Entry level Ajing rod for 1/32-1/16oz hair jigs?

[Houndfish]

Hi,

I gotten obsessed with little fur/feather jigs and have been teaching myself how to tie them. I have a SJR 6400 IMX/Stradic 1000FJ/6lb Mono combo that I love for the bigger 1/8oz heads but it's not great for the lighter ones.

I have been looking at getting an cheap ajing rod to throw the smaller ones but have not found much info about the various cheaper $100-200 ones. I would like a sub-6' rod but could deal with one around 6' if I had to. I will be fishing these jigs for panfish/small bass in creeks/rivers, mostly pretty small flows. The main hiccup for getting an ajing rod is line weight, most seem to max at 3lb mono and I would like to use at least 4lb/0.175mm ish line. Even the smallest flows have the chance of a suprise pickerel, striper, or snakehead and I don't like super thin line in general.

I have been looking at the following rods in no real order:

• Soare TT Ajing S64UL-S
  Soare BB Ajing S64UL-S
  GEKKABIJIN AJING 55UL-S
  SALTY ADVANCE AJING-S64UL

I would love any feedback on these rods, suggestions for others in that price range, or even if I am off base considering an ajing rod for this application.

Thanks!

[ras]

Japanese typically use ester lines for ajing, sometimes PE lines. The guides are optimized accordingly and would have hard time handling 4 lbs mono. I'd recommend switching to a PE line if you're set on getting an ajing rod, or considering a different kind of rod for your purposes.

[ss30378]

I agree with RAS, I have a major craft aji-do 5' ajing rod and the guides are very small. Using 4lb mono you can feel the bottleneck of the guides during casting. An ultra fine braid or ester would be much better suited for these setups. The rods are much stiffer than one would expect given their line ratings and ultra sensitive but they are built with a very specific intended purpose. 4lb mono will work and cast just be aware that distance is severely restricted.

[Houndfish]

Interesting, I didn't think the line diameter would be that restricted. I was planning on getting a 2000-ish sized reel with a shallow spool to help with line management but it sounds like it will not be enough.

Outside of the line issues, do you all think that an ajing rod will work for what I am looking to do? I have found that most trout/panfish rods, esp at the lower end, are super noodley and while I do want something that can load a fluffly 1/32oz jig well, I also want something with a much faster taper for fishing them on the bottom in current.

I dislike braid/PE in general and really dislike the thinner stuff, esp with wet/cold hands, but I suppose I could give ester a look. I am not worried so much about max casting distance, with the smallest jigs I would be happy with 40-50' as the flows are small and for panfish I tend to wade up the middle and cast upstream towards the banks.

I agree with RAS, I have a major craft aji-do 5' ajing rod and the guides are very small.

Thanks for reminding me of the aji-do rods, I had read your thread about it but somehow forgot it when I was bookmarking potential rod choices. I am a big fan of MC rods in general and if you think the AD5-S502L/AJI would handle what I am looking to throw it would move to the top of the list.

[ss30378]

Just to provide a bit more concrete answer I did a little casting test this morning just to get some real numbers for you using the 5' aji-do rod. I put a .85g trout magnet on with some new 4lb test original stren on my soare 500s reel using the MC rod and proceeded to do some casts and measure out the distance in my yard.

First cast was the shortest at 39ft.
Longest cast was 49ft
Mosts cast fell right in the middle around 44-46ft

Caveats: the trout magnet was a touch lighter than 1/32 but is more aerodynamic. The line may get a little more distance once wetted. Stren may not be the best line for distance but its what I had.

So to answer your question, if 45ish feet is far enough (see caveats above) then yes it will be a good rod at doing what you want. The rod itself is electric sensitive and even the small nibbles give a jolt to your hand. These rods are designed for detecting tiny jig bites and even in quick current I can feel what's going on.

I went with the 500s reel just because it fits the little 5' rod better than a 1-2000 size reel. The rod is 1.6oz and the reel is 4.9oz. Hard to beat a 6.5oz combo.

[Houndfish]

Just to provide a bit more concrete answer I did a little casting test this morning just to get some real numbers for you using the 5' aji-do rod. I put a .85g trout magnet on with some new 4lb test original stren on my soare 500s reel using the MC rod and proceeded to do some casts and measure out the distance in my yard.

First cast was the shortest at 39ft.
Longest cast was 49ft
Mosts cast fell right in the middle around 44-46ft

Caveats: the trout magnet was a touch lighter than 1/32 but is more aerodynamic. The line may get a little more distance once wetted. Stren may not be the best line for distance but its what I had.

So to answer your question, if 45ish feet is far enough (see caveats above) then yes it will be a good rod at doing what you want. The rod itself is electric sensitive and even the small nibbles give a jolt to your hand. These rods are designed for detecting tiny jig bites and even in quick current I can feel what's going on.

I went with the 500s reel just because it fits the little 5' rod better than a 1-2000 size reel. The rod is 1.6oz and the reel is 4.9oz. Hard to beat a 6.5oz combo.

Oh man, thanks so much for that info!

I think I am going to order that rod and a 2000 Soare BB this afternoon. Fifty feel is easily far enough for my needs and that performance should let the 1/16oz jigs really fly. I think I am going to go with the larger reel and worse feel to get easier casting with thicker lines. If I don't like it on the aji-do I have other short spinning rods it could work on.

Thanks again!

[dv1]

If the guides on the rods your are looking at are small and limiting casting distance with 4 lb mono, a larger reel will make it worse. Diameter of the spool should correlate with the size of the first guide on spinning rods.

[Houndfish]

If the guides on the rods your are looking at are small and limiting casting distance with 4 lb mono, a larger reel will make it worse. Diameter of the spool should correlate with the size of the first guide on spinning rods.

Agreed but the reason for going for larger reel was to help with managing the thicker fluoro on the spool. I was also worried a little about the size of the 500 reel, I have a few 1000 Stradics and the bail wire just clears my knuckles on some rods.

Ended up picking up a Soare TT rod and a Soare 2000BB reel. With 4lb fluoro I can’t get usable casting distance with the 1/32oz hair jigs. But, adding ~30% more weight via wrapping the shank with wire makes a huge difference so I know I am close. Once it warms up a little I’m going to see what I can do with it. I have some sinking braid and I’m going to try next and I think it might be a better fit. I also have some thin lead wire on order so I can play around with adding weight to the smallest jigs.

Even though it’s not working for what I wanted it to, I can already tell I really enjoy the ajing style rods. It feels totally different from any other ultralight spinning rod I’ve ever held and I really dig the power/taper of it.