Steve Rajeff began designing fishing rods for G. Loomis in 1986. The legendary angler and tournament casting champion had his fingerprints on every blank to emerge from the hallowed rod factory in Woodland, Washington, for the last three and a half decades.
The new Asquith, with its novel handle design and unbelievably light, crisp cast, might be his swan song, his magnum opus.
“This rod was four years in development,” Steve says. “They feel remarkably light. In a world of light rods, it's right up there with the lightest that you can feel as you cast.
“You can decide, do I want to rocket-ship this rod? You can. Can I back off and cast very gently and still feel the tip section load and feel like it's giving feedback? Yes, you can. It's very friendly in terms of how it feels across the board. I think that's a hallmark of these rods. They're designed to be useful fishing tools, so I think you can feel real feedback when you're casting these rods, no matter what rod size.”
Steve says that “light” in this context is in no way synonymous with “flimsy.”
“The rod recovers very fast. There's no shake in it. There's reduced line waves. As you cast this thing, it just stabilizes really quickly and presents a tight loop really well.”
That intersection of light weight and crisp return was no accident of alchemy. The world of innovation between Woodland, Washington, and Shimano’s space-age facilities in Kumamoto, Japan, led to the development of the groundbreaking Spiral X Core carbon-fiber construction. Rajeff explains:
“With Spiral X, you have an internal spiral of scrim material that's laid down on the mandrel first. Next goes on the longitudinal graphite, which creates the action of the rod and the performance of casting. Then there's an exterior cross wrap that's in the opposite direction going down the blank.”
Rajeff and his collaborators around the world paired this innovative X-shaped fiber lattice with Shimano’s new high-strength Nano Alloy Resin to create a rod that is both lighter and stronger at the same time.
“The net result is more stable in the blank,” he says. “The X wrap resists twist, so you don't feel any wobble in the rod. It is just silky smooth tracking and casts just remarkably well by virtue of the lightweight alloys and the Spiral X.”
To perfect the sleek package, G. Loomis added Fuji T2 black titanium SiC stripper guides to better channel the line launch and black PVD recoil snake guides. The rig comes with an all-new rod sock and Asquith-specific aluminum rod case.
But what everyone notices first is the handle.
“This new handle configuration will be a new benchmark for the Loomis series of rods coming up in the future,” Steve says. “Some years back, it was something I had proposed and one of the engineers in the factory created it in CAD and we had been prototyping it back four or five years ago, and now it's finally come to fruition.”
Instead of a right angle and hard transition from cork to reel seat, the redesigned handle integrates those components for a smoother fishing experience and jaunty aesthetic.
“You have this extended cork and a new angular hood that slants back towards the butt of the rod,” Steve says. “It provides you the ability to grip the handle lower down. Sometimes that might give you a better balance if you have a heavier reel, sometimes you might like to do that to extend reach on mending and make it feel comfortable to adjust line slack and line drift. It can also make you feel like you're casting a slightly longer rod, which enables you to handle a bit more line. It's not a huge difference in the length of the handle, but it gives you more comfort and feel as you are casting your rod.
“The back ends of these handles have a sleek profile as it goes into the barrel of the real seat, and that's kind of a cool look. Not too many out there have that sort of a look.”
Steve retired recently to, well, you know what he’s going to be doing. The Bahamas are first on the list. He leaves his legacy in incredibly capable hands that he personally taught and trained. All said and done, he’s satisfied to sign off a storied career with such an iconic and game-changing fishing tool.
“The new Asquith, it’s an heirloom kind of a thing. It performs better than any rod that you'll probably ever cast,” Steve concludes. “You know that when you're there, at the ends of the earth, it is going to do its job and you're going to appreciate what it can do.”
Written by Sam Lungren