Although I like to call myself a power fisherman, I tend to use finesse gear quite a bit. Whether I’m dealing with tough conditions or super clear water, you’ll normally see several spinning rods on my front deck at any given time throughout the year. I like to catch more than I like to fish, so I’ll use whatever it takes to feel a tug at the end of my line.
This year has been tough on my local lakes. With very little rain and lots of fishing pressure, I’ve been having to scramble a bit for bites at times. Luckily, this has given me an opportunity to try out a lot of finesse gear. I’ve been using the Falcon Cara Spinning Rod a bunch this year and I’ll be pretty blunt with you: If I could afford it, I’d have an entire front deck full of these rods. This spinning rod has been a huge help for my finesse fishing and everyone who picks it up from my front deck is blown away by its weightlessness and feel.
At $249.99, you might have to save up a little cash to make the investment but I can absolutely promise it’s worth the investment. Hang with me for a few minutes and we’ll go through the things I like most about this rod.
I’ve had a hard time describing this rod’s sensitivity to some of my buddies and colleagues. I’ve been bragging on it for quite some time but it’s tough to explain how much you can feel when you’re fishing with this rod. If you ever fish with a floating worm, I think this will get my point across: After you twitch your rod tip and let the worm fall on slack line, you’re able to feel the worm undulate as it falls through the water column. After testing hundreds of rods throughout the years, I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to experience that type of sensitivity.
The Falcon Cara Spinning Rod has also proven to be a really good wacky rig and shaky head rod. Whether you get bit on slack line or get a cold-water bite from a lethargic bass, you’re not going to miss bites with this rod. It might not be flashy with the all-too-familiar neon-colored blank we see these days, but you can feel just about everything when you’re fishing with it.
A lot of bass fishing rods, spinning rods in particular, seem to be very poorly balanced these days. It’s great when a rod is lightweight and sensitive, but if you put a reel on it and it doesn’t feel good in your hands… that’s a problem. I’d also argue that balance is much more important with finesse rods compared to bulkier power-fishing rods.
The Cara Spinning Rod is beautifully balanced. I’ve been using a Daiwa Tatula LT Spinning Reel while testing this rod and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better combo for serious finesse fishing. A lot of lightweight rods seem to be a bit butt-heavy to me but I haven’t had this issue whatsoever while testing this rod. I don’t feel any undue fatigue while fishing it and it handles and pivots beautifully in my hand while I’m imparting small movements into my finesse rigs.
While I do like an EVA grip on some of my rods, I tend to lean a bit more towards cork grips on my spinning rods. Weightlessness doesn’t really matter as much to me when I’m throwing a frog or flipping a jig but when I’m twitching a weightless wacky rig or dragging a tiny Ned rig around in a pond, I think a lightweight spinning rod is important. I haven’t physically put EVA and high-quality cork on a scale but in my mind, the cork feels a bit lighter and seems to transmit more sensitivity.
The cork that’s featured on the Cara Spinning Rod is super high quality and doesn’t pit or stain easily. I’ve fished with this reel for several months and caught a lot of bass with it and I haven’t noticed any discoloration yet. And as I mentioned, I feel like it lets me detect the subtlest of bites with ease.
I am so glad that Falcon reintroduced this iconic classic. Before its reintroduction, folks were paying nearly double the original price just to get their hands on these rods. Having owned both the original and now this second-generation model, I can confidently say that these are even better than the originals and that’s saying a lot. If you lean on finesse techniques when you’re bass fishing, I’d suggest saving a little money and trying to grab one or two of these rods. You absolutely will be impressed. I wish I had more of ’em, to be honest.
The Falcon Cara Spinning Rod is available at the following online retailers:
