New IT&T Board Feature - Hands-on Tackle Reviews 2019-21

[cany]

Here is a vid from J&H explaining what is special about this reel, for guys like me - that use it not for game casting, rather for different types of bottom fishing.



And here's the slightly larger EVT3000:

Thanks Lep Ive been thinking about getting a spinning setup for jigging that reel looks great for the price

 

[Leprechaun]

So this season's first (but probably not last) entry in this thread is a spankin' new Black Hole Challenger Bank 691UL spinning rod. For my purposes it will serve to replace/upgrade(?) the Daiwa Harrier spinner that was last year's big surprise star on the deep fluke grounds. My Tsunami Evict 2000 will be switched over the the BH, for the purpose of this new eval.

For those that are not 100% up to speed on Black Hole rods, they are considered a fairly high-end company, located in Korea. Kilsong has been rep'ing Black Hole products in this country for a bunch of years now. His site is www.blackholeusa.com and also www.jignpop.com - the actual name of his firm.

Black Hole offers many different lines and types of rods, Kil has elected to rep the Challenger Bank, Suzuki, Charter Special, and various tuna-intended jigging rods, here in the USA.

The "Challenger Bank" rods are considered the higher-end line, are made in Korea, and feature full Fuji components. The "Charter Special" rods are made in China, under BH's supervision, and to their spec's, using less expensive components, which I THINK are sourced from Sea Guide/China - considered very decent quality, according to the chatter I have read on the various rod building forums that I frequent . . .

I understand that the "Suzuki" line is intended for the guys that fish lighter surf and bay bank casting - primarily spinning, I believe. I'm not 100% on that, as the last time I was at the beach was 30 years ago, and the last time I seriously fished it was way longer ago that even that. I'm not the one to ask about Black Hole's Suzuki and Surf rods, except to say they look extremely well constructed and are very light and well balanced to the hand. To my hands, anyway. And also that Kil was selling the hell out of them at the Ward Melville show - so there’s that. Surfcasters are notoriously picky when it comes to their chosen weapons, so the fact that the Suzulki line sells like hot cakes says a lot, I believe.

Anyway, we (meaning me and NYAngler) took advantage of Kilsong's "Covid-19 Show Discount," along with the free shipping, and so my new BH CB691UL is on its way to my house as I type this. Yep, gonna give it a good work-out on the fluke grounds in place of the Daiwa Harrier Slow Jigger.

My plan is to see what paying three times the price of the Harrier provides by way of increased performance (if any). Should be interesting. Testing begins right around Memorial Day. Stay tuned . . .

 

[Leprechaun]

For those with an interest - here's Tackle Tour's take on Berkeley's X-9 Braid:

Berkley X9 Jordan Lee Braided Line Product Review

The anglers source for tackle news and reviews. 100% independent review site.

www.tackletour.com

 

[Backshot]

Anymore info on the black hole blank?

 

[Snapprhead27]

I have a Shimano Saguaro 7' LINE 12-20, POWER Medium, ACTION Fast. I was thinking of putting this reel on it after seeing several other reviews, plus yours. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Leprechaun]

BS - I just splashed and will post up some fluke experiences and related thoughts once I get to actually use my new BH stick for the flat ones. Very good performance however, with a 2oz sinker on some big Peconic porgies. Nice light-action mod/fast taper, much lighter power than the Harrier written of above.

SH27 - Sure! Why the heck not? Only spinning reel I know of with stainless steel gears at anywhere near the modest asking price. Used it last season, as I wrote above and I couldn't be more impressed - or satisfied with its performance. Not really a test - but I used it a week or so ago on some mega-porgies, could have reeled them thru the guides, its that powerful.

 

[Snapprhead27]

BS - I just splashed and will post up some fluke experiences and related thoughts once I get to actually use my new BH stick for the flat ones. Very good performance however, with a 2oz sinker on some big Peconic porgies. Nice light-action mod/fast taper, much lighter power than the Harrier written of above.

SH27 - Sure! Why the heck not? Only spinning reel I know of with stainless steel gears at anywhere near the modest asking price. Used it last season, as I wrote above and I couldn't be more impressed - or satisfied with its performance. Not really a test - but I used it a week or so ago on some mega-porgies, could have reeled them thru the guides, its that powerful.

Thanks Lep! Now I just have to wait for my J&H gift certificate to arrive that my girlfriend got me for my birthday. Then I'll order the reel and maybe a couple of other goodies!!

 

[Leprechaun]

Sounds like a plan. Don't forget some appropriate line. I recommend Berkeley X-9 and Sufix 832. 20lb test is ample in either case for 90% of what you'd use this for. . . Don't forget to post a few pix of the fish you get with this setup.

Girlfriend sounds like a solid keeper, btw!

