Product Review- Demon Blood

This summer pelagic season we added a Demon Blood S83-2/4 to our casting arsenal. Its longer length was all about hopefully increasing casting distance, which it did so in spades. The X45X Full Shield technology that the rod is designed with increases torsional stiffness and resists blank twist during casting. This characteristic prevents the blank from losing stored energy during the cast, ensuring that every bit of force you put into your cast is transferred through the blank and ultimately to the lure.

Long casts are essential for many reasons in this style of fishing. Not getting too close to spook the fish in the school you have just spotted is the obvious one. Also the longer the cast, the more opportunity the fish has to chase down the lure. Short casts can see the fish peeling away as they see the boat before they decide to eat the lure. The question was going to be about how manageable that extra length would be. Would it feel awkward to cast ? Would it have the power to deal with a metre plus king charging away or a tuna doing stubborn tuna circles below the boat?

Well none of these issues proved to be a problem. The rod was a pleasure to use and the greater flex in the longer rod also had the added bonus of allowing for some serious drag pressure to be used. High drag settings can be great for jamming those hooks home, but can result in hooks tearing out with a thrashing fish beside the boat or during a real blistering run. The Demon Blood S83-2/4 would absorb some crazy tuna thrashings at the boat, but everything held together under the strain with that extra give in the blank, without it ever feeling under-gunned or noodle like. Just make sure you have a solid grip and you are holding on tight.

Casting a wide variety of lure styles was no problem either. From small stick baits to larger poppers,which have worked well on sometimes shut down visible tuna school, the Demon Blood S83-2/4 handled them all with aplomb. The rod uses reversed MN frame guides as stripper guides and K’ series anti-tangle guides towards the tip sections, and line wrap has never been an issue. So if you are looking to add a long casting weapon to your topwater casting arsenal look no further than the Demon Blood S83-2/4.