast the keitech's mentioned and 8" Huddlestons all day with no fatigue.

The avid x rods are lighter when weighed on a scale, if you compare similarly spec'd models, just by a tad though. St Croix produces the Avid X series in the USA, with a nice made in USA label on them, excellent build quality also. The my reels balance perfectly with the Avid X rods, as do some of my retired rods, (shimano compre Year 2000, 2001 model GL3, and a team daiwa rod from 2001) non of those rods are custom built. Like I've said, the Hammer Rods blanks seem decent, the build quality of them is severely lacking. I spent a good amount of money on 7 of them and was hoping for a set of nice rods, but I received one decently built rod, and the rest were all messed up in various ways, even being labeled the wrong power. I would compare them to a very bad replica of a Falcon Bucoo.

lol oh crap, I'll fix that.

Just got my Avid X Rods, I'll do a final review comparing the two brands, I'll just stick to how they fish, no comparison when it comes to the build quality.

Don't know, all 7 rods will ship out today, I'll review those when I get them

Final update

See update #2

How many hammer rods do you have? If the winding check is falling apart I think that would qualify for a warranty replacement. One thing I noticed between the two rods is that one is built way better, on par with a st croix premier, coincidentally the mislabeled rod is the one with alot of minor aesthetic defects.

The toughest mono/copolymer hands down is Maxima Ultragreen, it reminds me a lot of a flourocarbon line without the knot breakage issues, use 20-25 pound for flippin and you'll straighten out a standard non super braid hook before the line breaks if your hung up. Maxima Ultragreen with a Palomar Knot is an awesome combo. Big Game is a good economy line for heavy duty use, but it's way too stretchy and not as abrasion resistant.

Update added.

How old are your rods? Maybe I was sent two demo rods, that's why they don't have the flag on them? I wasn't sure how the power would be on the Hammer rods, from the extremely limited reviews, I was thinking that a a Heavy hammer would be similar to a St. Croix medium heavy, I've read that if you want a medium heavy get a Heavy, or of you want a medium then a medium heavy would be best. I have two older casting rods from around 2001 I think, they were the first two "nice rods" I bought, one is a shimano Compre the other is a G Loomis GL3, both are medium heavy, I do not fish with them anymore because they hold a certain sentimental value to me, anyways the two heavy Hammer rods are stiffer "Have more power" so to me they seem to be appropriately rated, it just seems that nowadays alot of rods are way underrated than they used to be, a lot of big brands have medium heavy rods that are broom stick like, such as the Lew's Lite series, their medium heavy rod feels like a light duty flipping stick to me.

Hey guys, I've been a member for a little bit, but mostly just read topics and how to's, anyway's I have a first impressions review of a pair of Hammer Rods I received. I have ordered 7 Hammer rods total within a week form Brian @ Tackle TrapTrap, seems to be a good guy to deal with, I received the first 2 out of the 7, they are both 7ft heavy casting rods. The first thing I noticed is that they are a little on the tip heavy side, similar to a couple older IMX rods I had. Balances a little better with a reel mounted but still a bit heavy in the tip (see the balance point in the attached picture using a Lew's BB1 Pro) Rod feels light and sensitive, although I have not fished them yet and may not just yet, but more on that later. Second is the build quality it's decent, reminds me of bass pro shops rods quality not terrible and not excellent, some of the guides aren't straight, the epoxy wrap isn't super clean in some areas, but all in all not too bad for a 150-200 price range rod but not above average in that price range either. The rods are supposed to be made in the USA yet they have no markings or labels stating the fact, which is a little strange, I always like buying a USA made product and seeing that statement or a image of the flag on the item. But I have two major issues. The first issue is that with the two rods side by side and lined up the rod guides are off by about a 1/4 inch, which to me is unacceptable for any rod that's over 20 bucks, I can see a 1/16 inch difference at the most, but 1/4 inch variance between two rods that are supposed to be the same model is not good at all, which brings me to the second issue. Both rods that are supposed to be the same model have to different actions and power, upon closer inspection the blanks are slightly different thicknesses which could explain the guides being off and the actions not matching, I believe one is mislabeled from the factory, which is not Brians fault, no way of knowing till they are fully unwrapped and inspected. I'm disappointed in the variance issue between both rods, this could be an isolated incident but I do not know, I'm receiving more Hammer Rods rods next week so I can compare them all. Other than the issue I'm having they seem to be very good rods for the money, just from my observation, they are definitely more sensitive than the St Croix Avids and Premiers they are replacing. The missing "Made in USA" or on the rod is alarming for a product that is supposed to be made in the USA I feel, hopefully they didn't start suddenly producing them in China. Sent a email to Brian about the problem, so he should be getting back to me. Till then stay tuned for a more in depth review once I have all the rods. Here is the list of all of the Hammer Rods received or on the way. Two 7ft heavy casting rods (received) One 7ft medium casting rod (shipped) Two 7ft medium heavy casting rods ( on backorder) One 7ft medium heavy spinning rod (shipped) One 7ft medium spinning rod (shipped) UPDATE: Brian got back with me and gave me some measurements to look for, so according to my caliper, one of the rods is mislabeled, I received a extra heavy labeled as a Heavy, which explains the offset guides when comparing both rods, they are two totally different blanks. Also he said to maintain the same price point for this new year, they had to omit the flag icon and also other labeling, which I'm guessing is the line and lure ratings. Stay tuned for the resolution, and also remember I have more Hammer rods coming so a more complete and in depth review will come once, I have them all in hand and actually fish with them. UPDATE #2 I'm still missing the remaining two medium heavy casting rods I paid for, but I should have them by next week. I have fished the 5 rods I have so far, they are fairly sensitive, as sensitive as rods costing much more. Casting with them is decent but not great, they do not load up well, in fact I have a old 2001 era medium heavy shimano rod that I found myself grabbing more often while testing out these rods, it's just better overall. The quality issue was not an isolated incident, the other rods I received after the initial review are not built well at all, one of the rods creaks badly at the reel seat while casting, out of all the rods only one is on par with a BPS rod which isn't saying much, and that's one of the first two I received, the other rod as you've read above was mislabeled from the factory. Overall, if I could do it over, I would not purchase these rods, nor would I recommend them, if the style interests people, then I would suggest looking at the Falcon Bucoo micro series, better built rod, with a made in USA label actually on them. This is a honest review, and not the review I was hoping to give on these rods, the sensitivity is pretty awesome for the price, everything else though needs a lot of work. FINAL UPDATE: BRIAN AT TACKLETRAP HAS REPLACED ALL THESE RODS WITH AVID X'S GAVE THE HAMMER RODS A GO, BUT THEY JUST AREN'T BUILT GREAT, TOO MANY FLAWS AND ISSUES.