 

[Snapprhead27]

Sounds like a plan. Don't forget some appropriate line. I recommend Berkeley X-9 and Sufix 832. 20lb test is ample in either case for 90% of what you'd use this for. . . Don't forget to post a few pix of the fish you get with this setup.

Girlfriend sounds like a solid keeper, btw!

Awesome, thank you so much! I was going to throw 20lb on. Figured good set up for fluke, sea bass maybe bass and blues? I've only used that rod for fluke.

Yea, I guess I'll keep her around!

 

[Leprechaun]

Update on the rods under evaluation here. Because I have more tackle than I know what to do with, I handed the little Daiwa Harrier spin jigger to George Scocca for his use and thoughts. In a word, in the short time he's used it on my boat (2 trips), he' already dialed in on it, for deep jigging fluke at least.

Maybe its a "North Shore thing," or maybe its just his preference, but he feels that he's much more comfortable jigging with this rod than with a baitcasting setup. I can't say I feel the same way, as the utility of a spinner starts to fall off as jig weights get much past 3oz, but George loves his new Harrier, which he used yesterday with a Sustain 2500, producing the following very decent fish to just shy of 7lbs:

Luckily, unlike our prior adventure, we had great conditions for spin-fishing, which George took full advantage of. The rod is just excellent, for the $99 ask, I believe that there is no better out there at that price level, not that I'm aware of, anyway. No issues bouncing up to a 4oz jig, and PLENTY of power to move a "good" fish off the bottom with authority. I believe that George is super happy with this new addition to his rod collection. So was I, its just an excellent little rod! I give it my coveted "Five Full Shamrocks Award," which is as good as it gets in my opinion.

I intend to continue testing my Black Hole Challenger Bank 691UL, which is a very different rod altogether from the little Harrier. Obviously, its built to a much higher standard than the Harrier, which really should be obvious, considering its three times the price. It offers a much lighter, much more sensitive tip section, which is nice on those days that feature a slow drift. If a fluke so much as breathes on your lure you will feel it - and see it as well.

It also offers a deep, moderate bend which does a great job of cushion big head shakes, which to me is super important in a good fluke stick. It cannot handle as much lead as the Harrier, nor is it intended to. I find that it tops out at 3oz for "drop-over-the-side" jigging, and 2oz for hard casting. This is no big determent, as once you get moving with a tide/wind drift you'd probably want to switch over to a good baitcasting/jigging rig anyway.

Used within its design parameters, this is a really nice rod. So far this season I haven't topped a 5.5lb fish with it, but I have no doubt that it could (and hopefully will) whip that next DD that I hook.

It'll be a major tussle, as it certainly is no war club. We're talking a very light rod here, though one with good reserves of power in its mid and lower sections.

I think it would also be a great rod to cast lures to schoolie bass and mid-sized blues up in the bay creeks. And another excellent application for this rod would be for tangling with those early Fall albies and bonita. Those little speed demons would give you a serious but controllable tussle on this stick.

In any case, the fluke grounds testing of this rod will continue thru the remainder of this fluke season. Any calm day will see it get some heavy use. So far, its as nice a quality-built light spinner as I've ever fished. . .

A couple of 5-ers taken on this this rod:

 

[Leprechaun]

The test evaluations of new equipment now progresses to another level. This morning George and I had a nice visit with John @ Trophy Tackle. Of course this meant that the "Tackle Monkey" up on my shoulder had a conniption fit when it learned that I was leaving there with only a couple of packs of GULP. No way it was having that.

So it forced me to wander over to the Shimano rod racks, and low and behold, John has the full line of the latest Shimano Grappler rods there, on display. Naturally I gravitated to the "Type LJ" 180-gram model, which was a gorgeous piece. But not suitable for my needs, as it looked to top out right around 3oz. I need a bit more tip and so that one was out. Too bad, a beautiful piece that one is. Probably would kill it up on the North Shore fluke. If such an animal still exists, that is.

Anyway, I then walked to the next rack, which had a ton more of all the other Grappler offerings. The T.M. (Tackle Monkey) demanded that I look hard at the really new "Type J" GRPJS60ML - which is more than capable of properly working a 4-5oz bucktail in deeper water. At only 6' long it is PERFECT for use from a smaller boat, such as mine. Get that tip down real low, right at the water surface level, jig, jig, jig, and then swing HIGH and HARD! BANG, fish on! Perfecto! The T.M. gave his approval and now I'm the proud new owner of this stick. Oy veh, he's a tough one, that T.M.!

For those that feel a 6' rod won't get it done for their purposes, Shimano offer the same rod as a 7-footer GRPJS70ML. Either way, the color scheme is a near perfect match to my Tsunami Evict 2000 spinner. So nice!

