Taming Beasts With The Gen IKE
By: The Angler
Michael Iaconelli, a professional bass angler who has won the Bassmaster Classic, Bassmasters, B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, etc; is a television personality, and a well-known and liked angler in America. Together with Abu Garcia the Abu Garcia Gen Ike rods and reels were created based on his experience as a professional angler. We recently took the Abu Garcia Gen IKE combo rod and reel to have a go with some of the saltwater beasts of LS Fishing Pond.
[ let’s just drive the GEN Ike off its comfort zone and see how they perform anyway… ]
More commonly known as Ike, Michael Iaconelli expects a lot from his tackle. With millions on the line, only the best is expected, and nothing less. So when Ike worked with Abu Garcia to create the Abu Garcia Gen IKE reels and rods, he paid particular attention to precision performance, sensitivity, good weight balance, durability, comfort, and good design.
The awesome Abu Garcia Gen Ike rod and low profile baitcasting reel.
The Gen IKE Performance
Ike’s ideas when designing the Abu Garcia Gen IKE rods and reels may not have been to battle hard fighting fishes like groupers, snappers, barramundis, etc. since he is more of a freshwater angler targeting bass. But… let’s just drive the GEN Ike off its comfort zone and see how they perform anyway. After all, if it can handle these fishes, most freshwater beasts will not be a problem.
Going The Distance
Casting the Abu Garcia Gen IKE is a joy. The Gen IKE low profile baitcasting reel casts really well. It is smooth and gets the lure going the distance. Greater distance means that we cover more water. Reeling is also smooth and planted. With that I mean, not overly light until it feels disconnected like some of the higher end reels in the market.
The Abu Garcia Gen Ike rod and low profile baitcasting reel in action.
With a 6.1:1 gear ratio, the Abu Garcia Gen IKE low profile reel is by no means a rocket. It is however, comfortably fast. It is fast enough to allow the angler to conserve energy and is not overly fast when it comes to fishing softbaits, and lures (or spoons) at slow to moderate speeds; a good speed when fishing here at LS Fishing Pond in Banting, Selangor.
Before long we were having fun after fun, playing beast after beast. The Abu Garcia Gen IKE comes with a smooth drag and we had the drag up high. It comes with an 8.1kg maximum drag but we were fishing slightly below that, yet we had no issues managing these hard fighting beasts. We were pulling up hard fighting barramundis and crazy groupers.
Plenty of hard fighting fishes were subdued during our test.
One of the hard fighting fishes that was no match for the power of the Abu Garcia Gen Ike rod and reel.
The Abu Garcia Gen IKE rod is lightweight, well balance, and sensitive. Its 24-ton graphite blank has got plenty of power to manage these hard fighters. Power delivery is also really good and consistent without any loss of power mid fight; putting consistent pressure on the fishes and tiring them out in shorter amounts of time.
During our field test we landed a good number of hard fighting beasts on the Abu Garcia Gen IKE low profile baitcasting reel and Abu Garcia Gen IKE rod. The performance of these setup is awesome. They are lightweight, they fit really well, and they perform well. With its ability to manage these beasts, I believe that it will easily whoop the asses of most of our freshwater fish species.
