New G Loomis NRX Bass Rod

[Rodney Smith]

Ok. I can give a brief assessment. I got my new NRX+ 873CRR last night. I took it out to a local community dock for a little testing. It was paired with an Antares and spooled up with Hitena 43lb Supercast braid. Here are my initial observations:

Fit and Finish:  Better than the old NRX. The new design is classy, conservative design. The guide wraps are better, but still not perfect. is only a little blue for those who didn't care for the baby blue threads. The cork is much better (like a Conquest). It is high grade cork that is beautiful and soft. 

Comfort: I wasn't thrilled with the old reel seat because the exposed reel seat was a bit uncomfortable. The new reel seat is much more comfortable. It is similar to what it found on the Conquest.

Balance: Better. It balances right in front of the fore grip with an Antares or Metanium MGL B. The rod weighs 4.2 ounces. 

Sensitivity: Insanely sensitive, but so was my old 873CRR. When you get to that level, I honest can't tell any difference.

Cast-ability: Very good. I can't do a side by side comparison with the old rod, but I was throwing a 1/2 Spotsticker casting jig a long ways. Even though it has Spiral X, I would say the difference in casting distance will not be significant. The recoil guides don't bother me. I tie a FG knot and the braid was not noisy coming through the guides.

Fishability: I was only able to fish for 15-20 minutes, but did catch a couple of angry 2-3 lbs spots. The rod was responsive on the hook set and drove the hooks home easily. I think the Spiral X technology makes for a fun fight and will probably translate into a few less lost fish.

Dislikes: I don't like the placement of the hook keeper. It isn't a deal breaker, but I don't understand the placement. 

Overall, I am extremely pleased. My next purchase will be a 872s.
 

[Bandersnatch]

2 hours ago, Rodney Smith said:

Ok. I can give a brief assessment. I got my new NRX+ 873CRR last night. I took it out to a local community dock for a little testing. It was paired with an Antares and spooled up with Hitena 43lb Supercast braid. Here are my initial observations:

Fit and Finish:  Better than the old NRX. The new design is classy, conservative design. The guide wraps are better, but still not perfect. is only a little blue for those who didn't care for the baby blue threads. The cork is much better (like a Conquest). It is high grade cork that is beautiful and soft. 

Comfort: I wasn't thrilled with the old reel seat because the exposed reel seat was a bit uncomfortable. The new reel seat is much more comfortable. It is similar to what it found on the Conquest.

Balance: Better. It balances right in front of the fore grip with an Antares or Metanium MGL B. The rod weighs 4.2 ounces. 

Sensitivity: Insanely sensitive, but so was my old 873CRR. When you get to that level, I honest can't tell any difference.

Cast-ability: Very good. I can't do a side by side comparison with the old rod, but I was throwing a 1/2 Spotsticker casting jig a long ways. Even though it has Spiral X, I would say the difference in casting distance will be significant. The recoil guides don't bother me. I tie a FG knot and the braid was not noisy coming through the guides.

Fishability: I was only able to fish for 15-20 minutes, but did catch a couple of angry 2-3 lbs spots. The rod was responsive on the hook set and drove the hooks home easily. I think the Spiral X technology makes for a fun fight and will probably translate into a few less lost fish.

Dislikes: I don't like the placement of the hook keeper. It isn't a deal breaker, but I don't understand the placement. 

Overall, I am extremely pleased. My next purchase will be a 872s.
 

It's interesting that you said it balances well with an Antares of met b. The difference in weight between the two is almost two ounces. 

[Rodney Smith]

I know. That was surprising. I think the difference is an 1.5 ounces, but they both balance almost in the same place. Just in front of the foregrip. I had the Antares on my old 873 to help with balance. You don’t need a heavier reel to balance the new 873. I will be interested to see if that is true on the new NRX+ 894c...

[Rodney Smith]

Here are the balance points with the Antares and Metanium.

[Dumbbassanglr]

Just got my 854 and 873! Haven’t fished them but I will end up keeping the 873 and selling the 854. The 873 is better balanced than my old 873 and slightly better balanced than the 854 since the 873 has a longer handle. From the reel seat up the 873 is only about 1 3/8” longer than the 854 so maybe the 854 would be preferable for someone who likes shorter handles.

Oh I forgot to mention I’m using a 20 Met reel.

[Rodney Smith]

I got my new NRX+ 872s. Looks great paired with an Exscence and Diawa J-Braid Grand. The rod balances exceptionally well for a 7'3. I can't wait to get it out on the water this weekend...

[Rodney Smith]

I know these rods are hard to get, but I would be interested to hear some feedback from those who have them.

[freelancer27]

I just got my new 893c yesterday (it was a warranty replacement for an old model 893c where the reel seat broke).