First trip with this new little powerhouse is tomorrow. We shall see. As an aside, the T.M. wasn't satisfied forcing me to pick up this new stick. Oh no. After it had its way with my wallet, it hopped over onto George's shoulder and got him good as well, as he went with a new Trevala S spinner in "M" power. Another beautiful rod for our style of bucktailing in deep water. At $100 less than the Grapplers, the Trevala S rods are really a very good value.

Some initial pix:

And so this completes the testing of my Black Hole Challenger Bank 691UL. Because I really can't justify having a ton of spinning rods that essentially cover the same fishing, that rod, in flawless condition, will shortly be available in the "Lep's Flea Market" thread - at a very deep discount. The money will go towards some future piece of fishing chatchka that will be reviewed right here, in this thread. . .

By the way, despite the general "Covid" issues that have hurt many shops out there (not just tackle shops, but pretty much ALL types of retail establishments), John's store (Home Page - TunaFishTackle) looked pretty darn full of all kinds of great stuff. He reports that his business has continued to be brisk, in fact he barely had the time to chat with George and I. That it was a Summertime Wednesday morning and he had lots of peeps at his counter waiting for service speaks volumes about the state of his business.

That he did make it a point to take his valuable time to discuss deep water fluking, Shimano's, Daiwa's and Penn's upcoming offerings and a bunch of time chatting with George about his strongest area of expertise, the latest on the offshore windmill farms, was most appreciated. Unbeknownst to me, John (in his REAL job, LOL!) is charged with writing up much of the info used by our officials to determine the whats and wherefores of the construction and overall impact of these onerous structures - and it was a pleasure listening to him fill me in on the latest. George is already up to speed, but for me, it was eye-opening.

In any case, if you want to visit a store that has LOTS of inventory, is staffed by really well versed associates, and is owned by one of the true nice guys in the fishing community, you owe it to yourself to go see John's place. You won't be disappointed, that's for sure. Just remember to leave your own T.M. outside, safely and harmlessly locked in the car.

If you can, that is.

 

[Leprechaun]

I've been using my new Grappler Type J for a bunch of ocean fluke trips, and surprisingly have found that its no real inconvenience using spinning gear for my deep drifting. Prior to acquiring this stick, I've stuck with the spinning outfit(s) only in situations that called for casting out - basically slow or no-drift conditions. But because this stick has the capability of properly working up to a 5oz jig, I have found it equally useful for the old "dragging the rig behind the boat" style of fluking, ala, how I fish my bait casting setups.

It is a bit different in operation, because one needs to open and close the bail to manage the drift/drop-back, but once acclimated to that procedure, its really not much of a detriment at all. What is a bit off-putting is the inherent lack of torque that spinning gear has vs a revolving spool reel. This can be overcome a bit when working on a better fish by carefully raising and lowering the rod, reeling on the down stroke. But care must be taken that no slack be given to a better fish, as that's a invitation to a thrown hook. Again, once mastered, not such a big deal.

What I do like is that the reel hangs under the rod. Doesn't sound like much, but trust me, its actually much easier on the wrist than keeping a bait caster upright, whilst jigging all day. Much easier. So, there's pluses and minuses either way, spinning vs bait casting. I like them both and try to switch back and forth through the day. Seems to be helping my close to the end of season, "repetitive wrist motion pain," jigging all trip long.

As to the specifics of this new rod? It is more powerful than the Harrier and much more powerful than the Black Hole UL, which might add to its appeal for the ocean-fishing dudes, while possibly working against the efforts of bay and near-shore jiggers. For those guys I recommend looking hard at the lighter-action Type LJ rods. This rod's 6' length has turned out to be really excellent, as I thought it would be - again, for use from the deck of my low-hulled boat.

I think this rod might be a really good piece for inshore tog jigging, as it seems to have sufficient power to turn a good-sized blackfish. But I probably will have to leave that determination to others, as I have a brand-new Black Hole Charter Special 6'8" spinning rod, that I purchased specifically for that type of fishing. We shall see how that works out. . . as its another story, altogether.

 

[Leprechaun]

O.K., so enough with the ruminations regarding fluke fishing. I think I've given a fair review of both the Black Hole Challenger Bank UL and the new Shimano Grappler Type J sticks. Not to put too fine a point on it, but both are extremely nice pieces, either of which will make you happy, when used within its designed-in parameters. Now its time to switch gears, to everyone's favorite hard-pulling bottom fish - the tough hombre, delicious tasting, and sometimes frustrating blackfish.

As mentioned previously on this thread, I did purchase a Black Hole 6'8" Charter Special Slow Pitch spinning stick from Kilsong, at the Ward Melville Show, waaaay back in early March. Its been sitting in my basement rod repository all these months, patiently waiting its turn to prove itself, out on the tog jigging grounds.

Its considerably more stout than the Shimano Grappler ML that I used this past August/Sept for deep fluke jigging, and its almost time for it to get its chance to shine. This 6'8" BH spinner is built on the very same blank as my preferred deep-water, rough-condition, go-to fluke stick, except that one is the bait casting version. It has been SO successful at that task, that I couldn't wait to see Kilsong again, in order to purchase its spinning twin for tog jigging.

I was going to use it with my super-trusty Tsunami Evict 2000 reel - which has proven to be tough enough to get a very stubborn 6' Brown Shark to the boat - with no apparent damage, a pretty impressive feat for a relatively tiny reel.

But lookie here, I was digging thru my reel collection and found a completely forgotten Spheros 4000FA, which was my go-to for bay bass plugging, years ago. Still a very smooth reel, even with it being at least 12 years old. A complete teardown and re-lube job, a fresh spooling of 30lb Berkeley X9 at Trophy Tackle - and it locks onto my new Black Hole like it was a match that was meant to be. Bring on the tog!

So this will be my tackle test for this Fall season. Will the new BH stick stand up to big shallow water tog, or will I have to revert back to last season's stand-out set-up, the Daiwa Proteus SS64H and powerful Daiwa Pluton bait caster? We shall see. . .

First few trips will be on my buddy Capt. Mike Bady's boat, "The Captain's Table," out on the East End. He has some killer shallow drops, and our trips there early last season were EPIC!

All rigged and ready to go:

 

[Leprechaun]

O.K., for those that asked - Turns out that my little 6' Grappler Type-J ML is DA' BOMB for inshore tog jigging. I FINALLY had a good day to put it thru its paces with 1 & 1.5oz jigs - I can't imagine a nicer rod for this light-jig application. Among a ton of other fish, had a pair of 6lb toggies on it today - which it handled like a boss. A VERY impressive little rod! This, in addition to it being great on the offshore fluke grounds, casting up-drift with 2-3oz bucktails. I couldn't be more impressed with its overall performance.

 

[Leprechaun]

Just got back from Trophy Tackle to use my gift certificate (that was largely un-earned, truth be told, based on the minimal reel work I did for someone here - but THANKS anyway!), and I took a quick tour of the place. John has stocked up quite a bit, I saw the new Battalion Slow Pitch rod line-up from Penn, including the narrow Fathom reels meant to compliment those rods, the complete Shimano Grappler line, and also the new Penn Fathom and Squall low-profile bait caster reels.

John also has a large selection of the new Shimano PX rods. Now that I've seen and tip-flexed a number of them, I'm not quite sure what to think. The blanks seem a bit thicker than the old Trevala S series, and to me, not really quite as crisp. Still quite nice though.

What I did see and take note of was that John had ONE left-over Trevala S MH spinner - which is a pretty hot, in-demand model right now. Someone that has an interest should mosey over there and score it, 'cause there ain't no mo' coming from Shimano.

Of more direct interest to me were the 6' M and MH brothers (sisters? "Non-gendered siblings?") to my lovely Grappler 6' ML spinner. Boy, that M is a VERY nice stick indeed, and looks to be an even better choice for those North Shore and East End tog jigging adventures. Not that the ML isn't up to the task, 'cause it is. But the M is just a squish more powerful, while pretty much retaining the light in-hand weight and quite sensitive tip of the ML. If you are in the market for something like these rods, it pays to evaluate both the ML and the M side-by-side, as you might have a preference for one over the other.

 

[DarthBaiter]

Got my new reel and rod built.
A Daiwa Ryoga 1060 C-C on an extended Balckhole Tai stick.
Used up the $ I got from selling my unused gear for this set up and 6 pack license school class.

Put a large handle on the 5.4:1 gear Ryoga. It feels real smooth and has plenty of drag out of the box. ?
I can't comment on how it fishes yet, but it looks great in my living room. ?
Been lifting water bottles with it every night for past few days and it's driving my wife crazy. lol She can't wait for me to splash the boat so I can let her watch her K Drama in peace.

 

[george]

@DarthBaiter Looking good my friend. Best of luck with it.

 

[FredAZaiter]

Got my new reel and rod built.
A Daiwa Ryoga 1060 C-C on an extended Balckhole Tai stick.
Used up the $ I got from selling my unused gear for this set up and 6 pack license school class.

Put a large handle on the 5.4:1 gear Ryoga. It feels real smooth and has plenty of drag out of the box. ?
I can't comment on how it fishes yet, but it looks great in my living room. ?
Been lifting water bottles with it every night for past few days and it's driving my wife crazy. lol She can't wait for me to splash the boat so I can let her watch her K Drama in peace.


View attachment 31843

 

[FredAZaiter]

Beautiful set up

 

[Leprechaun]

Very nice Darth! I love the Daiwa Ryoga/Pluton reels. So smooth and powerful.