Introduction: When Pure Fishing negotiated exclusive rights to 3M's Powerlux resin material, many wondered what the company had in store. We can answer that question in part today with a look at Fenwick's new World Class series of rods that are built with blanks featuring this nano-resin material from 3M. Introducing the Fenwick World Class WC610ML-XFS spinning rod.
I see that TW has the 7'8" World Class casting MH on sale for $199 and no other models. She's for sale before we even start. For you Yanks I bet that's a steal because Cals point about durability probably applies best to a heavier rod. I like Fenwick rods and own a bunch of Technas, Smallmouth Elites Bass Elites and Aetos. Great rods especially for the money (I bought the Aetos's for $75 Canadian). The Fenwick brand is caught in the price point conundrum in North America i think. The rods sell but only at a super low price point, which is fantastic in my view. Years ago steelhead anglers in Canada had two quality options for long rods, real pre Shimano LoomisGL2, GL3 and IMX and Fenwick World Class. The World Class of that day was really that, world class.
I have the 7'6" MH/F World Class got it for $200 April 2016. Yeah its a very good rod at $200. I bought a number of other MH & H 7'4"-7'6" rods Omen 2, Elite Tech Bass, AvidX, E6X returned all of them none felt as good as the World Class, in hand balance/weight is very good. The power is up there too for a MH its rated to 1oz but barely is fazed by that weight like a 3/4jig with rage craw.
In the review the mention of the WORLD CLASS emblem, to me is nice its the 3M powerlux emblem positioned just before the first guide that I feel is out of place..
It's interesting that the comment re this rod on TW claims that the 7'8" H rod is made from an NRX blank. I do NOT know how the commenter could know this or if it is true but it's interesting all the same. I own 2 original version Daiwa Cielo rods and I heard somewhere they were actually brown versions of early Steeze blanks that were sold at a small fraction of the Steeze price (they are very nice rods but I don't own any Steeze rods nor have I ever even handled a Steeze rod so i can't confirm this story). I do know that years ago I owned a Fenwick casting rod called a CoFi brand. It was a very nice rod and it was in fact a rebranded Iron Feather Fenwick again sold at a much discounted price to the Iron Feather brand. Seems that marketing has been playing tricks for a long time and not just at Fenwick. Last year I was offered, at a tackle retailer, Rapala Canada's premier rod called a Concept Ti for $149 CDN for a rod that had an MSRP close to $400 CDN. It's a nice rod that Cal seems to like but probably not worth anywhere near $400Cdn but a good buy at less than half that price.
For you Yanks I bet that's a steal because Cals point about durability probably applies best to a heavier rod. I like Fenwick rods and own a bunch of Technas, Smallmouth Elites Bass Elites and Aetos. Great rods especially for the money (I bought the Aetos's for $75 Canadian). The Fenwick brand is caught in the price point conundrum in North America i think. The rods sell but only at a super low price point, which is fantastic in my view. Years ago steelhead anglers in Canada had two quality options for long rods, real pre Shimano LoomisGL2, GL3 and IMX and Fenwick World Class. The World Class of that day was really that, world class.
