I decided to hit Lake Washington from the shore on my lunch break to give my new Mag-Touch (from Cabelas) casting rod its first test and trial with bottom fishing. I wanted to see how well or poorly the rod would transmit feedback to me. My reel was spooled with 10# mono. I chose mono because I wanted to see how it would fare without the benefits that braid and fluorocarbon line spoil us with.

Although it is a bit too early to give a review, I will say that the rod possesses very good sensitivity. The first place I worked was loaded with a lot of grass and the Mag-Touch did a good job of painting the grassy picture. Whew!!!! The Mag-Touch is the first rod I ever bought site unseen without holding it and I was initially nervous. On my second pitch, I felt some nibbling that never got quite to the hook. Darn. The next cast yielded the same result so I moved to another area with a rocky bottom.

The Mag Touch once again painted a great image as I worked my drop shot rig. I placed what was probably the fourth or fifth cast next to some surface piercing wooden poles amidst the riprap and then, thwupp… It was not a nibble, but a complete engulfing of the bait, as my rod bent slightly toward the water and my line got tugged straight down.

No “Iaconelli’ing” today from me. I brought the smallie in quickly and when I brought it close to me, I noticed that my bait was gone and the smallie spat out a beat up 3” senko type bait. I also saw that it might have been recently caught with the drop shot. There was a hole in its palette that was about the size of a hook’s point, right next to where my hook was. I released him and headed back to work.

I think I made a decent acquisition in purchasing this rod. It is an additional all around trunk rod.

Conditions: Overcast, about 70 degrees
Rod/Reel: 7’ Mag-Touch casting Rod/Curado 101D with 10# Sufix Siege
Technique: Drop Shot, 3/16 oz pencil weight
Lure; 3” gray senko in the grass, 2” brown French fry worm in the rocks
08-05-09