Rainshadow Custom Spinning & Popping Rods

Our 2019 production has been completed! We’ve received a few each of all models with the rest of our production arriving this week from our builder.  This year’s production is our best yet, subtle and stealthy in appearance with black wraps, very refined in the build, and featuring a very useful range of blanks in both spinning and conventional form. The wrap colors this time are black, blanks are black for the conventional rods and a dark gunmetal gray for the two spinning rods.  The conventional rods are 7 feet in length, the spinners are currently produced as 8 footers (so shipping carries a greater expense, but casting distance benefits). I’m giving some consideration to dropping the spinners down to 7’10” on the next production to help reduce  shipping costs. But, for this introduction they are 8 feet long.

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All rods produced make use of ALPS components, braid safe guides, machined aluminum reel seats, and that stealthy black threadwork with a very fine detail in silver. All rods, with the exception of the heaviest model incorporate ALPS soft gimbal so they are comfortable to fish both with and without a fighting belt. The heaviest conventional rod makes use of a more traditional aluminum gimbal with bulb cap. The rods make use of black ALPS XBXNL & XBHXNL series SS316HXN guides for long lasting performance. The conventional rods make use of the RCJB84 series RX6/E-Glass & Graphite blanks, which we have used in the past. This is a true composite blank, more carbon towards the butt, transitioning to E-Glass thru the tip. For the spinning rods, we elected to run the RCKJB series blanks. Same construction materials, RX6/E-Glass & Graphite blanks, transitioning from Carbon to E-Glass, combining light weight, sensitivity and durability.

With the three conventional rods offered, a person could be very well rigged for your typical 3-8 day trip. Add a spinning outfit for poppers and you really have covered the bases. The only missing thing might be a trolling outfit (which most boats now supply) or perhaps a rail rod combo for the once (or more) in a lifetime catch. The three conventional setups would cover me just fine, and likely be all you really need for 6 days and down, and for 90% of what you’d need on an 8 day’r. At 10 days plus, well, you’ll still fish 2 out of 3 of those rods, maybe all three, but you’ll likely need the big gun, too… What are other adequate alternates for medium to long range fishing? Put the RainShadow CharkBait built rods right in the middle, between Budget Conscious and Best on the Boat.

Side note, we’ve seen another “dealer” representing rods as Made in America, using RainShadow’s blanks.  They don’t list the blank model, trying to confuse folks.  We are very clear, these feature imported rod blanks, a very good ones.  We don’t hide the manufacturer’s name or model number, we don’t misrepresent the origin of the product. We do bring you a very good quality build and excellent quality rod blank and components, at a very aggressive price. We first began custom building of RainShadow blanks a few years ago, given Calstar not producing and feedback from the custom rod building community boasting of the blanks performance. RainShadow has a wide range of blanks, for every application, and they created some blanks which were very similar to Calstar’s product (the 7 footers offered below) both in terms of construction technique and actions. We could bypass the factory bottleneck by going towards RainShadow as custom produced rods, that’s something we did with United Composites prior to Randy Penny heading up the firm. Response to our early RainShadow production by anglers was favorable, and the pricing was a bit under Calstar for a better quality build. The rods fit into our mix nicely, but cost was still a factor – too close to a true USA produced rod like United Composites.  So, for 2019 we worked with a different firm for our build, increased our quantity to be built and we achieved a sharper price. The results are as you see, stealthy cosmetics, improved build, sharper pricing, and we’re INCLUDING SHIPPING!

Warranty: we check each blank and each finished rod to ensure they are 100%. There are no manufacturing defects in the finished rods, we say that with certainty. The rod you receive will be well made using quality materials, built properly.  We are offering these rods at a considerable savings given our large production, economies of scale come into play to provide a true value.  We are not padding the price in order to handle replacements for those who misuse their rods or who damage them by way of vicious car doors… Warranty is not liberal in application on custom rods, should you break your rod, there will be a cost for replacement. Yes, if there’s delamination (which there won’t be) warranty would replace the entire rod. Inspection will quickly determine such an issue, but do not count on a replacement should you, for example, decide to use the heavy rod in your boat’s rod holder and then motor up a goliath grouper.  That’s abuse by any measure. You will receive a rod that is 100%, both in terms of the components, blank and build. These RainShadow blanks are strong and reliable, they will put up with a lot, anything a fish can dish out. But, like all rods, do not high-stick your rod (don’t put a vertical load on any rod, keep a bend on her) and she’ll last a lifetime.