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Chucking Big Stuff

With the unrivalled success of the first Copeton Cod Classic, and after talking to a lot of anglers at the competition and after the competition, it became abundantly apparent that the world of fishing rods lacks a rod capable of throwing those massive lures everyone favours at Copeton, and which are increasingly becoming popular anywhere Murray cod are found.

Well that was until the Venom heavy baitcasters were released!

There are two rods in the Venom Heavy Baitcast range and they are perfectly suited to throwing big lures long distances. The two models are the 6kg (RLFVBC7/6) and the 8kg (RLFVBC7/8) and both are 7 foot long and have all the necessary features needed for casting and retrieving big lures.

But what are big lures? These days a big lures is truly awesome. Lures such as the Mudeye Snake and Walker (around the 30cm mark!), the Jackall Mikey, Thirsty Lures Rat Tail, Bassman Rat and more. And these are just the surface lures. When you go to spinnerbaits, just about every maker is now making 1oz, 1.5oz and 2oz spinnerbaits aimed squarely at oversized fish.

So big lures are growing every day and where that stops no-one can really say. A 120cm cod can probably eat a swan if it really wanted to, but a full sized swan lure may be just a bit tough to cast!

So what are the advantages of the Venom Baitcasters?

The advantages are many but the main one is their ability to actually cast these lures all day and not have the angler seeking remedial massage and a session of physio the following day. This castability is achieved through the blank's construction and the design of the rod. They were designed to cast big swimbaits for barra and these often weigh around the 30g mark. That's just over an ounce in the old scale.

The slower taper of the rods allows anglers to punch out long casts. The rods are more like the action seen in longer GT popping rods and some design features have certainly been borrowed from the GT popping rods in the Venom stable. That ability to load the rod without overloading the tip on the strongest of casts is paramount to the delivery system. The Venom baitcasters have this in spades.

Of course all Venom rods are designed and built at Wilson's head office in Brisbane and this allows a quality control unlike any other rod on the market. You know when you buy a Venom that it has been built by fishermen for fishermen and every aspect of the rod has been checked and double checked before sale.

Lastly, the Venom blank itself is a work of art. Hours of testing and refining have led to a blank that is incredibly strong for its weight. I'd go so far as to say that both of these baitcasters are under-rated and their power to weight ratio is off the charts. No other rod, including big swimbaits rods designed in America, can deliver the massive lures used like these rods deliver them.

So you can deliver long casts and not worry about folding the tip over, but the next question is how do the rods fish?

These rods are not designed to fish hard bodied lures with jerky actions and the like. They are designed for slow rolling retrieves such as when using surface lures, spinnerbaits and swimbaits. They are too long and too robust to effectively give a lure action when that is needed. For example this is not the rod you want to use for casting into snags and twitching a diving minnow out. It's also not the rod needed for throwing shallow diving minnows around with that blooping retrieve they need. It is the rod for casting and winding though. And it is certainly the rod for controlling big fish.

Fish around the 30lb mark are very easily controlled on the 6kg version. In the words of Rod Mackenzie "Don't give them a chance to get their heads down" and these rods deliver that goal to the angler. If you want to pull their heads off you can. Rod has actually been 'flipping over' 80cm cod easily - a process where you literally flip the fish over to disorient it and get it coming your way.

I suppose it's a big gamble by the team at Wilson and Venom rods with these two rods. They are technique specific rods and will suit a small portion of the market, but if it's big fish on big lures you want (be that barra or Murray cod), then these two baitcasters are the perfect tools.

Most tackle shops now have these rods in stock, or at least those that specialise in big fish and big lures, so go and check them out. Impressive is a word that easily slips to mind when your requirements are over the top.

Go on, treat your addiction and remember there is no antidote!