Samurai Pop 12

[Mark Gwynne]

Hello all.
Has anybody got any feedback on the Samurai Pop12 blank?
I'm looking to build my own and would love a Racepoint 200 but it's a bit out of my price range. The Black holes and Phenix offerings are up there but I just found out the blank weight for the Pop12 is 184 grams. This sounds great for a 100lb blank. I'll try and confirm this as 284 sounds closer to what I would have thought.
Anyway any feedback is appreciated.
Poppers sizes are mostly around the 120 gram range.

[Andrew Smith]

The pop12 is probably better suited to heavier lures. The pop10 would be better for 120gm. It happily casts up to 160gm poppers. I used to have both. I couldn't tell you the weight of the blank alone though sorry. They are good value rods for their price point though.

[Mark Gwynne]

Thanks Andrew.  A bit worried the Pop 10 is not heavy enough in line class so maybe I need to up my popper weights. Would the Pop 12 work 150 gram poppers ok? I'm looking to get some Nomad Cuberas.

[Andrew Smith]

I ran pe8 over the pop10 with no issues at all. For casting 120gm poppers, the pop10 is fine and I think the pop12 may struggle to load it. You will have to go to 150gm as a bare minimum with the pop12 I think. Where are you fishing and is this your first GT rod or experience. If it is, you are honestly better off with an all round rod, ie. the pop10. It takes a lot of power. Ideal styles of poppers are cuberas, Adhek Viking, Venus, cuttle, etc. The pop10 will still allow you to work most stickbaits, while the pop12 is very limited in this ability.

[Mark Gwynne]

I have done a bit. Got rid of my GT special as it was too heavy plus wanted to build my own.
I'm going on a Coral Sea trip at the end of the year so was after a rod that could handle a lot of drag!
I got to see the blank. It's quite nice and yes very powerful. The only thing I didn't like is the long butt section. It's not really designed to be joined at the foregrip in my opinion. I would have to cut 8 inches off it for that to happen which would make it only 6'10". A bit short.

[Andrew Smith]

The blanks weren't designed to have the join at the top of the foregrip, they were slightly above as seen in this pic here. Hope this helps,