13 Fishing Wicked 27″ UL

Just got my combo in the mail. It’s, like the title says, a 27″ UL Wicked Ice Combo. I’m going to give my first impressions now and I’ll take it on the ice tomorrow and see how it fishes.

First impressions:
Very lightweight! The combo together is very light, the rod is very thin and not a ton of epoxy on it like some.

Pretty good quality! All guides are straight, all are proper size, reel seat feels nice and snug, and everything just feels quality- well built.

Reel feels great. Its very smooth reeling, and the easiest bail to “click over” that I have ever seen. Very firm bail wire as well. Reel itself is very thin, feels good in the hand. The flat knob feels good and should work okay with gloves on. The only thing is that the drag is a little catch y when tightened down a bit. I’m going to clean the drag washer and try some new lube on it to see if that will help.. if not I’m going to replace the drag washer and spring on it.

Guides: The guides are very nice! They are light and very strong, they wont bend.. I tried. However the legs on the guides are pretty long and there might be some loss in sensitivity there.. or maybe I’m just used to my TUCR noodle with the fly guides on the end.

Power: The blank feels very good, being carbon fiber and not graphite it is a little stiff. It’s not as light as an UL fiberglass rod, nor a graphite. Best I can describe it is a Light fiberglass or L/UL graphite rod. I have one of my 1/64oz hair jig tied on and it does not load the tip. A small demon spoon did load the tip. Havent tried the smallest slender spoon yet, I’ll try one tomorrow and see if it loads. The action is perfect. Its a Fast action, has a good easy bend to the 3’rd eye and then it gets into a very nice backbone.

So overall I think it will be a perfect crappie rod.. which is what I wanted. For bluegill I think you will need to add a spring bobber unless you are chasing aggressive fish. I have it rigged with 3lb sufix ice magic and I will be using it for crappies with small hair jigs and larger plastics. I can tell you right now that it would be a perfect rod if you fish 4mm-5mm tungsten jigs for crappie/perch. I might even give that a try tomorrow as well! The quality on this rod is absolutely better than any other factory rod I have held, by far. I will tell you straight up it is nowhere near the quality of a TUCR but, its not near the price either. It is a very good option for someone, like me, who cannot afford a case full of TUCR rods.

I’ll see if I can add anything more after fishing it tomorrow.

Sounds like i should get one…i was looking at them the other day at GM. they wanted $50 for them. is that the going rate?

That is what I paid. I think it is well worth the $50 if you don’t mind a “good” reel on it. If you like “great” reels like sedonas and presidents then I would suggest just the rod for $29.99 and add your favorite reel.

At the end of the year last I bought a couple rods for $20 a piece, definitely worth the $$…

I have a couple Wicked rods, and by far my favorite off the shelf rod…Have a shorty for sight fishing and a 27″ UL for perch/crappies

I got one last year at the end of the season. Used it last week and I like it. I use it with a tungsten jig and have no trouble feeling even the lightest bluegill bites. Seems to have pretty light tip with some good back bone. If I see them on sale again this year I’ll probably pick up another one.

I love the 13 fishing stuff for open water and have looked at these rods/combos a couple of times. How would/did this rod handle 1/8 oz and lighter spoons?

Good Luck

Alright, I finally got to give it a try today. This rod makes an AWESOME small spoon rod for panfish. Just awesome! I used it today with a #6 demon jigging spoon and caught crappie and bluegill steady all afternoon. I could FEEL them hit most of the time, others like the crappies just sucked it in and the rod bent right over. Handled the fish very well, including a nice 13″ bass.

That rod will have either a demon jigging spoon or a slender spoon on it from now on, just the perfect rod for it.

11-13′ deep over 22 feet of water, a couple times a bluegill came up 5-6 feet from the bottom and just smacked the spoon.

I purchased 1 last year, it is a very nice rod I love it