So far my impressions are so so. I feel that they look worst than the model they replaced. I understand why they did not due the blue guide wrapping in the top guides (to make it easier to replace guides by non Gloomis shops), but I feel that this takes away from the esthetics of the rod. 
Also the area above the reel seat could have been designed a bit better in my opinion. It looks cheap. I hoped that they would use the Gloomis logo (skeleton bass) and reduce the amount of printing (the NRX + logo is just too big for my taste).

Also the craftsmanship is as bad as the previous one. Some guide wrapping was not done cleanly and at one section the epoxy had a little sharp dent near the reel seat. It sucks, but I dont want to send it in again to wait another 2 months for another one (which most likely will not be perfect either). 

I just dont understand this. Gloomis chooses to assemble their rods here in the USA (which I support) and hence charges a premium price for their product. 
But why am I getting now an inferior product (when compared with China produced Megabass products)? 

St.Croix (also USA assembled) does this better.

The reel seat feels slightly better than the old one, but to me it is not a major difference. 

The major upset is the placement of the hook keeper. Just sucks!

I use the rod with my Antares MGL and I subjectively can not feel much of a difference in balance. If all, to me (this is hard to compare since I sent the old 893c in more than 2 months ago..) the latest rod feels slightly heavier in weight. 

Powerwise (again hard to judge), the newer version feels slightly more powerful in the tip.

Havent fished it yet, so will report if I can detect further differences, once that is done.

Cheers!

[NHBull]

Still curious on how this MBR compares to the Conquest  MBR.?????

[Bandersnatch]

On 7/24/2021 at 12:58 PM, NHBull said:

Still curious on how this MBR compares to the Conquest  MBR.?????

I as well

[Rodney Smith]

Anyone have a NRX+ 904C yet?

[Wprich]

Any feedback from those that have the NRX+ 872S or 852S?  Looking into picking up one of these models to throw light(1/8-1/4 max tungsten) texas rigged craws, lizards(4-6 inches), and shaky heads with 4.5-5 inch worms.  I read the previous 852S was kinda stiff and made it not a good caster so wondering is that still true with the NRX+ 852S cause if so I'll likely go for the 872S when available again.

[Rodney Smith]

I have the NRX+872s and I am very pleased with it. It would be perfect for the applications you describe. It may be that there isn't much availability and not a lot of guys are using the new NRX+'s yet, but I would like to hear more feedback.

[Wprich]

13 hours ago, Rodney Smith said:

I have the NRX+872s and I am very pleased with it. It would be perfect for the applications you describe. It may be that there isn't much availability and not a lot of guys are using the new NRX+'s yet, but I would like to hear more feedback.

I ordered a 872S yesterday and the retailer said they should be getting some within the next few weeks so looking forward to it.

[shimmy]

I got the 873+. The sensitivity is just unreal. Prior to getting bites, it almost is difficult to tell the difference between that and my Dobyns champion extreme. Then...the bite occurs and it feels like a lightning bolt going through the whole rod. It was just crazy.

 

Couple thoughts thus far though and am curious if anyone else has had the same. The rod is rated 1/4-3/4; however, this thing is a tank. It is begging for a 3/4 ounce jig. The half ounce to 3/4 seems to be fine. This rod loads up early and stays powerful. To me, it fishes like a 4-5 power rod. I have lost several fish thus far because the hook set almost feels like it is too powerful. If the fish is under 3 pounds, you play the rest of the game trying to catch up to the hook set that yanked the fish out of his home 10 feet towards you. I have yet to battle a big fish on it. I am hoping that I am looking into this too much, but...that power though. Geez. It feels like a pitching rod to me. Man, the bite though...it is just amazing. This guy will get paired with my Daiwa 10.0 that just arrived today. This is my anecdote to the hooksets that are moving the fish too much. That 10.0 gear ratio will hopefully help me catch up to the fish. This combo looks incredible though. Blue on blue. I love the balance on this set up. 

[Wprich]

Ended up picking up a 852S and I also ordered a 872S which will be shipped once in stock hopefully soon according to the retailer. Took the 852S out yesterday to a lake for few hours that I hadn't fished in around 12 years since my usual lake was getting rained on all morning. Didn't expect much luck and ended up only catching one little largemouth and a catfish but it was mainly just a day to see how the NRX and the other rods I've bought recently felt to me. I was surprised how far I could cast a 1/8 shaky head with a 4.5" roboworm on the 852S. I used 12# hi-vis SX1 with a 8# sunline sniper leader and was getting it out pretty far but will say the sunline was noisy in the recoil guides. The one bass I caught was a weird feeling can't say what it felt like it just felt different and just I set and had him on and it was a pretty short fight. Got another bite or 2 earlier that I believe may have been aggressive bluegills picking at my worms/lizards. All in all can't wait to really test this rod and the 872S out more once the weather really cools down here in the south.

[HaydenS]

I got to pick one up...

Felt lighter then a pen.

[FishTank]

I have an 803S coming in for a warranty replacement.   Can't wait.   I am not sure how it it could be better than the original.