Character Hank Fallon from the Movie White Heat: “You put it on a pole, wind a spool of silk thread around it, and you hold the pole over the water. Then you sit under a nice shady tree and relax. After a while, a hungry fish comes along, takes a nip at your hook, and you've got dinner. For the next two weeks, I'm not gonna think about anything except the eternal struggle between man and the fish...”
Most folks my age or younger won’t remember the movie White Heat. I rented it one time because I’d seen an excerpt from the movie where the psychotic villain played by James Cagney is at the top of a chemical plant and cries out, “We made it! Top of the world, Ma!”
The reference to fishing in the movie made me like it a little more. But it seems in fishing tackle, manufacturers are trying to get to the top of the world with new designs, better materials, new processes to make tackle lighter, more durable, sexier, and sometimes more affordable. We as anglers are the beneficiaries of new innovations.
For some reason the Abu Garcia Veritas rod I recently purchased from
Tacklewarehouse.com reminded me of White Heat. To be honest, we get a lot of tackle from a lot of manufacturers in this line of work because it’s incumbent on us to review and give anglers honest opinions of everything new out there we can get our hands on. And to be honest, we’ve sent back tackle that wasn’t up to snuff. But contrary to some opinions, we do buy a lot of tackle as well.
We’ve been anxious to test the Abu Garcia rods after seeing them at the Classic this spring and availability has been limited, so I purchased one based on what I saw earlier this year.
The rod is dressed up with a bright white finish and intricate detailing along the handle and lower blank. I’m not one for making a rod bright and sexy for show. A gunmetal grey rod seems sexy enough for most anglers.
But white works for some reason with this rod. The first thing to do was put the rod on a scale. It weighed just less than 5 ounces. Not bad for a $99 rod. In fact pretty rare considering this rod was a 7-foot, 3-inch, medium-heavy action model – the VRC73-6 Veritas rod.
The next feature that caught the eye was the reel seat grip. Several rubber coils surround the screw spindle for the foregrip cap. Basically a reel sits in the bottom of the reel seat on the foam handle and then you tighten the cap down on top of the reel and the rubber coils hold the reel snuggly in place. It’s comfortable to grip and the reel seems rock solid without much effort.
The hook hanger is in a good place, close and low to the reel seat where your line won’t catch when casting or popping slack while working a lure. It also features a raised hoop so you can hang crankbaits or worms without having to unrig a Texas-rigged worm alike.
The eyelets are titanium alloy guides with SiC inserts further reducing weight and lending to smooth casting.
The new feature in the rod blank is the Nano Technology. This is borrowed from nuclear energy industries. Basically the graphite is manipulated at an atomic level to make the material lighter with improved compression strength. For us anglers, that means the rod won’t chip as easy which is what usually lends to rod breakage.
The rod is made with what Abu Garcia terms a 30-Ton graphite. The highest they offer is 36-ton in their Verdict line of rods. This again lends to the lightness and sensitivity of the rod.
We were very pleased with the rods on the water. We coupled the rod with a Revo SX (first generation) reel. The whole combo weighed just a little more than 13 ounces. We fished a 10-inch worm, 3/8-ounce jig, spinnerbait and even a crankbait with the rod. But the proof was fishing the contact baits (worms and jigs).
Bites were easy to detect in 20-plus feet of water. The rod loaded nicely on a hookset and playing fish was a breeze with the extra few inches of length and leverage the backbone provided. I swung fish nearly 4 pounds with ease.
Casting was very nice with this design. The rod loaded nicely for a medium-heavy action, and we were able to absolutely launch our jigs and worms on this combo.
So far, the rod shows no signs of scarring or wear after two weeks on the deck of the boat, out in the sun, in a rod locker, in a hand, swinging bass, etc.
At first I didn’t think I’d like the white. But really it’s one of my favorite rods to fish with already. So I guess I’m over the obtuse dressing on the rod. Abu Garcia definitely brings the heat with this series of rods. And to quote another couple lines from the movie White Heat:
Verna Jarrett: “I'd look good in a mink coat, honey.”
Cody Jarrett: “You'd look good in a shower curtain.”
It doesn’t matter how a rod looks or is dressed up if it’s made to last and perform well on an affordable budget. The Veritas definitely fits the bill.
To purchase these rods, visit
TackleWarehouse.com. To read more about the rods, visit
AbuGarcia.com. To rent White Heat, visit
Netflix.com.
More exclusive Wired2Fish photos of the Veritas rods:
