Stickbait Rod

[Sam Cheadle]

Hey Guys,

Does anyone have any news, advice, comments, experience with the FCL Labo UCB-85 Extreme Stickbait rod

and anyone used any of the FCL rods before. I'm tossing up between this and the Temple Reef Ronin - any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Amr Kehila]

Duncan from Fishhead will be able to help here for sure.

[Duncan O'Connell]

Sam,
The FCL 85 Stickbait rod is a moderate taper rod, suited to stickbaits (obviously) and small cup/skipping poppers.
It is softer than anything else in the FCL GT range, loading all the way through the blank for comfortable lifting of the fish. So far I have landed GTs up to about 30kg on this rod, which it handled with no dramas at all.
Because of the moderate taper, it can load up a pretty wide variety of weights from 100g to a bit over 200g (max recommended 190g). The biggest i have used is the FCL TCP295, 195g without hooks. I handled it ok, but that is about as big as I would go. It was sweet with 130 to 170g sticks especially.
Casting distance is pretty impressive, as you would expect with a rod of this length. It is great for places where you need the distance into the back of the surf break or when you just want something that is easy to pitch out the lures with minimum effort.
Closest comparison to another rod I am familiar with would be the Carpenter Endless Passion KLL82/42 The FCL rod is longer, but the taper, power and ease of use are pretty similar in my opinion.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Duncan

[Sam Cheadle]

Thanks Duncan. I was actually speaking with Brett from Fishhead this morning about this rod.

[Amr Kehila]

Sam,
The FCL 85 Stickbait rod is a moderate taper rod, suited to stickbaits (obviously) and small cup/skipping poppers.
It is softer than anything else in the FCL GT range, loading all the way through the blank for comfortable lifting of the fish. So far I have landed GTs up to about 30kg on this rod, which it handled with no dramas at all.
Because of the moderate taper, it can load up a pretty wide variety of weights from 100g to a bit over 200g (max recommended 190g). The biggest i have used is the FCL TCP295, 195g without hooks. I handled it ok, but that is about as big as I would go. It was sweet with 130 to 170g sticks especially.
Casting distance is pretty impressive, as you would expect with a rod of this length. It is great for places where you need the distance into the back of the surf break or when you just want something that is easy to pitch out the lures with minimum effort.
Closest comparison to another rod I am familiar with would be the Carpenter Endless Passion KLL82/42 The FCL rod is longer, but the taper, power and ease of use are pretty similar in my opinion.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Duncan

Thank you Duncan!

[Sam Cheadle]

The rod looks great and probably perfect for me for the up coming trip.

I'm interested in knowing the advancements with stickbait rods in recent times. Last time I was looking (about 5 years ago) there was only a couple of offerings and now there are heaps. You still have to dig for your information but, that much hasn't changed.

Really appreciate your advice Duncan and the FCL is the front runner for me right now. We are planning a QLD trip and with the long days of casting I feel this rod could be a great option physically, and well matched to the size offerings that we could expect. That said its still a big purchase for me so if I'm doing it, i wanna get it right.

Would be interested in any advice for other rods - I've been told the Endless Passion 88/35 is also very good but than again I would expect more from this rod considering the price. Would be keen to hear about Temple Reef, Patriot Design or any stickbait rods worth a mention.

Cheers
Sam

[Mark Richie]

Hi Sam,

I'm a big fan of the modern offerings from Temple Reef and own the Reefer 711 which is advertised as a dual purpose rod but it is definitely more a stickbait rod than a popper rod. Comfortably throws and works poppers to 130g (unrigged) and sticks to 150g (unrigged). It's also a really comfortable rod to fight the fish with too. The Reefer range is really great value for what you get in my opinion.

I think the Ronin is a fine tuned version of the reefer to make it more of a dedicated stickbait rod with very similar blank but a slightly softer tip. I have been on a day trip out to the GBR where a mate was using the 80-10 version and it had no problems landing 2 est. 25-30kg geets (with plenty of misses) and the rod loaded beautifully! Right the way through the blank.

Cheers
Mark

[Ludovic Goldschmidt]

hi Duncan ,take a little fcl labo 63 for mangroves in new caledonia(very good rod) but what is better rod on fcl labo gt rods for new caledonia,use a lot carpenter gamma 160and orion big foot 180 and heru stickbaits,look fcl labo 78 or 81?? what do you think about these rods? use tokara for popper.
ludo

[David Lumanauw]

How does this compare to carpenter EP86/40?